Man, is every year like this? By the time we've reached the latter-half of February, does every winter seem like the longest one, ever? This one seems worse than most, but I suppose it's possible that I feel this way each year at this time.
But Winter can't hold on, forever, right? I just keep telling myself that. It's gotta end at some point (despite yet another possible monster-storm coming on Monday).
Try to focus on the positive signs...the drives home are in daylight, so that's at least something. The days are definitely getting longer again (although the added sunshine hasn't done a farkin' thing to help the cold temps, as we're once again in another polar cap dip, or whatever it is they call it when the temps plummet). Focus on the positive...focus on the positive...
Jan said something very apropos the other day; "Spring is right around the corner, just gotta lean into it!"
Well I'm leanin' alright. I'm leanin' hard and hanging on with all I've got. I think everyone that rides is doing the same.
We need Springtime to get here and save us from this wintertime nonsense.
Lean Hard, Hang On
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Olean!
The extended weekend stay out at Mark and Mary’s did not disappoint. The weather was lousy for the ride out, and once I got there; it was bitterly cold, but the return trip gave me clear skies, and smooth sailing. Let’s delve into some of the details, shall we?
We’d been pounded by yet another winter hammering of snow, which lasted all day long on Thursday. When they were originally forecasting the storm, it was going to finish up Thursday night and be all done on Friday. Well, that worked just great for me – it meant I’d have a nice and smooth ride out. Ahh, but as the departure day got closer, the forecasts changed, and we were now in store for something that would not only last most of Thursday, but which would run through the night time, and then curl back around and hammer us again on Friday. Wonderful!
And sure enough; the storm was waiting for me on Friday morning. Checking the news stations, there was a nasty rollover on 495 so I opted to delay my departure for an hour and a half to let that clear. Once I was on the road, the visibility was pretty bad, the conditions were even worse, but the good news was that folks had either opted to stay home, or were already at work, for the highways weren’t too congested. Or maybe it had something to do with all the vehicles that were in the median, or off in the embankments? My two favorites were the 18-wheeler, and the Mustang (which had clearly been going too quickly when it plowed (pun intended) it’s way about 20 feet straight off the road into snow that was almost as deep as it was.)
Passing into NY, the snow abated, and it even looked like the sky was going to clear off at one point, but the clouds quickly regained their control and it was a solid grey ride out. Adding a new level of excitement, the winds were incredible, and while there was no snow falling from the sky, there was plenty of snow along the plowed mounds running along either side. The wind was having a field day with this stuff, creating solid walls of white which were almost impossible to see through, and causing long stretches of roadway which were covered in several inches of snow. The one cool thing, was seeing the wind whipping off to the sides and occasionally creating whirling cyclones of snow which darted up to and then and back down from the sides of the road.
Another thing the wind did was demonstrate just how non-aerodynamic my Jeep is. I already considered it a box on wheels, but the wind was knocking it back and forth like the lightweight, canvas-covered thing it is. We’re having some fun, now!
So the miles are ticking off, my body is cramping up, and I’m getting more and more anxious to get there. I’m getting rather thirsty…my foot is getting heavier on the accelerator…and then King starts texting me that he’s already cracking beers at Mark and Mary’s. Awesome! Now I need to go even faster! Thankfully, as I closed in on Olean, the roadways got better and traffic moved pretty well. I managed to knock the trip off in 7.5 hours, which wasn’t bad, considering.
No sooner had I walked into the door than Mary is handing me a beer. And not just any beer, it was a 16-ouncer! Mark laughs and said he got them because they’ll be harder to hide. Ha, we shall see about that!
King was there and sure enough; had a cold frosty in his hand. Man, it was good to be in town! The rest of the day/evening was spent kicking back and saying hello to folks either via text, or who stopped by in person (Zig will love his stained glass window, Carol!). The beers flowed well, as did the Kahlua I brought for Mark and Mary (and which I told myself repeatedly not to drink, but as soon as Mary brought the shot glasses out…”Yeah, let’s do a shot!”. We stayed up way too late, laughed our asses off for many an hour and finally turned in well after midnight.
