That's right. It's part 2. I didn't even get finished with Friday, so I guess we better just jump right in where I left off. Where did I leave off? I remember. I kind of rushed the end of the ride without telling you the most important part about the ride at night. The fact that it was cold. I mentioned a chill during the ride early on, but when you get up to highway speeds at night, when the temperature is dropping, the wind chill becomes excessive. That was the case on Friday night. I do remember at one point passing a bank sign that had the current temperature on it, and it read 66 degrees. We passed that sign at about 70 MPH, which if what my buddy said was true, that meant the temperature we were feeling on the bikes was near freezing. I have to believe his math on this one, because I was frozen when I finally got home. I got home at about 7:30 at night and didn't thaw out until around 8:30.
After I got home, I was going to stick with a plan that I was running through my head all day, and that was to go to my favorite watering hole, and see my bartender. I walked in and right past the other bartender that I know there. She hadn't seen me the week before and everyone kept quite about me shaving the beard off. She gave me an awkward smile, and then went about her business. My bartender came up and said hi, and that's when the other bartender had feeling that it was me. I could tell that she still wan't completely sure about it though. She came up and asked tentatively if I wanted a Jack & Coke. I said absolutely. That is when she told me that she wasn't sure if it were really me. Keep that last thought in mind, because we will make a return to that a little later.
This is when we get into the news about my bartender. At some point in the evening, when the crowd had shrunk to a few tables, she walked up to me, and told me to keep what she was about to say quiet. This was a little strange for me, because she was confiding in me something personal, which is something she hasn't really done before. She told me that she was putting in her two weeks notice, and that she was leaving the bar. I was a little bummed to hear this news, but then a revelation occurred to me. She wasn't going to be my bartender anymore. My rule could stay intact. Then something else occurred to me. I only had two weeks to gather the courage to ask her out, and at that time, she would still be my bartender. Oh, how Fate's fickle finger dances over our lives. I thought of a way to make this work. Remember me telling you about the guy that picked up my tab a few weeks back? He has done that several times, so I hatched a plan to pay him back a little, and get her number at the same time. I asked her, that if I gave her my number, would she text me the next time he came in, and she would hold his tab, and I would come in and pay it after he left. She was in, but it only works, if he comes in within the next two weeks. That being said, and I know it sounds like a completely blew it, and didn't take charge of the situation, and it is all in her hands. Here is the thing though, she reiterated wanting to go to Universal with me, and that we were definitely going to do that, and that she had my number now, so that she could get in touch with me. I realize that I'm only a genius if she texts or calls me, and I can live with that. I've already gone through the rollercoaster of my own mind, in giving up, and not giving up, and panic attacks, and trying to drink enough liquid courage to get the job done, and then knowing that I've had too much to get the job done, so I can live with a chance, and a chance is all I need.
Remember that thought I told you to keep in mind? That comes into play near the end of the night. I was once again, the last patron of the bar there. The two bartenders, mine and the other one, sat at the other end of the bar, and began to share a meal. That is when the other bartender said that I should come down and join them. I made a witty comment about how I'm a "that side of the bar" person, and that I shouldn't be at the end with them. I said this as I was walking with my drink over to them of course. I sat down in the seat next to my bartender, but she had to get up and get something from the kitchen area. That is when the other bartender mentioned again how she wasn't sure if it were me, or a twin. Then she said that if she had my number she was going to text me to ask if I had a twin. I know she heard me give my number to my bartender, and there is a bit of history between me and the other bartender. Is this getting confusing with my bartender and the other bartender yet? Here is a brief look at the history. My drinking buddy, asked the other bartender out a long time ago. She accepted, but on the night they were supposed to go out, she said she had too much homework to do (college homework). That left my buddy wanting to (he wouldn't admit this in a million years) go out and drown his sorrows. We ended up barhopping that night, and the last place we went, guess who was there? If you said, the other bartender, you would be right. Even though she had stood him up, he tried everything to get her to go home with him. It was a little awkward and sad to watch. I finally had my fill of drinking for the night, and said that I was leaving. He finally accepted his failure and said he was going to. He hugged her goodnight, while I hugged even another bartender that I know from my favorite watering hole, and then we switched. I said goodnight to the other bartender (the original other bartender) and as I hugged her she leaned in and whispered something to me. I'm not going to give he exact words, but let's just say, that it eluded to her being interested in me. She's attractive and I like talking to her at the bar, but she just stood up my buddy, and I wasn't going to do that to him. That's my loyalty kicking in. We have never spoken about that part of that night again. Even at times when that night has come up in conversation, that part has always been eliminated. Because of the final words of that night, and her mentioning not having my number, and me having just gave my number to my bartender, left me feeling like there might be some weird triangle thing going on. That could all be on my though. I could be reading everything horribly wrong, but I just got this weird feeling.
Just in case you are wondering, this doesn't not create any confusion on my part. I still want my bartender, and although I enjoy the other bartender, I'm not going there. I can hear you, "Oh, you are an idiot. You are passing up a sure thing." Here is the problem with a sure thing, it is often not a "real thing", and that is what I want. Will my bartender be a "real thing"? I would hope so, which is why the only way I can find that out, is if I go out with her. I would much rather take the chance on a "real thing" than a sure thing. That may sound crazy, but I never said I was sane.
With that in mind. I decided that I would go up there on Saturday night as well. This was the night, that even though I had given my bartender my number the night before, I was going to just roll the dice, and ask her out. Have you ever heard of Murphy's Law? Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. My bartender wasn't working that night. My daring plan to finally give into my desire and avoiding anything that is normally me, so that I could ask her out, was foiled by her absence. Such is my life. The plan is still in effect, and I'm sure I will see her on Friday night when I go in there, but will I have the same courage that night that I found on Saturday? Only time will tell.
That was pretty much my weekend. I did wrap it up, by getting the final few miles on Saki to cross 1500, so I hit that goal, and watch Doctor Strange. It was good, not great, but good. I enjoyed the opening two scenes, but the rest of the first act, and the second act were a bit dull, The third act made it all worth while though. Marvel is still setting up the Infinity Crisis. which if they do right will be fantastic. The actors were really good in the movie, the real problem I had, is that there was seemingly no passage of time. Maybe that was the point though. It was a movie about a guy altering time and space, so maybe Strange learning how to do magic in what seemed like a matter of weeks, makes sense when you look at it that way.
Let's get to Favorite Song of the Week. I'm sticking with the Walk Off The Earth theme that I mentioned a few weeks ago, and tonight brings you an original song by them. This is one of my favorite songs by them, and it has a folksy, poppy, cool vibe to it. I hope you enjoy it. This is "Gang of Rhythm".
Next week will wrap-up my little tribute to WOTE. That one will be one of their crazy talent videos. It's wild what they can do and how they put it all together. Peace in and goodnight.
Tuesday, November 15, 2016
Sunday, November 13, 2016
We Rode Like The Wind. (Part 1)
There's a lot to talk about, so lets just dive into it. I went on my ride with my buddy on Friday, and it was an outstanding day. We left his house around noon, and headed north on US 1. Oh wait, I had to gas up first, and I found a place that had gas for $1.98, which was kind of awesome. I set the trip on my bike, so I would know just how far we had gone, and then, we were off.
We decided to eat at this place on the way to Destination Daytona, that a friend had told me about. He got most of the details about the place wrong. He gave me the wrong name, but it was similar, and he had the wrong city that it was in. He said it was called Little Philly's and it was Famous Philly's, and he also said that it was in Edgewater, and it was in New Smyrna Beach. When we hit New Smyrna and didn't see the place, we opted for a little spot called Pappa's Drive In. The sign said Famous Burgers, so we took a shot. Now, it wasn't the best burger that I've ever had, but it was pretty good, and cheap too. You can't argue with that. Once we were fueled up, we had to get our hoodies out, because on the ride there, it started getting chilly. I had mine tucked under my cargo bungy on the back seat, and he had his in his saddle bags. He rides a Harley Street Glide, which is in complete contrast to Saki. It wasn't about what we were riding, it was about riding.
