Nothing Compares 2 U.

     I'm exhausted tonight, so I'm going to make this as short as I can. I'll start off with  plea for your help. I really want your help in deciding the next adventure. Neither ride will be that far, but I can make them a little adventurous by taking alternate routes to these locations. The first choice is the Kennedy Space Center. This is the closest of the choices, and I haven't been there in years. This is a good reason for me to go. I can relive a little of my childhood, and maybe learn something new, while taking you along for the adventure. The second choice is just south of Sebastian Inlet. The McLarty Treasure Museum is something that I haven't been to. It a historic landmark of a Spanish Plate Fleet made a survivors and salvaging camp. I will definitely learn something new there and maybe if I'm slick enough to pull it off, I can get a picture from the bridge overlooking the ocean. If you click on either one of those links, you will learn a little about each one, so that you can make an informed decision. Let me know which one I should go to.

     I was just watching the RAYS game. I was starting to fall asleep, so I had to turn it off early, but there RAYS were up 5-1, going into the 8th inning. They are playing the Detroit Tigers. The Tigers players were wearing a patch on their right sleeves with Mr. I on it. This is in reference to their owner who died recently. I'm brining this up because I wanted you to know, just how good a guy Mike Ilitch was. He was the founder of Little Ceaser's Pizza. Not the best pizza that you can buy, but it's cheap when you are hungry, and the give you two pizzas for the price of one, Hence the "pizza pizza" slogan. Anyway, in 1994 Mr. Ilitch had heard that Rosa Parks was being evicted from her apartment because she couldn't afford the rent. He moved Mrs. Parks into a better area and paid her rent until she died in 2005. He didn't do this because he had to, he did it because he wanted to. Rosa Parks was a national hero in my eyes, and Mr. Ilitch helping her in her time of need, makes him one as well. We should all strive to be this type of altruistic. There is more that he has done, but I wanted to tell that story, since I was reminded of it tonight.

     Today was my weigh in. I weigh in on Tuesday and Saturday. Tuesday is my late in the day weight, while Saturday is my first thing in the morning true weight. I was a little shocked when I got on the scale tonight. I weighed in at only a half pound higher than Saturday. The normal difference from Tuesday to Saturday's weight is around 5 pounds. That means I will probably be in the 180's when I weigh in on Saturday. Outside of my Dairy Queen Blizzard night, and I really overdid it tonight for dinner, I have been sticking to my new dietary plan, and it is paying off. Now, I don't use the scale as the end all be all. It is only so that I can put a number to it. I want to get down around 175, but that means nothing, if I don't look the way I want to. I can see things taking shape the way I want them to as well, and that is the truth of how the weight loss is going. Tomorrow is my next "fast" day, so I will only take in about 750 calories or maybe a little less. On the other days (tonight being the exception) I eat rather clean, and have been getting cleaner with each passing week. Working out is important, but it will never be as important as nutrition. If you don't get your nutrition right, it won't matter what you do. If you plan on doing this, please take the time to learn about nutrition and do this right. Having your "fast" days, doesn't mean that you can eat anything you want the rest of the time. You have to have proper nutrition, and eat the right foods. There is also the chance that this won't work for you. I heard about this idea from someone else, and decided to try it out, once I started eating healthier, and it is working for me. In the end, you have to find what works best for you, but I guarantee that in the end, it will all come down to nutrition.

     I know you know what time it is. Favorite Song of the Week. This week takes us back to 1990. I know that most of you will think that it was the 80's but it just missed it. This song was written by my favorite artist of all time, and if you have been paying attention, you will know who that is. That artist make this song a hit, another one did, and that is the version we are playing tonight. Prince wrote the original version of this song with started out : "It's been 7 hours and 13 days", but Sinead O'Connor changed that line to: "It's been 7 hours and 15 days". To this day, I don't know the reason for this change, and I don't think I ever want to know. To me, it doesn't change the song, but it gives her version her own little flare. Once you hear this version by Sinead O'Connor, I hope that you will look up the version by Prince to compare the 2. Yeah I know I wrote the number 2 instead of to. It's a Prince thing, and we are sticking to that theme right now. You will see that both versions are rather similar in tone and emotion. Sinead captured the sentiment of the song perfectly, and Prince loved to write songs for women. He did it numerous times with great success. Alright, I'll get to the song all ready. Here is Sinead O'Connor with "Nothing Compares 2 U".



