A Blog for a geek

Lion Login Troubles

2011-09-27T13:08:00.003-06:00

So you got your Mac updated to shiny new Lion and you're enjoying all those new zoomy features.

Then one day, you go to log in, and the screen goes white and kicks you back to the login screen.
Uh oh. That's not good.

In my experience, something corrupted the keychain(s) simply removing the keychains from the /Users/USERNAME/Library/Keychains/ folder allowed the user to log in and work as normal, save the loss of the passwords.

Fear not, your files are not lost. You're just unable to login to the graphical environment.

Here's the how to:
You'll need to get to the command line of the system. This will be easiest if you have another account on the machine, but could be done through Single User Mode as well.

If you're in Single User Mode, you'll need to mount the system Read/Write.
mount -o update /

If you're using Terminal.app from another user, you'll need root privelages. sudo works if you're an admin user, otherwise, you can su USERNAME to the account that is broken.

Enter the following, obviously replacing USERNAME with the short name of the account that is broken.
Note: the short name of an account can be found by looking at the name of the home folder of an account. Unless specifically altered, the default is a concatenation of the first and last name. John Doe would get the short name johndoe unless otherwise altered.
rm /Users/USERNAME/Library/Keychains/*

Once you've done that, you can reboot the system if you're in Single User Mode (shutdown -r now) or log out of the other account you were using.
At this point you should be able to sign into the ailed account.
You will have lost all the passwords that were saved in your keychain, and while annoying, that's a small price to pay vs losing your data.

Please be EXTRA careful when working in read/write while in Single User Mode as well as dealing with any and all Library files.

With power comes responsibility. BE CAREFUL!

Install a Target-mode Mac without shutting down the host

2011-06-01T10:52:00.004-06:00

Have you ever had a Mac that you need to reinstall, but only have a disk image of the install disc? Or, you don't have a DVD that the soon-to-be-reinstalled machine will accept?

So long as you have a Firewire cable, you can still run the install.

Put the target machine into Target mode (hold the "T" key as soon as you hear the chime on boot)
Connect the target machine and the host machine via FireWire cable
Insert the install DVD or mount the disk image on the host machine.
Open Terminal and enter this line:
open /Volumes/Mac\ OS\ X\ Install\ DVD/System/Installation/Packages/
This will open a new Finder window displaying the contents of a folder on the install disc.
In that folder, you'll need to run OSinstall.mpkg and select the hard drive of the target machine as the install point. (you may want to format the hard drive of the target machine prior to doing the install)
Select your options (by clicking the "Customize" button) and you're off!

Note: this was written for 10.6.x. In some cases this works flawlessly, in others, it doesn't work at all. Please comment with your experience.

Pictures!

2008-05-13T13:52:00.001-06:00

Finally got the pictures sorted through and got them uploaded.

So for your viewing pleasure: http://picasaweb.google.com/seeryn/Palawan

No, I took far more then 102 pictures, but I have a limit on their server, so for the rest you'll have to come visit me.

Y'all enjoy
Nathan

I is be home!

2008-05-07T14:10:00.001-06:00

Howdy y'all,

I'm more then a bit late getting this out. Got busy talking with the folks.

I landed at DFW on Monday May 5th at 8:20pm. Just 40min over-due. Not too bad considering how far I had to come from Manila.

Save some thunderstorms around Tokyo, the flights were quite smooth.
The flight was delayed for nearly an hr from Tokyo due to an unexplained noise. Finally tracked it down to to the ventilation system for one of the rear toilets.
We were again delayed in Minneapolis due to traffic. I think we were number 14 in line for take off when we pulled away from the gate.

Customs at MSP went fairly smoothly despite a paranoid CBP agent wanting an explanation as to why I would bring native artifacts home. Fortunately, the other officer, who I suspect carried more clout, wasn't the least bit worried and even helped me tape the box back up.

Both of my boxes and even the 4, 6ft poles arrive with me. I was please to not have to deal with lost luggage.

My family was there to meet me when I got off the flight. Stopped by the Grandparents on the way home.

After a bit of sleep, I'm starting to get adjusted to the 13hr time difference.
Now to get all the pictures sorted and online...

Y'all take care and God bless!
Nathan

Kementian News 04-20-08 Edition

2008-04-19T19:47:00.001-06:00

Howdy everyone!

David had an idea while he and Tammy were on vacation a couple weeks ago. The idea was to come up with some flashlights that could be loaned to the local people so that evening meetings could be held at the church. At present no one would come to a evening meeting unless there is going to be a sleep-over or someone loans them a light as most people don't have flashlights at all.

The title applied to this project is Let There Be Light.

So the first question is, where are we going to find flashlights that fit the requirements (cheap, simple to operate, few parts for the people to take apart, long battery life, durable)?

To answer this question, strap on your time machine and we'll jump back to early February at SWAU where they are packing the Valentine's packages for the SMs. Many goodies were included in these packages, but the item we are looking for is a Pak-Lite. Its a flashlight that was designed and created by a class-mate of my brothers that is quite simply, two LEDs attached to the top of a 9volt battery. Simple, durable, cheap.

Fast forward the three weeks it takes for a small package to arrive via USPS and that flashlight (as well as all the tasty food items) was a hit. Everyone on the project was quite fascinated with the little light. So when David had this idea for the Let There Be Light project, this flashlight was the first thing that popped into his head. On poking around the website for Pak-Lite's <http://www.9voltlight.com> he found the basic model running just shy of $13 each. Multiplying that $13 times the approximately 30 that David feels we need to properly start this project and you come up with a number thats awfully close to $400. Where is $400 going to come from?

On Monday evening of last week, David mentioned this idea to the rest of the team as we were enjoying some yummy food. He mentioned that he wasn't sure where the money was going to come from. As I sat there and listened to his story and the amount needed, I was reminded of an email I'd received the week prior.

Apparently, after I'd already arrive here on Palawan, my church had some additional funds donated towards the fund raising that I was doing to allow me to come over here. The email asked what I wanted to do with this money. I replied that I would ask and see what was needed on the project. I was expecting the George's to come in the following day, but as it turned out, they didn't end up coming back in from the lowlands at all. So I didn't get to ask them. I was intending to reply again with instructions to sit on the money and I'd purchase a few items that I felt were needed when I got home and send them over, but I forgot to send that email three days in a row.

Oh, I guess you're probably wondering about how much money was donated "late". It was $400.

So here we have God answering prayers months prior to the idea even being formed, both in the case of the flashlight itself and the money to make the purchase. Just a little reminder of Isaiah 65:24 "...Before they call, I will answer..." Yup, God is still alive and working for his children, even before we know what He's doing for us!

I'll be leaving the mountains next Sunday (Apr 27). Will arrive in Manila on April 30^th where I'll spend a few days then arrive at DFW on the evening of May 5^th.

A little good news from home to pass along, my "little" brother found his Miss Right and she's agreed to marry him. If you want all the juicy details, you'll have to talk to him, or even better, talk with her.

A big congrats to Larry and Alex!

Thank you all for your continued thoughts and prayers!

Nathan

Kementian News. 04-06-08 Edition

2008-04-05T23:39:00.001-06:00

04-06-08

Howdy folks,

Things have been staying fairly busy here in Kementian. Not nearly to the point where we are swamped, but enough to keep me mostly out of trouble.

The number of people on the project has been varying with supervisors coming, families coming in, people going on vacation, obligations out of the mountains etc.

I've been doing more computer work. Never exactly what one expects to find in the mountains, but necessary none the less.

Audio recording/editing has eaten most of my time with a few other things thrown in for good measure

The dry season has pretty well set in full force and as a result the water to turn the hydro is nearly gone. Which leaves us relying on solar power.

Thursday saw a reprieve of this as it rained for about 4hrs straight then off and on for the rest of the day. Allowed us to get full power out of the hydro again which was much needed to get those batteries back up to par.

Our demoniac friend hasn't caused any more trouble that I've heard of. The couple times I've seen him he hasn't changed since he left here. He acts as though he's mentally not as old as he is physically. His mannerism are that of a young child. I hear that he's still prone to anger out bursts and this leads me to continue in the belief that he wasn't free of the spirit when he left here nor is he now. Where God is going with this I don't have a clue, but I do know that all things work together for good, so we need to sit back and trust him will continuing to pray. Course, thats what we need to do for every situation isn't it?

In trying to track down the package that contains, among other things, and upgraded alternator for the hydro, I found that it *should* be delivered within the next week or so. Seeing as its taken nearly three months to this point, I'm not going to hold my breath. It would be very nice to see that package prior to my departure.

Speaking of departure, I received my tickets for the return trip on Thursday. I've just 22 days till I leave the project and 10 more till I land in at DFW on the evening of May 5th.

Am I looking forward to leaving? Yes, but not cause I dislike this place. I've had a great experience here, though a challenge at times, and don't for a second regret coming out. I do miss my family a lot and am very much looking forward to seeing them again.

Ok, thats enough rambling from me.

Thanks for y'alls prayers, they are much appreciated.

Nathan

Kementian News. 03-16-08 Edition

2008-03-15T23:24:00.001-06:00

Howdy folks!

Thank you so very much for your prayers regarding Turni and the demon possession. There was marked improvement of his condition as last week continued on.

On Thursday around noon, Turni and his father went back to their village. We don't feel that Turni is free of the demon, but he had made up his mind that he was better and wanted to go home. His dad was in agreement that he was better and was ready to go home as well. As it was, we were amazed that he had stayed around as long as he had. He'd been talking about going home almost since he got here.

We are continuing to pray for him and how this will be to God's glory.

There is much opportunity to witness through this experience as Turni's father, Mami (pronounced Mommy) is one of the head men of this part of the mountain. He's also one of the biggest witch doctors. The change that has happened in Mami over the duration of this project has been amazing. I'm told that when the George's arrived, Mami was one of the most adamant that the Palawano's should stay away from the clinic, and the school, and everything that had to do with the George's and this project.

A few months ago Mami asked that someone come up to his village to give Bible studies and then when his son became possessed with a demon, he specifically asked for Pastor George to come and help.

Its clear that the Holy Spirit is working on Mami's heart and that is beginning to bear fruits.

Please keep Turni, Mami, and the people of Nerahungan in your prayers. The devil doesn't want to let go of that village nor its people.

As for me, things have been going good. A mix of staying busy and having nothing to do. There's several projects that need to be finished before I leave in just over six weeks, but they aren't quite ready to be started just yet.

Still waiting on the box that the folks sent back in January to arrive. I'm told that its supposed to arrive sometime around the 25^th of March. I know that box is loaded up with goodies, so I guess we'll be living pretty high on the hog for the three weeks or so that I'll have left when it arrives.

Also in the box is an HF antenna so generously donated by my friends on Two Wheeled Texans <http://www.twtex.com> and a high-amp alternator to nearly triple the power output of our hydro generator. I'm hoping that I'll be able to get both of those up and fully functional before I leave.

If any of you were planning on sending me anything, you best send it quick as it takes a long time to arrive. (no, thats not a hint for y'all to send me anything, just a statement if you were planning on it)

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers!

God bless and y'all take care

Nathan

Kementian News. 03-09-08 Edition

2008-03-08T22:54:00.001-06:00

Howdy everybody,

This email is specifically a request for prayer.

Starting last Sunday we've been hearing many reports of demon possession and demonic disturbances from several villages in the surrounding area.

Thursday afternoon we were requested to go up to a village to help with Turni, one of the students from our school, who was demon possessed. David. Dwayne, and Rinal went up there that evening.

Friday morning we flew him down here to Kementian to get him into an environment where God was primary focus.

Its now Sunday and the improvement in Turni has been dramatic. He's not free of the demon just yet, and for this I request your prayers.

I also want to praise God for the protection that He has laid out on us. Satan has incredible powers, but none of them have been able to harm us because we are God's children.

I'm sure some will be asking "can't you cast a demon out instantly?" because I asked the same question.

Had that happened in this case, there's several lessons that we would not have learned. Again, another instance where we can't trust in our own thoughts and feelings but rely only on God's wisdom and timing.

I ask that you will continue to pray for this project and add a special prayer for protection from satan and his angels.

Thank you for your prayers!

Take care and God bless

Nathan

Kementian News. 03-02-08 Edition

2008-03-01T22:40:00.001-06:00

Howdy everybody!

Several months ago, the generator literally shook it self apart and in the process of taking it apart to tighten it all back up, the armature took a fair bit of abuse. When going back together with it, we found that the coil had been cracked in the process as well. We finally got a replacement coil and found that the generator doesn't work. Runs fine, but doesn't generate anything but noise (the muffler is long gone).