The next morning, I tallied up the damage I’d done to the pounders (almost a half-dozen…not shabby at all!) and then set to getting the day’s plan into motion. Basically, the plan consisted of trying to clear my head from the night before (damn Kahlua!!) and keep folks apprised of my timeline. Bryan (the Sherrif) stopped by to say hello and it was great to see him. Word on the street is that he’s coming to the Cinco de Roasto in May! After a bit, Bryan had to mosey on his way, but then King called and said he’d be at Mickey’s, so I met him there, got a pleasant surprise in that Mike, the Black Knight was there, and caught up with Tommy, too.
From there, it was off to the V, which was having a clambake that afternoon. It was a great opportunity to see most of the folks gathered in one location. The drinks flowed, the laughter ensued, and a great time was had by all.
When it was time to leave, we helped straighten up a bit and then headed for the door. Arriving back at Mark and Mary’s, there was time in the day to knock out a couple more of the pounders…and a couple of shots of that damned Kahlua.
The next morning, it dawned on me that I had been severely remiss in my duties. I’d only hidden one can so far - and that was from Friday night! I hadn’t hidden a single can on Saturday! Well, we shall have to remedy that in a hurry.
Heading downstairs, I went to where the box of empties had been…but they weren’t there. Huh. Well, they were probably moved out of the kitchen, just to clean things up a bit. I’m sure they’re in the…nope, not in the shop. Outside the door, on the patio? Nope. In the shed? Nope. I asked about the whereabouts of the cans and was answered with smirks and shrugs. At this point, a bit of panic began to set in. How can I hide cans if they’ve hidden my ammo!??!
Well, I didn’t have a ton of time to putter around looking for them, as I had to meet up with Ski and King and join them on their weekly tour of the clubs in the area. (As it turned out, Ski was not able to join us, but King and I did make several stops and had ourselves a decent afternoon.)
Back to the house to clean up and then it was off to Barb & Jerry’s for dinner – and what a dinner! We all stuffed ourselves, talked stories of times past, and admired the hell out of their new house. While all of these discussions were being bandied about, I thought it would be a great time to hide a can there. Hell, I haven’t had an opportunity to hide a can at their house since their bonfire parties, from years ago! Ahh, but Barb was too sharp. No sooner had I nonchalantly removed a can from the tabletop to tuck into my shirt for later, when Barb piped up and asked if I was planning on hiding that can. Damn! Well, long story short, I did manage to hide a can, but Barb found it almost immediately, and texted me to say so. I will have to do much better, the next time.
And with that, it was back to the house to round out the weekend. A few more inquiries from me regarding the missing cans, a few more non-committal replies (along with an ominous “you’ll find out soon enough”, and we called it a night.
I was up early the next morning to hit the road. As I went to put my boots on, I felt a familiar blockage in the toe area of my right boot. Upending it, sure enough; out popped a crushed can. Hmph, the old “crushed can in the footwear” gag – Amateurs!
Out the door and on the road, I was making good time…and watching the outside-temperature reading on my dashboard. Egads. -11 outside! I had the heat blasted in my Jeep for most of the early morning, and that was just to keep the interior comfortable.
Before too long, the sky began to brighten, signaling the coming sunrise. Naturally, the return trip (east) places me driving directly into the sun, so just as it began to peek out from above the horizon, I flipped the visor down...
…and was immediately aware of something falling out from the visor, hitting me squarely in the chest and bouncing into my lap. What the? What the hell was up on top of my visor? It looks shiny and blue…and crushed…and an awful lot like an empty Bud Light pounder can!! Bastards! They turned the tables on me! Why…that’s….that’s…that’s Brilliant!
Realizing that this one can could certainly not be the extent of their wickedness, I flipped the passenger visor down a bit. Sure enough; there sat another can! Oh, those wretched pranksters! How dare they prevent me from my appointed task, only to revisit the game upon me!
I did a brief (as best I could, while sailing down the highway) survey of my surroundings and located more cans in my glove box, in the netting on each door, as well as a couple more tucked into my workboots in the back. They’d hidden 8 cans in total…9, if you count the boot. That wasn’t bad at all, but the truly impressive aspect was the fact that they’d hidden the cans on me and then placed them in my Jeep while I was asleep. Bravo!
So as you can tell, my hidden can tally for the weekend was depressingly low. I did manage to hide three, all told. One is a “gimme” and I expect it will be found before too long. The second one is pretty good, and may not be found for some time. And the last one…yes, that is my masterpiece. I consider it as bringing things to a new level. Even better; I did not cheat in any way. (I need to be careful in the hints I give, for I realize they peruse the blog as well.) But suffice to say that the can is not crushed or malformed in any way.