     I have a little more to talk about, but I'll save that for Thursday, I think it will be a little more fitting for that night. You will understand when we get there. Peace in and goodnight.

Adventure Time To The Navy SEAL Museum.

     We have a lot to talk about, and a short time to do it in. I got a ton of pictures yesterday, so I'm going to have to try and edit them down to not a ton. Not to mention, I still need to share with you the pictures of the new grips and how Saki looks with them and the new red bolts on the windscreen, so let's just get that out of the way right here.

Like I said, the new bolts are a very subtle difference in the look, but it adds a nice touch. I was able to put he new Progrip sticker on today, but I don't have a picture of that. I really do like the idea of filling up the windscreen with stickers and then replacing it with a new windscreen, and then putting the old one on the garage wall of fame. The wall of fame is giving me more ideas for this whole motovlogging thing, and we will get to that in just a bit.

     I was looking online at Harbor Freights website on Friday, and they had a coupon for the exact air compressor that I wanted. Since I sold the P!ATD tickets, I had that extra money, and this coupon dropped the price from $119 to $99. I couldn't pass that deal up. It was a three day Easter sale. I drove over there, and grabbed one as soon as I could. I got a cheap little starter kit along with it, that had a hose and all kinds of connections and such. The important thing was that it had an air chuck for car tires, which will also work for motorcycle tires as well. It's not the best stuff, but it will work for now. I will slowly replace the hose and a few other things in time, but this gets me started. It also has a little air gun so that I can blow excess water off of Saki or other debris. That is going to come in real handy.

     On to Saturday. I woke up pretty early so that I could make a good breakfast, so that I wouldn't have to worry about eating until later in the day. I didn't hear any feedback on my livestream test on Friday, so I had no idea if the audio worked or not. I decided to scrap the whole livestream idea, and just went with the Instagram story. I think it worked out really great, and I hope that you had a chance to see it. Unfortunately, you can't go back and check it out now, because it is only available for 24 hours, and that time is long since gone. The good news is, that I remembered to take pictures as well this time, and I can share those with you here. The ride was fantastic. It was a clear sunny day, and I got to take in the beauty of this wonderful coastline that I live on. Two of the best parts of the ride were going over bridges. The first one was when I went over the Indian River on the Pineda Causeway. The water looked beautiful, and since no one took me up on my offer to ride, it was all for me. The second time was going over the bridge that crosses the Sebastian Inlet. When you are at the top of that bridge, you can see for miles out to sea. The surf was coming in real nice, and a spot that the locals call Monster Hole, was really pumping.

     I needed to pull over for a gas a little before Vero Beach. It gave me a chance to rest my hands a bit. The new grips work great, but after an hour of riding, my hands still got a little numb. I got my gas and let the blood start to flow in my hands again. I was only about 45 minutes from my final destination. A!A in that area, is a nice quiet ride for the most part. It only gets a little busy when you hit Vero, but otherwise it is mostly plant life and really nice houses. There is this one little seaside area for campers, that would be the greatest place to camp out for a couple of days. I'm not exactly sure where that is. I think it is in Winter Beach. It is only big enough for about 1 trailers I believe, so it is very quaint. It almost makes me want to get a trailer so that I can do it some time. One of these days I will stop and get a picture of that to show you.

     I finally made it to the Navy SEAL Museum, and found a good parking space. it was right near the entrance. I knew that I wouldn't be able to take my helmet in, so I put it on the old helmet locks under the rear seat. The jacket was going to be very uncomfortable, because when I stopped for gas, ti got hot just standing there for a few minutes, so I draped it over the front of Saki, and hoped that the honor system was in full affect. You can see from the picture how it all looked. The museum is in the background. I was a little surprised at how many cars and people were there. I could see people meandering the property outside when I pulled up. When you walked though the front gate of the compound, you were created by all kinds of sights. Statues, obstacle course, boats, and vehicles. They were scattered throughout the property, and don't worry I got pictures of most of it.