We were hoodied up, and ready to go. The next stop was in Daytona Beach at the Ducati dealer. They used to be located at Destination Daytona, but it turns out that they moved. Oh yeah, here is the thing about Destination Daytona, it isn't actually in Daytona, it is just north of Orland Beach, which is north of Daytona. Anyway, the Ducati dealer was easy enough to find, it was Just off of US 1 about a street down. We parked our bikes on their loading ramp, and walked around to the front. They had some beautiful used bikes outside. One of them was the Ducati beast known as the Diavel. It is I guess considered a cruiser bike, but it is just unadulterated power. It has forward foot controls on it, and the guy inside later told us, that it has a 40 degree lean angle. If you don't know what that means, here is the explanation. Bikes don't turn like cars, well they do, but only at slow speeds. At faster speeds, a turn is handled by counter steering. Here is the idea as simple as I can put it. In order to turn a bike left, you turn the bars right. It sounds confusing I know, but stick with me, you'll get it soon enough. The reason for the counter steer, is that the bike also leans into the turn, and in order to keep the front tire from locking up and flipping the bike, you have to steer opposite of what you would expect. I feel like I'm dong a real bad job of explaining this. The lean into that turn dictates how fast you can take that corner, the further the lean, the faster you can go. Every bike has a lean angle that it can reach. Moto GP guys are hitting 65 degree lean angles, When I have a tight turn that I can take at speed, I'm at about a 45 to 50 degree lean angle. A cruiser taking a 40 degree lean angle, would normally have the foot pegs digging into the road, that is why the Diavel's lean angle is so surprising. Enough about that though. The moral of the story is, that the Ducati Diavel scares the hell out of me. It has a huge engine, it's light weight for it's class, and has a severe lean angle for how wide it is. It is truly a beast.
With the beast out of the way, let's talk about a monster. The Ducati Monster in particular. I think I may have found my next bike. It isn't a super sport like I was thinking it would be, but the new Ducati Monster 797. It isn't out yet, but Ducati was saying that it is an introductory bike to the Ducati line up. The monster is what is known as a "naked bike". It is the original street fighter style bike. They call it naked, because that it is a sport bike without a fairing on it. It has a tiny windshield at best, but more than likely only a headlight and the display are in front of you. I had seen a few things about this new Monster, and I was interested. even though it is being called the 797 it has an 803 cc motor in it, and from what i'm hearing, it is fast, not quite the 1200 cc Monster fast, but it would be a step up from my 650. I asked the guy if he had any idea what the price was going to be on it, and he told me that it was starting at $9300, which seems like a lot, but for a Ducati, that is cheap. You get all the beauty of Italian design at a lower mid range cost. He also told me, that there was going to be a 797 plus model that was going to come with bluetooth. You could run your phone through the display on the bike, and it would tell you then song you were listening to if you had a bluetooth headset in your helmet. I thought that was pretty cool, but he believes that all Ducati's are going to be fitted with that within time. While I was there, I took a good look at the Monsters they had, and I've always liked the look of that bike.
After taking an extended look at the 1299 Panigale, I'm pretty sure that my buddy was seriously considering that bike< It is a work of art, we said our thank you's to the guy, and made our way out. We stopped just outside the door to take a look at a little Triumph T100 that someone had did a little custom work on. The put saddle bags and matching seat and tank pads on it, that were in brown leather. It was a great looking bike. We couldn't figure out if it was for sale or not, so we just walked back to our bikes. This is when I did something incredibly stupid. I backed my bike down to the side walk, so that I could turn and pull out of where we were parked. It was on an incline, and as I was pulling to get near the road. I stopped in mid turn, which is maybe one of the dumbest things you can do. Saki started tipping over. I caught it, and killed the engine so that if would jolt on me if I let go of the clutch, but I was in such an awkward position, that I couldn't lift it back up. I wasn't beginning to lose it, and thought that I was going to have to try to set it down as gentle as possible, so that I would bend or break anything, when my buddy parked his bike real fast, and ran over to help me get it back up. I was so thankful for that. Lesson learned, and it was a lesson that I already knew, but sometimes you do really dumb things, like stopping in the middle of a turn. You should never have the bars turned on a motorcycle when you are stopped, unless it is on the kickstand. The bike wants to lean when you turn, that brings us back to lean angle and all that good stuff. We won't get into that though. Needless to say, we were finally able to take off, and head to the Harley dealership in Destination.
We made pretty good time, and got there about 2:45 in the afternoon. The place is huge. I think it is the largest Harley-Davidson dealership in the county if not the world. There are hundreds of new bikes there, and a few more hundred on the second floor that are used, as well as some bikes that are only for display, because they are classic museum type bikes. We walked around and looked at everything they had. They were some beautiful bikes. We went upstairs because we didn't want to miss the used bikes that had some with custom features and what not. The really cool part about the upstairs, is that there is this large wall of windows, and on the other side is the service department. You can look at all the bikes that they are working on right there while you look at bikes for sale.
While we were up there, we happened across a couple of service bikes. Those were old bikes that were trike style, but they had a large cooler on the back of them. It was so delivery people could transport fresh meat, or milk or anything that needed refrigerated. My buddy is a brewer, and I said that that should be there brewery vehicle. We were thinking of what we could do with something like that, and we came up with the possibility of putting a couple of kegs in the back with taps on it, so you could serve fresh beer. It would be the coolest brewery delivery vehicle anywhere. I don't know if it will happen, but if it does, I want to help with the design of it.
We spent close to an hour in there, and my buddy was in search of a new helmet, and oddly, they didn't have any there, at least none that we found. In the same complex of buildings, is a place called J&P Cycles. They carry all kinds of motorcycle parts, clothing, helmets, and basically anything bike related. Nothing there really caught his fancy, so we decided to head south on 95 to hit a beer bar. I know, I said I don't drink when I'm riding, but I will allow myself a single pint from time to time. It was great place known as the House of Beer. They had a bunch of local beers on tap, which I thought was fantastic. I had a sour ale from Grimm, which was rather tasty, and it was only a 12 oz. pour, so I managed to come in under a pint.
By the time we were done, the sun was down, and it was beginning to get colder, and we had a long ride ahead of us. My buddy asked if I needed gas, but I checked the range on my bike, and it said I had 95 miles to go before I ran out. I said, let's give it a try and see how far I really get. We took off down 95 and headed to a few exits down, so that we could catch a road that would connect us easily back onto US 1. It would take us a little longer to get home, but we wouldn't have to go as fast, so the wind chill wouldn't be as bad, not to mention, that most of US 1 is lit up, and made it easier to see. I kept the range view on the display to see how my mileage was going, with 65 miles left on the range, it began to flash and went to three dashes ---. I couldn't tempt fate any longer, and found the first gas station and pulled in. When I filled up, I only had to put 3 gallons in, which meant that I had 1 gallon left to go on, I probably could have made it home, considering that by that fill up, my trip said that we had gone 155.2 miles, and that I averaged 51.2 miles to the gallon. Not bad for a sport bike. That distance was from fill up to fill up. I rode a little over 200 miles on Friday, and that put me real close to my goal of hitting 1500 miles on Saki by the end of the weekend. A little spoiler here, I hit it today, and ended with 1516 on the odometer. Success.
We had a great time riding around and looking at beautiful bikes. It was an adventure not without little problems, but ones that made us learn and become better riders in the end. We had to pull over at one point, because my buddy hit something metal, and we had to check his bike for any damage or to see if anything had fallen off. Fortunately everything was alright. I even check my bike to see if anything had fallen off of it. I was in the lead at that time, so anything was possible. Saki was good, nothing was missing.