Worked on the Sthil 070 chain saw and narrowed it down to a bad spark plug. This chain saw is quite large, in fact it has a compression release so that you can even crank it over. I was unaware of this compression release and proceeded to yank quite hard on the rope. What I did was pick the saw up. As soon as I realized what was happening I stopped pulling which allowed my other hand, pressing down on the grab handle, to force the saw into the 2^nd toe on my left foot. This resulted in a pretty fair bit of damage to the top of the distal knuckle and cracked my toenail all the way across from left to right. After a day or two it started turning pretty colors. Fortunately the chainsaw was not running or I'd be quite a few toes down from whats supposed to be on my left foot. For once, I'm thankful the beast didn't start on the first pull.

And yes, I did take pictures of it. Don't expect to see them prior to my return though.

After getting the toe taken care of, I went back down and was able to get the chainsaw running. Found it was missing a vent hose and couldn't use it. Got the vent hose and found that the spark plug failed when under load due to a cracked insulator. So now we're waiting on a replacement to be sent in.

After that much fun, I started working on editing sermons that we've recorded since October of last year to be placed on some media players for the local people to listen to.

Sadly the computer I'm working on is, well, we'll just say its seen its better days. It runs poorly even after a fresh install.

The audio software I'm using to do the editing (Audacity, for anyone that cares) is great for its price (Free!) but its nothing like some of the commercial software thats available. This is resulting in some of the sermons being unusable due to the inability to remove background noise, white noise, and other things we don't want there.

Ideally, I'd love to see a new computer and nice software to produce good quality audio for the people to listen to. Sadly the budget just doesn't allow for this right now.

Received word from home that someone was kind enough to "borrow" a wheel and tire off of my 4Runner thats sitting at my parents. While its really of no importance in the grand scheme of things, its annoying that someone would do that. Fortunately, the wheel itself was just what was available so nothing special. The tire on the other hand was pretty nice and had at least 90% of its tread-life remaining.

Oh well, I hope the person that borrowed it is blessed by the tire.

On a lighter note, I experience God's amazing workings just recently. When I left I called Verizon and had my service suspended till I returned. Unfortunately, something got mixed up and they reactivated my service back in December. This of course resulted in a bill which I wasn't expecting as I thought it was suspended. Since I was in Manila at the time I found this, I called Verizon and tried to straighten it out. At some point in the last 5yrs of service I've had with them I added a verbal password to my account and then promptly forgot it. So when I called I wasn't able to get around this password. This was the first time that I'd had that happen as on prior calls I'd been able to answer a series of questions and bypass the security question. This time that didn't happen. As a result I wasn't able to get anything done. I sent mom and email asking her to call from my phone (left in the states) and see if she could get anywhere. Nothing else I could do, so I prayed about it and let it be.

about a week later I receive an email from mom thanking me for adding her to the account and enabling her to get things worked out. Since I wasn't able to get past the security question, I wasn't able to do anything of the sort.

To top it off, the late fees, and many of the other fees were able to be removed from the bill thus reducing it immensely.

Again, God steps in and intervenes in the lives of His children. And to think that I have the audacity to doubt Him!

Somethings come up dealing with this project and I ask that you keep it in prayer. I feel its best to not expound upon the details at this time, I will say that it is at its base a differing of opinions and prayer is the only solution. If you could please keep it in prayer, I'd be very thankful.

Thank you all for your continued prayers and support, its much appreciated.

Take care and God bless y'all!

Nathan

Kementian News. 02-14-08 Valentine's edition

2008-02-13T23:07:00.001-06:00

02-14-08
Howdy everybody!

So what have I been up to? Vacation.
It was one of those whirl-wind vacations that you need a vacation from
when you are done.
I had a lot of fun even though it was really busy.

The vacation got started on January 30 when we were able to catch a
ride out in the helicopter as Dwayne was picking up plywood. Sure
beats hiking!
Jan 31 we caught the 4am shuttle to Puerto Princessa where we were to
catch a 245pm flight to El Nido.
long story short, I wound up missing my flight due to a traffic ticket
I received and took the 7am bus to El Nido the following morning. Not
exactly how I'd had it planned to go, but I still got to El Nido and
saw some pretty country side during the 9hr bus ride.

El Nido is really impossible to describe. The sheer beauty of
everything out there is just amazing. Exempting the town, everywhere
you looked was just amazing. I tried to take pictures, but beauty just
doesn't fit inside a picture, it has to be seen with one's own eyes.

On February 4th we caught the 6am bus from El Nido to Puerto to meet
Brandon's family. I also managed to finish getting the traffic ticket
finished that didn't happen before.
Went and saw Honda Bay and the Subterranean river there near Puerto.
Both are nice, but don't even remotely compare to El Nido.

Flew to Cebu on Thursday Feb 7th where we did nothing that after noon
and then took the ferry to Bohol on the morning of the 8th.
Upon arriving in Bohol we dropped our stuff at the hotel and took off
on a countryside tour.
Saw the chocolate hills, the Tarsier (sp?) monkeys and had lunch on a
floating restaurant.

Brandon's aunt's classmate is the wife of the mayor Tagbilaran (sp?)
the capitol of Bohol, so we had the pleasure of being the mayors
guests for duration of our stay. As a result of this we were invited
to the grand opening of a new resort and then a birthday party for the
mayor the following evening.
I skipped the grand opening as I didn't bring any dress clothes with me.
The birthday party was quite nice, but I'm not used to being at a
party where you've got millionaires (in USD not PHP), movie stars,
famous singers, etc. Especially when there's only 150 people there.

Sunday morning we took off early and went dolphin watching, then some
more snorkeling. The dolphin watching itself wasn't that great, but I
did see a nice sunrise from the boat.

Monday morning we flew to Manila where I had to stop doing the
vacation thing and get back to work.
Running several errands there takes a lot of time and again reminds me
why I don't like big cities.

I actually made my flight from Manila to Puerto yesterday. Picked up
some groceries and caught the 1pm shuttle down to Brooke's point.

And so concludes a whirl-wind vacation trip.

I have received all the emails y'all have sent me, I just haven't had
time to reply to them. Don't worry I'm not ignoring you, just gimme a
bit and I'll email you backpacking

Happy Valentines everybody!
Take care and God bless
Nathan

Kementian News. 01-13-08 Edition

2008-01-12T22:44:00.001-06:00

01-13-08

Howdy folks!

Things are continuing to continue on out here. The weather can't really decide if its rainy season or dry season, stuff keeps needing fixed, the clinic coming along, and is being held up by a lack of materials. Yup, pretty much the normal around here.

I am quite happy to say that my relations with my supervisor have improved dramatically. I ask that you continue to keep this specific issue in prayer as I know that its only through everyone's prayers that it is working out.

Had communion at church yesterday. Its a fair bit different here then back in the States.

For the foot washing service we used whatever buckets, pans, pots, etc that we could find.

The unleavened bread looked like a pancake (about 3" dia) and tasted like fried flour. Quite tough, but entirely edible.

The 'wine' was coconut milk. Again, different, but worked quite well.

Like everywhere else, the kids had a hard time waiting to eat the bread and drink the juice when it was already in their hands. Even saw a few adults 'sampling' before it was time.

With communion, church ran nearly an hour over. This wouldn't be a problem except we were hiking out to Bingbilang and Malis. We finally got on the trail for that just after 1400, and made it out in about 1.5hrs. Told our stories and sang our songs at Bingbilang then loaded up to head over to Malis.

I don't know if I've explained this before, but Bingbilang is basically at the trail head. Malis is about a 20min drive away. All, and yes, I do mean ALL, the kids from Bingbilang just love to climb in the back of the Hilux pickup for the ride to Malis. Yesterday the bed was so full that they all had to stand, no sitting cause there wasn't room. To top this off, there were six of us in the cab where there's only supposed to be five. Just wait, it gets better. At Malis we sang our songs and told our stories, then it was time to find the patient that needed to be taken care of. We were thrilled to find out that the individual was actually at Malis so we wouldn't have to go chasing all over the place to find him. So we loaded up the patient and his three family members (family is required at the hospital as the hospital provides no services besides medical and thats after we bring the meds to them from the pharmacy). Course the sick people go inside the cab so now there's 7 people where there's only supposed to be 5 and now we have three people hanging onto the window frames and standing on the running boards. I wish I'd been able to get a picture of everyone on the truck at once. But I was basically unable to move.

We needed to call back into Kementian to see what we were to do with the patient, so we drove out to the National Highway where the radio would reach into the mountains. While they were talking on the radio all the kids and those of us not involved in the radio conversation stood around and goofed off. Took a few pictures, which prompts everyone else to want a picture of them too. Showed them some juggling, got a picture of me juggling in the middle of the National Highway. And watched a tricycle (its a ~150cc motorcycle with a homemade-sidecar-type-thing attached go by with a carabow in it. Now a carabow is a domesticated water buffalo. These are quite large, about the size of your average cow back home. I'm really not sure how to explain how this thing fit in the tricycle cause it just doesn't seem possible. I don't fit in a tricycle very well, let alone something that big!

I wish I'd had the good sense to take a picture of it. I think I was too busy staring and trying to contemplate how in the world that could actually happen to snap a pic with the camera that was in my hand. Oh well, such is life.

Speaking of pictures, I've been able to get the first couple months worth of pictures sent home. Now if we can persuade my family to quit looking at them long enough to put them online (amidst all the other things they have to do) I'll be able to give y'all a link to them. Don't hold your breath till it happens as my family is pretty swamped. It'll happen, I just don't want to get your hopes up too high.

A wee tidbit of news that has nothing to do with my being here, but something I'm kinda excited about:

I received an email last week telling me that my attempt at completing over 1000miles in less then 24hrs on a motorcycle has been accepted by the Iron Butt Association ( www.ironbutt.org) and I've been admitted into their ranks. Most of you think this is nuts I'm sure, and I would have to agree. Its and idea I'd been toying with for awhile and then the opportunity was forced on me when I needed to get to AFM's training (1200mi from home) and only had a day to do it in. So yeah, I can now say I've done it and I get a few nick nacks to prove it. Now I think I'll pass on doing anything like it again for quite some time.

If any of you are bored enough to go look at the trip report, you can go to http://1talltxn.blogspot.com and look it up there. You'll have to dig past all the Kementian News to find it. Should be under the month of July '07.

Ok, enough rambling from me.

I thank you all for your continued prayers and support. I can't express how much they mean to me.

I pray that this note finds each and every one of you happy and well.

May God bless y'all

Nathan

Kementian News, 12-30-07 Edition

2007-12-29T21:49:00.001-06:00

12-30-07 Kementian News

Howdy everyone!

I'm sure you are all wondering what my Christmas was like. To tell you that I need to fill in a few small details.

Wendy's parents came in for a visit last Friday (the 21^st) for their first visit to the project in ten years. Wendy's been quite adamant about them not coming in because she didn't feel comfortable with them hiking the trail. So now that the helicopter is here, they were able to fly in without having to mess with the trail. Watching them hike around the valley here, I totally agree with Wendy's assessment of their hiking ability. They could probably make the trail, but it would be an issue of unnecessary worry.

Normally we are not allowed to even think about entering Wendy's hut (she's a single female and thats wrong on both our social standards and even more wrong in the social standards of the Palawan people) though since her folks have been here and staying with her, we've been allowed to go and visit for meals and various other gatherings.

Leonda George came down with malaria on the 18^th and was in no condition to host a Christmas dinner from then till the 27^th. So our Christmas dinner was provided for us by Wendy's parents.

They really went the extra mile. (Kilometer since I'm in the RPI?) We had rolls, specially carried in from the lowlands, we had stuffing, we had cranberry sauce, we had mashed potatoes and gravy, we had FriChik just about everything thats supposed to be at a proper Adventist Christmas meal. In fact the only thing that I felt was missing from the meal was my grandmother's gluten.

Christmas day itself wasn't really anything spectacular save for the meal. Well, I guess we did get a day off which is an absolutely astounding deal up here. Even our Sabbath's are packed with things from sunrise to sunset. It was nice to have a chance to do whatever I wanted.

Chris, Michelle (A former SM), and Bubit (A Palawan thats off at Mountain View College) were able to hike in on the 24^th to join us for Christmas. We were starting to wonder if we were going to have to launch another Holiday Rescue Mission© when they didn't show up when we expect them. They did make it safely, even with the really slippery trail (The rainy season decided to come back for a visit the first of last week). We are already wondering what kind of Holiday Rescue Mission© we are going to have to mount for Valentines day...