And there you have it; the President’s Day weekend Olean trip, 2014.
How about some pics?
Just down the road from Mark & Mary’s house, the guy who owns this farm had a ginormous snowman made out of plastic-sheathed hay rolls. A construction cone for a nose, Christmas wreathes for eyes, and long wooden planks for arms. Not bad!
Food! Anyone that’s made the trip out there knows that Mark and Mary treat you like family…and they feed you like royalty!
That’s right, chumps; bacon-wrapped chicken! Man, talk about tasty!!! As usual, Mark had the kitchen going full tilt, and I got to enjoy pancakes, loaves and loaves of fresh baked bread, eggs, ham, filet mignon, fried dough balls…there was more, but I gotta stop. It’s late, I’m still at work, and I’m only making myself hungrier and hungrier…
Here’s the chair that my fat ass broke. I was playing with Isaac and I think he tossed a balloon at me and when I tried to twist around and catch it…well…let’s just say the chair was not up to the task.
This next pic is self-explanatory. More (yep; more!) bacon-wrapped chicken, frosties, and that damned Kahlua.
Here’s a pic from the V on Saturday evening. I’m not sure whose cammo beanie it is that I’m wearing, or why it was so funny at the time, but we sure are laughing pretty hard for some reason.
This is one of my favorite sights out in Olean. Coming back after a long day, Mark and Mary’s house is lit up with Christmas lights (year-round) and you it makes the house that much more inviting. It’s like it’s beckoning you safely home.
This pic doesn’t do justice to how cool the sight really is, but you get the idea.
And speaking of amazing sights, I had to snap a couple of pics of a different farm down the road from them. Coming around the corner on the road and seeing this great expanse just stretching out in front of me, with more snow coming down, was just amazing.
This next pic…whoops…I can’t show you that one. I snapped a pic of the can I hid on Friday night. Moving on…
Oops, and the same goes for this next pic, I can’t show that one either, as that’s of the can which I believe takes things to a new level. Let’s see if I have any more pics I CAN show…
Ahh yes, the can in the boot. It was pic-worthy at 5:45 in the morning.
Brrr! That’s the outside temp on Monday morning as I was leaving Olean…
One of the offending hitchhikers tucked above the passenger’s visor…
Oh yeah – this pic is not a good representation, but something else that was very cool to see on the way home. The air was so cold that the streams and rivers that ran alongside were giving off “steam” and in a number of places, it was thick enough to capture the sunlight as it broke over the tops of mountains, basically looking like perfectly vertical rainbows – they had no start and no end but were just straight lines. Very cool!
The obligatory pic of the cans in the boots…
I took this last pic as I was crossing over the Berkshire Connector – the mile-long bridge that crosses over the Hudson River. The river is frozen over, but there’s a track in the middle that’s broken up by passing freighters and barges. On my way out, there was an awesome sight of a tanker pushing its way northward through the shattered ice and I’d wished I’d had the opportunity to get a pic of it. On the way home, there was another tanker but it was further up the river, not to mention I was now on the southbound side and didn’t have as good a view of it. Oh well. If you click on the pic to open it up, you’ll see what looks like a tiny red dot above the railing. That’s the smoke stack from the tanker.
That’s it! I had a great time and can’t wait to get out there again! Thanks to Mark and Mary for once again; “putting me up, and putting up with me”!
Ride Hard, Take Chances
We’d been pounded by yet another winter hammering of snow, which lasted all day long on Thursday. When they were originally forecasting the storm, it was going to finish up Thursday night and be all done on Friday. Well, that worked just great for me – it meant I’d have a nice and smooth ride out. Ahh, but as the departure day got closer, the forecasts changed, and we were now in store for something that would not only last most of Thursday, but which would run through the night time, and then curl back around and hammer us again on Friday. Wonderful!
And sure enough; the storm was waiting for me on Friday morning. Checking the news stations, there was a nasty rollover on 495 so I opted to delay my departure for an hour and a half to let that clear. Once I was on the road, the visibility was pretty bad, the conditions were even worse, but the good news was that folks had either opted to stay home, or were already at work, for the highways weren’t too congested. Or maybe it had something to do with all the vehicles that were in the median, or off in the embankments? My two favorites were the 18-wheeler, and the Mustang (which had clearly been going too quickly when it plowed (pun intended) it’s way about 20 feet straight off the road into snow that was almost as deep as it was.)