I'm going to go through this a bit out of order, because the first thing that really struck my eye to get a picture of, was the sign and display that you see to the left. It was all in honor of the Warrior Dogs, that go into battle with SEAL members. These dogs are trained to sniff out explosives and other things. The battle gear in the picture below was worn by one dog named Barry. he was responsible for finding the largest cache of explosives in Iraq. I don't know if you can blow the picture up enough, but it says: Navy SEAL K-9
On display are items belonging to Barry, a Belgian Malinois, who holds the distinction of being Naval Special Warfare Group Two's (NSWG-2) "first dog". Barry served the SEALs in Iraq for three years and participated in over 225 combat missions. He was credited with NSWG-2's largest explosive find including 1125 pounds of homemade explosives, 75 feet of detonation cord, 50 blasting caps and 2 hand grenades.

Barry's personal items, including his collar, muzzle and harness were donated to the Museum by Barry;s handler and help tell the story of the incredible training, courage and dedication that these heroic canines possess. Barry is now retired and lives with his handler.

There was a video that went along with it, that showed some of the training that these dogs went through. It was quite remarkable to see.










       I moved through he gallery taking everything in. There was a helicopter in the biggest gallery, and you could step inside of it, to see what it was like. It was much smaller than I thought it would have been. I had to duck to get in, and stay that way until I sat down on the small seat toward the back of it. The picture to the right shows the helicopter with a family standing in front of it. You can get the scale of it It is a real refurbished helicopter set up for display. This was in the modern era section of the museum. That is the first area that you get to walk through. It then works it's way back in time. to Vietnam, to Korea, then to WWII, and then finally to why the museum is in Ft. Pierce. I learned quite a lot from that small museum. For instance that SEAL is an acronym from Sea, Air, and Land. I really didn't know that that is where it came from. I'm going to share one last photo with you with a little bit of an explanation, and then we will get to the bulk of the pictures. This last one, is the reason that the museum is in Ft. Pierce, and it was a simple sign that explained it all. Ft. Pierce was the first training site of the Naval Special Warfare division. That is where it all started. They weren't called SEALs at that time, but they were the ones that started it all. Here is that sign, and then we will get to the rest of the pictures, and I will tell you more after.

   
     I already know what you are thinking. You are going through the pictures, and you come across some space capsules, and say to yourself, "What the hell do Navy SEALs have to do with the Apollo missions?". That is a good question, and one that I have an answer to, and it just so happens to be in picture form.

That's right, they weren't only involved in the early stages of training to see if humans could spend time in space, but they were also the ones that retrieved the space capsules once they made splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida.

     I have a few more pictures for you. Two of which are what you are greeted by when you walk through the front door of the museum. One is a beautiful chopper style motorcycle. There was nothing written up for it, so I have no idea who made it, or anything other than it is one brutal beauty. The other picture is the guest sign in book with this cool little brass fixture that looks like some sort of periscope. I just thought that is was interesting. I will get to the final picture after I show you those two.

     I'm going to end with the final picture because I believe that it is the perfect ending to this post. I had a remarkable time doing this, not only the ride, and the knowledge gained, but it has given me incentive to really get this motovlogging thing going. I really enjoyed being in front of the camera for the Instagram Story, and I thought of how much more I could have done if I had a GoPro or something like that. I'm already thinking about the next adventure, and I have a couple of ideas. I would like your help in choosing it. The first one is an obvious one, and wouldn't really be that far away. That would be the Kennedy Space Center. I haven't been there for years, and what better reason than this. The other is a treasure museum in Vero Beach. It is rather small, but it could be real fun and informative. It is from a well known treasure hunter that found a lot of stuff off the coast of Vero. Let me know which one you want to see next, and I will start the planning for it.

      If you do follow me on Instagram, you may have already seen this final photo. I featured it as my Picture of the Day. Yep, that's right, I didn't find that one, I actually took it. Everything lined up perfectly for it. The lone gentleman walking at the end of the beach access had walked past me a few moments earlier. I had thought about waiting until he was clear, so that it would just be the shot of the opening to the beach, but the lone person representing a sort of solitude, just rang true for the shot. Peace in and goodnight.

Is It Really Good News?