I had a good Christmas, but the pervading fact that I wasn't going to be able to spend it with my family left a permanent shadow over the day. I'll be the first to admit that I was envious of Wendy's parents getting to come for a visit. It helps when they are already here in the RPI, its just too expensive to fly anyone here during the holidays.

As a result of Leonda being sick, we weren't able to get our Internet time in, so I apologize for not getting to everyone's emails in a reasonable time.

I am in need of your continued prayers regarding my relationship and interaction with my supervisor. To say that we clash would be akin to saying that the Empire State building is kinda tall: an incredible understatement. There's a differing of opinion on what the cause of the problem is as well.

I ask that you keep both of us in your prayers as we work to resolve this difference. I am working quite hard to be optimistic that this can be worked out though my gut is telling me that its only going to build and get worse as time goes on.

I pray that each and every one of you had a wonderful Christmas, hopefully surrounded by family and friends.

I also would like to wish you a slightly early HAPPY NEW YEAR! If you'd like to find out what next year's like, give me a call and I'll tell you as I'm about 14hrs ahead of most of you so I'll get there first.

Belated Merry Christmas, early Happy New Year, and I pray that everyone is doing well and enjoying this holiday season

Take care and God bless!

Nathan

Kementian New. 12-16-07 Edition

2007-12-15T23:07:00.001-06:00

Kementian News. 12-16-07 Edition

Howdy to everyone!

Things are pretty much going the same as they have been for the last three months. This email marks nearly 13 weeks for me here in the Philippines. Just over 1/3 of the time I'll be here. My, how time does fly.

Rain's slacked off a bit, which has allowed the trails to dry out and be much less treacherous.

My language learning has progressed to some degree. Still not nearly as far as i would like, but thats to be expected. Wouldn't it be nice if we could just 'install' another language as easily as a program can be installed on a computer?

I managed to stick my foot with a saw Wednesday of last week. No, its not dangling by a piece of skin or anything like that, just a small gash between the last two toes on my right foot. I took some pictures of it, but as usual, the Internet doesn't allow me to upload them.

On the bright side, I do have a DVD of pictures en route to the folks, so hopefully a few of the good ones will make it to the Internet from there.

The clinic was dormant while Dwayne took of to Manila to get some stuff done with the Govt there and to pick up a fellow GMI pilot to come look at the project. When Dwayne got back, it was discovered that Jonathan (the other pilot) has a history of home construction so the plywood is down on the floor, the walls are framed and its time to start pulling wire for electrical. This is an amazing amount of progress considering all the delays that were thrown up due to discussions about how the clinic was to be laid out which should have taken place before the construction began.

The Kensuli and Kementian schools had their Christmas plays this past week. They came off quite well and the kids seemed to have fun.

After the programs there was various fun and games for which I served as a bit of a half-time show by doing a little tumbling. (no, I didn't have a wardrobe malfunction) I wish there'd been some grass to tumble on, as the dirt was quite hard and strewn with small rocks. So the folks didn't get a decent sampling of what tumbling is. I was very much wishing for a trampoline, but the thought of carrying it in on that trail quickly expelled that idea from my mind!

Thank you all for your continued prayers and emails, its very much appreciated!

Take care and God bless!

Nathan

Kementian News, 11-25-07 Edition

2007-11-24T23:48:00.001-06:00

Kementian News, 11-25-07 Edition

Howdy y'all!

Thursday started out like most any other day, with one exception. We were all anticipating the evening meal that Tammy and Leonda were working on.

Work proceeded as normal with a little extra checking of the time to see how much longer till we went down to play games till the food was ready. The weather finally gave us a bit of a break in that it didn't rain all morning, just most of it. There was enough break in the rain that it was decided that if Chris could get free in the lowlands, that Dwayne was going to fly out and pick him and the groceries up. In the end it turned out that Chris had to stay down there and baby-sit a few patients so was unable to come in. The river's were flooded enough that Chris wasn't able to cross them to get the groceries to the trail head for someone to bring them in either. So many substitutions were made in the recipes.

Sometime mid-afternoon, we were informed that we could head down around 1600 to play games.

Getting everything wrapped up took a bit longer then expected so we were just about ready to head down when we got a radio call from Kensuli that there was gentleman there with a large cut in his foot that hadn't quite bleeding in about 36hrs. Somebody needed to go stitch him up.

To get to Kensuli from Kementian, you have to cross the Tamlang (Pronounced Tom-Long) river as well as several smaller creeks. Usually a 30-45min hike down to the river and up the other side to Kensuli. Since Thursday was the first day in about 5 that it hadn't rained all day, these water ways were very flooded. Pastor had tried to get to Kensuli earlier Thursday morning and had to turn back at one of the creeks. The Tamlang has a rope across it so that was passable.

With the injured person in Kensuli needing attention, Dwayne fired up the helicopter. We kept waiting for him to take off, but he kept getting out to look at the tail rotor. Apparently the incessant rain had filled one of the blades with water, making it out of balance. Dwayne was able to get it drained and took off with David, 10min later then anticipated. By now its nearly 1700, it gets too dark to fly by about 1805. The flight is maybe 3min to Kensuli, but stitching takes time.

The rest of us headed down to Pastor's house praying that they'd make it back in time.

About 1810, we heard the helicopter fly over and we jumped on the radio to contact Kensuli to see if David had come back as well (he had said he'd stay if it was needed). We were saddened by the news that David was still in Kensuli.

David is a big fan of food. Thanksgiving has a lot of food. David had been talking about the food for well over the past week and was very eagerly awaiting the meal. This, coupled with the simple fact that we wanted as much of the team together as possible, and that David didn't need to stay the night, but had simply finished about 10min too late to catch a ride back on the helicopter, made us quite sad.

A quick consultation of the problem and it was decided that we should at least try to get him home. Pastor said the creek was passable if a rope was available. So Brandon, Napthali, and myself took a rope and headed out to get David.

Crossing the Tamlang was kinda fun actually, you hold onto the rope and work your way across hand-over-hand while your body is essentially surfing across the top of the current. Not to hard, but your tired from fighting the current once you get to the other side.

Once the three of us had made it across the Tamlang, we set off down the trail. In about 10min hiking we came to the creek (whose name I don't know) with David on the other side. This creek is normally a docile, pretty babling little creek. After all the rain, it was just shy of waist deep and moving very swiftly.

With nothing to tie the rope too on our side, Brandon and I anchored the rope to ourselves and braced against the rocks. Napthali waded out as far as he could and tossed the other end to David. Once the rope was there, it was quite easy and he made it across in no time.

The rest of the trip back is simply a reverse of the trip across save one small detail. David has lost nearly 30lbs since arriving here over a year ago and his shorts are over sized. As a result Pastor had recommended that he remove the shorts to keep them from becoming a sail in the water and pulling him off the rope of the Tamlang. So this he did, leaving him in his boxers. The problem is, boxers have no way of being tightened around the waist and on David's first attempt to cross, it became clear that the boxers weren't going to stay on. Saying that these were a good pair of boxers, he took them off and proceeded to cross. Brandon was on the opposite shore with myself on the home side when David came across. Brandon's headlamp is very bright and while he was laughing at David, he kept looking across the river right at David. This tended to keep David in the spotlight. If it hadn't been for the light, it was more then dark enough to keep everything hidden.

Due to this little streaking experience, I very nearly titled this story "Naked in the Tamlang" :-)

Once we made it back to the George's to sit down and have our wonderful Thanksgiving dinner, it was 2000, yes, we were quite hungry and ate huge portions.

Leonda and Tammy had spent at least the afternoon in the kitchen and had made a veritable feast. I honestly hadn't expected nearly that much food and was pleasantly surprised how many of the items I'm used to seeing at home were on the table. Grandma's gluten wasn't there, though I think I survived without it. I'll just have to eat double next year!

As with any holiday, the most important part is family. Since I'm out here, I was missing family a lot. I was able to talk to the folks on Wednesday morning, which was very nice, but its just not the same as having them there.

I've a great many things to be thankful for this year. Far too many to begin listing here, but the foremost items on my list are these:

A loving God who cares and protects even little ole' me.

And, family and friends who show they care by keeping in touch when its oh so easy to just forget that I'm on the other side of the world missing them terribly.

If you could keep a couple items in prayer for me, I would be greatly appreciative.

First, my learning of the language is far behind schedule. I know a few words and phrases, but I'm not where I should be. This is partly due to weather, schedule, and a few various other things, but the single biggest problem is a mental block. I'm not averse to learning the language, in fact I want to, but something isn't working right. If you'd keep that in prayer.

The other request is a silent. I need prayer for it, but don't want to expound on the details.

I pray this letter finds you all quite stuffed from Thanksgiving, reminded how much you have to be thankful for, and blessed.

Take care and God bless!

Nathan

Kementian News 11-11-07 Edition

2007-11-10T20:43:00.001-06:00

Howdy everyone!

Hard to believe I've been here on the project for two months now. My, how time does fly.

Things are still going very well. Been staying busy so the past few weeks have been a bit of a blur. Guess Pastor is trying to keep me out of trouble ;-)

Wendy had a birthday on Tuesday. Dwayne brought in a bunch of ice so we could have ice cream for her birthday party that evening. Sadly the ice cream freezer didn't work quite right so we had cold cream. It was very tasty but was lacking in the "ice" part. No worries, I enjoyed it quite nicely over the chocolate cake.

Thursday the hydro-electric generator decided it was going to give up the ghost. After much poking and prodding we decided it was something within the alternator and took it apart to discover that the brushes has pretty much disintegrated. Pastor had a spare set laying around and we were able to put it back together and get it working again in a few hours. Its funny how much we rely on power even out here in the sticks.

I'm at a loss as to what to tell y'all about life here. I suppose I'll give y'all a break from my long diatribes.

If you have any questions about anything out here, drop me a note and I'll do my best to answer it next time around.

Thank you so much for your continued thoughts and prayers.

May God bless each of you and your family and friends

Nathan

Kementian News, 10-28-07 Edition

2007-10-28T00:05:00.001-06:00

10-28-07

Howdy Y'all,

Things are still going on here. We are coming along pretty well with the new clinic, despite the rain every day. The roof is nearly complete so now the rain will stop and the work on the interior begins.

There'll be two in-patient rooms, a pharmacy, a lab, and a examination room inside. Still have to put a porch on the back, doors, windows and floors in the attic in before its usable.

I've got plenty of pictures of the progress thus far, but I haven't been able to upload them. I'll be sure and let y'all know when I do get them done.

Pastor and Dwayne are seriously looking at a 25 acre tract of land down near Brooke's Point. The intention is to build an airstrip and a base of operations. Right now they are having trouble finding people with the right knowledge to get the transfer worked out legally.

The house that is our current base of operations is barely sufficient and the neighbors are less then wonderful so getting our own property would be an answer to prayer.

The real question now is if this property is what we are supposed to acquire or if God has something else in mind.

Please pray that this situation will work out.

The weather here has been a pain for the work on the clinic. Sun comes up in a clear sky and creates a nice hot morning. Then anywhere between 1000 and 1300 it starts raining. It could rain for 20min or for 5hrs. The rain and the high humidity (the lowest we've seen is 75%) makes drying clothes quite the challenge. This week it only took 1.5 days to dry the clothes and we were thrilled! We expect the rain to quite just about the time we get the roof finished.

Two weeks ago I opted to hike out to Bingbilang and Malis to assist with Sabbath School (assist as much as much very limited Palawan allows) We finally made it back in around 2000, about 2hrs after dark. That trail is challenging in the daylight, its even more so in the dark and rain!

After that I was planning on going to a close village like Tamlang last week so i could actually get some rest on Sabbath.

Pastor had been out for about 10days and finally made it in last Friday, so when he met me at church last Sabbath, he asked if I could go out to drive the Hilux. Knowing he really dreaded going out and getting stuck there, I agreed.

Lunch and cleanup took longer then expected and we finally hit the trail out about 1330. We made it to Bingbilang at just about 1500. Knowing that Sabbath School at the each location takes at least an hour plus drive time, I was expecting another dark hike.

Turns out there was a person who needed some medical attention there in Bingbilang so that took another 30min.

En route to Malis, Leonda called us on the radio to tell us we had a patient to pickup near Malis and take to the hospital.

