Let's Call This A Photo Blog.

     The season finale of The Walking Dead was on tonight, so this is getting started a bit later than usual. I think I might do something a bit different tonight, since time is running short on me. I have a lot of pictures to share with you about this weekend. Starting with Friday, when I cleaned and detailed Saki. By the way, Saki now has a full name, which is Saki the Kawasexy Ninja 650. It will still be Saki for short, but now Saki has a title to go with just the simple name. Anyway, I took a couple of pictures of the set up I do for washing Saki, and then what Saki looked like after. In that picture I recreated the Melvin & Saki picture I took some time ago. This gets us to Saturday when I went to the Dali Museum with a very good friend of mine, that had never been. I didn't take any pictures of the artwork, but I got a few of the building itself, the garden, and the boat docks that are across the street from it. I also got a couple of shots of a beautiful Bentley that was sitting in front of the Dali. After that, we made are way to the Chihuly Collection, and I did get a couple of shots of the artwork there. We also got to partake in a glassblowing demo that takes place on the weekends the is connected to the Chihuly Collection. It was quite fantastic. I do have something to say after the pictures, but the rest of this, for the most part, is going to be a photo blog. Enjoy.

Saki ready to wash. Rear tire stand in place, with the windshield
removed to get to those hard to reach places.

Saki after cleaning, detailing, and drying. You can
see the towels and cardboard on the floor
to collet the lube from lubing up the chain.

Melvin & Saki ver.2.0

The Dali Museum.

The Harbor.

The Fountain.

Me being artsy in front of the Glass at the
Mahaffey Theater

The Dali from the Mahaffey Theater.

That beautiful Bentley from the side.

That beautiful Bentley from the front.

One of the beautiful glassblown sculptures by
Dale Chihuly.

 I couldn't get the whole thing in from this angle,
but this is my favorite piece by Chihuly.

This is the angle I think you should look at
this piece from.

     The last thing I wanted to talk about was the concert I have coming up. Quite some time ago, I bought tickets to go see Panic! At The Disco at the Amway Center on the 14th of this month. I would normally have started asking people a couple of months ago to see if anyone wanted to go, but this time I forgot. I asked around today, and had absolutely non luck, so I'm putting this out there. If you live in the Orlando, Florida area and would like to go see P!ATD, get in touch with me. I have an extra ticket, and it will go to the first person who wants it. I'm asking for no payment, just someone to go see a fun show with. If you don't have any contact information for me, there is an email address at the top of this blog that you can get in touch with me with. Peace in and goodnight.

Gaius and Lucinda.

     My life ended the moment I laid eyes on her, and I was reborn like a phoenix from the ashes of what was my life. Her very essence gave me life. Her features were light and airy. Flaxen hair and porcelain skin. Her cheeks pink, like the pedals of an azalea. The eyes, the eyes were the daggers that struck me down. Ice blue that penetrated my very soul.

     She giggled and flipped her hair back over her shoulder. It was about this time that I realized that I hadn't taken a breath since she walked in the room. I took a deep breath and collected myself. I walked over and introduced myself. "Hello, my name is Gaius. How are you?". I somehow managed to do it without stammering. 

     She spoke with a southern twang in her voice. "Why hello yourself Gaius. I'm doing right well. It looked like you were catching flies over there with your mouth propped open."

     I went with honesty. "I'd never seen anyone as beautiful as you."

     "You sure now how to make a girl blush, dont'cha.". Sure enough, her cheeks began to brighten. 'You're a charmer aren't you Gaius?" 

     "I I'm sorry. I dddddidn't mean to embarrass you." And the stammering began. My life was ending again, but this time it would be for good.

     "Don't you worry none. My momma always said, that if a compliment don't put a little fire in your cheeks, then it wasn't a compliment." She smiled the brightest smile that I'd ever seen. I got lost in her, and knew that I was in love. "Looks like your cheeks are gettin' a bit rosy yourself there." They were, I could feel my face flush, hot with blood. I started getting a little woozy, and leaned against a table.

     "Can I help you with anything?" I had to collect myself again, and getting to my job seemed like the best way possible. 

     "I bet you can. I'm looking for a book on Greek and Roman Gods."

      "The Greek Gods are a favorite of mine. I have a few books over here. Are you looking for any particular God, Miss? The only answer I was really hoping for, was her name.

     "Oh, I'm sorry dear, I didn't tell you my name earlier. I'm Lucinda, and I'm looking for anything you might have on Selene." Her name was as beautiful as she was, and the way it sounded coming from her lips would have made Apollo himself envy the musical quality her voice held.