     I have some good news, but it will have to wait a little bit. I had to push back the Instagram Live test till tomorrow. I didn't ride in today due to a sinus infection. Do you have any idea what it is like riding with a helmet on when you have a runny nose? It all started out as allergies, but by this morning it had evolved to a sinus infection. Fortunately I acted fast, and it is nearly all gone as of right now. Let's see now, if I remember right, the subscription email of this will go out at around 7 o'clock in the morning New York time. I don't know if you read this when it comes in, or later in the day or whenever, but I'm planning on the Instagram Live test around 1 or 2. I did do a test on Wednesday, and the audio did work with my headphones in, but there was a tremendous amount of wind noise. This was due to the fact that my mic hung down below my helmet, so tomorrow I will try to tape the mic inside my helmet and see if that eliminates the wind noise. There was one other problem, but I think I have a solution for that as well. I couldn't hear very well with my headphones in. The solution would be to go with the headphones that came with my phone instead of the ones that I use for work. They allow more of the ambient noise around you in than the ones I use for work. I'm not all that excited about not hearing well, but it will only be for a short period of time, so I can live with it.

     Now on to the news. I was able to sell the tickets for Panic! at the Disco. I'm glad that someone is going to get to go that will enjoy it, but I am bummed that I won't get to go now. I was really looking forward to the show, but I couldn't go alone this time. I could feel the panic attack starting every time I thought about it. This was for the best. Although I'm bummed, I did find the silver lining. The money I will be getting for the sale of the tickets, is near the cost of the air compressor I want for the garage. This will help me out with a lot of things dealing with Saki, and could have helped me out tonight. We will get to that in just a minute. I don't get to see the show, but I will get a shiny new air compressor. See, sliver lining.

     Here is how that air compressor could have helped me out tonight. I got new grips for Saki. I would have a picture for you, but my phone is in low power mode, so it won't load anything to the cloud right now. That air compressor could have helped me get the grips on easier. A lot of things I checked said to use compressed air to create a thin layer of air to guide the grip over the bar. I didn't have that, so I went with isopropyl alcohol. It acted as a lubricant to slide the grip on, but it was not easy. my hands are a little raw from pushing the throttle side grip on. It was a pain. I did end up with a slight problem though. When I put the bar end on the throttle side, it left a pretty good sized gap, and I don't know why. I'm going to take it to the dealer tomorrow and see if they know anything that can help me out. In the meantime, Saki is looking real Kawisexy. I also got one other thing for Saki, and that was new bolts for the windscreen. They are anodized red bolts that go real well with the red on Saki. I do have a before an after comparison for you, but that will have to wait until Sunday. The cloud thing remember? I do have one picture that I took yesterday when I pulled into work though. I Like it. It really shows off the reflective rim tape. If you look close, you can see that I put two of the stars on my helmet. Makes it stand out a bit more.

     Yesterday we lost a very funny man by the name of Charlie Murphy. He is the brother of comedian Eddie Murphy. He was battling leukemia, and his fight is now over. I learned of Charlie Murphy because of Dave Chappelle. He was a writer and performed on The Chappelle show, and he had two of the funniest sketches of all time. My favorite was the one about Prince. As you know, I am a giant Prince fan, so I found this sketch to be outstandingly funny, and I was even more pleased when I found out that Prince loved it as well. He even did a song called "Breakfast Can Wait" and the cover art for the single was a picture of Dave Chappelle as Prince. I found a clip of that Sketch but it isn't the best quality and the ending is cut off, but you get the bulk of it. It is the only close to full clip that I could find.



The stars are a little brighter tonight because they are bursting with laughter. Charlie Murphy is swirling in the ether making the universe laugh.

     I don't think I mentioned it, but I am off tomorrow, hence the reason I can do the Instagram Live test around 1 or 2 in the afternoon. I will still need your help to see if the audio is good. Please let me know by either leaving a comment here, or messaging me on Instagram. I know that you can leave comments while the video is going live, but I really don't know if I will be able to read them while I'm riding, but I will try my best. Peace in and goodnight.

Hindsight is 20/20, But It Would Have Saved Me Some Hassle If I Could See Into the Future.

