Finally, the weather is starting to get mild enough to break out the 2-wheeled conveynces and ride. Not that I haven't ridden over the winter, but I'm a lot less inclined to get out there when it's 40 and below. I remember that first year I had a bike, I had the attitude "Cold be damned, as long as it's dry, I can ride". Well, as you can see by the my previous post, riding in cold is not that much fun and I'm over it so the bikes spent most of the last few months in the garage. But, the temps are starting to climb into the 60s during the day and will soon be in the 70s so I can handle a little morning chills to have an enjoyable afternoon ride home.
Tons-o-stuff has been going on for the past few months, I don't think I have the web space to detail them all so I'll give a few highlights:
Yes, I know, it's been, like, forever since I've put anything down here but someone posted this story on the Beginner Biker's forum, one that I frequent. I like the people who post there and think every person who rides a motorcycle, regardless of experience and skill levels, should read the posts there. It was originally written by Dave Karlotski, someone I don't know, but it does a good job of describing what it's like to ride when it's not exactly warm outside. I particularly like his description of how we spend all our time in "boxes".
Season Of The Bike
by Dave Karlotski
Despite this, it's hard to give up my motorcycle in the fall and I rush to get it on the road again in the spring; lapses of sanity like this are common among motorcyclists. When you let a motorcycle into your life you're changed forever. The letters "MC" are stamped on your driver's license right next to your sex and weight as if "motorcycle" was just another of your physical characteristics, or maybe a mental condition. But when warm weather finally does come around all those cold snaps and rainstorms are paid in full because a motorcycle summer is worth any price.
A motorcycle is not just a two-wheeled car; the difference between driving a car and climbing onto a motorcycle is the difference between watching TV and actually living your life. We spend all our time sealed in boxes and cars are just the rolling boxes that shuffle us languidly from home-box to work-box to store-box and back, the whole time, entombed in stale air, temperature regulated, sound insulated, and smelling of carpets.
On a motorcycle I know I'm alive. When I ride, even the familiar seems strange and glorious. The air has weight and substance as I push through it and its touch is as intimate as water to a swimmer. I feel the cool wells of air that pool under trees and the warm spokes of sunlight that fall through them. I can see everything in a sweeping 360 degrees, up, down and around, wider than Pana-Vision and higher than IMAX and unrestricted by ceiling or dashboard. Sometimes I even hear music. It's like hearing phantom telephones in the shower or false doorbells when vacuuming; the pattern-loving brain, seeking signals in the noise, raises acoustic ghosts out of the wind's roar. But on a motorcycle I hear whole songs: rock 'n roll, dark orchestras, women's voices, all hidden in the air and released by speed. At 30 miles per hour and up, smells become uncannily vivid. All the individual tree-smells and flower-smells and grass-smells flit by like chemical notes in a great plant symphony. Sometimes the smells evoke memories so strongly that it's as though the past hangs invisible in the air around me, wanting only the most casual of rumbling time machines to unlock it. A ride on a summer afternoon can border on the rapturous. The sheer volume and variety of stimuli is like a bath for my nervous system, an electrical massage for my brain, a systems check for my soul. It tears smiles out of me. A minute ago I was dour, depressed, apathetic, numb. But now, on two wheels, big, ragged, windy smiles flap against the side of my face, billowing out of me like air from a decompressing plane.
Transportation is only a secondary function. A motorcycle is a joy machine. It's a machine of wonders, a metal bird, a motorized prosthetic. It's light and dark and shiny and dirty and warm and cold lapping over each other; it's a conduit of grace, it's a catalyst for bonding the gritty and the holy. I've had dozens of bikes over the years and slept under my share of bridges. I wouldn't trade one second of either the good times or the misery. Deciding to live my life on two wheels is one of the best things I've done.
Cars lie to us and tell us we're safe, powerful, and in control. The air-conditioning fans murmur empty assurances and whisper, "Sleep, sleep." Motorcycles tell us a more useful truth: we are small and exposed, and probably moving too fast for our own good, but that's no reason not to enjoy every minute of the ride.
Last weekend, Karen and I were talking about the possibility of going from 2 cars down to 1. She rides the bus every day and the stop is only 3 miles from the house and on nice days (which has been most of the spring and summer, so far), I have been riding one of the bikes so there really isn't the overwhelming need for us to have 2 cars. Both are now paid off so only having one, even if it's a new one, would eventually reduce our transportation costs.
About a year ago, we had stopped by the local Mercedes Benz dealer just to see what they had and to get an idea about prices. Karen's always wanted one but had never priced them, test driven one, or knew what they really offered, other than a reliable car. At the time, the prices were a little out of our budget so we tabled the idea. Now that our budget was a little more flexible, we called the salesperson we talked to before (a girl named Jesse Cannon-Wallace) and arranged to meet her last Monday evening to see what they had on the lot. The one she showed us was a 2004 S-430 with 43,500+ miles, a gorgeous car without a scratch, dent or blemish on it. The ones we looked at before were an E-Class so that was the one Karen had her eye on but the S-Class is their top of the line so when she said the price was in line with a newer E-Class, it made it hard to resist.