     "Selene is the Titan God of the moon. That is a rather unusual choice. I think I have one book that might have Selene in it, but I'm sure it will only be a brief mention. What do you need it for?"

     "I'm writing a book about vampires, and I'd read a few things that say that she may have been the God of Vampires."

     "Well, she wasn't the God of Vampires, she was considered the Mother of Vampires. I know a little about it, but that is all."

     "Oh, can you tell me what you know? I'd love to hear it. It might help me out." I couldn't resist her, and on top of that, I didn't want her to leave.

     "Ok, this is everything I know. This story doesn't have her as a Titan, she is a normal mortal woman, whose sister was believed to be the Oracle of Temple of Apollo in Delphi. She would assist her sister and take care of her needs. She was a worshipper of Apollo until the Sun God cursed her true love Ambrogio."

     "This is good, I've never heard any of this." Keep going, I'm sorry for buttin' in on ya."

     "Selene and Ambrogio were given sanctuary by the Moon Goddess Artemis at Ephesus, but there was one stipulation, they could never touch. The curse on Ambrogio made him immortal, and Selene aged where he didn't. As she grew older, she eventually came to her death, but before she died, Artemis granted Ambrogio permission to drink Selene's blood. The combined blood of the two lovers could create their children. Any human that drank of the blood from Ambrogio would make them vampires. When Selene died, Artemis made her an immortal Goddess of the moon, and she became Selene the Moonlight Goddess. She was the personification of moonlight as it found it's way to the Earth and touched Ambrogio and all their children of the night."

     "That is both fantastic and beautiful. I really think I can use that, as a matter of fact, I think I just found a way to change the whole story around, and lead it off of that little story there. Thank you so much, you have no idea how much you helped me." She turned to walk out the door. I needed to act fast.

     "Wait, I can look for other books that might have more. If you like, I could give you a call when they come it?" Smooth Gaius. Get the number, but what are you going to do after that? You know that there aren't any books out there on Selene, she is a minor Goddess at best

     "That would be great. Do you have a pen and paper?"

     I quickly went back to my desk and got a notepad and pen. I needed to find another excuse to call her. I couldn't just call out of the blue with nothing for her. She took the pad and wrote her number down. She tore the paper out and handed it to me with the pen clipped to it.

     "By the way, you can call me any time you want for any reason. It don't just have to be about a book. I have to run off now, You have a wonderful day Gaius." She turned and walked out the door. I watched as she passed by the front window, she looked in and gave a little wave. I think I waved back, but I wasn't sure that I was moving, or even able to move. I stood there for a few moments, replaying what had just happened in my head. When I could finally move I lifted my hand with the paper and pen in it. I unclipped the pen and unfolded the paper. There it was 'Lucinda 213-145-7878. It was plain as day. That woozy feeling came over me again, and this time I needed to sit down.

***

     These are the types of things that run through my head from time to time at work. I decided to share this one with you. I hope you enjoyed it. Peace in and goodnight.

     

Red, Purple, Hall & Oates.

     I have a few pictures for you tonight. First up, is Saki of course. I said that I would have pictures that showed off the Custom Taylor 33 rim tape a little better. These show off just how bright the reflect light when it is dark. They were taken in the garage at night, with very little light present, except for the flash of my camera.

You can see how all the reflective parts are reflecting quite well. The red really pops at night, and that was the ultimate goal. the little bonus is how great the wheels look now.

     This next picture is the one of the necklace that I bought at the Pow Wow. I've only gotten the chance to wear it once so far, but it will get plenty of neck time in the future. I mentioned before that this is a representation of the stature called "End of the Trail". I got this for a couple of different reasons. The first being that it was the only one of it's kind that I saw, and the other is that I am a freak for purple. I know, by looking at Saki, you would think that I love the color red, but that isn't so. Purple is my favorite color, and that little purple stone in the center of that pendant drew my attention. For some reason, I couldn't get a real good shot of it, It is a bit blurry and the purple doesn't pop as much as it does in person, but I really like it, and that is all that matters.

     Let's talk a little about the future. I'm heading to the Dali this weekend for one last look at the Frida Kahlo exhibit. I'm also taking my friend that I went to the Pow Wow with. She has never been to the Dali, so this is going to be a real fun trip for me. I love exposing people to that place. It truly is a wonder. I will get some pictures of it for Sundays post. They allow some photography in the galleries, but I will reserve all my photos for the outside areas. Trust me, they are marvelous as well. The architecture is as if Dali had designed the building himself. There are several things to take pictures of in the garden outside the back of the museum, and you will see it right her on Sunday night, or I'm guessing that you will be reading it some time on Monday. I really need to figure out if I can change the timing of the email subscription delivery.