     I had a small issue with the new horn on Saki. Well, maybe it wasn't so small. When I finally settled on how to mount it, I didn't take into consideration the fork travel. When I came home from work on Monday and pulled into my driveway, I heard a loud clunk. When I parked the bike, I looked all around but I didn't see anything out of place. Today when I was leaving for work, I heard it again as I pulled out. That is when I realized what was going on. When the forks compressed, the fender would travel up and into the new horn. I checked the front fender, and sure enough, there was a good size ding in it. Looks like that wasn't the best place for it. After dinner, I went out to the garage, pulled out the rolling stool, and got to work. I pulled out the stock horn, and noticed that there was a smaller bracket attached to it. I got it off, and bolted it back where it originally was. There was a rubber bushing in the hole that the horn attached to, and that was getting in the way of bolting the new horn on to it. Here is where I new problem arose. With that bushing out, there was a large kind of keyhole that the new bolt just wouldn't handle. Fortunately, there was a small washer with the old assembly. I pulled that washer, and that solved the problem. I checked clearance, and there was a little rubbing on the front fairing. I noticed that the horn was not centered on the bracket, so I had some room to play around with it. I loosened it back up pulled it down a bit, and it locked in place. Everything has clearance now, and the fender will no longer be rising up into the horn.

     With that taken care of, I needed to address the ding in the fender. I got out my trusty paint pens, and laid down the base coat. After it dried I went in with the red pen. I'm going to need another coat to get it all take care of, but it looks better than it did. The good news is, that it is in a spot that you just aren't going to see. I had to put a small LED light in between the forks to even notice the paint was chipped away. From the front you can't tell it's there at all.

     I think I'm giving up on going to see Panic! at the Disco. I've put a lot of thought into selling the tickets today. I haven't done it yet, but I think I will probably put them up for sale tomorrow. I had one last hope of getting someone to go today, and that person has plans already. I can go alone, but I'm just so tired of doing that. I'll let you know what my final decision is on that.

     As you know, I'm doing that ride to Ft. Pierce on Saturday. I have an idea, to make it a little fun for you. Instagram has this feature where you can shoot a live video of what you are doing. It's very much like Facebook live. I did a test run yesterday, just videoing me riding home, and it worked a little. I will need to adjust my phone mount a little to give you a better shot, but I think this might work. One of the problems I had was with talking into the camera. It just didn't hear me when I was on the bike riding, so I'm going to try something out. I'll do another test tomorrow on my way home from work, but this time I will wear my headphones, to see if the mic will record my voice while I'm riding.  This isn't a great solution, because I will be tethered to my handlebars. It is however, the only solution I have available to me. If it works, I will do a test run on Instagram on the way home from work on Thursday, to see if everything works there. If you follow me on Instagram, keep an eye out a little after 3 PM New York time.

     If that works, and I will need your help to know if it does. I will shoot a little of the ride to Ft. Pierce. Here is what I need from you. If you watch it on Thursday, I need you to tell me how the audio was. I don't think I will be able to watch the Instagram Live back, so I'm relying on you heavily in order to pull this off. If I get good feedback on Thursday, I will definitely do it on Saturday. I will let you know a round about time to check into Instagram on Thursday nights post.

     It's time for Favorite Song of the Week, and this one goes bak a bit. It's from one of my favorite artist, and I absolutely adore her. This version is sung by her on the Howard Stern show, and she does something a little different on it. She sings in the way it was originally written. She made adjustments in the final recording, and never sung it this way. There is a bit of a build up and she explains it in the clip. About a third of the way through the song she stops the whole thing, because she sang it the way she recorded it as opposed to the way it was written, so you can really hear what that difference is. This version of it sounds really good, and I think it is because it is fully stripped done acoustically. Here is the incredible Cyndi Lauper ( it rhymes with bopper) with "All Through The Night".



     Really great version right? Even with the little goof it is just fantastic. There are so many reasons to love Cyndi and her voice is only one of them. She is immensely talented, she also plays instruments, she is funny, and quite beautiful. Her beauty isn't just relegated to her outward appearance either. A few years ago (probably longer than a few) she created the Give A Damn campaign. It is a charitable cause better known as the True Colors Fund which is aimed at helping a very little thought of group. It helps homeless LGBTQ teens. The ones that are kicked out of their homes because of parents that don't understand them or hate them because of how they love. If you get a chance, click to the link above, and see what it is all about. If you feel that they are worthy, maybe leave a small donation as well. This could be your RAK of the week or month or whatever.