After we got home, we did some research and found that the price they were asking was actually a little higher than what the Kelly Blue Book retail value for that car would be. We also found from a nationwide search, that they price was actually in line with what other MB dealers were asking. We discussed at length whether this would be a good thing to do at this time and after several hours of weighing the pros and cons, we decided it would be good. We had also researched what sort of trade-in value we might expect on our current cars and talked about what we would do on those days where I couldn't ride (too cold, raining, etc...), working out a plan so I could take her to the bus and pick her up when I got off work.
With this knowledge, we went back the next night (Tuesday) to try to work out the deal. Within 30 minutes, we had the numbers we wanted and were signing the papers. Here is the new car:
The color is called Granite Gray...a metallic blue-gray, which isn't the original color Karen wanted but we both agreed it looked very sharp. For a 3 year old car with well over 43K miles, there isn't a single dent or scratch on it. Perhaps the dealer fixed all that up after it came in but I've never known a car with that much "experience" to be this clean. It's a Certified Pre-Owned car and that means they supposedly went over it a lot more thoroughly than they would a non-certified model, to make sure there was as little wrong with it as possible. We got an extended warranty to cover us for the first 3-1/2 years so that gives us a little more peace of mind.
Because it's an S-class, it has tons of little features that make driving it very comfortable. Things like 14-way adjustable seats in front, 3 user memories for each for seat, steering wheel, and side view mirror position, GPS navigation, CD-changer, driver and passenger climate control, double-pane windows, premium Bose sound system, adjustable suspension and transmission (sporty or comfortable), automatic/manual transmission, you name it. It took longer for Jesse to explain all the features than it did to work out the deal and sign the papers. Owning a Mercedes gets you all kinds of nice perks such as lifetime free roadside assistance, and a service center that offers free massages on certain days of the week, a golf driving range and putting green, free internet, and a loaner car if the service will take more than 2 hours.
Driving it this past week has been fun. It's so quiet and smooth, you'd think you were riding on a cloud. We're looking forward to the next vacation we can take with it, which may be my birthday next year where she'll drive and I'll ride one of the bikes but she said she won't mind doing that. Apart from the driving experience, the next best thing about it is the extra space in the garage. The bikes now have an entire side all to themselves so there won't be any more wiggling them around to the front of a car to park them. They seem to be happy with their new roommate.
This weekend, Karen and I built our own Eiffel Tower...right on our kitchen table and you can too. This wasn't one of those 3D puzzles, it was a kit from LEGO®. Yes, LEGO.
I've always like LEGOs and as a kid back in the 60s, I had a huge box of random bricks and plates that I used to build all kinds of things. If you haven't seen LEGOs lately, they've come a long way since then. There are a huge number of different shaped pieces that let you build anything from robots that you design and program to houses and vehicles of all sorts. Some of my recent projects were the Imperial Star Destroyer™ and Darth Vader's TIE fighter both from the Star Wars™ collection. Sure, they're geared toward kids, but they were fun to put together and a very impressive example of what you can build from LEGO.
Why the Eiffel Tower, you may ask. Karen loves the Eiffel Tower, it is one of her favorite places to see so one day I wanted to see if anyone had done a LEGO version of the tower. I found out that LEGO was producing a kit but it wasn't due out for a few months. On Friday, we were out walking around the local mall, where they have a LEGO store so we stopped in to see if there were any updates on the release of the tower kit and there was. It had been released and they had one put together on display. They also had a few in boxes on the shelves so we got one.
Ok, not really, but a couple of weeks ago, I posted an entry wondering where all the iPhones were. The post is right down there \/ near the bottom of your screen in case you missed it. Anyway, I now know where at least 2 of them are. One is in Karen's hands (she's probably playing with it as I'm typing this), and the other is on my desk. Yes, we are the proud owners of iPhones and it happened because of a minor incident that occured this past Saturday involving Karen's old phone.
This weekend, Karen was in a class and at one of the breaks, she noticed her phone wasn't getting any service. This is unusual since it was working earlier that morning. The phone is 2-1/2 years old and has never had any problems so after she got home, we tried a few things but none of them got it to work. The tech down at the local Verizon store (that's was our carrier) concluded it was probably a hardware problem in the radio part after he tinkered around with it. So, the bottom line was that she needed a new phone. Unfortunately, they don't make her model any more so her best option from Verizon was to get one like mine, which they still sell. She also knew I wanted an iPhone so she offered to take my phone and let me get an iPhone.
This weekend, Karen and I decided to do several things to improve the quality of our lives. The first was to undertake a big decluttering activity where we'll get rid of things that we not longer need, want, or use. This will involve going through clothes closets, desk drawers, table surfaces, book shelves, etc... and either tossing, donating, or selling those things that we don't see a need to keep. Doing this will reinforce the vacuum law of prosperity, by getting rid of things you don't want to make a space for things you do.