     I haven't really decided which weekend I will take my ride to the Navy SEAL museum yet. It will either be on April 8 or April 15. The month of April is becoming increasingly busy out of nowhere. I finally got a recall notice for my car to get the airbags switched on it. My car is one of the ones affected by the massive Honda airbag recall, and I finally got the official notice to take my car in. I just have to find the right Saturday to do that. So I will be doing that on one of those Saturdays and the other will be the ride to the museum. Speaking of that ride. I have started doing my research on motovlogging equipment. You need more than just a GoPro to do it right. You also need a good mic and battery pack options. I do have my power bank, which I will probably put to some use, but I'm sure that I'm going to need more than just that. Also, I was thinking of getting another helmet, that would just be used for that. That way, I wouldn't have to take the camera mounts and microphones out of the helmet when I went to work. See, this is how the price piles up on you. That is far off in the future though.

     Today on the Howard Stern Wrap Up Show, they had a special guest come in, and he was part of a very big music group from, let's say 80's. Although their careers have spanned several decades, and you could argue that they had just as big of hits in the 70's as then 80's. The guest was none other than John Oates, of Hall & Oates. Him showing up on that show, led me to listening to a little Hall & Oates after I was finished with that show, and a podcast. Listening to them brought me to this weeks Favorite Song of the Week. If you guessed that it is going to be a song by Hall & Oates, you would be correct, but I think you're going to be surprised by the choice. I love a lot of their songs, but there is one that stands out to me, and it was off of the album Big Bang Boom. This was a defining album of me, because I listened to it constantly. This song, although not the biggest hit on the album, it was my favorite song from it, and I'd like to share it with you now. This is Hall & Oates with "Method of Modern Love".

I've never been asked this, but if I was ever asked the question, If you could have anybodies singing voice, whose would you choose? The plain and simple answer, is Daryl Hall. Wait? Haven't you talked about how much you love Freddie Mercury? Why not his? I have an answer for that as well. Freddie is a god to me. I believe that he was sent here from the ether to entertain us, and he was taken before we could find out the secret that he was a god. Striving for those lofty heights are just not in the cards. Daryl though, is a man, with the voice of a god, and that is a height I can strive for. He sings with such little effort, that it's like he was born to do it, and if he chose any other path in life, he would have eventually  been brought to the path of a singer. That is my opinion, and I thin it's a pretty fair one. If you need any more convincing, just look up Sara Smiles, you won't regret it.

     That is about all I have for tonight. After punish you on Sunday with such a long post, I felt it was only fitting to keep this one short. Peace in and goodnight.

Get Ready, This One Is Long.

     We  have a lot to discuss tonight, but I have to start out with an apology. I said that I would post pictures and such to my Instagram story on Saturday when I went to the Pow Wow. I didn't, and there is a very good reason why. When we arrived, it just didn't feel right to photograph or video what was going on. It became a very personal experience, and I became a little selfish and didn't want to share it with anyone other than the people that were there. I will however tell you about the day and what took place. We will get to that a little later. We have to go back to Friday and start at the beginning of the weekend for me.

     As I said, I spent the morning putting the new reflective rim tape on Saki. It took a little longer than I thought it would for a variety of reasons. I made the choice of taking the old rim tape off of Saki so that I could put the new tape on. That process was the most time consuming. I got the heat gun out, because I knew that heating it up, would loosen up the glue on the original tape. Well, it didn't work as well as I had hoped. The front tire wasn't that bad, but getting the strip started, was a pain. It would keep flaking and tearing when I would try to pull it. I wish I knew the reason why it did this, but I haven't got a clue. When I got towards the middle of the strip, it started to pull away pretty easy, and I got most of it off in one pull, but then I came to the other end, and it was like the start all over again.

     I started on the right side of the bike and worked my way around. Front to back and then back to front. The back tire now, that is a whole other story. The problem I had at the beginning of the right side front tire, were the entire back tire. It took me a good 20 minutes to get one side removed, and there was old sticky residue left everywhere. Both sides were the same. The left side had the bonus of having tons of grease from the chain all over it, so cleaning it took even more time.

     After about an hour, I finally had all the tape off of both tires. I went back to my original side of the front tire, and began cleaning it with rubbing alcohol. Real quick tip here. The directions called for cleaning it with rubbing alcohol, but I already knew about this. Rubbing alcohol is amazing for cleaning that last little bit of dirt off your bike The best part is, that it leaves no streaks behind or residue, because it dries so fast. After it was all clean, I was going to do each rim as I got to it, I began applying the new tape. It came in I'd say 8 in. curved sections. They are easy to put on, but you still need to slow things down and take your time, so that you get it on just right. The package said that there is enough strips for all four sides of the rims, with an extra strip left over. As I was looking at the single sheet of strips that they gave me, i was doubting that it was enough, but the package said so, so I was going to believe them. Worst case scenario is, I would have one side of the bike done, and have to order more.