     That's all I have for you tonight. If you have Instagram, you will see me before I get back to you, so until Thursday night, peace in and goodnight.

What Do A Horn, A Garage, Boots, And A Blizzard Have In Common?

     Alright, let's just cut to the chase. I'm a coward. I ended up at the bank tellers window, because she called me over, and I didn't ask. Now I can't assume that she would have said yes, but me going alone to this concert is definitely on me. I could have asked, I had very opportunity to do so, and I didn't. I froze. I had no idea what to say. Instead, I went home and put the new horn on Saki.

     It took me some time, because I had some fitment issues. I had to bend the bracket they gave me, in order to get it to fit right. Once I did that, I found another issue with the horn hitting the headlight housing or the triple tree. Eventually I too the whole mount and flipped it upside down. That isn't the recommended way to do it, but it is the only way that it would fit without issues. That being said, it still has minor issues. I will keep an eye on it, to make sure that those issues don't turn into something. Here is a video of the before and after. It doesn't really do it justice. For some reason the new horn sounds smaller on the video to me, but in reality, it is much louder and more pronounced.

    Installing the horn also gave me the chance to test out the new lighting in the garage. It worked like a charm. Since we are now talking about the garage, I did a little addition to the My Ultimate Garage project. I added another LED light, but this one I put on it's own line, so that I could use the drawstring to turn it on. This is a safety measure in the event that something happens to my phone, and I can't turn on the other lights. I also got a rolling shop stool. What is a shop without a shop stool. 

It was super easy to assemble. It came in three pieces. The lower tray, the hydraulic cylinder, and the seat cushion. All you had to do, was insert the hydraulic cylinder in the tray and then put the seat cushion on top of it. There was no bolting or tightening of any kind. I'm sure if you try picking its up, it will all fall apart, but who needs to pick it up, when it has wheels. It's perfect for working on Saki. I saw a few other things at Harbor Freight that will work well in My Ultimate Garage. They have a lighted workbench that would be perfect, a really nice air compressor, and eventually, a motorcycle lift. When I get my front wheel stand, I can do most of the work on Saki with that and the rear wheel stand. The lift would just make things a lot more convenient. I would be able to raise the bike up, as opposed to laying underneath it at times.

     Yesterday was a me day. I rode Saki all over the place, even hitting my favorite twisty road. I put some speed into it, and got Saki leaned over rather far. It felt really good. I felt a little emboldened by the fact that I had on a new pair of motorcycle boots. I got them a couple of weeks ago, but hadn't had the chance to wear them for a serious ride. Yesterday was the day to test them out. I can say, that they are very comfortable while riding. Walking in them however, is a different story. The sole is rather narrow, so you have the feeling that you are teetering when you are walking in them, but these are riding boots, not walking boots. I did have one problem with them while riding though. The toe is much thicker than Converse Chuck Taylors, and that made it difficult to shift quickly at first. There was a pretty pronounced learning curve going on. It took a little while, but I figured it out eventually. I won't wear them all the time, but when I want to really get Saki leaned over, I will be wearing them. They will give me that extra armor in case something happens. Here is a picture of the boots. They are Icon Overlord Boots, and they are a good match for the Icon Sanctuary jacket that I got.

     After my ride, I decided that I needed to treat myself a little. I have been undergoing sort of a lifestyle change as of late. The no drinking is part of it, but I have also been fasting two days out of the week. It's not a true fast though. I simply limit my calories to under a thousand, and pretty much close to 500 for the day that I do it. In case you were wondering, yes I am losing weight doing this. Quite a bit. Since I have dropped weight I thought a good cheat day was in order. This isn't going to be an every week sort of thing, this was just a once in a long while sort of thing. I went for a Dairy Queen Blizzard, and not just any Blizzard. I went for the Reese's Extreme Blizzard, and a large on at that. I checked the calorie count on it, for a large, it is about three fast days worth of calories, 1360. That is a lot for one dessert. Anyway, this Blizzard ha both Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, and Reese's Pieces in it. It was really freaking good, but I hope to never have one again. I want to drop another 15 pounds, and the only way I'm going to do that, is to not eat things like that more than once in a few months or so.