Passing into NY, the snow abated, and it even looked like the sky was going to clear off at one point, but the clouds quickly regained their control and it was a solid grey ride out. Adding a new level of excitement, the winds were incredible, and while there was no snow falling from the sky, there was plenty of snow along the plowed mounds running along either side. The wind was having a field day with this stuff, creating solid walls of white which were almost impossible to see through, and causing long stretches of roadway which were covered in several inches of snow. The one cool thing, was seeing the wind whipping off to the sides and occasionally creating whirling cyclones of snow which darted up to and then and back down from the sides of the road.
Another thing the wind did was demonstrate just how non-aerodynamic my Jeep is. I already considered it a box on wheels, but the wind was knocking it back and forth like the lightweight, canvas-covered thing it is. We’re having some fun, now!
So the miles are ticking off, my body is cramping up, and I’m getting more and more anxious to get there. I’m getting rather thirsty…my foot is getting heavier on the accelerator…and then King starts texting me that he’s already cracking beers at Mark and Mary’s. Awesome! Now I need to go even faster! Thankfully, as I closed in on Olean, the roadways got better and traffic moved pretty well. I managed to knock the trip off in 7.5 hours, which wasn’t bad, considering.
No sooner had I walked into the door than Mary is handing me a beer. And not just any beer, it was a 16-ouncer! Mark laughs and said he got them because they’ll be harder to hide. Ha, we shall see about that!
King was there and sure enough; had a cold frosty in his hand. Man, it was good to be in town! The rest of the day/evening was spent kicking back and saying hello to folks either via text, or who stopped by in person (Zig will love his stained glass window, Carol!). The beers flowed well, as did the Kahlua I brought for Mark and Mary (and which I told myself repeatedly not to drink, but as soon as Mary brought the shot glasses out…”Yeah, let’s do a shot!”. We stayed up way too late, laughed our asses off for many an hour and finally turned in well after midnight.
The next morning, I tallied up the damage I’d done to the pounders (almost a half-dozen…not shabby at all!) and then set to getting the day’s plan into motion. Basically, the plan consisted of trying to clear my head from the night before (damn Kahlua!!) and keep folks apprised of my timeline. Bryan (the Sherrif) stopped by to say hello and it was great to see him. Word on the street is that he’s coming to the Cinco de Roasto in May! After a bit, Bryan had to mosey on his way, but then King called and said he’d be at Mickey’s, so I met him there, got a pleasant surprise in that Mike, the Black Knight was there, and caught up with Tommy, too.
From there, it was off to the V, which was having a clambake that afternoon. It was a great opportunity to see most of the folks gathered in one location. The drinks flowed, the laughter ensued, and a great time was had by all.
When it was time to leave, we helped straighten up a bit and then headed for the door. Arriving back at Mark and Mary’s, there was time in the day to knock out a couple more of the pounders…and a couple of shots of that damned Kahlua.
The next morning, it dawned on me that I had been severely remiss in my duties. I’d only hidden one can so far - and that was from Friday night! I hadn’t hidden a single can on Saturday! Well, we shall have to remedy that in a hurry.
Heading downstairs, I went to where the box of empties had been…but they weren’t there. Huh. Well, they were probably moved out of the kitchen, just to clean things up a bit. I’m sure they’re in the…nope, not in the shop. Outside the door, on the patio? Nope. In the shed? Nope. I asked about the whereabouts of the cans and was answered with smirks and shrugs. At this point, a bit of panic began to set in. How can I hide cans if they’ve hidden my ammo!??!
Well, I didn’t have a ton of time to putter around looking for them, as I had to meet up with Ski and King and join them on their weekly tour of the clubs in the area. (As it turned out, Ski was not able to join us, but King and I did make several stops and had ourselves a decent afternoon.)