There is so much more to talk about from this weekend, like news about my bartender, but I've written enough already, and I'm sure your eyes are sore from reading this off a screen, so I will leave you with a picture I took of Saki yesterday after a ride.
We decided to eat at this place on the way to Destination Daytona, that a friend had told me about. He got most of the details about the place wrong. He gave me the wrong name, but it was similar, and he had the wrong city that it was in. He said it was called Little Philly's and it was Famous Philly's, and he also said that it was in Edgewater, and it was in New Smyrna Beach. When we hit New Smyrna and didn't see the place, we opted for a little spot called Pappa's Drive In. The sign said Famous Burgers, so we took a shot. Now, it wasn't the best burger that I've ever had, but it was pretty good, and cheap too. You can't argue with that. Once we were fueled up, we had to get our hoodies out, because on the ride there, it started getting chilly. I had mine tucked under my cargo bungy on the back seat, and he had his in his saddle bags. He rides a Harley Street Glide, which is in complete contrast to Saki. It wasn't about what we were riding, it was about riding.
We were hoodied up, and ready to go. The next stop was in Daytona Beach at the Ducati dealer. They used to be located at Destination Daytona, but it turns out that they moved. Oh yeah, here is the thing about Destination Daytona, it isn't actually in Daytona, it is just north of Orland Beach, which is north of Daytona. Anyway, the Ducati dealer was easy enough to find, it was Just off of US 1 about a street down. We parked our bikes on their loading ramp, and walked around to the front. They had some beautiful used bikes outside. One of them was the Ducati beast known as the Diavel. It is I guess considered a cruiser bike, but it is just unadulterated power. It has forward foot controls on it, and the guy inside later told us, that it has a 40 degree lean angle. If you don't know what that means, here is the explanation. Bikes don't turn like cars, well they do, but only at slow speeds. At faster speeds, a turn is handled by counter steering. Here is the idea as simple as I can put it. In order to turn a bike left, you turn the bars right. It sounds confusing I know, but stick with me, you'll get it soon enough. The reason for the counter steer, is that the bike also leans into the turn, and in order to keep the front tire from locking up and flipping the bike, you have to steer opposite of what you would expect. I feel like I'm dong a real bad job of explaining this. The lean into that turn dictates how fast you can take that corner, the further the lean, the faster you can go. Every bike has a lean angle that it can reach. Moto GP guys are hitting 65 degree lean angles, When I have a tight turn that I can take at speed, I'm at about a 45 to 50 degree lean angle. A cruiser taking a 40 degree lean angle, would normally have the foot pegs digging into the road, that is why the Diavel's lean angle is so surprising. Enough about that though. The moral of the story is, that the Ducati Diavel scares the hell out of me. It has a huge engine, it's light weight for it's class, and has a severe lean angle for how wide it is. It is truly a beast.
With the beast out of the way, let's talk about a monster. The Ducati Monster in particular. I think I may have found my next bike. It isn't a super sport like I was thinking it would be, but the new Ducati Monster 797. It isn't out yet, but Ducati was saying that it is an introductory bike to the Ducati line up. The monster is what is known as a "naked bike". It is the original street fighter style bike. They call it naked, because that it is a sport bike without a fairing on it. It has a tiny windshield at best, but more than likely only a headlight and the display are in front of you. I had seen a few things about this new Monster, and I was interested. even though it is being called the 797 it has an 803 cc motor in it, and from what i'm hearing, it is fast, not quite the 1200 cc Monster fast, but it would be a step up from my 650. I asked the guy if he had any idea what the price was going to be on it, and he told me that it was starting at $9300, which seems like a lot, but for a Ducati, that is cheap. You get all the beauty of Italian design at a lower mid range cost. He also told me, that there was going to be a 797 plus model that was going to come with bluetooth. You could run your phone through the display on the bike, and it would tell you then song you were listening to if you had a bluetooth headset in your helmet. I thought that was pretty cool, but he believes that all Ducati's are going to be fitted with that within time. While I was there, I took a good look at the Monsters they had, and I've always liked the look of that bike.
After taking an extended look at the 1299 Panigale, I'm pretty sure that my buddy was seriously considering that bike< It is a work of art, we said our thank you's to the guy, and made our way out. We stopped just outside the door to take a look at a little Triumph T100 that someone had did a little custom work on. The put saddle bags and matching seat and tank pads on it, that were in brown leather. It was a great looking bike. We couldn't figure out if it was for sale or not, so we just walked back to our bikes. This is when I did something incredibly stupid. I backed my bike down to the side walk, so that I could turn and pull out of where we were parked. It was on an incline, and as I was pulling to get near the road. I stopped in mid turn, which is maybe one of the dumbest things you can do. Saki started tipping over. I caught it, and killed the engine so that if would jolt on me if I let go of the clutch, but I was in such an awkward position, that I couldn't lift it back up. I wasn't beginning to lose it, and thought that I was going to have to try to set it down as gentle as possible, so that I would bend or break anything, when my buddy parked his bike real fast, and ran over to help me get it back up. I was so thankful for that. Lesson learned, and it was a lesson that I already knew, but sometimes you do really dumb things, like stopping in the middle of a turn. You should never have the bars turned on a motorcycle when you are stopped, unless it is on the kickstand. The bike wants to lean when you turn, that brings us back to lean angle and all that good stuff. We won't get into that though. Needless to say, we were finally able to take off, and head to the Harley dealership in Destination.
We made pretty good time, and got there about 2:45 in the afternoon. The place is huge. I think it is the largest Harley-Davidson dealership in the county if not the world. There are hundreds of new bikes there, and a few more hundred on the second floor that are used, as well as some bikes that are only for display, because they are classic museum type bikes. We walked around and looked at everything they had. They were some beautiful bikes. We went upstairs because we didn't want to miss the used bikes that had some with custom features and what not. The really cool part about the upstairs, is that there is this large wall of windows, and on the other side is the service department. You can look at all the bikes that they are working on right there while you look at bikes for sale.
While we were up there, we happened across a couple of service bikes. Those were old bikes that were trike style, but they had a large cooler on the back of them. It was so delivery people could transport fresh meat, or milk or anything that needed refrigerated. My buddy is a brewer, and I said that that should be there brewery vehicle. We were thinking of what we could do with something like that, and we came up with the possibility of putting a couple of kegs in the back with taps on it, so you could serve fresh beer. It would be the coolest brewery delivery vehicle anywhere. I don't know if it will happen, but if it does, I want to help with the design of it.
We spent close to an hour in there, and my buddy was in search of a new helmet, and oddly, they didn't have any there, at least none that we found. In the same complex of buildings, is a place called J&P Cycles. They carry all kinds of motorcycle parts, clothing, helmets, and basically anything bike related. Nothing there really caught his fancy, so we decided to head south on 95 to hit a beer bar. I know, I said I don't drink when I'm riding, but I will allow myself a single pint from time to time. It was great place known as the House of Beer. They had a bunch of local beers on tap, which I thought was fantastic. I had a sour ale from Grimm, which was rather tasty, and it was only a 12 oz. pour, so I managed to come in under a pint.
By the time we were done, the sun was down, and it was beginning to get colder, and we had a long ride ahead of us. My buddy asked if I needed gas, but I checked the range on my bike, and it said I had 95 miles to go before I ran out. I said, let's give it a try and see how far I really get. We took off down 95 and headed to a few exits down, so that we could catch a road that would connect us easily back onto US 1. It would take us a little longer to get home, but we wouldn't have to go as fast, so the wind chill wouldn't be as bad, not to mention, that most of US 1 is lit up, and made it easier to see. I kept the range view on the display to see how my mileage was going, with 65 miles left on the range, it began to flash and went to three dashes ---. I couldn't tempt fate any longer, and found the first gas station and pulled in. When I filled up, I only had to put 3 gallons in, which meant that I had 1 gallon left to go on, I probably could have made it home, considering that by that fill up, my trip said that we had gone 155.2 miles, and that I averaged 51.2 miles to the gallon. Not bad for a sport bike. That distance was from fill up to fill up. I rode a little over 200 miles on Friday, and that put me real close to my goal of hitting 1500 miles on Saki by the end of the weekend. A little spoiler here, I hit it today, and ended with 1516 on the odometer. Success.
