The Usual Hangout

 

All of my riding is solo again. My riding buddies have drifted for one reason or another away and I dropped the riding club that I was part of. It wasn’t fun anymore, it wasn’t about riding anymore, it was about politics and that’s not why I ride a bike. I ride to get away from that shit and it was starting to feel like it was following me everywhere I went. So I dropped it, stepped out completely. I gotta say, it was a huge weight off my shoulders.

So now I ride solo, back to the way it used to be and I still enjoy every minute of it. I go where I want, stop when I want, leave when I want. No schedule, no ride route and no one else to worry about. I do like riding with buddies, but this is the way I learned to ride and this is the way I’ve rode for years.

Where have I been

It's been a hell of a summer, really.  The weather around here has been great...hence the minimal posts.  August has been a whirl wind of "if it's nice...GET YOUR ASS ON THE BIKE!"

Other things have been sitting on my mind as well, including making one major change in my life.  I was all ready to head back to school, but nerves got the better of me and I backed out.  We just have way too much debt for us both to be in school.  Maybe we'll be a little more solid next year and I'll be able to do something I want, instead of something I need.  Also...my work schedule changed...and I'm not too fond of it.

Two weekends ago was my riding club's national rally in Halifax.  We packed up the bike and headed out early on a Friday morning.  You couldn't have paid for better weather then what we had.  And you couldn't have asked for a better time.  We met lot's of new people and I slept in a tent for the first time in...shit...I can't remember.  Suffice to say...a long ass time ago.  I got a few pics that I'll toss up.

We got lost on the way down, due to my own stupidity and instead of learning from it, I got pissed off and just made things worse.  Oh well, I'm my dad through and through.  Guess I'll mellow out sooner or later.

Last weekend we took a trip down to a little island near the border (Deer Island).  It was a nice trip and the island, although small, was quite picturesque.  I'll have to do a solo photo trip down there.  Hard to stop and take pics when you are in a group ride.

In other news...CAN YOU BELIEVE IT'S SEPTEMBER TOMORROW?!  ugh...

Year 2

Well, another year and I still have this blog running. I think that's a record for me. Nothing sappy on this anniversary, but I am a little sad that I haven't been able to get Selene on the road yet. Seems like this winter is trying to hang on as long as possible.

Seeing as I can't ride, I've been hibernating mostly and geeking out when not hibernating. I don't mention much about my regular life on here, but suffice to say I'm a gamer and computer geek. When winter comes, I have lots to keep me occupied. I've beaten several games that I recently purchased and I'm currently building a new computer for myself.

My chapter of the CMC (Canadian Motorcycle Cruisers) is still running and I'm hoping to get a stronger membership this coming season. It will take some doing on my part. I'm not much of a social animal, so I'm taking this as a test of myself. I want to see if I can do this and it would be nice to get a strong group of people to ride with. I'll definitely have to get out to some of the events in New Brunswick so I can start getting the word out about CMC.

Also, I don't know if I mentioned it, but I'm now the Provincial Officer for New Brunswick. That means that I have three chapters to keep an eye on. Talk about testing myself...lol.

So, here's to another year, upcoming warm weather and just enjoying the ride while we can!

Four years

Four years ago today I married the woman that is now my pillion. Four years that have been far from smooth. Four years that has demanded change from a person that resists change like a brick wall resists wind.

I'm not sure if you can tell, but I never thought I would end up married. I always thought the expense was silly for a simple piece of paper that says we are together. But regardless of my thoughts and beliefs here I am, four years later, bound by a piece of paper and all manner of things that I don't believe in.

Saying that things haven't been smooth is a bit of an understatement. It's been pretty damn rough and for the most part, I've been the root cause of it all. My nature is to be resistant, hard headed, and solitary. I am an only child and while not spoiled, I certainly was able to have my way and spent a lot of my time alone doing things that I wanted to do. I detest having people relying and being dependant on me and I hate being proded into making decisions.

Can you get a hint of what I'm like to live with?

Well, my fellow rider through this pot hole laden life, has held onto that pillion and weathered through it all. She has put up with every storm that I've thrown her way and even made a few of her own which have changed me and my views.