Back to the house to clean up and then it was off to Barb & Jerry’s for dinner – and what a dinner! We all stuffed ourselves, talked stories of times past, and admired the hell out of their new house. While all of these discussions were being bandied about, I thought it would be a great time to hide a can there. Hell, I haven’t had an opportunity to hide a can at their house since their bonfire parties, from years ago! Ahh, but Barb was too sharp. No sooner had I nonchalantly removed a can from the tabletop to tuck into my shirt for later, when Barb piped up and asked if I was planning on hiding that can. Damn! Well, long story short, I did manage to hide a can, but Barb found it almost immediately, and texted me to say so. I will have to do much better, the next time.
And with that, it was back to the house to round out the weekend. A few more inquiries from me regarding the missing cans, a few more non-committal replies (along with an ominous “you’ll find out soon enough”, and we called it a night.
I was up early the next morning to hit the road. As I went to put my boots on, I felt a familiar blockage in the toe area of my right boot. Upending it, sure enough; out popped a crushed can. Hmph, the old “crushed can in the footwear” gag – Amateurs!
Out the door and on the road, I was making good time…and watching the outside-temperature reading on my dashboard. Egads. -11 outside! I had the heat blasted in my Jeep for most of the early morning, and that was just to keep the interior comfortable.
Before too long, the sky began to brighten, signaling the coming sunrise. Naturally, the return trip (east) places me driving directly into the sun, so just as it began to peek out from above the horizon, I flipped the visor down...
…and was immediately aware of something falling out from the visor, hitting me squarely in the chest and bouncing into my lap. What the? What the hell was up on top of my visor? It looks shiny and blue…and crushed…and an awful lot like an empty Bud Light pounder can!! Bastards! They turned the tables on me! Why…that’s….that’s…that’s Brilliant!
Realizing that this one can could certainly not be the extent of their wickedness, I flipped the passenger visor down a bit. Sure enough; there sat another can! Oh, those wretched pranksters! How dare they prevent me from my appointed task, only to revisit the game upon me!
I did a brief (as best I could, while sailing down the highway) survey of my surroundings and located more cans in my glove box, in the netting on each door, as well as a couple more tucked into my workboots in the back. They’d hidden 8 cans in total…9, if you count the boot. That wasn’t bad at all, but the truly impressive aspect was the fact that they’d hidden the cans on me and then placed them in my Jeep while I was asleep. Bravo!
So as you can tell, my hidden can tally for the weekend was depressingly low. I did manage to hide three, all told. One is a “gimme” and I expect it will be found before too long. The second one is pretty good, and may not be found for some time. And the last one…yes, that is my masterpiece. I consider it as bringing things to a new level. Even better; I did not cheat in any way. (I need to be careful in the hints I give, for I realize they peruse the blog as well.) But suffice to say that the can is not crushed or malformed in any way.
And there you have it; the President’s Day weekend Olean trip, 2014.
How about some pics?
Just down the road from Mark & Mary’s house, the guy who owns this farm had a ginormous snowman made out of plastic-sheathed hay rolls. A construction cone for a nose, Christmas wreathes for eyes, and long wooden planks for arms. Not bad!
Food! Anyone that’s made the trip out there knows that Mark and Mary treat you like family…and they feed you like royalty!
Here’s the chair that my fat ass broke. I was playing with Isaac and I think he tossed a balloon at me and when I tried to twist around and catch it…well…let’s just say the chair was not up to the task.
This next pic is self-explanatory. More (yep; more!) bacon-wrapped chicken, frosties, and that damned Kahlua.
Here’s a pic from the V on Saturday evening. I’m not sure whose cammo beanie it is that I’m wearing, or why it was so funny at the time, but we sure are laughing pretty hard for some reason.
And speaking of amazing sights, I had to snap a couple of pics of a different farm down the road from them. Coming around the corner on the road and seeing this great expanse just stretching out in front of me, with more snow coming down, was just amazing.
This next pic…whoops…I can’t show you that one. I snapped a pic of the can I hid on Friday night. Moving on…
Oops, and the same goes for this next pic, I can’t show that one either, as that’s of the can which I believe takes things to a new level. Let’s see if I have any more pics I CAN show…
Ahh yes, the can in the boot. It was pic-worthy at 5:45 in the morning.
Brrr! That’s the outside temp on Monday morning as I was leaving Olean…
One of the offending hitchhikers tucked above the passenger’s visor…
Oh yeah – this pic is not a good representation, but something else that was very cool to see on the way home. The air was so cold that the streams and rivers that ran alongside were giving off “steam” and in a number of places, it was thick enough to capture the sunlight as it broke over the tops of mountains, basically looking like perfectly vertical rainbows – they had no start and no end but were just straight lines. Very cool!