By the time we got to Malis it was already past 1630. Leaving there about 1715 we headed off to pickup the patient. Driving down back roads and trying to avoid falling into the irrigation ditches that line the road and following directions in Palawan we finally got there, got him loaded into the truck and headed back to Bingbilang to drop of the truck full of kids. We accomplished that around 1900.

On this trip we found out about another person that needed taken to the hospital but didn't have much info. Acquiring that info took another 45min. Then we were off to find this person.

The road ran out before we got to their village so Sublitu and Naptheli headed off to find her. They made it back to the truck around 2100.

I drove back to Bingbilang to drop Sublitu and Naptheli off so they could hike into the mountains while I took the patients to the hospital and stayed the night in Brooke's.

Arriving at the hospital around 2215, we all marched into the hospital and got them checked in. While the nurses were getting them settled in, i was sent up the street to the pharmacy to collect some IVs an a few other items that i couldn't tell you what they were. And to answer the question, no, the hospital does not have its own pharmacy. It expects family members or those helping with the sick to collect the meds etc.

I finally got back to the house about 2330. Only to discover that I didn't remember the combination to the lock to get inside. Being too late to want to disturb the George's for the combination, I just crashed in the truck. I was tired enough it didn't matter much were I slept.

Woke up about 0600 and started the day off with a call to Kementian to get the code for the door. Got in, got some food and cleaned up the truck.

Ran a few errands and checked on the patients in the hospital, picked up meds for them. Took a family member back to his village to find people to donate 1500cc of blood for one patient and began my hike into Kementian about 1245.

Prior to this, I've only hiked in twice. Once in the day and once at night. Both times following someone. This time I was alone, praying I could remember the way.

Turns out I did remember it and made it to Kementian in 1hr and 25min.

Sometime along in that mess I managed to find a stick sticking off the side of the road that quite neatly took off the passenger mirror and scratched the front fender and door. I checked, but the mirror is not repairable. It'll have to be replaced.

I was kinda worried about being on the trail alone as I wasn't entirely sure of the way nor did i want to do the hike alone. Its always more 'fun' with friends along. Not to mention should i fall on one of the numerous slippery sections of the trail and hurt myself.

In the end, I had a very enjoyable and quite relaxing hike. I took my time, took pictures and had a nearly 90min prayer time going. By the time I got to Kementian, I was in a much better mood and my mind was quite clear.

Sometimes the 'worst' turns out quite good.

Starting to look at putting up the HF rig and discovered that the antenna had an unfortunate meeting with a lawn mower. I haven't strung it out yet to see whether it is salvageable or not. I should have acquired that HF antenna that I was toying with getting before I came over.

The HF rigs and antenna tuner are supposed to work, but haven't been tried in years. Gotta get them out and plug them in to see whats what.

Pastor said that he does not have a Philippine license as they didn't seem to care all that much when he brought the equipment in.

I'm tempted to check into getting a Philippine radio license so I can play with making some contacts with an RPI call sign. We shall see how many hoops need jumping through to get that to happen.

I thank you all for your continued thoughts and prayers for this project, everyone here, and myself. They are much appreciated.

I pray God blesses each one of you and all of your families.

Nathan

Kemantian News. 10-14-07 Edition

2007-10-13T23:37:00.001-06:00

Kemantian News. 10-14-07 Edition

Life continues here in Kemantian. I've been here just over one month. In some aspects its rally flown, and in another regard, its crawled by. Its all good.

In some aspects its just as busy as home, in some other aspects its much slower, and in a few aspects its much busier then home. Its kinda hard to explain.

Let me see if I can describe a typical day here.

Sun comes up around 0545-0600 right now, we are up and about by 0600.

Between 0600 and 0800 we have our personal devotions, shower, fix and eat breakfast, and any other chores that need done. After home where I did all that in half the time, I don't know how I did it.

0800 starts the day officially (unless it was preempted for some urgent reason) Thats when we head out for a couple hours of language learning. Ideally that is, its happened often enough that I've got called off to work on something else that its not an all the time event.

1000 we set off to our various tasks.

This continues till about 1200 when we head back to get something to eat.

By the time you cook something up, eat it, clean up and get headed back out, its typically about an hour or so.

1300-1700 is more taking care of what needs done which seems to be never ending. At present, most of our time has been taken working on the new clinic.

About 1700 we head back and start supper. Again, this takes at least an hour. We usually get somewhat more elaborate with supper so it does take longer.

By 1900 its dark and we are typically free for the evening. Team meeting and a few other things change that but I'm not sure what the official schedule for those are yet.

We usually turn in by about 2100. not much to do beyond that and the roosters like to make sure they now how to crow about 0300... Anybody know how to fry a chicken?

Saturday's are much the same as far as time goes, just what fills the hours differs.

Church starts at 0800 and continues through its various parts till about 1200.

Potluck follows with rarely enough to fill even the kids. So we typically go back and eat something in addition to the potluck.

After church/potluck, everyone splits up and covers a bunch of different villages to hold branch Sabbath Schools. Ranging in distance between 10min and 2hrs hike away from Kemantian.

Yesterday, Brandon and I elected to go to Bingbilang and Malis for Sabbath School. Bingbilang is the village in the lowlands very near the start of the trail. So we the entire way out. Took us about 1hr 45min. We figured we were doing pretty good.

After all the activites down there, we hit the trail back in about 1700. Seeing as its at least a 2hr hike and the sun goes down about 1800 we didn't have much time to hike in the light. With dark coming and the trail being slippery from an earlier rain, we didn't make it back in till nearly 2000. Brandon's sandals were being rather contrary and not holding his feet in a manner to make them useful. Quite a few raw spots and sores later, he was quite fed up with them.

Last time I sent out an email, it contained a story about a particular Tuesday a couple weeks ago. David Aguilar told us his side of the story last week and we were all in awe of what had transpired. I won't spoil it by telling it again here, but keep a lookout for a two-part story in an upcoming AFM Magazine. If you don't receive Frontiers, you can contact AFM and they'll get you setup. http://www.afmonline.org

Dwayne Harris is here from Gospel Ministries International with a Hughes 269-A helicopter to assist the project. He's been a wonderful help, not just with the whirly-bird, but also with the other projects we have around here. We are going to try and get the HF rig setup here in the near future so he can be in touch with several other missions here on the island in case they need help. I know the folks we bumped into in Puerto Princessa from New Tribes would be thrilled to have an emergency out should they need it. Their projects are located just on the other side of the ridge from us. About 4 days hike, but less then a 10 minute flight.

The helicopter has turned whats normally a 2hr hike into a 10min flight at most. We can't use it too much with the cost and lack of availability of AvGas, but its darn handy when it is used.

Dwayne was held up at Manila International Airport because they were out of AvGas, otherwise he would have been here about a month ago.

We discovered that Wendy had a oven that she wasn't using so we hauled it over and tried it out. Its not mom's convection oven, but it works better then nothing! I tried my hand at bread on Wednesday, and it turned out decent. A little dry, and not quite enough time in the oven. Can't complain really as this is the first time I've tried my hand at making bread. I still miss mom's bread immensely, but this will tide me over till I get home.

The weather is such up here that bread doesn't keep for more then about 3-4 days if you are lucky. So prior to this we had bread for the first week we brought from Puerto, after that we were trying to find something to fill the cracks with. Now we can actually have bread as a food and not just a treat.

Rice is the main staple up here. So far I'm not tired of it. We shall see what happens in the next 8 months.

We have been able to keep a nice stock of bananas around. Right now we are waiting on a large batch to ripen so we can eat them. I do love my bananas.

Last Friday, my radio decided to give up its ghost. Its had a habit of locking up and requiring the removal of the battery to get it functional again, but this time when i did that, it didn't come back up. It acts like it fried, but I don't see any evidence of that inside the case. I'm hoping it will resolve itself, but I somehow doubt that its going too. Seems I have a rather expensive paper weight now. Oh well, its served me well for the last 3-4 years, I just would have liked another 10mo out of it. :-)

I do believe thats enough from me.

Thank you all for your continued thoughts and prayers for this project, everyone here, and myself. Its very much appreciated.

May God bless each and everyone of you as well as your entire families.

Nathan

Kementian News, 10-1-07 Edition

2007-09-30T23:25:00.001-06:00

Kementian News, 10-01-07 Edition

Howdy,

Its sunday and I've been here for just over two weeks. Well, I say I've been here, I spent the last week down in Brooke's Point so count it how you want.

The last week went by in a blur. Attempting to figure out how life works down in Brooke's, and then trying to understand the language down there. I hadn't even got Palawan down and then trying to throw Tagalog on top only made things worse. I did survive for those of you that were wondering...

Most of my time in Brooke's was occupied running around in the truck chasing stuff down for medical patients, picking up folks from Kementian to take to patients, running errands for Pastor (Kent George) working around the house, cleaning the Hilux, maintenance on the Hilux, etc.

Tuesday David Aguilar had gone out to work on a patient that had fallen and cut his had very badly. David took my radio and it had locked up on him so no one was able to talk to him, nor was he able to hear any of us. He was out of touch for nearly 5hrs. Long story short, the patient needed to get to the hospital as the sutures that David had weren't enough to hold the wound closed. Since he was lacking radio contact with us, he was going to have to hike out, the patient was very week due to blood loss, and catch a tricycle for the 20km trip to the hospital.

I'd taken off on the motorcycle to see if I could find him. After dinking around for 1.5hrs, I was able to find David and the patient on the trail. I was able to use the radio that I'd brought with me to reach Brooke's and have a truck come pick them up. Just about this time the sky started to darken up and look like rain. Now rain on a motorcycle doesn't normally bother me. The thing is the bike I was riding was 125cc little thing with no fairing and no windshield, I didn't have a helmet, I was wearing shorts, t-shirt and flip flops. Not exactly the sort of thing you want to wear when the skys about to let you have it.

Pretty soon I'm doing less then 30km/h trying to see ahead of me to dodge the pot holes. Then the bike decided I needed to switch to reserve on the fuel tank and died. So I flipped the valve and kicked it to restart. Nothing. 10min later, still nothing. I'd checked and re-checked everything to be it was right. It was. So after several prayers and a couple more kicks, she finally lit off. I made it back to the intersection of the National Highway, and two other roads that I don't know the name of, and the bike died again. This time it wasn't fuel but water getting between the spark plug and the wire. So I just pushed it the remaining 1km to the house. By the time I got there, I was wet enough that I would have been dryer had I jumped in a pool.

Talking with David, he said that he'd just about given up on everybody and lost faith that he was going to reach us, and he was honestly worried about the welfare of the patient, just when I showed up on the trail. He said had I showed up an 1.5hr earlier it wouldn't have had the impact that it did.

That 1.5hrs that I spent dinking around trying to find the right spot to look for him was by God's plan. Then the bike dying on me helped forced me to get beyond my mechanical abilities and to trust simply in the Lord and Him getting me home. God also blessed me with a smile when I was most frustrated about the bike. I couldn't help but laugh. Here I am sitting on a dead bike that won't start even though I know its mechanically fine, in the pouring rain, and all I can do is laugh.

They got the patient to the hospital, got his hand sutured up, got a blood smear for david, confiremed he had malaria, and got him home to bed for some rest.

Everything worked out like it was supposed to. Not according to our plan, but according to God's.

God is still working in each of our lives in a very real manner

I pray that each and everyone of you may experience this as well.

Sunday evening, after the wind had been howling all day, the wind ever so kindly took the ridge cap off of our thatch roof. This allowed a hole about 16ft long and 5in wide to run the width of our hut. With more rain in the wind, we hunted down a tarp and managed to convince it to stay on the roof covering that hole.

I'm told that someone is supposed to be coming up sometime to replace our entier roof. The kicker is, nobody knows when exactly they are coming. So for now we will make do with a tarp and hope the rest of the roof stays put!

God bless

Nathan

Kementian News, 9/21/07 Edition

2007-09-21T03:19:00.001-06:00

Howdy all,

A little longer on the trip

2hr flight from DFW to Minneapolis where I sat for 6hrs

Then a 12hr flight to Tokyo where we sat for 1hr

Then a 8hr flight down to Manilla. We landed there about 11pm Tuesday local

After making it through immigration, claiming our stuff, and clearing customs, we met and headed to the hotel for the night. We finally hit the sack around 1AM. Only to find that the time difference was to much to really get much sleep.

Rising around 6AM we headed back to the airport to catch a plane to Puerto Princess on Palawan. That was a 50min flight.

Wednesday we did a bunch of shopping and hit the hay.

Thursday we got up, picked up a few last items and made the 180km drive down to Brooke's Point. That took about 5hrs. To say the least the roads aren't very nice here.