At one point we had almost taken separate roads, but the introduction of a rather sleek mistress changed that. Selene glided into the picture on a rather mundane trip to the local dealership. Oh, and get this...it wasn't my idea. How many men can actually say their wife encouraged them, nigh pushed them into getting a motorcycle? If you can be counted among those, consider yourself lucky...as I'm sure you do.

Selene was originally going to be my transportation as I went my separate way, but she seemed to steer me in another direction. She gave me the ability to disappear and dwell in my own little world. The chance to get away from everything and make it not exist if only for a few hours. She became my decompression tank and I left many a mile of stress behind while riding.

After that, things got better. A long distance ride that was supposed to be solo ended up being two up. She braved a stock seat and miserable weather on a ride to Ontario and back not being able to talk to anyone while moving and thoroughly enjoyed it. That ride put a link between us again and harkened back to the days when the only transportation we had was a motorcycle.

Mind you, things aren't perfect. We still have our problems and I still have my times, but I'm working on it. I'm happy to be where I am and I'm happy to be with her. Believe me, that's a long way from where I was not too long ago.

Looks like one loud, well designed machine did more than one over paid shrink could ever do.

Here's to us! And here is to the mistress that showed me the way.

What the?

I just looked at the calendar... Did anyone else realize that we are already into July? Ugh, summer is too short and there just isn't enough nice days that correspond with my days off.

Speaking of rides...

Have you ever been out riding and realized that you probably shouldn't be? I went out for a spin yesterday to snap some pictures and found that Selene and I were meshing really well. A little too well. I found I was taking chances that I usual don't and had way too much attitude. I was easily doing double the speed limit in some areas and weaving around traffic in other areas. While I'll admit that it was quite fun and my invincibility seemed to be holding out quite well, there would come a time when reality would smush my little shield and then I would have more repairs to pay for...among other things.

So I cruised home, parked Selene and relaxed for the rest of the day. If I get too many of those day, I'll have to get a track bike.

If it wasn't for bad news...

we wouldn't know what good news is.

Our car is dying. It might last a couple of months or a couple of weeks, but either way we are going to lose our main mode of transportation. It's a 1998 Dodge Neon and has recently blown it's third head gasket. Aside from that, the engine is making an awful grinding noise and the transmission is giving out. Replacing both would cost us a cool two grand and honestly, I don't think it's worth it. It's time to move on.

In the meantime, my bike is still in the shop getting it's tires put on. Next time, I'll have the tools to take off the wheels because this is wacky. There is no way that it should take a week to get the tires changed. It sure as hell would take a lot of wear and tear away from the car and save us the trouble of driving around in a vehicle that sounds like it's going to explode.

So, today (the gorgeous day that it was) was spent doing this...

While I felt like this...

I'm sure there is good news out there...somewhere...right?

Happy Anniversary

Well, here I am, one year later. I'm still a biker nut, I still have my sanity and things are actually going pretty well.

To celebrate a little, I've updated the look of the blog. If things don't look quite right, you'll have to bear with me. I'm still going to be making little changes here and there and I'm really hoping to turn this into a three column blog, but I have no idea how to set that up. If anyone has any ideas, I'd be glad to hear them.

Time was on my side yesterday, so I got a chance to get down and work on Selene for a while. The biggest thing I have left now is the wheels. Once they are off, I'll be able to clean them and get the new rubber put on. My lease on the storage unit is up at the end of March, so I'm hoping that the weather is going to be agreeable and let me ride her out of there.

Speaking of the weather, it's been super mild here with lots of rain. Needless to say, we have lost a lot of our snow. Can't say I'm sorry to see it go. The faster I can get back on two wheels, the happier I'll be.

