My new jacket from Motorcycle Superstore arrived today via FedEx. The old one was a bit tight, so I looked on their website and found another jacket I liked. The return process was easy enough, and the new jacket fits like a charm.  The instant email notifications from the Motorcycle Superstore were nice: one when they got my returned jacket, one when they processed my return and one when they mailed my new jacket, along with a tracking number to see it progress across the country.

I took out the two inner layers to the jacket – I shouldn’t need them in the warm weather we’re having. Though I could’ve used just the jacket this morning. I had my sweatshirt on, but in the shadows, brrr! Chilly. The jacket has zippered pockets, and inside pockets on both the main “shell”, the main jacket itself and the same size pockets on the inner most layer also. One sized for a cell phone and one for a map or a large wallet.

The inner layers have colored coded snaps to fasten them to the main shell and each other: you can take one out at a time or both out together. Overall, it looks like a great jacket. I’ll try it out tomorrow. And the Motorcycle Superstore? Great service. I was pleased with it.

. . .that you’ve done everything alright, something comes up and smacks ya back down.

The bike didn’t want to start this morning. Took several minutes of it whirling before something finally caught. The battery was fine, but it was like it wasn’t getting enough gas, or air or something. . .and since I just put in that fuel cleaner stuff (and have gone through that tank of gas already and halfway through the next tank) it might be the air part of the combustion cycle. So remind me to check the air cleaner tomorrow when I get a minute.

But I finally got it going. Off to work on it I went. Then at lunch time I placed the key in the ingition, turned it on, and hit the on button. The damn bike lurched forward and since I didn’t have a hold of it, it tipped over. I got a cool looking owie and a bruise on the side of my hip. And made myself look like a jackass in front of the guys. But wait! It gets better!

So when we got out of work at 5pm, I go to start my bike. I do it right this time: sitting on it, which the clutch firmly gripped and a good hold on it while I turn it on. No problems. I take off after the other bike rider and we head down the road. We get to the bottom of the hill and stop in the line of traffic making the right hand turn. I have my turn signal, the bike is idling fine, I’m all set. I get down to the stop sign, check quickly for oncoming traffic and take off. . .only to have the bike stall on me.

Unfortunately for me, I was in the left hand side of the road – all the way over by the double yellow lines. WTF! So I’m trying to start it, and meanwhile assholes are passing me on the right. Real safe jerkwads, thanks for letting me pull over. So I manage to get over to the side, after someone from work lets me get over. I try to start it. No go. So I try downshifting. . .and realized I was in 4 gear!

What the fuck I think to myself. So two stupid mistakes in one day. At least they weren’t life costing mistakes – they just made me look like an ass is all. It felt like someone had the “candid camera” on me, playing silly little games with me. Gah! Live and learn. . .live and learn. Heh.

As if you didn’t know by my typing away at 7:45 am, I’m at home and not at work. In the states today it is Memorial Day, a day upon which we are to reflect on the sacrifices made by fallen soldiers, marines, sailors and airmen. Out of all the my time in the Army, I only personally knew one guy that died while serving: Spec. Mark E. Gutting. We were with the 92nd MP Battalion in Panama both serving with the Law Enforcement Activity’s Headquarters Company (basically road duty for the posts in Pamana’s Pacific side) and we lived on the same floor of the barracks.

When Gutting left to PCS to Fort Drum’s 10th Mountain Division, I got his room. A couple months later we heard he had been killed when a landmine exploded under his Humvee while serving in Somilia. The other three soldiers in the Humvee had died also. About a year later I PCS’ed to the 10th Mountain Division. By that time the 511th had returned from Somilia and were actually serving in Panama. Many of the people in the company had served in Somilia, but not many talked about it.

But that was in the early 90s. It seems now everyone has a chance to know people who have given the biggest sacrifice possible. It doesn’t matter if you agree with the war or not, what does matter are these young men and women are dying over there so we don’t have to. I could go on at this point about a draft, or mandatory military service (a la Israel), but I won’t. For this is a day of thinking of all who died in military service for this country, whatever she asked of her warriors, they stood up and heeded the call – and gave their one life for her.

Ahh, Sunday. My favorite of the weekend days. Something ’bout a Sunday morning with its peace and quiet and large newspaper. But today was different. After reading the Boston Globe, I headed out on the bike. It was another perfect day for it: mid to high 70s, sunny, and low humidity.