Friday morning we made the hike into KMTN in about 2hrs. Not bad for a couple of newbies. Course we weren't carrying the 50kg loads that some of the locals were either.

Things are going quite well. Brandon and I are getting used to the food and the culture. We are beginning to learn the langguage, but we still have a long ways to go in that regard.

The people here, both local and expat, are just great folks.

Well, I'm out of time, Y'all take care!

Thank you for your continuted thoughts and prayers

God Bless!

Nathan

I am here

2007-09-14T01:34:00.001-06:00

I've made it safely all the way into the village of Kamantien (sp?)

I'll try and do a full update later, but no time now.

Thanks for your continued thoughts and prayers!

Nathan

Well, I'm outta here

2007-09-05T22:14:00.001-06:00

Not quite yet, though I do have an official itinerary that has me leaving DFW airport a 0604 AM on Monday morning.
I go from DFW to Minneapolis, MN where I meet Brandon for the flight to Tokyo, Japan. Where we will refuel and make the last leg to Manilla. 2.5hrs to Minneapolis, then its 18.5hrs to Manilla. Good thing I have some books!

My visa/passport arrived in my hands today.
The boxes are acquired so now I can begin figuring out how to stick everything in them
Still got a few more items to acquire, but none of them would be detrimental to the trip, would just be nice to have them.

So this thing is finally about to kick off.

Thank you all for your prayers and donations to support me. Please continue to keep myself and the entire project in your prayers.

God bless!
Nathan
seeryn@gmail.com

PS: if anyone would not like to receive these emails, please let me know and I'll remove you from the list.
Conversely, if you know someone that would like to be added to the list, please drop me their email address and I will add them.

Where I've been

2007-09-01T08:53:00.000-06:00

States visited by motorcycle

create your own personalized map of the USA

The Long Way Home. Summary

2007-08-28T20:21:00.000-06:00

Since meeting in Louisville, KY, we put just shy of 3,000 miles on the bikes. In that time I learned a few things.

Don't plan so much.
Don't expect as many miles per day
Take more pictures
Repeat as often as possible!

The Long Way Home. Tuesday

2007-08-28T20:20:00.000-06:00

Miles: 503
States: MS, LA, TX

Getting up and partaking of the “superstart” breakfast (Krispie Kreams and cereal, what else do you need?) we topped of the tanks and headed West towards home.

Stopping only for food, fuel, and butt-breaks, we made it home around 5PM.
After being gone for 6weeks, I was more then ready to be home!

The Long Way Home. Monday

2007-08-28T20:15:00.002-06:00

Miles: 393
States: GA, AL, MS

Leaving this morning around 945 AM EST, we made our way to Birmingham, AL for a visit to the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum. For anyone interested in motorcycles and cars, this is a must see.
Just a few of the vehicles they have can be seen in the pics I took located here.

Continuing on down the road, we stopped in Jackson for the night. We’ll get up and finish the trip home tomorrow.

The Long Way Home. The Weekend

2007-08-28T20:15:00.001-06:00

Miles: 4-5
States: GA

After arriving Friday evening we spent the weekend just hanging out, enjoying friends, playing Wii, watching Rush Hour 3, playing Wii, defending ourselves from the vicious cats, playing Wii, and just having a good time.

The Long Way Home. Friday

2007-08-28T20:13:00.000-06:00

Mileage: 391
States: NC, SC, GA

Knowing that the earliest the cycle shops opened was 9AM, we slept in a bit (7:30) showered, loaded the bikes and got ready to go by 9 when I called and found a Michilen Pilot Road in the proper size at Boone Honda. The didn’t have the Dunlop D220 and the earliest they could have it was Tuesday. So the ST got a PR on the rear.
They wer very helpful and got right on it as soon as we pulled in. An hour later, the ST had a new shoe on the rear, air pressure checked on the front, and the rear member oil topped off.
One of the gentleman there had to wander around my VFR and decided it was “good looking” the kid behind the counter was amazed that I was from Texas. Surprised the service guy when I gave him my address too.

With the wallet $220 lighter, we set off in search of food around 11AM.
After pestering the waitress at Huddle House, we headed for the Blue Ridge Parkway.
BRP is a beautiful road. Sadly the 45mph speed limit hampers the amount of fun that can be had there. I constantly had to watch myself for accelerating out of corners well over the limit.

Jumping off the BRP in Ashville, got directions from some locals and made a bee-line for Atlanta. The chosen route took us down to Spartanburg, SC and then over to Atlanta. Unfortunately it was all interstate, but time was of the essence.
Traffic didn’t seem to have a problem rolling 80-90mph so we made excellent time. And somewhat surprisingly, the bikes loved it too. 46mpg on the VFR, 50mpg on the ST1300 :eek:
Just 9 miles from our exit, the rain started. Couldn’t have been earlier when both bikes temp gauges were reading over 100*F, nope, had to be just before we arrived so we are trapseing all kinds of nasty wet gear into the house. :giveup:
We managed to avoid the maniacs that wanted to run us over, and there are lots of them on I85 and in Atlanta! and made it to our destination about 8PM.

The long way home. Pictures

2007-08-19T21:09:00.000-06:00

Pictures can be found here: Link

The long way home. Thursday

2007-08-18T06:23:00.000-06:00

Miles: 320
States: VA, NC

Getting up about 7AM we started loading the bikes. And watching the clouds roll in.
Broke out the VX-7R and listened to the NWS forcast to see what was happening. They said it would be afternoon before anything fell out of the sky. Well, they were wrong. Just after getting the tent broke down, it started raining. Not hard, just enough to get everything wet.
Waiting a bit for it to wash off the roads, it stopped raining. So we loaded up and headed down the last half of Skyline Drive.

Arriving at the bottom, we looked at how far we had to go and how much time we had and decided we needed to make up some time. So we jumped on the interstate and headed south at a brisk pace. But only after getting some food at Shoney’s.
I was pleased to see that they had sweet tea on the menu. Nice to be heading back towards the south again!

After about 3hrs on the Intersate, we were sick of it. And our iPods had died. So we jumped off onto US221. Once into NC, the road got wonderfully twisty. The 2nd county in NC, Ashe, was horrible! The road was still twisty, but the pavement was like a roller coaster! Up and down, left and right, all for no apparent reason, just terrible paving work.

Once through that we found a CiCi’s pizza and had some food.

Deciding we’d had enough for the day, we looked up the local KOA and rented a couple movies.
Unknown to us, there was a BMW motorcycle gathering at the same KOA, so the place is full of Bavarian hardware.

I’d been watching the rear tire on the ST1300 and was hoping it would survive till Atlanta where I had a tire waiting at Cyclegear. Sadly its not going to make it, so we are going to hit the local tire shops in the morning and get a replacement. Hopefully

The long way home. Wednesday

2007-08-18T06:21:00.002-06:00

Mileage: 405
States: MD, WV, VA, PA

Today we were wanting to go to the Gettysburg Battlefield and the HD assembly plant in York, PA.
Leaving MD, we finished out US50 and made it to Parkersburg, VA for breakfast (~10:30AM)
Continuing down the wrong road, we finally made it to Gettysburg around 12:30PM. Seeing as it was on the warm side and we were already hot from the ride up, we opted to wonder around the museum.

Leaving Gettysburg about 1PM we headed towards York, 30mi away, with the plan of arriving about 1:30PM to get a spot for the 2PM tour at HD. Well traffic conspired against us and we didn’t make it to York till 2:10PM. On top of that, I wasn’t sure where HD was.

Giving up on HD, we decided to grab a bite to eat and fill the tanks. This was a challenged because we were in York. York is annoying. There’s tons of streets and lots of buildings, but there’s nothing there! We drove around for ~20min before finally finding a Taco Bell. To that point we still hadn’t seen a fuel station! On top of the town being weird, the drivers are idiots, and I swear we caught every red light in town!

After pulling the map out in Taco Bell and plotting an escape route, we topped off the Camelbaks and proceeded down the road in search of a filling station.
Once out on the road we were making pretty good time. Traffic was moving, sun was shining, nobody’d tried to kill us in the last 15min, it was good.
Then it happened. Traffic came to a screeching halt and the sirens came wailing up behind us. Cresting the hill we discovered that three vehicles decided to get into a physical discussion and had shut down the highway.
While sitting there trying not to melt, a gentleman on a Triumph Thruxton rolled up and chatted with us. It was a beautiful yellow ’06 with a little black fairing around the headlight. Beautiful machine!

About the time all the traffic in front of us had been re-directed onto an alternate route, the cleared the road and we were able to continue down our originally planned route.

We made it to Front Royal, VA about 6:15PM, topped off the tanks and set off for Skyline Drive.
After a wrong turn down a wonderfully twisty road, we made it to the entrance about 7PM. Only to discover that its $10 per motorcycle, $15 for “normal” vehicles, to ride the road. We paid and began slowly working our way down the Drive. (Its 35mph the whole way) Fortunately the road is fairly twisty, but 35 is a bit too slow. Taking advantage of the error in the speedo, we increased speed a bit (45 ) and began enjoying the road more. The scenery is beautiful on the Skyline Drive!

About 2hrs later and 50mi in, we stopped for the night at a campground. Its $20/night to camp, there’s no power at the camp sites and they charge you $1/5min to take a shower. So much for camping being cheaper then a hotel!

Its really pretty here and the skunks are friendly so I think its worth it.

The long way home. Tuesday

2007-08-18T06:21:00.001-06:00

Mileage: 473mi
States: KY, OH, WV, MD

After messing around with the bike-to-bike for a little while and getting the bikes loaded, we finally pulled out at 9:15AM. The goal was to stay away from the Interstate and enjoy ourselves.
Taking US60 we headed East.
If you ever get a chance to ride US50 through WV, you’ll love it. From Parkersburg to Clarksburg is big fast sweepers (speed limit of 65) and then from Clarksburg on its fairly tight and twisty. Lots of S curves and nice little downs thrown in. Speed limit is 55, but I’m only getting there when it’s straight. 40 is about what I’m doing around the corners, but then I’m slow and the bikes loaded to the hilt!

We stopped in MD on US50 at a little mom and pop motel. Rooms were old, and lacked A/C but were very nicely kept and provided a welcome flat spot to lay out on.

The long way home. The prelude

2007-08-18T06:19:00.000-06:00

I [Nathan] was up in Michigan for a months worth of training to go our as a student missionary. To get up there, I made a 1,200mi, 23hr run to Berrien Springs for an attempt at a SS1k IBA certification.
Finishing training on the 12th of Aug, I headed for Louisville, KY to visit my aunt and meet my brother [Larry]. It took me about 300mi and 5hrs to get to Louisville.
Larry had a 900mi to cover. He left Saturday afternoon, stopped on the W side of Little Rock for the night, then continued on his way in the morning.
Larry arrived about 6PM.
I arrived about 9:15PM.

Larry came up grudgingly on my ST1300 due to his Virago breaking a timing chain just hours before he was to leave.
I was on the VFR in Michigan, so naturally, I rode that...

Monday we made a trip to Cyclegear to exchange Larry’s new Scorpion EXO-700 for something that didn’t hurt his head. After fitting about all the helmets on the shelf, the Shoei RF1000 was the final decision.
Spent the rest of the day enjoying family and scheming for the rest of the trip.

This concludes training

2007-08-10T09:45:00.001-06:00

As of about 30min ago, training concluded.
We've been taught how to draw closer to God
We've been taught how to serve the career missionaries on the project.
We've been taught how to step outside of our box, and learn the culture of the people we are going to serve.
We've been taught how to learn new languages.
We've been taught how to work as a team.
We've been taught to deal with conflict.
We've been taught basic medical.
We've made a bunch of new friends.
We've watched as God has worked wonders in our fund raising.
And we wait patiently while He continues to work on the remaining funds.

I thank you all for your prayers and support, its greatly appreciated.

I ask your prayers for a couple of my fellow SMs.
Marjorie Kendall of Collegedale, TN is needing over $1,400 before she can launch. The rest of her team will be flying out on the 1st of September. We believe that God will work and the money will come in so that Marjorie is able to leave with her team. Marjorie is to be homeschooling the kiddo's of a family in SE Asia.

Ebony Daniels, from TN as well, is also in need of more funds, though I don't know how much she needs. Ebony is going to serve Marc and Cathy Coleman in Guinea, Africa.

I believe that the funds will come in according to His timing. I thank you for your prayers and support.