We had a great time riding around and looking at beautiful bikes. It was an adventure not without little problems, but ones that made us learn and become better riders in the end. We had to pull over at one point, because my buddy hit something metal, and we had to check his bike for any damage or to see if anything had fallen off. Fortunately everything was alright. I even check my bike to see if anything had fallen off of it. I was in the lead at that time, so anything was possible. Saki was good, nothing was missing.
There is so much more to talk about from this weekend, like news about my bartender, but I've written enough already, and I'm sure your eyes are sore from reading this off a screen, so I will leave you with a picture I took of Saki yesterday after a ride.
Peace in and goodnight.
Thursday, November 10, 2016
You Want It Darker.
I was correct in thinking that I would have Friday off. I was incorrect in thinking that I would be working today. I would have preferred to work today, but, it wasn't in the cards. Let's get back to Friday. So with Friday off, I am able to go with plan B for riding to Destination Florida. We are leaving the brewery tomorrow around noon. I guess from there, it is about 100 miles, so it should take us a couple hours to get there, and then a couple back. I think we will go the slow route up US 1 because it will be far more scenic than just riding up I 95. Once we are up there, we will check out some Ducatis and Harleys. It should be a fun day trip. Not to mention, it will get me closer to my goal of hitting 1500 miles on Saki. I'm just over 1200 right now, so I have a little less than 300 to go, I should be able to hit that easily by Saturday. Although I do think I will take some time and see Doctor Strange, since I haven't seen it yet. Don't spoil it for me, I'll watch it early Saturday, we can talk about it on Sunday night.
Speaking of Saki, I got a couple of little things in the mail for it yesterday. My swingarm spools and valve stem caps arrived, and I immediately put them on. I took a couple of pictures of them to show you, so you can see how well the reds match up. I thought they were going to be quite a bit off, and I was just going to live with it, but they look almost exactly the same.
Peace in and goodnight.
Speaking of Saki, I got a couple of little things in the mail for it yesterday. My swingarm spools and valve stem caps arrived, and I immediately put them on. I took a couple of pictures of them to show you, so you can see how well the reds match up. I thought they were going to be quite a bit off, and I was just going to live with it, but they look almost exactly the same.
You can see the stripe on the wheel in both pictures to some extent, that is the matching color of the paint on Saki, and you can see, that they match up really well. I was quite amazed and pleased by this. Now, you may be asking, "what use are these little things?". I'm glad you asked that question. Let's take them in order. The swingarm spools, are useful in, that when I get my new rear tire stand, it will fit in the gap of those spools and lift the bike up, and I will be able to do work on the back end of Saki, such as removing the tire or chain tightening. Things like that. Also, the offer a little protection to the swingarm, if the bike goes down. The damage will be mostly to them, which are very easily and somewhat cheaply replaceable. They only got $20. The valve stem covers, give a little bit of a better seal to the valve stem than the normal plastic ones do. These metal ones, have a rub gasket inside that helps keep the air from slowly leaking over time. I won't have to air up my tires as often. Which reminds me, I need an air compressor, so if anyone has one that they like, and would like to recommend it, please do. The last thing that makes these two little things useful, is that they just add a little pop of color, and dress Saki up a bit. You gotta look good. After all, Saki is going to have to keep my attention tomorrow after I look at Italian precision, and American muscle. Those are just things to look at, my heart belongs to Saki.
Should we talk about my bartender? Maybe just briefly. I do plan on going to my favorite watering hole, in hopes of seeing her, and yes, possible finally asking her out. I'm not sure if it will be Friday or Saturday night yet. I'm up for any suggestions that you may have, on which day would be better.
Just before sitting down to write this, I got a notification across my phone, that Leonard Cohen had died at the age of 82. For those of you who don't know who he was, he was a poet, a songwriter, and a singer. He was wildly influential in the 60's and 70's. He was only out done by Bob Dylan, you know, that guy that just won the Noble prize for literature. Cohen was sought after by many of the great artist of that time, to have him write them a song, and these people were no slouches at songwriting themselves. James Taylor and Willie Nelson were two of them. He released his latest album this year. He was always writing. He had a haunting sound to his songs, which was heavily evident in his most recognizable song "Hallelujah". Like David Bowie's "Dark Star", Leonard's song "You Want it Darker", eludes to his knowing of his impending death, and his acceptance of it. Tonight Leonard is spiraling in then ether and joining the greatest concert lineup in history. I'm sure they can find an open spot for him.
I'm going to leave you with "You Want it Darker", so that you can see that even at 82, Leonard could still lay down some deep, heavy, poetic songs for everyone to enjoy.
Peace in and goodnight.
Tuesday, November 8, 2016
Let's Plan A Ride.
Here it is, election night. What am I doing you ask? Not watching election coverage. I've been waiting for tomorrow for about a year now, and yes I know that the campaigning has gone on for 16 months. The longest campaigning in American history. This election has been a terrible ugly thing for this country, and the sooner it is over the better. I have not posted anything here about what candidate that I'm for, and I'm not starting now. I sill support and question whomever becomes president, because that is what you do. I don't say stupid things like, that person isn't my president. I instead support the good things, and question the bad. I'm hoping for the best, but only time will tell if the best is what happens.
On to better and less political a things. I have a plan for this weekend (oh no, here we go again). It's a good plan, and a plan that involves riding Saki. Here is the plan. I want to ride to Destination Florida, which is about 80 miles or so from my house. There is an enormous Harley-Davidson dealer there, as well as a Ducati dealer. I want to look at bikes, and more importantly, bikes that I can't afford. I already have someone that is up for the ride, but it all depends on timing. Here is where it gets dicey. The plan is for Saturday morning. We ride out early in the morning, and get there around the time that everything opens, and then head back to get home somewhere around early afternoon. The person that is going along with me, has an event to go to on Saturday, but he isn't sure of the time he has to be there. He is going to find all that out. There may be another option though. It is looking very strong that I will have Friday off. If that happens, all those timing issues go away. If I'm off, I will meet him at the brewery early Friday morning, to help him brew, and then we will ride out from there when we are done. Problem solved. I just have to wait and see if I do have Friday off. A memo should go up tomorrow, but sometimes it holds until Thursday. I'm pretty sure that I'll see something tomorrow though.
I keep forgetting to get a picture of the new Funko Pop vinyls that i've gotten. I will try to get it for you on Thursday. I can however tell you about them. I picked up a Harley Quinne from Suicide Squaed, a White Canary from Legends of Tomorrow, and an Atom from Legends of Tomorrow. I'm not a very good collector anymore. I only get the characters that I like, so complete sets aren't in the cards for me anymore. Speaking of Characters that I like. I noticed that the Star Wars Rogue One Pop vinyls are out. I plan on getting the lead character, whose name that I do not fully know. Ok, "fully know" is my way of saying, that I've seen the name, but can't for the life of me remember it. Without watching the movie, I already know that I'm going to like that character. Why? You ask. Because she is strong female character. I've always loved strong female characters, I think more movies should have strong female leads, and not just as co leads. I've always tried to write strong females in the stories that I've written. I have yet to create a lead female character, but that is the idea I have been trying to press lately, and it's just not coming. I need to just take a break from the thought process, and let it happen. Everything I try to come up with, I realize has already been done. Now, I could rewrite a character as female, but I think that is taking the easy way out, and I don't want her to be a reprocessed character, I want her to be organic and genuine.