     Well, that is all I have for you tonight. I'll see you o Tuesday night with another riveting episode of The Counterfeit Squirrel. Peace in and goodnight.

What Do Sober People Talk About?

     This week has been going on for far too long. I actually tried to shut things down early at work today, because my brain was telling me that it was later than the clock was. It has been an aggravating week. This is mostly because people have been throwing tantrums all over the place, and when one person starts, it starts a domino affect the hits everyone, one by one by one. Today wasn't too bad, but you can still feel tension in the air. Things could explode at a moments notice. I just want to get out and ride.

     Speaking of  riding, yeah I know you saw that coming. I'm going to try to install the new horn tomorrow evening. This will give me a chance to check out the garage lighting as I work on Saki. I will get a comparison video and have it for you on Sunday, assuming that I can get this new horn on. I think I saw a problem when I was looking at the replacement bracket, and it doesn't look like it's going to work, so I may have to improvise. I'll let you know all about it. Oh yeah, I do have picture of the horn in it's packaging for you, and here it is.

     That reminds me. I've been meaning to ask, do you like the pictures better centered or off to the side of the text? I really want to know. I think that centered looks a little boring, but it's the easiest option, not that it is all that difficult to put them off to the side. Let me know.

     Sunday, I ran into a couple of friends of mine. They are in the process of moving to South Florida. It was really good catching up with them, but we happened to get in a conversation about not drinking. The husband in the couple had quit drinking 2 years ago, and has been alcohol free for a little over a year now. He seemed to have this contempt for drinking now, and that really isn't how I feel. I chose to do this, because I wanted to, and not because I needed to, and I think he feels quite the opposite. He even seems to have an anger towards people drinking to excess. Although I feel differently about this whole not drinking thing than he does, the one thing we seemed to agree on, is that all those drinking friends we knew from the bar, don't want anything to do with us anymore. He mentioned how everyone just stopped calling him, and that he hadn't seen any of them for quite some time, and although I am newly into this, I have noticed a similar trend. People don't contact me as much, and some not at all, but here is the way I look at that. I have had people come in and out of my life for all of my life. I have a few very close friends, and I know where they are. We may not be as close as we once were, but we always keep in touch. Those people that just drift in and out of my life are just that, drifters. I hold no ill will towards them, I just came to the conclusion along time ago, that there will be people that I know for a very short time. We will have a good time while we are around each other, but eventually those people will move on. I've even learned to notice those people early on in the friendship. I know who is going to stay, and who is going to leave. I just enjoy the moment while it happens.

     I still haven't decided whether to ask the bank teller to the concert yet. I think I will make that decision when I'm standing in front of her, and that only happens if I end up at her window. Knowing my luck, this will be the one week that I end up with another teller. Either way, I will let you know what goes down, if anything does.

     I've been thinking more and more about this motovlogging thing, and am leaning more towards doing it. I still would have to get all the equipment, but I have done some cleaning of my Youtube channel so that it will be ready whenever I start doing it. I was leaning towards not putting it there and only posting on here, but then I thought, why not post it there. I could post it there, and then embed it on here. You could go to either place to see it. I'm looking at the 15th for the first trip. I was thinking this Saturday, but I'm waiting to hear back from someone, to see if they want to tag along. I'm going next week regardless of them going or not. There will not be any video per se this time, or in the near future, but I will post an Instagram story on it. You can go here. for that. You need to have the app on a mobile device, and you will have to follow me to see it. If you don't, don't worry though. I will get plenty of pictures that I can share on here of the Navy SEALS museum. Yes, I will also have a few of Saki thrown in for good measure. I'm pretty sure I can park Saki right on the other side of the fence from a big boat that is on the property. It should make for a fun shot.

     Until Sunday, peace in and goodnight.

   

I Need Your Help.

     We have a few things to talk about tonight. One of which, I need your help with, but we will get to that a bit later. The first thing, is a bit of a gripe. I just need to get this off my chest, so here goes. Yesterday, the weather report called for rain most of the day. there was a 50% chance of it, and the rain was to begin during the midday. Guess what happened? Wild guess? Yeah, it never rained, and Saki had to sit in the garage all day. I was bummed. Today was a new day, and the weather report called for a 20% chance of rain, and if the rain came, it would be in the early evening. Guess what happened? It started raining at 2:30 in the afternoon. Saki was no pleased. I rode in to work today thinking there was no chance that I would get rained on, well, I rode home in the rain. That meant Saki had to get wiped down, to avoid spots. The meteorologist around here, are the worst, and there is no sign that they will get any better. I need those old fashioned maps, with the cones and the domes. I could judge the weather myself with those. All the new meteorologist all use computer models, and those seem to not work as well as a good old weather map. That is my gripe for tonight.