Nathan Seery
seeryn@gmail.com

1200mi, 23hrs, 6 states. IB SS1k run to MI

2007-07-25T16:40:00.000-06:00

1200mi + 23hrs + 7 states = 1 long trip
Needing to be in Michigan on the 15th for training, and being in San Antonio for Promise Keepers on Saturday pretty much forced me into making an Iron Butt of a required trip. I’ve been wanting to do it, so why not make the best of a given situation.

Having known this was going to be the situation for a while, I pondered which bike to take. The ST1300 has larger side bags, wider seat, bigger screen, slightly more upright seating position. While the VFR800 has a top case (much needed when you are gone for a month) and is more fun in the twisties for that tour home.
I want a top case for the ST1300 at some point but finances just wouldn’t allow it now, so I took the VFR.

Having ridden the ST to Atlanta and knowing how I felt after that, I don’t think I would have been much more comfortable on that then I was on the VFR. I actually prefer the leg positioning on the VFR to the ST though the slightly more upright bars of the ST are quite nice, but not enough to make me spend the money for the top case when there’s more pressing needs right now.

Arriving home from San Antonio about 6PM left me with a few hours to get packed before I went to bed. Finally got it all done and hit the sack around 2230. Set the alarm for 0200 and proceeded to stare at the ceiling. :doh:

Woke up at 0200, got the bike loaded and headed for Alvarado. I arrived later then I wanted, but I got there just before 0300 to find the nut cases that were seeing me off sitting in a totally dark station. I just [i]thought[/i] it was a 24hr station. So across the street we went.

I really don’t know what they were doing up at that hour :yawn:

Starting mileage

Got the tank filled, paperwork filled out, receipt from the cashier (pay at the pumps never print when you need them too) and finally hit the road at ~0320

Chuck escorted me to the US67/IH30 merge/split. Don stuck with me till just past IH635. I was beginning to wonder if he was going to run with me all the way to AR as he’d discussed at the gas station...

Made it to Texarkana just a bit after the sun came up, grabbed breakfast (Waffle House) and filled the tank.

After topping off the tank on the bike and topping off my stomach, I continued on my way.

Oddly enough, it was incredibly foggy till I made it almost all the way to Little Rock where I caught the loop around to I40 at 0940. Stopped to top off the tank and get a receipt to mark the corner and met a couple guys on a new Connie and a Zuk Boulevard (sorry didn’t get the size). The Connie14 looks better in person then it does in the promo pics. My one thought was that the bags looked like and after thought though.

Turns out the guys were from E TX (they told me the town, but I forgot) and were headed to TN. I should have said something about TWT, guess I was too busy drooling over their machines.

Continuing on my way I made it to Missouri.

Stayed in MO for less then 100mi and made it to Dyesrsburg TN around 1330 where I stopped for lunch.

In exactly 100mi I stopped in Calvert, KY for gas. I’m so used to riding for 300mi and still being in the heart of Texas, I was almost surprised to see the state line signs so frequently!

Sorry, no pic of the KY state sign as it was in a location I wasn’t about to stop in!

About 2000 I stopped made my first stop Indiana, Terre Haute IN to be specific, at 25,830mi. Grabbed a burger at Wendy’s while I was there, then I made a bee line for Indy.

Arrived in Indy at 2154, where I topped off with gas and made the turn onto I-65N.

Whats with these northern BP gas pumps :scratch:

Just after midnight (0018) I stopped in Lake Station, IN for a bottled Starbucks Frap and topped of the tank for the final leg.

At 0122 with 26,106 on the odometer, I purchased about a gallon of gas (nothing else was open) to make the end of the trip in Bridgeman, MI.

For a grand total of 1,189mi by my odometer. Google maps claims the trip is 1,172mi and I know I made a few small circles, rode around a couple gas stations, had to find a station that wound up being 5mi from from the interstate, etc. So I think I’m safe on the mileage ;)

My final destination was another 15mi down the road, but I figured there wouldn’t be anything open at 0200 in a town with a population of 1,800. I was correct.

Made a call and got my room mate for the month (and the upcoming year as an SM) to let me in and I zonked out almost immediately.

There were several turns that were way out in the sticks with nary an exit for miles, so some of those I don’t have documented. Some I was able to pull off and take a pic of the exit sign, but I’m not certain that will suffice for the IBA-required documentation. Assuming they assume (yikes thats a lot of assumption!) that I took the most direct route and trust me that I followed the printed route that I’m going to mail to them, I should be ok. Now to get the packet compiled and mailed in.

1,200mi, 23hrs, 6 states (I coulda swore I was in IL for a few miles, but I didn’t get a pic, and its not showing up on the Google directions).

[url=http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&geocode=&saddr=Alvarado,+TX+76009&daddr=37.944198,-87.583008+to:Berrien+Springs,+MI&mrcr=0,1&mrsp=1&sz=6&mra=dpe&sll=37.18124,-91.767525&sspn=9.920039,16.918945&ie=UTF8&z=6&om=1]This[/url] is the route I intended on taking. I adhered to it for the most part save one or two, unintended detours. I don’t think they added real miles, just time.

Not a single lick of trouble from the bike. Ran perfectly and returned 42.5mpg avg. I even managed to keep the chicken strips down to my normal 1/4”

My wrists and shoulders were a bit sore, but nothing worth complaining about. My bum did fine. After ~200mi I would have to get off and move it around to get the blood back in it, but thats also the upper tank range on the bike so its not a real problem. Should I run into an extra $400, I’ll most likely get a Sargent seat for it. Oh, a throttle lock would be nice. Too bad the $18 one from Cycle Gear didn’t work when I bought it a couple months ago.

*all times are CST

AFM training, week one

2007-07-23T21:33:00.000-06:00

Let me get you up to speed on what’s happening. I landed in Berrien Springs Michigan early on the morning of the 16th for Adventist Frontier Missions Student Missionary training. Its a four week course designed to get the SMs ready for service in the field.

Monday through Thursday was mostly spent filling out forms, learning about how to deal with various cultures (this will continue) and learning about the different personalities within the group of SMs and how they relate differently.

Thursday evening we were given eight Tupperware boxes about the size of shoe-box and told anything we wanted to take with us, had to be in those boxes. Keep in mind that there are 17 SMs this year. Sleeping bags and water bottles were the only exceptions.
We dressed in grubby clothes (as instructed) and loaded onto the bus. The first stop on the bus trip was a grocery store for the food we would be fixin’ during the long weekend.
After that we took off for a large piece of property owned by the SDA church up here in Michigan.

At this point I get to a point where I can’t really tell you what all happened cause its kinda secretive, not shoot-you-if-I-tell-you secretive, but we ain’t supposed to tell.

We arrived back on the campus of Andrew’s University at about 1830 local time one exhausted bunch of folks.

About two hours later, six of us had the bright idea to run to St Joseph, MI to get something to eat. We didn’t arrive back till about 2300 even more exhausted, but we had a blast, though I think the restaurant would have been fine if we hadn’t showed up.

The main goal of the event was to build the SMs into a team. A second goal was to push us to our physical limits. The first succeeded incredibly. I’ve only known most of my fellow SMs for a hair over a week and I’m now closer to them then I am to some people I’ve known for years. Its amazing what a proper mixture of trust-building activities and exercises can do for trust.

The second goal succeeded for some of the people on the team. The size difference between the team members is quite vast. Ranging from girls that are doing good to reach 5’4” and might weigh 110lbs if you threw them in the water in winter ski clothes, to myself at 6’2” and 175lbs. There is one other person who weighs more then myself. I”m going to guess, but didn’t ask, about 200lbs.
I’m by no means as fit as I’d like to be, but my long legs made it incredibly easy to maintain a fast walk while the small girls were jogging, thus making it very easy for me to keep pace with the team and not push myself that hard physically.
Please don’t take this as bragging, I’m simply saying that I was expecting to be pushed much harder then I was, but due to the team oriented nature, some of us un-natural freaks had it much easier then others.
While the physical part was a challenge and a fair bit of fun (for me anyway, others seemed to dislike it a bit more ;) ) the team building aspect is what really impressed me more.

We would be given a task to complete and a different person from the team selected to lead for this event. Various restrictions were placed upon us to make the task more difficult. Restrictions ranged to not being able to speak at all, limited word usage, some members blind-folded, English dis-allowed as a communication form, etc. The tasks themselves ranged from physical challenges, to mental challenges, to seeing how we would handle being pushed with time limits, lack of sleep, lack of food, etc.
It was a lot of fun to watch the individual members and the team as whole grow through this experience.

Initially, everyone tended to think as a single individual and as time progressed to the point that when given a task that had the team subdivided into smaller teams, that we joined together to complete the task.
Individuals grew in confidence in themselves, confidence in their leadership abilities, physical abilities, spiritual connection, and many other areas that are kinda hard to put down on (virtual) paper.
Suffice it to say I learned a fair bit about myself and learned a lot about the other SMs.

After this weekend the rest of the training goes back to the classroom. So while we’ll be getting lots of good instruction, it’ll be terribly boring to tell you about.

If you have any questions, I’ll be happy to try and answer them

I thank you all for your thoughts and prayers, I greatly appreciate them.

I did survive the IB attempt

2007-07-23T21:30:00.000-06:00

I really didn't die attempting the IB run. I simply got in super early and didn't feel like blogging at that point. and I've been busy since then and am just now getting around to writing a report.
I'll hope fully get that posted in a few days
Till then, here's the generalization
1200mi, 23hrs, 10min of rain, 4hrs of fog, lots of gas, a sore bum, and a great time!

Taco Bell. Dyersburg TN. 600mi

2007-07-15T12:39:00.001-06:00

Taco Bell. Dyersburg TN. 600mi done. 600mi to go

Little Rock

2007-07-15T09:02:00.000-06:00

Little Rock AR. Just under 400 mi completed!

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7am n ive made it

2007-07-15T06:11:00.001-06:00

7am n ive made it to Texarkana TX. just 1000mi to go!

Off to training

2007-07-14T17:22:00.001-06:00

Well folks, I'm off to training. I leave for Michigan at 3AM tomorrow morning. I'll be staying in one of the men's dorms on the campus of Andrews University.
Training starts on the morning of July 17th and will continue till August 12th.
The fund raising is coming along wonderfully!
Thank you all for your thoughts, prayers and support.
Nathan Seery
seeryn@gmail.com

Just testing stuff!

2007-07-12T16:24:00.001-06:00

Just testing stuff!

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Triumph StreetTriple

2007-06-29T10:18:00.000-06:00

Triumph recently announced the StreetTriple

Looks like a hoot to ride around the track.

I'm really digging that Roulette Green

Long time no blog

2007-06-26T09:42:00.001-06:00

Its been far too long since I've updated this here blog. I'll blame it on being really busy, but in reality I just haven't felt like updating it.
So whats been going on for the last few weeks...

To say I've been busy would be an understatement.
Running to NVR every weekend to do the video for them, work from 0830-1700 every day, trying to get things finished up at work before I leave work here for training, fighting with software thats supposed to make my job easier, dealing with tech support on that, riding the motorcycle as much as possible, trying to squeeze in some lake time, offering in-home computer support a couple evenings a week. well I think you get the picture.

I did get a chance to take my bike to the drag strip in Kennedale Thursday night. I went to hang out with friends and watch them run, I must admit that I had an absolute blast taking a few runs down the track. Its clear I'm not professional drag racer by looking at my RTs (reaction time) and I did discover that my VFR800 is a hair bit faster then the mid-'90s VFR750 but it was VERY close. to the tune of .0071 sec difference at the end of the 1/8th mile.

With the rain lately I've gotten to test the wet-weather capability of my new tires (well I say new, they now have over 1k miles on them) and I'm very pleased.

With all this rain, I need to get out and do some mudding, but then who wants to mud by oneself? besides the fact of what to do if you get stuck, its just not as much fun when alone.

Last night was a time for getting back together with friends that have been out of touch for sometime. One came out to ride at the lake. The other decided to be my MySpace friend again. Good times to be sure.

Track Day Pics

2007-06-06T13:04:00.000-06:00

Finally got the pics from the track photographer of the track day that I did back on May 7.

Full link is here

now I can see how poor my form was...

Thoughts of the moment

2007-05-30T08:14:00.001-06:00

You know its time for a haircut when you walk in and your friend immediately bursts into fits of rolling-on-the-floor laughter.

I knew I had a lot of junk, but I didn't realize I had THAT much junk. Good grief I need to get rid of some stuff.

You can conceal all kinds of interesting things with the proper equipment.

Mom can barely conceal her excitement that I am home.

