Salt the ice, clean the vodka, and lock up the beers.

So let’s see…what’s going on. Well, a whole lot of nothing, to be honest. We’ve got snow, salt and ice up the wazoo and the bike is stranded in the garage. Actually, both Bill’s and my bikes are stranded. Normally I wouldn’t be moving them into the cellar until maybe January, as the snow starts to build up. I was hoping the snow we just received might melt quickly and allow for some year-end riding. That’s not going to happen, though. Single digit temps at night, mid-20’s during the days…not a lot of melting going on. I was out in the driveway the other night, using a 12 pound sledgehammer to bust up some of the ice. Good times! But both Bill and I were able to roll the bikes out and fire them up for a bit to keep the battery fresh and circulate the gas and oil. (Now it’s just a matter of digging a path through the snow, around back, to get them into the cellar.)

On a positive note, I did receive my new insurance sticker, so I’m totally in the clear to ride. (Did I mention the snow and ice all over the roads?)

A while back, I mentioned that I was going to try an experiment where I used a Brita water filter to clean up some rotgut vodka and see if it comes out nice and smooth. I mean, after all; that’s what refineries do, right? They distill it a bit more and then run it through carbon filtration a few times. The more it’s filtered, the better it gets. So I picked up some filters the other day and now need to pick up some Mr. Boston’s (or some other equally offensive brand) vodka and see what happens. I’ll take some pics and post things once that little diversion has been completed.

On a funny note; it pays to keep your beer locked up. Those that know my house, know that you can get into my cellar any time, day or night. And Bill happens to keep his spare fridge down there, and it’s usually full of beer. I was talking with Zig this morning and he said he was grateful that the Magraw Liquor Store was open late-night. During this past weekend’s big storm, he’d been out plowing and at about 2:30 in the morning, he realized with some horror that he’d run out of beer. Thinking quickly, he realized where he could obtain some fresh stocks and proceeded to stop by the house. Neither Bill nor I even heard the thief in the night, but Bill was quick to spot the missing inventory the next day.

And that’s about all that’s going on, on this end. My company is closed next week for the holidays so I should be able to dig the bikes out and get them into the cellar where they can hang out with the other bikes that are down there. Flex’s…John’s…the Shovelhead…the Rebel…it’ll be a regular party. I should also be able to get that vodka experiment done, too.

I hope everyone has a great Christmas, hopefully Santa will bring you some decent stuff. Me? I wasn't naughty at all this year so maybe he won’t bring me coal this time around. But I’m not holding my breath – that fat bastard seems to have it in for me.

I'll probably get one more post up before New Year's, so until then...

Ride Hard, Take Chances