That brings us to Favorite Song of the Week. I said last Thursday, that I was going to put a focus on Walk Off The Earth, and I'm not backing down from that. The song I have for you, is one of the latest covers that they have done. It is from a band called then Chainsmokers. I have not heard the original one, so I can't compare the two, I can only point out the talent of Walk Off The Earth. I'm pretty sure that everyone in the band, plays multiple instruments, and sometimes at the same time, as you will see in this video. They love to take kids toy instruments, and turning them into something that brings an amazing and unique sound to what they are doing. Don't forget to pay attention to Beard Guy, He is the most unusual member of the band, but he has some pretty amazing talent of his own. It sneaks up on you. I hope you enjoy this one, it's pretty fun.
Kazoos, come on. That's just great stuff right there. Next week, I'll post one of their originals, and then the week after I'll put of one of their truly incredible ones. They do things, that most people would be afraid to try, and that is something that I love about them. Check into them a little more, you might find that you like what you hear, and see. Peace in and goodnight.
On to better and less political a things. I have a plan for this weekend (oh no, here we go again). It's a good plan, and a plan that involves riding Saki. Here is the plan. I want to ride to Destination Florida, which is about 80 miles or so from my house. There is an enormous Harley-Davidson dealer there, as well as a Ducati dealer. I want to look at bikes, and more importantly, bikes that I can't afford. I already have someone that is up for the ride, but it all depends on timing. Here is where it gets dicey. The plan is for Saturday morning. We ride out early in the morning, and get there around the time that everything opens, and then head back to get home somewhere around early afternoon. The person that is going along with me, has an event to go to on Saturday, but he isn't sure of the time he has to be there. He is going to find all that out. There may be another option though. It is looking very strong that I will have Friday off. If that happens, all those timing issues go away. If I'm off, I will meet him at the brewery early Friday morning, to help him brew, and then we will ride out from there when we are done. Problem solved. I just have to wait and see if I do have Friday off. A memo should go up tomorrow, but sometimes it holds until Thursday. I'm pretty sure that I'll see something tomorrow though.
I keep forgetting to get a picture of the new Funko Pop vinyls that i've gotten. I will try to get it for you on Thursday. I can however tell you about them. I picked up a Harley Quinne from Suicide Squaed, a White Canary from Legends of Tomorrow, and an Atom from Legends of Tomorrow. I'm not a very good collector anymore. I only get the characters that I like, so complete sets aren't in the cards for me anymore. Speaking of Characters that I like. I noticed that the Star Wars Rogue One Pop vinyls are out. I plan on getting the lead character, whose name that I do not fully know. Ok, "fully know" is my way of saying, that I've seen the name, but can't for the life of me remember it. Without watching the movie, I already know that I'm going to like that character. Why? You ask. Because she is strong female character. I've always loved strong female characters, I think more movies should have strong female leads, and not just as co leads. I've always tried to write strong females in the stories that I've written. I have yet to create a lead female character, but that is the idea I have been trying to press lately, and it's just not coming. I need to just take a break from the thought process, and let it happen. Everything I try to come up with, I realize has already been done. Now, I could rewrite a character as female, but I think that is taking the easy way out, and I don't want her to be a reprocessed character, I want her to be organic and genuine.
That brings us to Favorite Song of the Week. I said last Thursday, that I was going to put a focus on Walk Off The Earth, and I'm not backing down from that. The song I have for you, is one of the latest covers that they have done. It is from a band called then Chainsmokers. I have not heard the original one, so I can't compare the two, I can only point out the talent of Walk Off The Earth. I'm pretty sure that everyone in the band, plays multiple instruments, and sometimes at the same time, as you will see in this video. They love to take kids toy instruments, and turning them into something that brings an amazing and unique sound to what they are doing. Don't forget to pay attention to Beard Guy, He is the most unusual member of the band, but he has some pretty amazing talent of his own. It sneaks up on you. I hope you enjoy this one, it's pretty fun.
Kazoos, come on. That's just great stuff right there. Next week, I'll post one of their originals, and then the week after I'll put of one of their truly incredible ones. They do things, that most people would be afraid to try, and that is something that I love about them. Check into them a little more, you might find that you like what you hear, and see. Peace in and goodnight.
Sunday, November 6, 2016
Saki At Sunrise.
As you can see, I finally made it out for a ride at sunrise. It was a short but productive ride. I got a few shots, and I'll share the other ones with you a little later. We have a few things to talk about before we get to this morning, which is when the ride took place. The above picture though, is, in my opinion, the best of them. You'll see why in a little while, but first, let's go back in time to Friday.
Friday, was Guys Night Out, but before that, I had to run an errand and pic up some razor blades, so that I could shave on Saturday. Not really needing razors over the past 5 years, I didn't have a real good one in the house, so I headed out to pick some up. I must have picked the exact wrong time to go to Target, because traffic was terrible, even on the bike. I made it there, but it took me an extra 15 minutes to get there. I picked up my blades and hit the road. I decided that it wasn't worth it to go the way I came, so I headed to the Interstate, which was only slightly better. I only had to go about 300 yards to get on the Interstate, but it took a good 10 minutes, because of that same traffic that held me up. I finally got out of the traffic, and headed up the on ramp. I gunned it up to 70 MPH before I even merged onto the Interstate, but I had to fall back, because I couldn't merge safely so I had to rest behind a box truck. The wind shear coming off of it sucked, so when I got my chance, I throttled up, and got out from behind it. I wan't really paying a attention to my speed, and was only watching the tachometer. I happened to look down after about a mile, and realized I was doing 103 PMH. That was when I noticed that traffic was backing up again, and I had to slow it down, not to mention that I was coming up on a tractor trailer pretty fast, more wind shear. I found an opening and got around that truck, and was off to the races again. I was only going around 95 at that point, but my exit was coming up, and I had to slow it down again. I have to say, I was a little shocked that Saki got up to those speeds so fast. I thought I was only doing the speed limit which was 70 MPH. It didn't even feel fast, and I wasn't blasting past cars, which should tell you about the flow of traffic.
After I got home form that short errand, I just had to wait a few hours before I met up with my buddy. I was the Designated Driver, so that I wouldn't have to drink, so I was picking him up a little before 6:30 so that we could meet another friend for the Night Out. We started out at a craft beer bar so that we could see yet another of our friends, that had to be there for something. It turns out, that it was for a brewers meet up, for a brewfest that was a make up date form when Hurricane Matthew came through. He works as the taproom manager at my favorite brewery, so he had to be there as the host brewery. There were a ton of people there that I knew and hadn't seen in some time. They all had comments on my lack of beard, which was kind of funny, kind of annoying. We stayed there for a few beers, I had water, and then made our way to the beachside for the strip clubs, which was where I knew we would end up all along. The buddy of mine that I was the DD for, is a bit of a strip club aficionado.
We only made it to two clubs that night, there are 4 beachside, but they were fun. The first one, is a mix between trashy and not quite classy. I wasn't drinking and I wasn't spending any money other than what it cost to get in, so I was trying to stay somewhat invisible. I grabbed a seat at the bar, got a bottle of water, and watched the games that were on the TV's. The one thing that always attracted the dancers to me, was the beard, and without that, it was kind of easy to keep up the invisibility. It wasn't perfect, but it kept me from a lot of women coming over and trying to get me to get a dance from them. It took a couple of hours before they noticed me, but once they did, my hide and seek efforts were over. I have never had so many women grab my crotch in my life. That is why this place is between trashy and, oh you get the picture. The rules are a bit shady there. The dancers can pretty much do what they want, but the men have to behave as gentlemen. Ok, gentlemen is a bit of a stretch, but they do have to keep their hands with in reason, to themselves. I'm not grabby, so the dancers usually take my hands and put them all over the place. I'm just not comfortable grabbing like that. I felt bad telling the ladies that I couldn't get a dance from them, but they understood, and went of their merry way as soon as I did, but they really worked it until I did tell them.
