Happy Turkey Day

I know it’s late, but happy thanksgiving! I spent my day at the beach!

Everybody look left!

Everybody look right!

Everywhere you look I'm standing in the spotlight!

 

Get on up!

Lemme hear you say "Yeeeeeeaaaaa!"

Nice Weather – Huzzah!

We’ve been blessed with a gorgeous string of Sundays in November which bodes well for taking Polar Bear runs. This week we ran about 80 miles south to Hopewell, NJ. The day started out around 46F, so there was some extra leather and insulation starting to show up.

At the meeting point. In desperate need of coffee

Which way did they go, George?

Starting to wake up a little bit. Still not quite up to speed though.

En route. We had 10 bikes on the way down. Lots of looks and stares, as well as one on-coming driver beeping and throwing the horns at us! |,,| *^* |,,|

Working back into the saddle after lunch.

Finally ready to roll out after lunch. Starting to cool down again.

Most of the trip back was down twisting country roads. I'm way up front in this pic, just starting to carve a series of twisties.

As always, many thanks to Dave Greenberg for the great pics!

That weird look

Did you see that smug look on Lindy’s face during the third period? After the players took off for the third, Lindy crapped in a random player’s locker. He was refusing to tell them which locker so they would play better.

Things My Father Taught Me…

…When he thought I wasn’t paying any attention: #12

Auto repair takes time, tools and knowledge. The best you can hope for is two out of three. The sun sets sooner than you think too, so get crackin’!

It’s easy to blame educators, it’s easy to blame the unions, it’s easy to blame everybody else. It’s hard to blame yourself and accept responsibility. Throwing money at the problem is no substitute for a solution, no substitute for taking an active role in helping your own children learn. NJ’s finally figuring out what they’ve long feared… money does not equal success. The future starts at home.

This kid rips it up!

One way or the other

T50 Torx socket - I did NOT buy the Snap-On one for $26.

It’s frustrating to pay the dealer $100 to remove and replace a $2 bolt because you don’t have the right tool to do it. Since I’m not entirely out of my mind, I’ll gladly buy the tool to do it myself and save some cash. It is certainly frustrating to pay $17 for one socket though, especially when I don’t see myself needing this thing again anytime in the foreseeable future.

It’s been good

This week is turning out pretty good so far. On Wednesday, Kim and I had some really nice seats for Devils/Sabres in Newark.

Just center of the faceoff dots on the Buffalo shoot-twice end. First row of the upper deck, an arm's reach from the luxury boxes.

While she wasn’t too excited about the Devils loss, it was pretty nice to be in a section full of Sabres fans. The couples to the left and right, the folks behind us and a bunch scattered in the section started the game. In the first intermission a bunch of Buffalo-born fans moved to take up empty seats in our section so we became the powerhouse. I even got to see Tyler Myers’ grandparents, although I didn’t know it until I caught the highlights on TV later at home.

Tonight is going to be awesome too, as I have tickets for an amazing metal show. High On Fire, Converge, Dethklok and Mastodon at the Hammerstein Ballroom in NYC. The reviews for every night of the tour so far (last night in particular) have been universal acclaim so expectations are high!

All next week schools are closed so I have 3 or 4 days of actual vacation coming up too.

Lastly, I finally got my bike repaired on Monday. New fender and new turn signals are in. I also finally replaced the kickstand spring which solved my chronic scraping problem in left turns. When I unboxed the spring, it looked like they sent the wrong one. Lo and behold, it was different than the original, but that’s because the original was not the correct part. Problem solved and I feel much safer riding without the stand dragging. =)

Oh! A personal side-note, I’m making a specific effort this week to change the way I speak; Less cursing, more controlled expressions and less volume (both quantity and amplitude) . It’s something I’ve worried about for a long time and this time I’m going to make it stick.

Great Links!

http://jonstewartsheadonmariolopezsbodygettingeffedbyaunicorn.net/