I got about a mile down the road and all of a sudden the bike crapped out on me. What the? The lights were still on, so the battery was okay. Umm. Gas? I turned it to reserve and she started up again with a bit of coughing. I made it to the gas station that was about a mile down the road and poured in my carb / fuel line cleaner and filled her up with premium. Made me giggle thinking – I put premium (93 octane) in the ’78 bike while in my Mustang I put just plain regular (89 octane).

Then off I went – I went down and around and back home again for about 20 miles. I was thirsty and wanted to check out the map for the roads north of me. As it had been a year or so since I’d been on those back roads north of me, I figure I better “study up” on them before I tried taking them. After my half hour break, I headed back out.  This time I went up and around and back home. . .whoops, passed home to the Quizno’s about 15 minutes the other way to get a sammich. I had put my thick red sweatshirt under my cargo net on the back seat, just in case it got cold when I was out as I was just wearing jeans and a tee-shirt.

So when I got my sammich (yumm, large bacon turkey guacamole)  I put it on the back seat under the cargo netting and put on my sweatshirt. Usually when I ride it is a either a leather coat or a tee-shirt. I’ve never ridden with a sweatshirt on. It was a bit different: I could still feel the breeze, but it wasn’t cold. With a tee-shirt I could feel the breeze and if out of the sun it could get a bit chilly. With my leather coat I couldn’t feel the breeze and it wasn’t ever cold. The sweatshirt was like the best of both worlds.

The sammich managed to arrive home safely, and after eating the entire thing quickly (as all I had thus far today was a couple cups of coffee and two slices of toast), I took a nap. An hour later I awoke to the sound of someone opening the hallway door. I could feel my arms burning. What the? I managed to peel myself off the bed and looked at my arms – burnt! I had a nice farmer’s sunburn, but on only on the tops of my arms. Underneath was still ghostly white.

::sigh::

So I got out the aloe vera gel and put some on. And then the itch grabbed me again. I got my helmet and sweatshirt and headed back out on the bike. Only this time I went to put some gas in it and came back as the sky was darkening and I didn’t know when the thunderstorms promised for tonight would be showing up.

So 85+ miles, one sunburn and  a nap later, my pretty much perfect day has come to and end.

So $100.51 later I had my bike and it had been “serviced” and given a brand new inspection sticker. I had brought it in last Saturday ’bout noonish, and asked for an oil & oil filter change, to check and lube the throttle cable (my Dad said it was acting strange) and to get its yearly inspection sticker. Well, you saw what progress they had made on Wednesday.

I was going to call him on Friday evening after work to see what was going on with it, and if I could get it before this weekend. The guy beat me to the punch: he had left me a voicemail when I was out to lunch asking me to call him back. When I called him back he said it was ready, but there were several major things wrong with it.

Uh-uh. I thought. What the heck? So I asked him what they were. He told me the throttle cable was a bit rusted and should be replaced. Okay, but seeing as how I don’t have a spare and I don’t want to wait for them to get one, nor charge me out the arse for it, I said okay, what else? And he said the gear shifter wouldn’t automatically return to the ‘home’ position after shifting it. Umm. Yeah, it’s had that problem for a while now. The entire time I drove it I had to ‘tap’ it down after I shifted to any of the up gears, but mostly gears 3 to 4 if I remembered correctly.

So the guy said I could come on down and pick it up.

I asked one of the guys at work and he said he could take me down there on Saturday to pick it up. When I got down there, the guy who worked on it was shocked that I would take it with the shifter acting the way it did. Umm. Its acted like this for the past 20 years that I know of – when my Dad drove it 16+ years ago for a year or two he said it did the same thing for him. He never bothered to fix it, and ::knocks on wood:: it shouldn’t be a problem for me. The mechanic showed me the rust on the throttle cable, and it wasn’t the actual cable, but the adjustment or connector, whatever he called it. You can see where he taped it to ensure it stayed together here:

Now this bike is from 1978, so it is almost 30 years old (!), and most of the components are all original. So that they have a bit of rust on them, or are fragile, doesn’t suprise me. . .but what did surprise me, was after I got on my bike (and finally got it started – took me a bit to remember which way was ‘on’ for the choke, as she is slow starting up.) and took off on it, the assembly of the front brake / right mirror was loose. Not falling down off the handlebar loose, but loose enough to be a pain in the arse.