Now I gotta get stuff sorted out and get packed for the weekend...

Not quite folks...

2007-05-25T12:38:00.001-06:00

Reading the news, they are going to raise the minimum wage. And of course its being heralded as the greatest thing ever to help the under-paid minimum wage worker.

Lets run this through its course.
Raise the minimum wage.
Workers are happy
Cost of everything now goes up
So in the end, nothing has changed.

Cost of living will be forced up, due to the rise in production. Thus negating the wage increase.

Don't get me wrong here, I'm ok with helping the underdog (to a degree) but this is not the solution that people think its going to be.

Now that I think about it, why is the Govt in the business of managing the "free market" anyway??

Oopsie

2007-05-20T00:11:00.000-06:00

It was a beautiful day and I'd already sat on my duff and read a bunch of pretty much useless info on the interweb while hoping something would come up with something to do. Nothing happened so I jumped on the bike and off I went. No particular destination in mind, just knew I had to be in Alvarado by 1900. No worries it was 1600 as I fired up the Viffer.
Weather was a perfect slightly over cast, but still plenty bright day. Viffer was running great and the new tires were feeling great. Tunes rolling the helmet couldn't have matched the mood of the ride any better. Smooth and rolling along nicely. Really just one of those perfect rides. Great for clearing the head even when your not actively thinking about anything while riding.
Having no destination in mind, I was turning at random on any road that looked decent. Ran down a road (don't recall the number) and the neighborhood bull was just standing there watching me. Naturally I stopped and took a pic.

Knowing FM51 has been a haven for crashing sport bikers, I turned off on FM205 and wound my way past Dinosaur Valley State Park and wound up turning down CR1005 (I'm pretty sure that's the number) and paused at a low water crossing to walk across it and take a few pics.

After my walk across the water, I decided it was ok, and thought I'd ride across and continue my random explorations. Well, the path I walked and the path I rode were apparently different as I found a slick spot with the bike. Back end decided to take a different path then the front and down she went. No worries I was going a like 2mph at the time. I'll just pick it up and ride on.
DOH! The last 3" of the clutch lever decided to snap off. well, I can still ride it home no worries.
The kind lady standing there watching me do all this informed me that those low water crossings were slick. Where is Bill Engval when you need him?
So I get it out of the one-lane water crossing and look the bike over closer to see what damage was done.

=

Only to discover that its quite nearly pouring oil out of the top of the oil cooler. Seems the drop moved the headlight enough to puncture the oil cooler. Double check the oil and thought I'd ride it back to at least Glenrose.
About the time I got to DVSP it was clear that the bike had other plans. Too much oil was blowing out for me to continue riding. I parked across FM205 from DVSP and called HRCA.
The lady on the phone was having trouble with her computer (aren't they always? :scratch: ) and I wound up spending nearly 15min trying to get a tow setup. In the end they dispatched Don's Towing from Granbury saying it would be 2hrs before they could make it out.
As I'm sitting there on the side of the road staring at the sky, The game warden pulls out of DVSP and comes over to check on me. I explain it, he oogles the bike and drives away. A little while later, a car pulls up to ask if I'm ok. I inform them that I've already got a tow setup and am just waiting for them to arrive. They turn around and then stop and ask me if I have what I think was drugs. I had the camera in hand, I shoulda snapped a pic of their plate

As time goes on, there's no less then 6 cars pull out of DVSP full of folks that I know. Most all of them stopped to check or at the very least wave.

Laying there staring at the sky I had this random inspiration hit and snapped this shot:

I don't know, maybe the bugs were getting at my brain

Low and behold I hear a bike riding down the road and what should I see appear but a red VStrom blur piloted by a man in a Tecknic jacket. I say to myself "self, is that Bill?" soon enough I find out as he's back and it was indeed our very own Bill (Graubert) out testing his new Laminar lip. Bill proceeded to wait with me till the tow truck shows up. I am here to tell you that talking to another person is much more fun then talking to yourself!

As Bill and I were standing there, there was a gaggle of sport bikes that went by. The last of which was a familiar looking black bike piloted by a pink-helmeted rider. Bill and I both asked if that was Melanie (Vitto) Turns out we were right!

The tow truck shows up and the first thing out of his mouth is "I'm going to have to get you to sign a waver as I ain't equipped to haul bikes." :doh: well, I guess I don't really have any other options. Sign the waver and load the bike up. Took a bit, but got his straps around the lower fork clamps and get it strapped down. I'm not super happy with it, but it beats pushing the thing all the way home.

Its really a sad sight

Got her home and into the garage. I'll tear it apart and figure out exactly what I need to get it going again.

A big thanks to Bill for hanging with me while the tow truck took forever to show up.

Needless to say, I missed my Alvarado meet at 1900. Oh well, sometimes things happen.

Avon Azaro

2007-05-17T16:58:00.000-06:00

Replace the shoes on the VFR yesterday. 7600mi in 14mo not nearly enough miles. Course I did put 4k on the ST1300, so I shouldn't complain too much.

The old tires still had some life left in them. but I thought I was going to Arkansas this weekend and I didn't want to chance the tires running out of life while I was up there. Peace of mind is worth sacrificing a few miles on a set of tires.

Ok, The previous tires were Avon Azaro ST45/46. I absolutely love those tires. Great turn in, great feel, great grip wet and dry, great mileage. I really think I could have matched the ~9,000 that I put on a prior set of Michelin Pilot Roads had I left them on. In short, I loved these tires.
I would have replaced them with the same thing except Avon release the Strom 55/56 ST tire which is being heralded as better then the 45/46 if thats possible.

So I've got new shoes on the steed so its time to ride!

Definitions

2007-05-08T15:15:00.001-06:00

So there was some confusion about "biker lingo" in my last blog so let me see if I can't clear some of it up.

CheapSTOC: an excuse for members of the Honda ST Owners Club to ride. This event was held in Junction TX.
Connie: A Kawasaki ZG1000 Concours Touring/Sport Touring bike.
vitch: say the 'v' with a spanish pronunciation and you come up with a term used for riding on the back of a bike, or in the middle of a bench seat. I was spelling around the filters on the forum I posted that on. (link is clean)
Centerstand: a stand incorporated into the bike to lift the rear wheel off the ground for service. folds back in front of the tire but hangs lower then the frame.

If you are confused about something else, let me know and I'll see what I can do to update this list.

110 miles to no where

2007-05-07T21:58:00.000-06:00

Today I rode 110miles and never went anywhere. All while averaging ~27mpg. So what was I doing?
I convinced Tony from EuroSport that my VFR was a Sprint ST and went to his track day at Motor Sport Ranch

Having never done this before I was quite unsure what to expect. Asked around here on TWT, read through Sport Riding Techniques, strapped a cooler and a chair to the back and headed out.
Arrived in Cresson at 0800 and got started taping the bike off (no truck/trailer) At first there weren’t many people there, but they gradually started filtering in.

While I was going through tech, Loyd, apparently he had convinced Tony that his CBR600RR was of European descent as well.

As I was starting to gear up, Loyd decided that I should at least try on his spare set of leathers, to my surprise they actually fit. Well, except for the sleeves, but I haven’t found much that fits my monkey arms. So now I’m looking the part and take off around the track behind the instructors (Tom and Guy) they are taking the track at a “leisurely” pace. I’m riding along thinking “this is fast enough for me!” fortunately for me, a few laps had me feeling much more comfortable with the track. Then it was back to the classroom while those who could actually ride took to the track.

As the day wore on, my confidence level increased and I was actually getting around the track. Nowhere near what would be considered fast, but I had a hoot and that’s what mattered.

At the end of the last session before lunch, I pull off towards the pits and notice a familiar face standing on the wall. Pull around and attempt to figure out what this foreigner is doing so far from home. Turns out she was headed home from the CheapSTOC event and made a wrong turn :-P seeing as she was there, she thought she’s stop in and take me to lunch

I’ve never ridden vitch so it was a new experience. It seemed to be a day for them.

In the first session after lunch, I was attempting to pass a Connie, panicked and ran off in to the grass/mud. Guy stopped and we rode back to the pits at a super slow pace. Don’t want to get mud on the track for the rest of the riders. He explained what I had done, what I needed to do to correct it and sent me off. I kicked myself and headed off to wash off the tires for the next session.

I wasn’t the only one to leave the track today. Couple other folks messed up turns and went on “agricultural trips”. Loyds dad got clipped in a corner and crashed. Fortunately no one was injured.
Sadly, the crash ended both Loyd and his dad’s day at the track. I had to give the leather back, so I finished the day out in my gear. Which by the way, is MUCH warmer then perforated leather!
Back on the track the next time I concentrated on just being smooth and trusting the bike. Things went great so I picked up the pace next time around.

When the day was over I was sweaty, tired and happy. I’d successfully completed my first track day and kept the shiny side up on the bike. I’d improved my riding and gotten ride of those darn chicken strips. Drug the left peg feeler twice, and Guy was telling me to take the center stand off for next time as it was dragging.

So yeah, I had a blast. Learned to trust the bike more and had a blast! Did I mention I had fun?

Am I older then I thought?

2007-04-28T16:10:00.000-06:00

Honda West Cleburne was having a Demo Day today, so my dad and I, having nothing better to do, decided to head that way and see what we could ride.

Got over there around 3:20 and discovered that the last ride left at 3:00. But seeing as we are in there all the time buying parts for our various machines and they all know us by first name, they setup one more run for us.

The bikes they had to choose from were a pair of GL1800s, what seemed like all the cruisers Honda makes, the Reflex, and the Silver Wing. If we'd had time we would have ridden all of them, but since we only had one pass, we picked the Wings.

sorry, new camera, just had to use it

Dad got the one that had $18,799 written on it (Silver), and I had the one with $20,699 on it (Black). Mine had the Navi system, his did not. Both had the CB.
couldn't tell you how many buttons there were or what all they did
I managed to figure out how the stereo worked, but thats about all.

Dad managed to get his in Reverse and Jeff (ride leader) had to go help him out on that one.
Once he was moving in a forward direction, we took off.

The first thing that I noticed was how the Honda engineers had managed to figure out a way to drop 3-400lbs off the bike as soon as its moving. I don't know how they did it, but it sure is effective!

I actually really enjoyed taking that boat for a spin. While I wouldn't trade my VFR for it, swapping the ST1300 did cross my mind... Thus leading me to the title: Since we all know GoldWings are old men's bikes, am I older then I thought?

I have read all kinds of stuff about how well the Wing handles, and how much power it has, yada yada yada. But until you park your keister in the seat and experience it for yourself, its really hard to believe.

Dad was curious to ride them as he absolutely disliked the GL1500. Said its seat was too high, and it felt heavier then it was, didn't like the engine. Just plain didn't like it. After sitting on the GL1800 at the IMS show back in Nov, he decided that maybe it wasn't as bad as the GL1500.
After taking the GL1800 for a spin, he was just short of singing its praises (dad getting excited is saying "yippie" in sarcastic, flat tone)
Dad's too much of a cheap-skate to buy a new one, and probably a used one, but I wouldn't be surprised if he kept his eyes open for a salvage one

I was quite impressed with the bikes, and as always, very happy with the service from Honda West Cleburne

The Night Stalkers

2007-04-26T16:51:00.000-06:00

The Night Stalkers by Michael J Durant and Steven Hartov is a tale of deft and daring, skill and courage. Well, actually is quite a few smaller stories about that.

Its a collaboration of stories of the pilots and crew of the US Army's 160th SOAR(A) (Special Operations Aviation Regiment), the pilots who fly the Special Ops guys into places. Most always flying at night, with no lights on the birds.

If you are even slightly interested in recent military history, or the military in general, I highly recommend this book.

2007 Texas Pathfinder Camporee Video

2007-04-24T20:10:00.000-06:00

I seem to have a knack for whirl-wind trips

2007-04-23T21:44:00.000-06:00

So, made another whirl-wind trip to GA this past weekend. And as usual, there was no real reason to go, just wanted to go.

This time I went with Pamela and Danny and we took Danny's mom's new Subaru Forester. While there's a certain appeal to riding the bike, it was nice to be able to nap while somebody else was driving.

Took off after work on Thursday and made a bee-line for GA. With three drivers we were able to make it almost non-stop and made it in 13hrs. Not bad considering its 850mi.

So we arrived after our friends/family had already left for work, so we just crashed till they got home .

Saturday we went to Stone Mountain and attempted to climb to the top. I say attempted cause we somehow missed the trail and only managed to walk 3/4 of the way around this thing.
We finally made our way back to where we could climb up, but by that time we had a pair of knees that weren't really wanting to climb and an ankle that had decided to see if it worked on its side. so we just got in the car and went home.