     I got the first strip on, by placing it and removing it a few times to get it just right, Once I had it where I wanted it, I pressed it down real good, so that it would have it's final hold on it. With that done, I got the next strip ready. There is a small pattern on the tape, and I wanted to make sure that I lined the pattern up from strip to strip. I don't think that it would have made a difference in how it worked, but if you get up close to it, you would see it. I'm sure that you would really have to look, but I could see it, so other people could see it too. The front tire probably would have been easier to do, fi I had a front tire stand, but since I didn't, I had to reposition the bike in order to get the whole rim covered. It wasn't convenient but it worked.

      I changed me order a bit for putting the tape on. I did the entire front rim first. I was trusting the word of the packaging and throwing caution to the wind. There wold be enough tape, and that was that. For the left side, I had to put the kickstand on a block, so that the bike would stand up straight, otherwise I would have to do it with it leaning towards me. Once I was done with the front, I looked at the sheet again, and I had more than half of the strips left. I was going to make it.

     For the back tire. I propped the bike up with the rear tire stand, and that made life much easier. I didn't need to reposition the bike anymore, I could just spin the wheel. The cleaning process to much longer on the back, because of the left over glue residue from the old stickers, but I did get it all off. Form start to finish of this little, supposedly simple project, I would say that it took about an hour and 45 minutes. Much longer than I thought it would take, but well worth it. The finished product not only looks great at night, but it looks real good in the day. I have a day/night picture to show you what it looks like in both conditions.

Ok, so the night isn't really all that much night, it is more like dusk, and was taken at that lake that my tattoo artist told me about. I just missed the a good sunset, because I was there a little late, and clouds kind of ruined it as well, but you can see how well the reflective tape works. The picture makes it appear to look amber, but it is all red. I took a few pictures in the garage tonight, that really show how the red pops at night, but alas my phone is in low power mode, and it won't put those pictures in the cloud for me to draw from. I will post those shots on Tuesday night.

    I have one more picture from the lake to share with you. You can see a small sliver of the sun as it goes down. It doesn't show off the reflective nature of the new rim tape, because I didn't use the flash for this one, but I think it looks pretty good.

You get Saki, the lake, a little color from the sunset. What more could you ask for. I will get back there on a more clear day, and get a better picture of the sunset. This will do for now.

     I know that this is already getting long, and I haven't even gotten to the Pow Wow yet, but this ties into Saturday a bit. I was talking to the friend that I went to the Pow Wow with, and I was telling her some of my ideas and plans for this blog here. Theses plans just happen to involve Saki. The first one, and the easiest to implement, is that, I will travel on Saki to some place in the state, on the weekend to visit some sort of museum or historic landmark. I'm not sure how often this will happen. right now, I am thinking once a month for this. I already have the first destination picked out, and we were right next to it on Saturday. That would be the Navy SEAL Museum in Ft. Pierce. I will ride there in a couple of weeks, take pictures and then talk about everything that is happening there. I think this will be a good chance to learn a little bit about things in my own state was well as pass that information on to you. As it gets closer, I will let you know, which weekend it will be.

    The second idea is going to be a little more difficult, and a whole lot more expensive. In the end though, this will tie in with the first idea. I've been thinking for some time, about getting a GoPro to mount on Saki. The idea I have, I would instead have to mount it on my helmet, and get a whole set up for motovlogging. If I do this, I will record the ride there, and have commentary to go along with it. Instead of posting it on YouTube, I would post it as a feature on here for you to enjoy. I would give a little information about where I am going that day, and you would also see some of the ride there and back. I think It could be kind of fun, but that will be quite a ways off in the future. Let me know what you think.

     Finally to Saturday. We left my house around 10 in the morning, and made the drive about an hour or so to Ft. Pierce. Actually I think it was in Port St. Lucie, but they are right next to one another, so it isn't really that big of a difference. When we arrived, there weren't that many cars in the parking lot. It started at 10 in the morning, so it was already a little more than an hour into the day. It only cost $5 to get in. Oh, I guess I should explain little what this actually was. It was a cultural gathering of Native American Tribes. There are vendors that sell handmade crafts. They have anything from jewelry to hand made weapons, to bags, and many more items. They also have traditional dancing going on throughout the day. The dancers have elaborate outfits made of feathers, cloth, leather, animal hides, bone, and other items. It is truly amazing to see. This is where I came to the conclusion that I didn't want to share it. It seemed like sharing it, was taking something away from it, and I didn't want to do that.

