Jokes, Jack & a Jeep

Saturday was Dave’s annual Memorial BBQ for his father, Tom. The weather didn’t cooperate at all, with heavy downpours for most of the day/evening. Not to worry; Dave’s got a large, ¾ enclosed back porch so we hung out and grilled in relative dryness, just out of reach of the hammering rain. We all hung out, shared some good stories and cracked many a joke.

We were joined by two attendees who were related to each other; Gentleman Jack, and Single Barrel Jack. On and off again, they were the focus of our attentions, as we raised many a toast to those that have gone on before us. (A funny point; we were using little dixie cups as shot glasses – no worries if they fall or ‘break’. The only down side? At one point, Dave was taking a bit long to savor his shot, and it actually dissolved the seal around the bottom of the cup, suddenly dumping the amber contents out through his fingers.)

Yesterday, myself, Dave, his son Dave Jr, and another friend (also named Dave…4 Dave’s together at once…what were the odds…) shot up to the Keene swap meet. Or, as K said; the “Swamp Meet”. I thought it was a good description, given the weather conditions. Yep; more rain. It was a wet ride up, but the number of bikes there was higher than had been there for the Spring version of this event. Which was nice to see.

Vendor offerings were up a little, too, but still; having had rain for several days straight made for an overall gloomy atmosphere. Not a lot of sales going on from what I saw. Lots of stuff covered up to protect it from the rain, etc.

After checking out the various sights, I bode my farewells to the other Daves and hoped back on the bike for the (wet) ride home. That was about it for the weekend.

On a completely different note; in the past three days, I’ve suddenly had people coming out of the woodwork regarding me not having a 4-wheeled vehicle (and needing something for the winter). A buddy of mine from work stopped by on Friday to see if I was interested in buying a used pickup from him. It’s a nice truck and he was asking low money but unfortunately, it’s only got 2-wheel drive, which won’t help me in the winter. Then, Friday night, my neighbor calls to say that she’s going to be away for the weekend, would I like to borrow her car since it’s going to be such lousy weather. She’s got a sweet ride – a Mercedes! But there’s no way I’d have dared move it out of the driveway, let alone take it out and about, so I politely declined. Saturday, another buddy of mine from work calls me up and says he knows a guy that runs an auto auction, do I want to swing by and check out what he’s got. Sure! So I talked to the auction guy and said I’d swing by today. Then, first thing this morning, another coworker comes by and asks if I’m interested in buying his Jeep Cherokee. He’d just bought a new car and was asking short (VERY short!) money for it, so I checked it out, took it for a ride and that was that. I now own a Jeep Cherokee. It’s not super good on gas, but it’s got 4-wheel drive and that’s what I’m talkin’ about. I’ll only need it for snow days, and in between rainstorms when there's salt on the road. Come April or so, I should be able to sell it easily enough.

Then I’ll start the whole process over again next Fall…

Ride Hard, Take Chances