The next thing we did was to join a new health club they're building about 3 miles from the house. It's a new Lifetime Fitness facility and will be a good thing for both of us since we're in need of getting into better shape. Some of the things that impressed me about it were the 3 pools, being open 24/7 (not that I'll get the hankering to go down there at 2am and work out, but if I did, I could), cafe, 100s of machines, and the availability of personal trainers to help you create a plan to meet your goals. Right now, my goals are to loose 25 lbs. by the end of November and be more physically fit for diving and so far, I think I'm on a good track to do that. I'm on a low-carb diet and I'm seeing some good results from that but a more rigorous and varied exercise program will help. Even though the club won't open until November, I'm looking forward to going and I'm hoping it won't be just like other such clubs...a meat market where people go to see and be seen.
With all the hype about the iPhone that was flying around a month ago, and with reports that estimates of close to 1 million have been sold, where are they? Does anybody actually have one?
I work in the IT industry; I'm constantly surrounded by other geeks and live in one of the biggest wired areas in the country and have yet to see anybody with one! I've spent several days volunteering at one of Atlanta's biggest tourist venues and have seen thousands of people walking around it but I've yet to see anybody playing with one. I'm starting to wonder if it was all a big farce!
Well, not really rain, but lightening and thunder. It's the first time I've had a dive at the Aquarium called due to a thunderstorm.
For yesterday's afternoon dive, Clark and I were to be diving in the Sea Lion exhibit. I dove with Clark on one other occasion but this would be his first dive in the Sea Lion exhibit. This one is unique in that it is partially outdoors where all the other exhibits are inside. Sea Lions are used to being outside and enjoy sunning themselves so they gave them an area where they could waddle up onto some rocks to soak up some sunshine. Clark and I were going to run a couple of Armadas (power scrubbers) to clean the rocks of the algae that accumulates rather quickly under the summer sun except today, there wasn't much sun as the skys were looking very ominous with dark clouds off on to the west. By the time we'd gotten the gear up to the exhibit, it was already sprinkling. Katie, our lead, told us that the radar showed a big blob of red coming toward downtown Atlanta and if it started thundering, she was going to get us out of the water. Even for dives on the inside exhibits, they'll get divers out of the water during a thunderstorm.
The first order of business for me was to do what they call "wafting" the Sea Lion feces toward the grates that covered the sump pumps. I like to call it poop hockey. Basically, you sweep whatever poo you find along the bottom toward one of two grates that cover the sumps. They can't run a vacuum in there because the waters too shallow (maybe 11 ft. max) for the vacuum to work effectively. I always wear a 16 lb weight belt, made up of 2 8 lb weight and that keeps me down easily but today, I was having a bit of trouble staying under...my feet kept wanting to float up. I realized that I had put on only 14 lbs of weight on my belt because a weight that I thought said 8 lbs was only 6. So, after surfacing and getting Katie to replace the 6 with an 8, I went back and finished my hockey game...he shoots, he SCORES, and the crowd goes wild.
Clark was already doing a great job on the shallow end of the pool with his scrubber so I grabbed mine, which Katie had already lowered down into the water, and started hitting the rocks along the ledge at the window. I got about half way across when the scrubber shut down, which is our signal that we should come up. I popped my head out of the water and noticed it was raining rather hard. Katie said she heard thunder so we should go ahead and get out so I went back under, found Clark and gave him the thumbs-up signal, meaning it's time to get out. Total dive time for this one, 20 minutes, but at least I got most of the poop cleaned up.
Ok, so it's been what, almost 2 months since I've updated my blog. Yeah, I know...WAY too long but I was given a reminder that I actually have people interested in what I put up here in the form of an email I got from one of my diving buddies Tom. He also sent the email to all the other divers at the Aquarium so I guess I'd better get on the ball and be prolific.
It's not that nothing has been happening to me, I've just gotten lazy and just want to veg out on the sofa after getting home from work. So, here's a few highlights from the past 2 months...
Last week, I wanted to take advantage of a promo that Harley-Davidson was doing where you would get a nice little backpack if you test rode one of their bikes. I had been wanting to ride one of the V-Rod models so this was a good opportunity to do it. What else fueled the fire to try one out was a picture I saw of the new Night Rod Special, an all black version, limited edition V-Rod. The first time I saw it, I thought it was one of the hottest new bikes out there...a cross between a cruiser, sport bike, and chopper...and it was all black.
We went down to Stone Mountain Harley-Davidson for the test ride and after I got back from taking 2 laps around their standard test ride route, Karen said I had the biggest grin on my face. What impressed me the most was the power in the V-Rod. It has a smaller engine than what I'm used to and twice the HP which combined to make an exhilarating ride. After talking about it for a few minutes, we worked it out such that I could consider getting one so the hunt was on. Stone Mountain didn't have a Night Rod Special but they told me they were getting three some time in July so I asked the salesman to give me a call when they got them.