     I am a person that has no Native American blood coursing through my body. Because of this, I tend to feel like an outsider when I am at these types of events. Also, because of that, I feel very privileged to get the opportunity to see these types of events. That is what makes it so personal for me. It becomes less of a viewing of something, and more of an experience within something. I start to feel closer to the Earth and I understand what they mean when they say that we don't own the land, the land was put here to provide for all of us. When I was in Gallup, New Mexico, and watched the dances there, I wept openly from the experience, and I began feeling that way again as I watched on Saturday. I don't think I can even explain why, you would have to go to a Pow Wow yourself to see. If you here of any in your area, please to it, and see all that it has to offer.

     I did buy a necklace while I was there. I forgot to take a picture of it, but I will have that for you On Tuesday as well. It is a small stainless steel replica of the famous statue "End of the Trail". It depicts a tired cowboy on a tired horse as he reaches his final destination. It has a small purple stone set in the center of it. It was the only one like it at this one vendor, and I have to tell you about her. As we walked up, she commented to my friend, how much she liked her look. She had a real cool look going, and got many compliments throughout the day on it. After she said that, she said, "You look like you keep yourself in great shape.". My friend is in fantastic shape. She is very lean and tall. "I bet you've never eaten a single french fry." I just laughed a little at that, because it was funny. then I realized she was talking to me. I looked her in a little shock and said, "What?" "You've never eaten a french fry have you?" I was thinking that this lady was blind or crazy or possibly both.  "I've had way too many of them. That's the problem." She looked at me, probably the way I looked at her before. "No way", she said. I got to tell you, even though it was probably all a lie, it gave me quite a big ego boost.

     We were there for a good 5 hours or so, and decided that it was time to head back. Before we did though, my friend wanted to hit the beach. Neither one of us, had placed our feet in the water in some time, so we made a course for the beach which just so happened to be next to the Navy SEAL Museum. I knew that it was pretty close to where we were, so I suggested that we head there. That is really what gave me the idea for that being the first location that I will visit. We got to the beach after some delay because of a car accident on the draw bridge that happens to be the only way over to the beachside in that area. We decide to go sans shoes so that we could simply walk down to the water and place our toes in. It was cold and refreshing, and reminded me of those years that I used to surf, just about every day. I miss those days a bit. I did manage to get a picture for you. I took a panoramic of the water.

That is a Florida day at the beach right there. Blue skies with light feathery clouds, cool water, and a sandy beach. That is the reason it is so hard for me to leave this area. I truly love that I live in a tropical paradise. Yes it is a tropical paradise, I don't care what you say.

     Anyway, I'm sure you patience is running thin at this point, and hoping that this will end soon. I have one last thing to talk about, and I'm going to make it as quick as possible. I decided to start on an Ultimate Garage Build Project. What that means is, that I'm fixing up my garage to better serve Saki. You didn't really think that this could possibly have nothing to do with Saki did you? I started with getting some lighting in there. I only had one small light in the doorway entrance to the garage, and that amounted to next to nothing when it came to lighting up the place. I went out and got two 4 ft. shop lights, and put them up today, and it looks amazing. I have a little power switch coming tomorrow, that will allow me to turn the lights on and off from my phone. Isn't technology great? Here is what the garage looked like before and after the lights.

Big difference right? I have some plans for this project. I have to clean it up a bit, and get rid of some things in there to make room for better things. One of which is going to be a portable air conditioner. That way, I will not only be able to work on Saki at night, I can do it in the steamiest of months of summer. Other things that might happen, are a media center, so that I can sit out there and watch TV with Saki. See, I think Saki gets lonely at times out there by itself. I mean, just look at how happy Saki is in that picture with the lights on. I basically got the idea for this on Thursday night, when I really wanted to put the new rim tape on, but I couldn't because I had no good source of light to do it with. Now, I can work from sundown to sunrise if I wanted to. I have no plans to do that, but I can do it if I want to now. I want to create an area that I can hang all my gear up out there, so it will all be in one place. Right now, Have my riding pants, helmets, and gloves in one room, and all my jackets in a closet in another room. When this is done, it will be my ultimate motorcycle garage. If you have any ideas on what to do for the garage, let me know. I'm open to all ideas.

     With that, I'm going to finally call it a night. Peace in and goodnight.

    

What Do You Do When A Psycho Is On Your Phone.