So why didn’t the mechanic guy tighten it back up after he put it back on – I’m assuming that he loosen it in order to tak out the throttle cable to lube it. Makes me wonder if they broke it trying to take it out / put it back in. Whatever – I’ll just assume (again) that he didn’t do it intentionally if he did do it.

And remember how it took nearly a week for them to check it out? On my bill they charged me for .4 hours for the oil change and .3 hours for the throttle cable adjustment. All total: .7 hours. Less then an hour. Want to guess how much labor cost? $52.50, or $75 an hour. I guess that is standard for a mechanic? All I know it is more than I make an hour, and I’m a chemical engineer. I guess I ought to switch professions, eh?

But I forgot about all that jazz (for the most part) as I drove home: in the low 80s, sunny, low humidity. A beautiful day out for a bike ride. Though the bike did stall out twice while I was riding it, and with the crazy slipping front brake handle it made for some nerve racking moments – but I made it home in one part, and will go out later for another ride I’m sure. I hadn’t forgotten how much I enjoy riding it; it is about as close to flying as I’ll get (other then skydiving, which is just falling).

So it has been just over 10 years since I came out. To myself at least. It took me a couple months to come out to my family (sister first, then mom, dad and brother). When we were cleaning out the house, my sister came across a box of old letters from me to her. One of them was my coming out letter. I kept it. souvenir ya know?

I got to thinking about it the other day at work, told one of the guys that it was over 10 years since I’ve had a boyfriend. . .when in actuality it has been closer to over 11 years since my divorce from my ex-husband (long story). Nice guy, one of those guys that holds the door open for you ya know?, but . . .not quite my type. Part of me is sorry for misleading him, and then I think I was misleading myself too. . .it doesn’t make it right, but it puts a different spin on it. If I didn’t know, how could I tell him?

So I wondered what the heck I had written on that day when I finally came to terms, kinda, with being gay:

If you can’t read it, then click on the link for a larger version. Not that will help you with my chicken scratch.

Yeah, I kept a journal. Lots of them in fact. Since I went to Fort Monroe back in late November of 1990 to the early 2000s. I still have one, though I don’t write much in it anymore. I mostly just blog now instead. Occasionally I save all my old blog entries to a word document and print them out to put in a 3 ring binder. Not as nice as the 8.5″ X 11″ hard cover journals, but it’ll do.

I even found the entry, July 13, 1997, on which date I got kitty who was just a month or so old at the time.

I had some stuff to bitch and moan about . . .but now I can’t even remember what it was. . .prolly had to do with my bike. I brought it in Saturday afternoon for the guy to lube the throttle cable, change the oil and do the yearly safety inspection on it. I wouldn’t think that would take all that long, but I understood I was a “drop in” (though over the phone the guy didn’t want to make an official appointment, he said just swing by).

So I figured a couple days to look at it and get done what needed to be done. They are closed on Sundays and Mondays, prolly so they can be open on Saturdays, which is nice. I called on Wednesday when I got home from work (about 5:45pm) to check on the status of the bike. . . and the guy hadn’t even looked at it yet.

Wha? Two days and nothing? Seesh. So I didn’t call today, and I got no voicemail / call from him. So I’ll call tomorrow – it’d be nice to have the bike for the long weekend. The weekend that it is supposed to be warm and sunny.

I guess if bitching about not having my bike in time for the three day weekend is as bad as it gets, then I’m doing alright. And the Motorcycle Superstore online sent me an email that they shipped my replacement jacket, as the original lavender jacket didn’t fit right. . .I could put it on and zip it up (without the liner) and then I couldn’t breath. Breathing seems important enough to get a different jacket.

Their returns process was very easy. Just get an RMA number via my logon to their website, slap it back in the same back and ship it back to them. At least we have UPS access at work so I shipped it via UPS ground (work will let us do this with our employee number, and then they’ll just deduct the cost of it from our paycheck. simple. easy. quick. And since I know how to use the UPS system now, I can process it myself, which allows me to see which rates are cheaper and not to tie up a shipping employee to do it. I also do it before I “officially” get in a 8am, so I’m not even on company time when I do it.).