It got to around 11 o'clock at night, and the cigarette smoke was getting to me. I was starting to cough real bad, and my throat was sore, so I managed to convince my buddy that we needed to move on, so it was off to the next club, and I got to get a little fresh air on the way there. This second place was in the class range. As a matter of fact, it was almost too nice. I didn't like it as much. Too much polish if you will. The ladies were all beautiful, with no flaws, and even the crowd looked better. It was mostly young college guys that were all dancing with each other, which I thought was really weird considering that they were in a strip club. The bartender was very nice, and kept giving me water, which helped my thrust a bit, but It was getting worse the longer I was in these smokey clubs. I made sure to tip her when we left, cause I felt bad for only getting water. Normally I would be drinking, and the alcohol would numb my throat so I wouldn't be as affected by the smoke, and I wouldn't be coughing all over the place. It was getting close to last call, and although my buddy would tell you that he wasn't drunk, he was hammered. It was time to call it a night. I got him home safely, and then I got home at 2:30 which meant that if I was going to get up in time to do a sunrise ride, i wasn't going to get much sleep at all.
I choose to sleep instead. Even though I didn't drink, I still ended up with a headache when I woke up, because of all the loud music, and a cough from all the smoke. The good thing though, si that I wasn't all out of sorts, like a usually am. Today was going to be the day, that I ask out my bartender. Let's get into that, shall we. I didn't really do anything all day, except cook meals. It was really relaxing, I did order a couple of things for Saki, some swingers spools, and new anodized red valve stem caps for the tires. The spools are red too. Ok ok, I'll get to the night time which is when some fun and a little sadness happened. I got dressed after a shower and shave I left a little on my chin, in the way that I used to. It's a true goatee. No mustache only the chin. I looked pretty good if I do say so. I had on jeans some zip up brown combat boots, and a beige long sleeve sweater type of thing. It was very thin material, It wouldn't be much good in the cold. I also had my glasses on instead of contacts. I got in the car to drive there, i couldn't take Saki, because I was going to have a few drinks, and while I was driving there, I had a panic attack. Everything part of my buddy was telling me that I need to turn around, this is a horrible idea, you are only going to fail, and there is going to be a bunch of people there to witness you going down in flames. I have these attacks all the time. Well, not quite like that, but in the ballpark. This one was pretty bad, but I worked my way through it, and there weren't a lot of people there. This is where it gets interesting. I walked in, and the manager looked directly at me, said hello, and walked away. That shouldn't be abnormal, but it was the way she said hello. I could tell that she had no idea who I was. The chair at the bar I normally sit in was open, so I took a seat. They always have two bartenders, and a new bartender served me when I got there. I don't get my normal tall glass, which was fine. One of the servers I know walked by, and looked at me, and seemed to have an inkling that I was someone familiar, but let it pass. My bartender who was standing at the other end of the bar, didn't even direct an eye my way, when she finally came up to where I was to throw something away, she smiled at me awkwardly, and looked away. I of course smile back, but still said nothing to anyone other than the young woman that served me. There were three other patrons at the bar that know me, and we have had rather in depth conversations with one another. No recognition.
I started taking notes on my phone so that I would remember it. This is what I wrote. Sitting in anonymity in a place where everyone knows you, is kind of a fun experience. How long will it take? Will it be when I pay my bill, before, later, maybe days? Interesting questions.
Maybe it all seems fitting I should just have my last drink, forget about ever asking my bartender out, and just call it an end of an era, and a closing to that part of my life. Enter like a lion, and leave like a lamb. Only a whisper speaks my name as I say goodbye to alcohol.
I've been found out. It took a half hour.
Yep, it took them a full half hour before anyone recognized me. That only happened because the manager was behind the bar, and saw that my glass was empty and asked if I wanted another cocktail. I said yes, and she asked what I was having. That was more proof that she didn't know who I was. Everyone there, knows exactly what I drink. They don't even ask when I walk in, they just hand it to me. I told her I was having a Jack & Coke, and she took my glass, and began to pour. That was when she audibly said, "Hey! Oh my god. Bob, were you going to say anything?" I told her no, I was keeping my mouth shut until someone figured it out. Everyone that knew me in there, began losing their minds. I could see them look at me once she said who I was, and then they had to look harder at me to believe it. The one server came to the drop off window, and said she knew something was familiar about me, but didn't know what it was. My bartender still didn't know what was going on, when the manager asked her if she knew. She said no, and then looked at me again to figure out what they were talking about, and I could see her face change as she recognized me finally. It was shock mixed with something else. I wasn't sure how to take it.
That did not boost my confidence by the way. The odd look I got, brought every thought from the panic attack back. You could see in my notes, that I was already backing out on what I wanted to do. Any reason to not do it, seemed like a good one. It was about this time, that I got the real good reason. She walked up to me and said that she wasn't feeling well, and she was tired. I asked her what was wrong, and that I thought she seemed a little off. That is normally something you don't say to a woman, unless you have prior knowledge from them that they are indeed off. I won't go into why she wasn't feeling well, but let's just say, that asking her out at that time, would have been a very bad idea, and this isn't just me justifying my cowardice, it was a legitimate no fly zone. I did find out information that will help me out moving forward though. I now know her work schedule (that doesn't sound stalkerish at all), so I can plan accordingly when I do ask her out, and I will do it, eventually. This of course means, that i'm not quite done with drinking yet, but I am going to highly regulate it. No more 5 and more nights. I will limit myself to two whenever I go out, and that will be it. I think this its a good thing, It's not cold turkey, but it's a start.
On to this morning. I woke up with the alarm, and hit snooze as many times as I could. I checked the night before for what time the sun would rise, so I knew when I had to actually be up and on the move. I made it, and here are the other shots. Like I said, the one above, is my favorite. None came out the way I described as what I saw in my head, but that one came the closest.
This was the location that I wanted that glow that is on the top one, but it just didn't happen here. The other building sits right next to this one, but for some reason, I got that fire on the tank look that I wanted. I knew they wouldn't come out the way that I wanted, but I'm happy with what I did get. I did see an opportunity for a better shot at the top photo location. I'll give it a try some other time and see if it works out the way I see it in my head. When and if I get that shot, I'll share it here first. I do plan on putting that to one on Instagram tomorrow. It won't be picture of the day, although I toyed with the idea today, but it will go up about an hour after picture of the day. If you follow me there, you probably have an idea when I post everything.
Well, that's all for tonight. Peace in and goodnight.
Thursday, November 3, 2016
Let's Just Call This One The Kitchen Sink.
It's amazing, how many people saw me for a couple of days, before they realized that I shaved my beard off. It just goes to show you, that people will look at you, but they don't really see you. How often have you made a drastic change, and found that very few people actually noticed it? As you know, I didn't get rid of the beard for attention, because this was all part of a plan that I made back in January. I don't do things to get noticed, quite the contrary really. I do things not to get noticed. Getting rid of the beard, even though it was planned, was also part of becoming faceless again. That beard got me attention, not all good, and not all bad, but it got attention, and I'm kind of over it. I guess it worked, since they didn't seem to notice it was gone for two days. Even my ukulele teacher had to pause and ask me what was different about me.
On to other matters of importance or non-importance, it all depends on how you look at it. I was reminded today, when I was listening to Greg Proops podcast, of The Scottish Play. One passage in particular. Oh, if you don't know what The Scottish Play is, you should look it up, because I'm not going to name it here. It is cursed after all. Anyway, it was written by Shakespeare, and the passage in particular was when the witches were around their cauldron making a charm. He read it to the crowd, because it was his Halloween show for them, and what is more Halloween than that. It is perfection i writing, and yes that is my opinion and fact is left up to you. I say it's left up to you, because I'm going to share it with you right here, so that you can read it for yourself. I think it's an incredible piece of writing, and let's face it, Halloween needs to be a bit of a longer holiday anyway, so why not stretch it out in prose.