CMC Canadian Motorcyle Cruisers

here's the story. a friend mentioned the CMC and figured that i would like to join. turns out they are a newly formed all Canadian riding group. i checked them out and low and behold, they had two groups starting up near me. both were about two hours away, but hey...i would get to ride there.

so, i joined up with the fredericton group because heck, i enjoy a ride to our province capital when the weather gets toasty. i quickly find out that i'm the only one in the group! que the founder of CMC. he calls to find out whether i live in fredericton or saint john. turns out they are looking to open a chapter in saint john. well, a couple of emails later, i find myself the 1st officer of the saint john, new brunswick chapter of CMC. it took a few minutes for that one to sink in. joey kind of looked at me funny too.

see, i know i've said this before, i'm really not a social kind of animal. i usually keep to myself. i'm the quiet guy at the party...if i go to the party at all. it's not that i'm anti-social, i'm just used to spending time by myself...being an only child and all that.

now, here i am in charge of a chapter of a motorcycle riding/social club. LOL. i guess it's a "jump in with both feet" kind of thing. i'm very curious and excited to see how all this turns out. suddenly, i have a bunch of things that i need to get done like advertising, building a website (maybe), staying up to date on the forums and chapter news (not hard as i think the computer is glued to my hip anyway), and keeping an eye on my own forum...when i get members under me...hehe.

i've already been informed that it's all voluntary and i'm not being forced into anything. to me, that's great. this is a prime opportunity for me to push myself in an area that i have never excelled at. i really think this will be a good thing for me. oh...and it'll give me an excuse to ride more. yeah, like i need more excuses to ride. ;)

b-b-b-b-b-brrrrrrr

i really hate winter. i'll be the first to admit that i have a mild case of SAD (seasonal affective disorder). when the nights grow long and the days get cold you can notice a big difference in me. i get moody, sleep too much, but never feel rested, and everything just seems to be too much trouble.

but i'm not going to dwell on my personal issues here. i'm just going to say that's it damn cold out! the car didn't want to start this morning or yesterday morning. it's currently -19 C (-2 F) with a wind chill of -29 C (-20 F). yesterday it was a balmy -34 C (-29 F). notice that the two scales are getting to the matching point of -40.

i'm used to this type of weather, i just hate it. i spent 23 years in Labrador City, Newfoundland and i got real used to sub zero weather. i'm not lying when i say that school wouldn't be cancelled until around -70 C (-94 F). winter would stick around for eight months and the snow amount was just crazy.

i do have it easy in new brunswick though. winter didn't really set in until mid january and our snow fall has been next to nothing. all i have to do is stick it out until march. it will still be cold, but at least the worst of it will be over and i'll be riding again.

the year's past

wow, another year gone and so much has changed. this year has seen it's fair share of ups and downs, believe me.

the year started in the middle of my marrige spiraling downhill. i was in a slump, a bad one. one of my worst by far. it happens to me every now and then and most times i can squash it, but that time...i needed a change and if i didn't get it, all hell was going to break loose. i shunned the people closest to me, i took so many days off work that i ran out of sick time before the end of january and i was generally self destructive. it wasn't a good time for all involved as you can well guess. this was all carried over from last year and joey can attest to the type of ass i was being. i guess the experts would have called it a "mid life crisis", but i'm not much into the experts. i refused to see anyone (that's normal for me) and vowed to figure things out myself.

things that didn't help me out were:

living in an apartment that was below ground
joey had a depressed time and clung to me

the two of these issues made me feel trapped and i don't like feeling trapped (not like anyone does, really). i couldn't really go outside because we had no back yard and going out in car meant that joey wanted to go as well. yeah, it was a bad time for me. so i found other escapes...one of them being world of warcraft. i won't say i got addicted to that game (i'm a gamer, i love games), but i will say that it was the perfect escape for me. so everything else got ignored.

near the end of february i started coming out of my slump and thoughts of divorce were in my mind a bit less. around that time, joey started pushing me to get a bike for my own transportation. so i guess my "mid life crisis" was squashed by a little out doors time. after that, things got steadily better.

in the summer, we moved and the new apartment was great. we got a veranda, a view, and a really quiet area. it was pretty much perfect.

after that, things steadily got better. i invited joey to a trip that i had intended to take myself and it ended up being quite a bonding experience. there's really nothing like taking a motorcycle trip. just two riders and two wheels. i really don't think i could have made it without her. having her share the experience of almost running out of gas, riding with a nail in the rear tire, riding in the rain, freezing to death trying to find a hotel...any hotel. an experience that i would have traded for nothing and hope to do again.

keep in mind that was a short synopsis and i haven't gone into detail about everything, but it covers most of the bases.

thank you 2006 for bringing so much change into my life and giving me the guts to do what is right.

here's to changes, good or bad and the company of people who love you.
Happy New Year to you all.