     You may have noticed, that there is a bit of a different look to the ol' Counterfeit Squirrel. I tweaked it bit, and I think this fits me a little more than the last one did. As much as I say, that I don't like change, the truth is, that I thrive in it, and find myself needing change quite often. The more surprising thing is, that I hadn't changed it before now. I change the lock and home screen on my phone quite often, because I get tired of looking at the same thing every day. I change my appearance for mainly the same reason. This is also why I will never be done with Saki. There will always be something that I can change in some way.

     Speaking of changing Saki's appearance. You probably noticed that I made no mention of the reflective rim tape the other day when I changed the levers. There is a very good reason for that.  I haven't put it on yet. Why haven't I put it on yet? That is the question of the day, and the answer is a simple one. I was waiting for something to arrive in the mail. Two small bolts. Those bolts are the solution to my problem with that ugly amber reflector on the forks. I found a video, and I wish that I could remember who the guy was that made it. Anyway, he was the person that made me aware of the two 6x30 bolts that I would need to clean up that front end and make it look not only good, but sharp. The reflector was easy to remove, but once I did, there was this long and ugly bolt there that served a double purpose. It not only held the reflector in place, but it also held the back of the front fender in place. I could have left it where it was, but it stuck out, and didn't look good. I don't have a picture of what it looked like, but I do have a before and after of the reflector, and you can see the difference in how good it looks.

     You can see in the top picture where the reflector is and how out of place it looks. The bottom is just a simple bolt, but that simple bolt cleans up that entire area. With that taken care of, I can now put the reflective rim tape on Saki. I'll be doing the tomorrow. Oh, did I mention that we are slow at work again, and I have tomorrow off? After I replaced the reflector with the bolts tonight, I cleaned up the rims good, so that I can get to work first thing in the morning on installing the rim tape. I do have one thing I have to decide though. If you look close in the picture, you can see the red lines that are already on the rims. That is a decal for looks. Here is what I have to decide. Do I take that off, or do I just put the new rim tape over top of it? The easy way out, is to just put it on top, but I think it will be better overall if I just remove the original tape and then put the new tape on. This is going to call for the help of my heat gun. I'm going to have to heat up the old tape in order to get it off cleanly. Then I'll have to go over it with alcohol to get any residue that is left behind from the tape. I was going to hit it with alcohol regardless, because that is the best way to make sure the area is truly clean. I'll figure it all out in the morning, and let you know on Sunday night.

     I have two more things to talk to you about before I call it a night. The first is just a reminder that I am going to a Pow Wow on Saturday, and that I'm going to try to have a running update on my Instagram story, so you can follow along here, but only if you have the app. The app is the only way to see the Instagram stories, and you have to follow me. Remember, I'm also going to try my best to save photos so that I can post them here. That way, if you don't have Instagram, you won't miss everything.

     Lastly, I have a slight situation. I haven't talked about this because it isn't my story to tell, but all of a sudden, I'm involved in it. A week or so ago, a family member of mine found themselves in a very sticky situation. A woman that he had been seeing, accused him of choking her, and had him arrested. This was all a lie, and he is now going through the process of getting it all taken care of. When he was taken away, she told the officers that she was living in his apartment, so he is currently not allowed in his own apartment. In the meantime, she completely trashed the place and did some pretty revolting things to it. He was fortunate enough to have some really good friends, that went over and cleaned the place and changed the locks for him. They were able to do this, because this woman bolted as soon as she was done. He has been pretty good about this, and blocked her number from his phone and is keeping her from contacting him. She did early on, and all of the things she texted him and all the messages are now with his lawyer. Now we get to the part about how I am involved. Since she can't contact him, she has managed to find out my home phone number, and has started calling my house, probably because she thinks he is here, because he can't go to his place. The called about a dozen times tonight from an unknown number and started leaving messages on my machine. Most of them were her acting like she was masturbating over the phone, and saying crude things, but one of them was her stating my address. Yep, she knowns where I live now.

     I blocked all anonymous calls from coming in on my phone, but that doesn't stop her from coming to my house and causing problems for me. My car is parked outside and vulnerable, and so is the outside of my house. Fortunately, she cannot get to Saki. I would be bummed about something happening to my car, but I have no idea what I would do, if something happened to Saki, because some nutcase decided that since she couldn't get at someone, she would go after me. I may have to look into getting a restraining order against her, My family member is already in the process of getting one to keep her away from him. From what I'm told, she has no form of transportation, unless she cons someone into driving her someplace, so I'm reasonably sure that my stuff is safe, but there is still a slim chance. If you have any advice for me, I am wide open to hear it. I'm going to play it by ear for now. With her no longer able to get through on my home phone, she might start acting desperate. We will see. If anything, this could lead to a good story for you. I'm looking at that as best of the worst case scenarios. Worst of course is, that she wigs out completely and guns me down. If that's the case, I won't be able to update you on that. I don't think it will come to that. Once again, she is a bit of a misfit and has no real way to get to my house.