The obligatory pic of the cans in the boots…
I took this last pic as I was crossing over the Berkshire Connector – the mile-long bridge that crosses over the Hudson River. The river is frozen over, but there’s a track in the middle that’s broken up by passing freighters and barges. On my way out, there was an awesome sight of a tanker pushing its way northward through the shattered ice and I’d wished I’d had the opportunity to get a pic of it. On the way home, there was another tanker but it was further up the river, not to mention I was now on the southbound side and didn’t have as good a view of it. Oh well. If you click on the pic to open it up, you’ll see what looks like a tiny red dot above the railing. That’s the smoke stack from the tanker.
That’s it! I had a great time and can’t wait to get out there again! Thanks to Mark and Mary for once again; “putting me up, and putting up with me”!
Ride Hard, Take Chances
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Olean on my Mind
'Been counting the days for a while, now. Actually, if I count the days since I was last out there, it'd be way, way too many. Ordinarily, I'm out there in July and August of each year, but neither of those happened in 2013, which makes it...holy crap...I haven't been out there since the Regatta in May. That's almost an entire year! Even worse, that's plenty of time for Mary to have found all the hidden cans by now!
So as you can see; not only do I have a lot of lost time to make up for, I will also need to restock Mark & Mary's house with fun little 'gifts' for them to find.
(As an aside, I'm going to get to see Jerry & Barb's new house while I'm out there - I'm not sure if Barb would enjoy the same hide-n-seek beer can game that the rest of us do... I may have to do it, anyway...)
Also going on out there this weekend; the V is holding a clambake. I'm not a seafood kinda guy, but I'll pop in for a bit to see the familiar faces.
We've got another nasty winter storm arriving tomorrow morning and they're saying it's going to be a 24-hour event, right through to Friday morning. No matter. I've got 4-wheel drive and ambition. I will be on the road nice and early, front tires pointed almost due west.
Two more sleeps...
So as you can see; not only do I have a lot of lost time to make up for, I will also need to restock Mark & Mary's house with fun little 'gifts' for them to find.
(As an aside, I'm going to get to see Jerry & Barb's new house while I'm out there - I'm not sure if Barb would enjoy the same hide-n-seek beer can game that the rest of us do... I may have to do it, anyway...)
Also going on out there this weekend; the V is holding a clambake. I'm not a seafood kinda guy, but I'll pop in for a bit to see the familiar faces.
We've got another nasty winter storm arriving tomorrow morning and they're saying it's going to be a 24-hour event, right through to Friday morning. No matter. I've got 4-wheel drive and ambition. I will be on the road nice and early, front tires pointed almost due west.
Two more sleeps...
Monday, February 3, 2014
Solo Seat
The weather was calling for a nice day and the texts had been coming in; who's going riding!?!
Sunday was to be the better of the two days, so myself, Zig and Matty agreed to meet up at Zig's and then head to a not-too-local alehouse for some food and 'freshments.
I needed to head out from my house a little after noontime to hit the rally time of noon-thirty. However, when I found myself with about 10 extra minutes, I figured I'd just take the long way there...
...then I saw the new solo seat sitting in the back of the garage and I remembered; oh yeah! I still need to install that thing! How hard can it be? Can't take any longer than a few minutes...
Well, I forgot about the harness strap which crosses the seat, and to remove that, the saddlebags have to come off, and so on and so on. None of this is hard, but it did eat up more time that I'd planned, so when I stepped back to survey the new seat, the clock said I was short on time.
A quick text to let the boys know I was running a few minutes late, and then I was off. Man - I expected this seat to be less soft than the full/stock one, but wowie...this thing is stiff! I got to thinking about the "sponge" that I used to sit on with the Shovelhead...was that one just as hard? LOL, I'm not as young as I used to be, so maybe that seat was just as hard, but I'll tell ya; my lower back wasn't too keen on about the new seat.
The thing I absolutely love about the seat, though, is how low it sits me. My shaded low-profile windshield is almost too high now, and may need to be lowered a bit, but I'm going to hold off for now as I'm not positive this seat is going to be a permanent fixture. Maybe I'll just swap it back and forth with the stock one, depending on what ride(s) are lined up.