I'm off again tomorrow, which means I will get plenty of rest of Guys Night Out. I have already set it up, that I'm going to be the designated driver, so drinking is off the table for Friday night. I haven't fully committed to quitting drinking yet, but I'm in the ballpark of it. I guess it will all come down to whether or not, I can build up the nerve to ask out my bartender on Saturday night. If I chicken out again, I have to have a reason to go back in there, until I do get the nerve, and the only reason I can think of, is to drink, which keeps putting me in that catch 22 of trying to use liquid courage and then going to far, and not wanting to make a fool of myself. Wow, this post has really gone all over the place hasn't it?
I do plan on riding Saturday morning, and I'm hoping to get those early morning shots of Saki to share with you. If I can get the right look, I'm imagining some pretty interesting looking shots. What I see in my head, is incredible, but that is often the case. My imagination has that easy ability of running wild, which leaves me stuck in reality and a bit disappointed. That is part of the reason that I stopped drawing as much. I couldn't manage to get what was in my head, on the paper. It is much easier with writing for me. I can always write what is in my head. Here is an example for what I see for the early morning shots of Saki. The mornings light broke the horizon over my shoulder. Saki was leaning on it's stand next to a small hut like building with "Harvey Groves" and an arrow pointing directly at Saki, painted on the side. Saki's headlights beamed off into the distance leaving a beam of light to cut the darkness. The sun's early morning orange hue began to cascade over Saki, bathing it in that amber light. It's bringing out feint tinges of color gleaming on the tank, making the red on Saki to burn with fire. Saki is standing as a modern marvel next to the rundown old hut, it's the classic example of yesterday meeting today.
That's a pretty good image right. That is the reason I will end up disappointed in what pictures I actually get. They can't possibly come out like that. This is how I torture myself. It is also why I can't seem to get the nerve up to ask out my bartender. It's the same thing. I have everything run through my head. I see me asking her, I see her accepting, I also see her not accepting. I see the date. I see me walking out feeling dejected. All of this runs through my mind, and is the ultimate, point/counterpoint. I talk myself into it, and then talk myself right out of it. It's annoying, and the reason why I say that I have to stop being myself. If I get out of my own head, I can do this, but I haven't managed to do that yet.
I was going to save this for Favorite Song of the Week on Tuesday, but I couldn't wait. I found this band a little over a year ago, and they have been around for some time. They are more Youtube famous than musically famous because of a video they did a few years ago, called 5 People 1 Guitar. They played Gotye's "Somebody That I Used To Know". All the members of the band on one guitar, and they played all the parts. When you get the change look it up, because that isn't the video I'm going to play for you tonight. Tonight is only one member of the band and she is accompanying herself with a ukulele and a bunch of pedals. It's a cover of a Keith Urban song called "Blue Ain't Your Color". So this is Sarah Blackwood of Walk Off The Earth.
Pretty good right? I think I will dedicate the next few weeks to Walk Off The Earth. They have some pretty impressive videos and songs. For now though, peace in and goodnight.
On to other matters of importance or non-importance, it all depends on how you look at it. I was reminded today, when I was listening to Greg Proops podcast, of The Scottish Play. One passage in particular. Oh, if you don't know what The Scottish Play is, you should look it up, because I'm not going to name it here. It is cursed after all. Anyway, it was written by Shakespeare, and the passage in particular was when the witches were around their cauldron making a charm. He read it to the crowd, because it was his Halloween show for them, and what is more Halloween than that. It is perfection i writing, and yes that is my opinion and fact is left up to you. I say it's left up to you, because I'm going to share it with you right here, so that you can read it for yourself. I think it's an incredible piece of writing, and let's face it, Halloween needs to be a bit of a longer holiday anyway, so why not stretch it out in prose.
"SCENE I. A cavern. In the middle, a boiling cauldron.
Thunder. Enter the three WitchesFirst Witch
Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd.Second Witch
Thrice and once the hedge-pig whined.Third Witch
Harpier cries 'Tis time, 'tis time.First Witch
Round about the cauldron go;ALL
In the poison'd entrails throw.
Toad, that under cold stone
Days and nights has thirty-one
Swelter'd venom sleeping got,
Boil thou first i' the charmed pot.
Double, double toil and trouble;Second Witch
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.
Fillet of a fenny snake,ALL
In the cauldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg and owlet's wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
Double, double toil and trouble;Third Witch
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf,ALL
Witches' mummy, maw and gulf
Of the ravin'd salt-sea shark,
Root of hemlock digg'd i' the dark,
Liver of blaspheming Jew,
Gall of goat, and slips of yew
Silver'd in the moon's eclipse,
Nose of Turk and Tartar's lips,
Finger of birth-strangled babe
Ditch-deliver'd by a drab,
Make the gruel thick and slab:
Add thereto a tiger's chaudron,
For the ingredients of our cauldron.
Double, double toil and trouble;Second Witch
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
Cool it with a baboon's blood,I hope that you enjoyed reading that as much as I had hearing it today, and then reading it again tonight before posting it here. Heh, maybe I'll share a little Edgar Allen Poe on Sunday. Anyway, the point I am getting at with this, is, that as I sat listening to that today, i wondered if I could ever write anything as good as that. I really don't know if I can, or if I do, I don't think it could ever be as memorable. I know this screams in the face of something I wrote a few weeks back, at how much I pride myself in my writing, but I have my doubts at times, and this is one of those times. When you put your work up against a master, you are often humbled in their presence.
Then the charm is firm and good."
I'm off again tomorrow, which means I will get plenty of rest of Guys Night Out. I have already set it up, that I'm going to be the designated driver, so drinking is off the table for Friday night. I haven't fully committed to quitting drinking yet, but I'm in the ballpark of it. I guess it will all come down to whether or not, I can build up the nerve to ask out my bartender on Saturday night. If I chicken out again, I have to have a reason to go back in there, until I do get the nerve, and the only reason I can think of, is to drink, which keeps putting me in that catch 22 of trying to use liquid courage and then going to far, and not wanting to make a fool of myself. Wow, this post has really gone all over the place hasn't it?
I do plan on riding Saturday morning, and I'm hoping to get those early morning shots of Saki to share with you. If I can get the right look, I'm imagining some pretty interesting looking shots. What I see in my head, is incredible, but that is often the case. My imagination has that easy ability of running wild, which leaves me stuck in reality and a bit disappointed. That is part of the reason that I stopped drawing as much. I couldn't manage to get what was in my head, on the paper. It is much easier with writing for me. I can always write what is in my head. Here is an example for what I see for the early morning shots of Saki. The mornings light broke the horizon over my shoulder. Saki was leaning on it's stand next to a small hut like building with "Harvey Groves" and an arrow pointing directly at Saki, painted on the side. Saki's headlights beamed off into the distance leaving a beam of light to cut the darkness. The sun's early morning orange hue began to cascade over Saki, bathing it in that amber light. It's bringing out feint tinges of color gleaming on the tank, making the red on Saki to burn with fire. Saki is standing as a modern marvel next to the rundown old hut, it's the classic example of yesterday meeting today.
That's a pretty good image right. That is the reason I will end up disappointed in what pictures I actually get. They can't possibly come out like that. This is how I torture myself. It is also why I can't seem to get the nerve up to ask out my bartender. It's the same thing. I have everything run through my head. I see me asking her, I see her accepting, I also see her not accepting. I see the date. I see me walking out feeling dejected. All of this runs through my mind, and is the ultimate, point/counterpoint. I talk myself into it, and then talk myself right out of it. It's annoying, and the reason why I say that I have to stop being myself. If I get out of my own head, I can do this, but I haven't managed to do that yet.