     Oh, there was one other thing to tell you. The lake that I went looking for, to get a sunset shot of Saki at, is the one that I found on Sunday. I went and talked to my artist this evening and verified if that was the one that I found. It is, and I'm hoping to get a sunrise shot tomorrow evening, which will also highlight Saki's new reflective rim tape. On a side note, I showed him is handy work with the Carrie Fischer tattoo, and it loos incredible. It is still a little flaky, but is pretty much completely healed. There will be no touch ups needed. It looks fantastic. I'll see if I can get a good clean shot of that for you on Sunday as well. In the meantime, peace in and goodnight.

A Legend Swirls In The Ether.

     Charles Edward Anderson was born in St. Louis Missouri on October 18, 1926. With his birth the era of Rock & Roll began. You may know him better as Chuck Berry. He is and always will be, the epitome of Rock & Roll. His songs were a mixture of titivation, youth, and consumerism. With his iconic stance and showmanship, you had the blue print for everyone that followed him. He influenced so many great bands, from the likes of The Beatles, who when they played their first show in America,  played "Roll Over Beethoven" as their first song, to the Rolling Stones, with Mick Jagger's frontman skills definitely borrowed from Berry himself, to countless others.

     Chuck's life changed when he traveled to Chicago, and met Muddy Waters. Muddy told him about a gentleman by the name of Leonard Chess. He was a record executive that helped develop electric blues and rock & roll. Together they recorded "Maybellene". It was an adaptation of an old country song, and garnered Chuck Berry his first big hit. It sold over a million copies. He crossed over audiences with his mixture of Rock, R&B, and country music that appealed to white listeners.

     When you think of the 50's, I can almost guarantee that the song that runs through your head, is a Chuck Berry song, and I'm going to play that song right for you as Favorite Song of the Week. This particular song is the only Rock & Roll song on the Voyager Golden Records. If you don't know what that is, then I'm going to tell you. NASA sent a deep space probe up that has a record pressed in gold with many different sounds, images, languages, greetings, music and more. The music part of the records encompasses many different cultures, genres, and eras. This song represents rock & roll, and I can't think of a better song to do it with. This song was also featured in the movie Back to the Future, when Marty has to fill in for a guitarist with an injured hand. When you hear it, you will think the same as me. Here is Chuck Berry with "Johnny B. Goode"



     Now that is rock & roll. I was wrong about the title of this. It should me "A Legend Swirls In The Ether", because Chuck Berry doesn't swirl. Chuck Berry does his duck step leg kick across a stage and then plays his guitar with furious abandon. There may never be another like Chuck Berry. He not only had the stage persona of a rock god, but he helped create a genre of music that truly makes you feel something. He performed with an energy that many have tried to imitate, but few have mastered. Chuck was an original. Peace in and goodnight.

I Just Couldn't Wait.

     Saki had been sitting quietly in the garage all week. The first half of the week was too cold to ride into work, and the second half, I was dealing with my allergies. Friday came and I finally stopped sneezing long enough to take Saki out for a short ride to the bank.

     It felt good to get on and ride, even a short distance, when I got home I looked at the box with the new levers in it, and said what the heck, let's get those on. My plan was to get the clutch lever on first. I had watched several how to videos with people saying how much of a pain it was to get that one on. I knew all the booby traps that were laid out for me, and I was going to get it on in record time. I was wrong. Apparently there is something different about the 2016 model of  Ninja 650 and it has some sort of sensor on the clutch lever. That means there was a wire housing attached to it, that kept me from getting to the already difficult bolt to remove it. This of course change my plans.

     I moved over to the brake lever. One bolt out, and the new lever was ready to go on. No problem. slide it in place, but the bolt back through and tighten it down. That job was done. Now I had to go back over to that clutch lever and figure it out. I loosened the bracket for the clutch and spun it around so I could see what was going on. There were two small screws in the wire housing or maybe it was a sensor housing. I'm really not sure. I decided to remove the whole clutch assembly form the handle bars so that I would have easy access to everything. I removed the housing so that I could get to the one bolt that I needed to, so that I could remove the clutch. This really shouldn't have been this difficult. I got the bolt out finally and removed the stock clutch. There was one thing I needed from that clutch in order to make the new one work. In the whole that the bolt ran through was a brass spacer. I had to push that out, and put it in the new clutch so that it would have proper fitment. It slid out easily and slid right into the new clutch, boom that was done. I now had to replace the housing back on the clutch assembly. I had to line everything up properly before I could put the screw back in. There was a small switch that had to be put back in a specific spot in order to work. I still have no idea what it does, but it seemed important. I held it in place and hand tightened the first screw down. Once that one was in, I got the second one started. I tightened everything down, and checked that everything moved properly before putting it back on the handlebars.