     Now that that is over with, we can get on to some good stuff. I got a new horn for Saki. This is along the lines of everything I can do to make Saki safer on the road. It is quite a bit louder than the toy horn that comes stock on the bike, and will make a huge difference in cars being able to hear me, even if they don't see me. Although, they should have already heard me, because of the Yoshimura exhaust, but you can never be too safe. I should be installing it some time this week, and when I do, I will get a video of the before and after sound of it, so you can hear the difference. The bonus of all this, is that I will see just how easy it is to install a new horn on a bike. I'm going to install a new horn on a friend bike soon, and this will be good practice.

     I still haven't decided if I'm going to take that ride to the Navy SEALs museum this weekend or next. When I do though, I'm going to post an Instagram story of it. I'll also take pictures to post on here the Sunday after, but you can see it the day of on my Instagram. It should be fun and we will all learn a thing or two about these highly trained warriors.

     Here is the situation. I need your help in interpreting something, or maybe just to let me know that I'm an idiot. Either way, I will learn something from this. Lately at my bank, there is this one particular teller, that I always seem to go to. It is all random, who you go to once you are through the queue, but for the last, maybe two months, I have always ended up at her window. To say that she is attractive would be a massive understatement. She is down right gorgeous, and is very much my "type". Well, the last few times I have been in there, she has mentioned her plans for the weekend. This could just be small talk, but this last time, she got real specific about what she was doing. I got the sense, that she was wanting me to show up there. I unfortunately couldn't, because I had plans, but that leads me to my question. As you know, I have this Panic! at the Disco concert coming up. I've been toying with the idea, of just asking her if she wanted to go. Is this a good idea, or am I out of my mind, and reading way too much into her banter? The concert is in less than two weeks, so my only chance to ask her would be this Friday when I go in to deposit my check. What do you think I should do? Any advice or ideas that you have would be greatly appreciated. Oh, I should mention that she knows me by name. Now I don't think that is too unusual, because they want to be friendly towards the customers, but I don't see her calling anyone else out by name. I'm just saying. Please let me know what you think.

     It's that time again. You know which time I'm talking about. Favorite Song of the Week. let's get it on. This one goes back just a little, not a lot, just a tiny little bit. about 2 years ago to be exact. It's from one of my favorite bands, and they always make me happy when I listen to them, and this song in particular. I have a thing for hoodies, and this song just speaks to me. Lately this band has been posting fun videos on their Youtube channel, that are just them doing stuff. In the past week, that has changed a bit. One of the members of the band was hurt on stage in Mexico, and it has hit her hard. She damaged her knee jumping off the drum riser to start the show. She hung in for 5 songs, but had to call it, because the pain was just too much for her. At the end of each of these vides they were doing, she would dance to music while the credits rolled, It's one of the must fun parts of the videos, and she can't do that now, and it really has her bummed out. After the FSOTW, I will post a link to their actual Youtube channel so that you can check them out, and maybe post a get well message to Kim. That's right, ti's Matt and Kim. I got to see them live a couple of years ago, and Kim even called me out in the crowd. It was one of the best shows I'd ever gone to. I'm pretty sure that Matt plans all the videos and edits them. I know he does the Matt and Kim Show You Stuff videos by himself, and  couple of their most recent videos have all been him. Anyway, here is FSOTW, Matt and Kim with "Hoodie On".



That song really makes me happy, and if you sit down and watch their videos, they might just make you happy as well. This is the link to their channel Matt and Kim, take a look at it, and put a smile on your face. I know that when I see that they have a new video posted, that it puts a smile on my face immediately. Like I said above, if you feel so inclined, leave a little love for Kim in the comments, she could use a little pick me up. Truth be told, as Matt has mention, that it will more than likely make her cry, but they are tears of joy. Peace in and goodnight.