I was going to save this for Favorite Song of the Week on Tuesday, but I couldn't wait. I found this band a little over a year ago, and they have been around for some time. They are more Youtube famous than musically famous because of a video they did a few years ago, called 5 People 1 Guitar. They played Gotye's "Somebody That I Used To Know". All the members of the band on one guitar, and they played all the parts. When you get the change look it up, because that isn't the video I'm going to play for you tonight. Tonight is only one member of the band and she is accompanying herself with a ukulele and a bunch of pedals. It's a cover of a Keith Urban song called "Blue Ain't Your Color". So this is Sarah Blackwood of Walk Off The Earth.
Pretty good right? I think I will dedicate the next few weeks to Walk Off The Earth. They have some pretty impressive videos and songs. For now though, peace in and goodnight.
Tuesday, November 1, 2016
Time For A Change
Back on January 1st, I made a plan for the year, not a New Year resolution, but a plan. Most of what I wanted to accomplish I have, but I knew I would always fall a bit short, because I set some pretty high goals for myself. Today, marked the day for one of the biggest changes, and was planned from that very 1st day of the year. The beard is no more. I have never been one to hold on to a certain look for myself. I have always found some way to change up my appearance, and shaving the beard falls along those lines. My senior year of high school, I changed my hair style every week for the first semester. It was easy to do back then. I started with 2 and a half feet of hair. I was able to cut different levels of hair off and create new styles as I went. It also taught me how to cut my own hair. I saved a lot of money on hair cuts back then. I guess I still save a lot now, but for a totally different reason.
Change is a good thing. Even though I have stated many times that I don't like change, I'm only lying to myself. I thrive in change. I always have. Change brings new and exciting things out of people. Change makes you look at the world in a different way. Change helps us evolve and become better people. If you think that things were better in the past, you need to really take a look around and truly see the world for how great it has become. Sure there are problems, but we are better equipped to deal with those problems, and we will get better with every new experience.
There is one other change that I have been thinking about. This one isn't part of my plan for the year. It is something that I have been thinking about off and on though, for the better part of this year. This new change would be me, not drinking anymore. It isn't for any reason other than, better over all health. I don't need to stop drinking. I don't believe I have a problem with drinking, although I will joke from time to time that I'm an alcoholic, and maybe I am by definition, because I have more than 6 drinks a week. They just happen to be all at once. I guess you can say, that I am the classic binge drinking alcoholic. I do believe that I can quit whenever I want to, and just have seen no reason to until this point. I know what you are saying,"that is then classic thing that every alcoholic says.". This is true, but they never say this next part. I've been giving it thought lately, about what kind of drunk that I am. Today, it came up in my thought process, because when I was listening to the Howard Stern Show today, Howard mentioned that someone once said, that you are your true self when you are drunk. If that is the case, I don't think I am any different drunk, than I am when I'm sober. Yes, I may do a few more adventurous things, but I believe that if I were put in those same situations but sober, I would do exactly the same things. It's all about context. Since I don't think I am any different, than why am I even drinking? It's entirely social for me. I drink to be around other people, and here is the kicker, I don't need to drink to do that. The question I need to ask myself is, do you benefit in any way from drinking alcohol? The answer would be, no. I don't see any benefits from it.
I should get a chance to test this this weekend. I'm going out with a bunch of guys for a "Guys Night Out". That would usually entail, drinking and more than likely, ending up at a strip club. I'm not going to drink. I'm going to offer up myself as the designated driver, and go from there. I know that some of my friends will try to get me to drink something, but I'm not going to do it. It should be a fun little experiment, not only from a will power aspect, but from a social aspect as well. How will the treat me, when they realize that I'm not going to get drunk with them? I'll let you all know the conclusion to its all.
"What about your bartender?" Ahh, a very good question, and one that I have an answer to. Sticking with the plan for the year theme, I have a plan. The night that I ask her out, and it could be this Saturday, I'm going to have her serve me my last drink. That way, win, lose, or draw, I have an excuse not to go back in there again. She says yes, I can go in for dinner from time to time, I'll just get tea or a soda with my meal. She says no, I don't have to go back in again, and save us both that awkwardness of seeing each other after I made it weird. Pretty good plan right? I'll let you know about the conclusion of that as well.
This brings us to Favorite Song of the Week. It's from an artist I have picked as FSOTW before. It's a new version of a new song, and it's pretty darn good. The video features her very odd sense of humor, which is another reason why I like her so much, beyond just her singing and songwriting talent. The artist is none other than Danielle Ate the Sandwich, and the song is "Just Human". I really hope that you enjoy it. It's one of those songs, that brings a smile to your face.
Peace in and goodnight.
Change is a good thing. Even though I have stated many times that I don't like change, I'm only lying to myself. I thrive in change. I always have. Change brings new and exciting things out of people. Change makes you look at the world in a different way. Change helps us evolve and become better people. If you think that things were better in the past, you need to really take a look around and truly see the world for how great it has become. Sure there are problems, but we are better equipped to deal with those problems, and we will get better with every new experience.
There is one other change that I have been thinking about. This one isn't part of my plan for the year. It is something that I have been thinking about off and on though, for the better part of this year. This new change would be me, not drinking anymore. It isn't for any reason other than, better over all health. I don't need to stop drinking. I don't believe I have a problem with drinking, although I will joke from time to time that I'm an alcoholic, and maybe I am by definition, because I have more than 6 drinks a week. They just happen to be all at once. I guess you can say, that I am the classic binge drinking alcoholic. I do believe that I can quit whenever I want to, and just have seen no reason to until this point. I know what you are saying,"that is then classic thing that every alcoholic says.". This is true, but they never say this next part. I've been giving it thought lately, about what kind of drunk that I am. Today, it came up in my thought process, because when I was listening to the Howard Stern Show today, Howard mentioned that someone once said, that you are your true self when you are drunk. If that is the case, I don't think I am any different drunk, than I am when I'm sober. Yes, I may do a few more adventurous things, but I believe that if I were put in those same situations but sober, I would do exactly the same things. It's all about context. Since I don't think I am any different, than why am I even drinking? It's entirely social for me. I drink to be around other people, and here is the kicker, I don't need to drink to do that. The question I need to ask myself is, do you benefit in any way from drinking alcohol? The answer would be, no. I don't see any benefits from it.
I should get a chance to test this this weekend. I'm going out with a bunch of guys for a "Guys Night Out". That would usually entail, drinking and more than likely, ending up at a strip club. I'm not going to drink. I'm going to offer up myself as the designated driver, and go from there. I know that some of my friends will try to get me to drink something, but I'm not going to do it. It should be a fun little experiment, not only from a will power aspect, but from a social aspect as well. How will the treat me, when they realize that I'm not going to get drunk with them? I'll let you all know the conclusion to its all.
"What about your bartender?" Ahh, a very good question, and one that I have an answer to. Sticking with the plan for the year theme, I have a plan. The night that I ask her out, and it could be this Saturday, I'm going to have her serve me my last drink. That way, win, lose, or draw, I have an excuse not to go back in there again. She says yes, I can go in for dinner from time to time, I'll just get tea or a soda with my meal. She says no, I don't have to go back in again, and save us both that awkwardness of seeing each other after I made it weird. Pretty good plan right? I'll let you know about the conclusion of that as well.
This brings us to Favorite Song of the Week. It's from an artist I have picked as FSOTW before. It's a new version of a new song, and it's pretty darn good. The video features her very odd sense of humor, which is another reason why I like her so much, beyond just her singing and songwriting talent. The artist is none other than Danielle Ate the Sandwich, and the song is "Just Human". I really hope that you enjoy it. It's one of those songs, that brings a smile to your face.
Peace in and goodnight.
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