     One I had the bracket back on the bars, I had to line everything up, and that meant that I had to sit on the bike in a riding position in order to find out exactly where I wanted the clutch to go. I couldn't just guess at it and tighten it down. With an allen wrench in my mouth, I lined up the clutch to were it seemed like it would feel good. I held on to it with my left hadn't and tightened it down a bit with my right. Once I felt it would stay in place, I got back in the ride position and checked it out. It needed one last slight adjustment and then it was golden.

      With everything tightened down, it was time for a quick test ride. I only needed to go around the neighborhood for this, so I grabbed my helmet and took it out for a quick one. I still needed to adjust the lever height once I was riding. That could be down from a little lever on the top of each lever to adjust how far from the actual bar it rests. The brake lever was fine right off the bat at level 3, but I had to play with the clutch lever a bit to get it where it felt right. I started at 3 with it, but ran it although way up to 5, which is the top setting, and then back down to 2. I finally rested on 2. It gave me an easy pull with enough room that I wouldn't slam my knuckles with the lever when I had to draw it in. With everything in order I pulled back into the driveway to get the after shot for you. Here is the before and after of what Saki looked like with stock levers, and then with the new ones, and I have to say, that it made quite a difference in my opinion.

The top is of course the old grey metal levers, that have no character, and the bottom is the new Ride It Forever levers with the same red as Saki, and plenty of attitude. I have to tell you, Saki is very pleased with the new levers, and so am I. Just one more step closer to being down with the mods. Are you every really down though?  I do believe that the under lighting will be next, but who knows. I might come across something else that might look good before that. I made sure that I got the after picture before I added the Ride It Forever sticker on the windshield. I wanted it to match up to the before, so I don't have that in the shot. I think my goal is to cover the entire windshield with stickers. I'm going straight up the center at first, and then we will see where it goes from there. I have this idea of once it is filled up, I would get a new windshield and then hang that one on the wall of the garage. I think it is kind of a neat idea.

     With all that excitement behind me, I decided that it was time to do some binge watching on Netflix, and I knew that Iron Fist was just released. I made some popcorn and went to it. I really like it. I'm not a fan of the opening credits. It sounds like it belongs in Tron instead of a Marvel series, but that is really my only gripe. The fighting sequences are really well done, and the story is going along really well. They are tying everything together for The Defenders series that will be released later this year with all of the Marvel heroes in this Netflix universe teaming up together. I'm excited for that, but still bummed that Jessica Jones won't be release until some time after The Defenders is released. I will wait patiently, as long as they keep putting out things that are good in the meantime.

     I had a loose plan of maybe riding to Daytona on Saturday to see what was going on with bike week, but I stayed home and watched more Iron Fist instead. I made it to episode 10, and I believe there are 13 in total. That leaves me with 4 more episodes this coming Friday night. I know, my life is far too exciting to believe. I'm going to try and wrap it up on Friday, because I am going to a Pow Wow on Saturday with a good friend of mine. We should be spending most of the day there and I won't have time to watch anything that day. I will get as many pictures as I can while I'm there to post here, and I think I might do an Instagram story that day, so if you want to watch everything as it's going on, just check out my Instagram. You will need the app in order to watch the story. You can find my Instagram right here. We are leaving my house around 10 in the morning and should arrive in Ft. Pierce where it is being held at around 11 or so. I will try to keep the story to a minimum but remember, with those stories, they are only available for 24 hours and then they are gone. I will make sure this time that I take extra pictures other than the ones for the story, so that I can post them here as well.

     One last thing before I go. I did get out and ride this morning. I had a goal when I went out, and that was to find this lake that my tattoo artist told me about. It is off a road near his house, and it has a nice spot that I could get a good sunset picture of Saki on the bank of it. I managed to find it, and I will have to time it right one evening and get the shot that I want. I'll post it here when I do get it. In the meantime, I went to one of my favorite spots afterwards, and go this shot. I think it's pretty good.

That is all that I have for you tonight. I do want to talk about the passing of Chuck Berry, but I want to get everything in order to do him justice. He was a pioneer in rock, and that deserves a little time to do it right. So look for that on Tuesday night. Peace in and goodnight.