I can’t wait to see the new jacket. It is white with gray stripes and reflective pinstriping:

I rather have blue one, but they were out. And I wasn’t going to get the pink one. . .it would class with my green bike. heh. I like the light colors ’cause they’ll be easier for people to see then the black leather coat I usually wear. I’ve been looking at helmets too, as my helmet is a hand-me-down from my dad. It fits (and it is white so it matchs the coat), but it is prolly old. My head deserves real protection, ya know? So I’ve been looking at nice looking girly helmets too. I figure as long as the have the dot rating they’re safe enough (or at least safer then the one I got now), and as long as they are comfie, then I could at least one that looks cool too. Unfortuately I can’t find any ones that match (or even come close to) the green of my bike.  But I did find a nice blue one, and a couple cool purple ones. We shall see. I was going to see if I could find anything at the stores around here rather then buying on online. . .

Buying a jacket online is one thing, but a helmet. . .I could prolly try on at least 10 different helmets and compare them, before commiting to one, unlike a jacket. Now I just need to get my bike back. . .

To Dave Sim’s Blog & Mail today:

 Right now Margaret and a few other people are working on a CD-ROM of all of the back of the book stuff – everything that was published in Cerebus that wasn’t the Cerebus storyline itself. And from what Margaret was telling me in Columbus, all of it is being done as word documents which means it will be “fully searchable”. You’ll be able to type in “Mike Bannon” and your computer will tell you exactly where to find everything that Mike Bannon had printed in Cerebus.

This isn’t me – it is Jeff T of the Art of Dave Sim site (among others) and a couple of other people. Someone from the Cerebus Yahoo!Group started doing it and did the majority (if not of) the scanning and touch up work on it. Last I heard it was to be a PDF type searchable document. But it is everything in Cerebus that wasn’t Cerebus storyline itself – i.e. the letters column, the Notes From the President, Advertisements, etc. I know I’m looking forward to it, it will definately be a handy resource to have.

 After that, Margaret has also finished scanning all of my notebooks so there will be a CD-ROM of all of the pages from my Notebooks 1981 to 2004.

Well, I have finished scanning the Cerebus notebooks – the major part right now is touching up the pictures (png and jpg formats) for the online searchable database (searchable by keywords for the pictures from the notebooks) and for the DVD of higher resolution copies of the same pictures. I’ve talked a bit about the notebooks before if you’re so interested, I’m not going to rehash that now.

So I went and did it. . .

I spent my bonus check on a new LCD monitor for my computer. My previous monitor, a 19″ CRT flatscreen, was is working fine. A Samsung SyncMaster 955 that I’ve had since 2002 when my original HP monitor bit the dust. But something grabbed me and I said what the hey. . .and a couple hundred duckets later, I have a Samsung SyncMaster 226bw.

24″ widescreen with a response time of 2ms and a contrast ratio of 3000:1. Sweet. Before I left to get it, I unplugged my previous monitor and cleaned off the desk on which it had sat. I forgot how heavy that thing was – it is huge! And so much desk top taken up by it. When the guy brought out the new monitor in its box, he was carrying it by one hand. I got a bit nervous – don’t drop it! The box was so slim, unlike the box the 955 came in – that thing was a monster.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved my 955, but it was time to make the switch to a lcd. The one thing I miss is not having a “shelf” on top of the monitor to put my stuff, but at least I have the desk space now to put a letter organizer / letter holder thingie.

But the new monitor was super easy to order online via Circuit City - I got my current cpu from them back in 2004 (yes, it still runs good and does what I want it to do.) I used their online ordering and picked it up at the store. Ordering online lets me look at reviews and check out the prices of the different retailers in the area. And I also avoid the overly pushy salesman who thinks he knows what I want. Ha. The online ordering was quick and simple. When I went to pick it up, I could park right up front in the ‘pick up merchandise’ area and just walk in, show my driver’s license and the credit card used to make the purchase and 3 minutes later I was gone. Easy.

Installing the monitor was even easier. It really wasn’t even “installing” it – more like just plugging in the power cable, plugging in the other cable and turning on the computer – which instantly recognized the monitor. All I had to do was change my resolution from 1280 x 1024 to 1680 x 1050.  Well worth the couple hundie spent on it.

Happy Birthday Dave!

And thanks for all the great issues of Cerebus. And yes, I’ll even throw in The Last Day, even if it isn’t included in my picture (the picture was taken before it was released in phonebook form).