Anyway; here are a couple of pics...
The guys looked at it a bit, we chatted about it a bit...then we roared off. Man, it felt so good to be riding!!
When we arrived at the alehouse, we found it was closed for a private Superbowl party. Huh. Well, ok, no problem, Zig knew of another cool place down the road a piece. We saddled back up and headed over to that place, and settled in for some awesome food and great conversation with those around us.
After a bit of time, we saddled back up, roared up some more roadways and pulled into Alberto's where Kate was just ending her shift. We took our places toward the back of the bar and hung out for a bit before breaking off in our own directions to catch the big game.
As we all now know - it was not much of a game...
Anyway, it's Monday now and the outside is pitch white again. We're only supposed to get a dusting today but it's been coming down for hours and doesn't look like it's going to end anytime soon. Then we're supposed to get another storm on Wednesday, and another one on Saturday...
...which just makes it that much more awesome that we were able to get out there and get some miles on yesterday. F you, Winter. We'll sneak rides in whenever we can!
Here's hoping some of you were able to get out there yesterday as well. Keep the faith! Winter can't last forever (but it does feel that way each year).
Ride Hard, Take Chances
Sunday was to be the better of the two days, so myself, Zig and Matty agreed to meet up at Zig's and then head to a not-too-local alehouse for some food and 'freshments.
I needed to head out from my house a little after noontime to hit the rally time of noon-thirty. However, when I found myself with about 10 extra minutes, I figured I'd just take the long way there...
...then I saw the new solo seat sitting in the back of the garage and I remembered; oh yeah! I still need to install that thing! How hard can it be? Can't take any longer than a few minutes...
Well, I forgot about the harness strap which crosses the seat, and to remove that, the saddlebags have to come off, and so on and so on. None of this is hard, but it did eat up more time that I'd planned, so when I stepped back to survey the new seat, the clock said I was short on time.
A quick text to let the boys know I was running a few minutes late, and then I was off. Man - I expected this seat to be less soft than the full/stock one, but wowie...this thing is stiff! I got to thinking about the "sponge" that I used to sit on with the Shovelhead...was that one just as hard? LOL, I'm not as young as I used to be, so maybe that seat was just as hard, but I'll tell ya; my lower back wasn't too keen on about the new seat.
The thing I absolutely love about the seat, though, is how low it sits me. My shaded low-profile windshield is almost too high now, and may need to be lowered a bit, but I'm going to hold off for now as I'm not positive this seat is going to be a permanent fixture. Maybe I'll just swap it back and forth with the stock one, depending on what ride(s) are lined up.
Anyway; here are a couple of pics...
The guys looked at it a bit, we chatted about it a bit...then we roared off. Man, it felt so good to be riding!!
When we arrived at the alehouse, we found it was closed for a private Superbowl party. Huh. Well, ok, no problem, Zig knew of another cool place down the road a piece. We saddled back up and headed over to that place, and settled in for some awesome food and great conversation with those around us.
After a bit of time, we saddled back up, roared up some more roadways and pulled into Alberto's where Kate was just ending her shift. We took our places toward the back of the bar and hung out for a bit before breaking off in our own directions to catch the big game.
As we all now know - it was not much of a game...
Anyway, it's Monday now and the outside is pitch white again. We're only supposed to get a dusting today but it's been coming down for hours and doesn't look like it's going to end anytime soon. Then we're supposed to get another storm on Wednesday, and another one on Saturday...
...which just makes it that much more awesome that we were able to get out there and get some miles on yesterday. F you, Winter. We'll sneak rides in whenever we can!
Here's hoping some of you were able to get out there yesterday as well. Keep the faith! Winter can't last forever (but it does feel that way each year).
Ride Hard, Take Chances
Saturday, February 1, 2014
Gray and Dreary
Is it just me, or does this Winter seem more gray and dreary than others? Maybe it's got something to do with being at work on a Saturday afternoon (which I am) but I'm sitting here looking out the window at yet another sunless, gray sky. It seems like it's been like this for weeks; very little sun shining down. It's farkin' depressing!
I dunno, maybe it's normal and I just need Summer to hurry up and get here.
Ok, I'm done griping. Back to the spreadsheets again...
I dunno, maybe it's normal and I just need Summer to hurry up and get here.
Ok, I'm done griping. Back to the spreadsheets again...
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