So we sat around for awhile and ordered pizza online. Now, I"m a geek and even *I* think that is just ridiculous. How hard is it to dial a phone!?! Pizza was good regardless and we had fun playing card games and just generally yacking.

Got up sunday and slowly, begrudgingly hit the road home around 1030 TX time. 12.5hrs later we landed in Keene and headed for bed.

Was whirl-wind trip, had some interesting tensions and discussions, but it was a good trip.

So when we going again?

A beautiful day for a ride!

2007-04-15T17:52:00.001-06:00

Took off this morning to try my hand at a street enduro hosted by Precision Challenge.

To explain basically what this is, you leave the start point with a very specific set of directions at a set time (0900 this time) and drive exactly as they tell you. The goal is to arrive at each of the check points at the exact time they pre-determined. This repeats at each of the checkpoints along the route.

I met Ryan, Steve (friends from TWTEX.com) and a gentleman on a Harley (Mike) there. Along with the folks putting it on. Ryan, Mike and I are in the same class. Steve is in another one because he brought his wife on the back of his Tiger.

So myself and Ryan are assigned to the first group. We decide to work together to get this done (none of us had done this before).

Made the first check point ok, got our time card stamped and punched and off we went.
Got to the second check point, took of and promptly (well, 3 miles later) discovered we'd gone the wrong way. So we are now 6min behind schedule. Gotta make up time.

Traffic on I35 (where we were supposed to be) was thick and we couldn't make up any time.
good fortune shined on us once we left the interstate though and we were able to make tracks (At the posted legal limit of course )

Arrived at the third checkpoint exactly on time and took our 40min lunch break.

Got back on the road and nearly missed the 4th check point. (I think they were trying to hide from us...) Then back on the road.

Somewhere along this stretch we got to looking at the route sheet and realized things were a bit funny. we were WAY WAY ahead of the alloted time. and we were running 5 UNDER the limit.
So SH121 saw myself and Ryan running ~12mph on the shoulder trying to eat time.
Steve and Mike caught up with us and we discussed whether there was typo or we really were supposed to take 2hrs to cover ~35mi.

Finally rolled in about 20min before the route sheet time and discovered that they'd made an error in the calculations. They felt horrible, but now I've got a crazy story!

I had an absolute blast. Cost me $25 to enter and I walked away with a tie for 2nd place, a $150 check, and a nice trophy.

So when's the next one?

Ah, the sound of a Viffer...

2007-04-12T21:56:00.000-06:00

Finally got the Viffer back in running condition Monday night. Got the valve inspection, oil change, thermostat replaced, and headlight relay replacement finished Sunday, then did the Throttle Body sync (Thank you Gary!) Monday evening.

Took her home that evening in place of the ST1300 and wow, I'd forgotten how SMOOOTH that V4 is! not to mention that slight (I think I need Staintunes...) exhaust note. Pure heroin I tell you, truely addictive.

Now I've got to decide if I want to take the ST1300 or the VFR for my first Saddle Sore 1000 in a week or so

How to spend Easter weekend as a geek

2007-04-08T16:20:00.000-06:00

First, volunteer to do the video for the Texas Conference Pathfinder Camporee like you have for the past seven years.
Drive for 4hrs with $15,000+ in equipment in a SUV.
Spend the next hour getting everything setup.
Shoot people setting camp up
play Ghost Recon while waiting for more people to show up
capture the video and stay up till 2400 editing
get up at 0600 and start filming people
repeat till dark
edit till 0100
prompt fellow editor to work on his section
while editing, crash the editing suite, thus rendering your computer useless
fight with computer and finally break out the backup machine
get up at 0600 and film more people
escape the rain and go back to editing
fight with the backup machine
prompt fellow editor to work on his section
get it finished and show to the people who were brave enough to stick around
pack up and drive home at 0100
marvel at 1" of snow on the road between Caldwell and Waco
arrive home at 0530 and promptly go to bed
repeat as seen fit

Homeshow was great!

2007-04-02T08:35:00.000-06:00

SWAT Homeshow was Saturday night. I was pleasantly surprised that it came off as well as it did.

Spent all of last week working on various things for it. Had the regular practice every day, shot video Tuesday through Thursday evenings, then I was up till almost 3AM Friday morning editing.

Friday afternoon was spent setting up and rehearsing for the show.

Saturday, I adjusted the length of a song and showed up for final setup at 5PM.
Had a bit of trouble getting all the videos from the other editor, but it all worked out. Now if they hadn't been in 1080i HD my system wouldn't have had trouble playing it . My system plays it fine, but when you are trying to compress it down to fit on a 800x600 screen its a bit slower.

The gymnastics part of the show went off really well. 95% of everything hit and thats a lot more then I was expecting due to a lack of focus in some of the team.

Looking back, it would have been very nice to have someone run the lights/sound/videos instead of having myself do all that, try to run a couple cameras and perform as well, but it really worked very well and really wasn't a problem.

Now if I could get a chance, I'll start editing the video from Homeshow and get it put on a DVD.

Finally, progress

2007-03-27T10:42:00.000-06:00

Spent a couple hours last night working on the Viffer. Got the valve shims and buckets all changed out and in place, cams back on and tight. The best feeling of the night? turning the engine over and getting that wonderful feeling of it working properly!

Now if I can get some time to do the thermostat, shift lever seal, headlight relay, and the oil change, I'll get it back on the road! Having been with out the Viffer for a month, its high time to get it back!

Clarification

2007-03-26T09:45:00.000-06:00

Mimosa is my schools annual formal banquet.
This year it was held in a ballroom of the Gaylord Texan

Mimosa, a recap

2007-03-26T08:58:00.000-06:00

Decided to go to Mimosa last night, so I paid my $30 and off I went. Dressed as a Ninja.
The brother and a fellow gymnastics teammate were also dressed as Ninjas.

After walking in from the parking garage (I'm not paying Valet when I'm going stag!) and getting many interesting stares, looks, and comments, we finally made it to the ballroom. Of course we ran up the down escalators, cause thats what Ninjas do.
Upon attempting to enter the banquet, we were asked to wait, pending arrival of someone to approve our "disruptive" attire. We pressed the issue a bit and were allowed in.
Tables are set for groups of couples so it makes it a bit interesting when you're alone and I wound up at a nearly empty table in the corner, no worries, its easier to observe prey, I mean, people, from the corner then the center of the room.

Entertainment was a bit on the sparse side, but may have been ok if I'd had a date. But then I heard more then one person commenting that they would have rather spent the $60 to take a date some other place.
Food was ok, but I guess I'm just not uppity enough, too fancy for me.

All in all, a decent evening, but a note of reference for myself: NEVER go solo unless being paid or specifically with a group of friends and y'all are sitting together.

Ninja Pic

2007-03-04T21:18:00.000-06:00

Here's what I have for the moment

More to come

Different bikes are fun!

2007-03-03T10:58:00.000-06:00

Thursday a bunch of us were up in Dallas and a friend and brought his '01 Triumph 600TT up for use in a drama we were doing. Well he didn't want to ride it home in the dark and "cold" so I got elected to ride it home.
I was presently surprised to find that I wasn't in sever pain when I got home. my bum was quite happy. Shoulders were a bit sore on arrival, but I think that was mostly do to the immense amount of tumbling I'd done the day before on a hard surface.
Oh, that little fairing doesn't do jack. I'll happily take my VFR over that bike. Not to say that I wouldn't love one for track days though!

Friday my brother acquired a '95 Yamaha Virago 1100. He's been wanting a bike for awhile and since the one he was riding ('86 XV250) was a loaner and the owner took it back, he's REALLY been wanting one. He found this one for pretty cheap and in pretty good condition. Needs the carbs adjusted, but thats to be expected for a 12yo bike.
Since he botched his left ankle at the show Thursday night, I got elected to ride it home.
I've never ridden a cruiser so this was a new experience for me.
The seat needs to be a few inches back so I'm not leaned back, and the pegs need to be less forward. Guess I'm not prime for a cruiser huh?
Riding that bike makes me look good though, in the 10mi ride home, I drug both feet and slid the back tire twice. Yeah, I like more clearance and sticky tires.

At the risk of sounding like Squeaky, who's going to let me ride their bike next?

"I'm an evil tumbling ninja!"

2007-02-23T20:55:00.000-06:00

This upcoming week myself and eight other members of my gymnastics team are going to be participating in the Just Claim It prayer conference in Dallas.

We are going to be performing various acrobatic, tumbling and trampoline stunts for the dramas.
Last night we finally (its a long story) got our outfits that we are going to be wearing. Full ninja outfits. so there's nine of us running around on the stage in totally black outfits being scary demons.

During a break in our rehearsal last night, Nirva, the lone female in our troup, piped up in this hilarious tone that you'd have to hear to understand and said "I'm an evil tumbling ninja!" we just about died laughing at her.

I do have to admit that its a heck of a lot of fun running around in those outfits. We even contemplated going to Wal-Mart and seeing how long it would take to get thrown out. Better judgment, lack of interest in an arrest record and the call of the bed at 0100 pervaded and we didn't go.

I'll have to get some pics of us in the outfits and post them up

Corteo

2007-02-15T21:17:00.000-06:00

Corteo means cortege in Italian which in turn is a funeral procession. It also just happens to be the name of the most recent Cirque Du Soleil production to grace Dallas.

If you’ve never seen Cirque, your are missing out my friend.
A literal translation give Cirque Du Soleil to mean Circus of the Sun. So you might get the idea that its a circus. It is, but its so much more then just a circus. Comparing Cirque to Barnum & Bailey isn’t even close to fair for B&B. Well I guess I should say that if your not a gymnast or interested in gymnastics type things, then you may enjoy B&B just as well.

Cirque is essentially a gymnastics extravaganza coupled with great live music, an intriguing story, brilliant costumes. All combined to make a very interesting and awe inspiring production.

My family and I went to the show Tuesday evening, had a great time, and enjoyed the show. Got some crazy ideas to try for the gymnastics team and I’m sure we annoyed the folks in front of us by continually commenting on what they were doing form more then the typical “ooh, ahh” perspective.

As Cirque show’s go, it rocked, but didn’t quite stack up to the level of Vareki (which I saw live last year) and Quidom. Still 100% worth every penny.

Mountain Biking

2007-02-10T15:51:00.000-06:00

Mom, on a whim the other day, decided that for her birth day she wanted to spend more time as a family. and that to do this we were going to go mountain biking.
so she bought us all mountain bikes. Now, let me remind you that we aren't exactly a small family. Mom, Dad, myself and three younger brothers. Thats SIX bikes.

Got them all loaded into the truck and we headed out to the state park for their first ride. well, the brothers had taken theirs onto the land and messed around on them for awhile. the rest of us hadn't had ours out yet. something about work, school and kiddos.

Hit the trails around 1130 on Saturday. Got everybody on their steeds and away we went. the first trail we took wasn't all that complex. involved a few tight spots between trees, but nothing horrible.
Pulling back onto the road, mom's chain broke. now this is the first time that bikes been ridden and, no offense, but mom isn't exactly a powerhouse. Nor was she changing gears while really cranking on the pedals. it just snapped. To say the least she was frustrated. But decided to call it (not like there was any other option). She had to leave in a few minutes anyway for a prior appointment.
Getting back I discovered that I'd run over a nice 1" thorn with the front tire. reach down to pull it out and the tire starts going flat. the thorn was holding air. so I stick it back in and continue on riding. Its still holding air this morning (Monday)

The rest of us took a longer trail after mom left. took a couple spills but nothing that damaged (seriously) the rider or bike.

Took a tiny break after that one then hit the trail again. This time dad's chain broke on a down hill. please note that mom's and dad's bikes are the same brand and model of bikes. Oddly enough, my brothers and mine are all the same brand, but different models.
Anyway, we kept riding while dad walked back to the truck.

Had a great time, but man am I outta shape for that stuff! and I'm not entirely convinced that clip on pedals are such a great idea on a MTB...

Whats with all the Birthdays?

2007-02-10T15:48:00.000-06:00

not that its a bad thing, but there's been a whole heck of a lot of BD's lately.

Becca's was earlier this week.
Shayla's was Thursday
Bekah's was yesterday
Mom's is today, as well as Hunkin's
Brothers and cousin's are in 10days and my roommates is the day after that!

Happy Birth Day to the whole mess of you!

Flippin' Awesome!

2007-02-05T20:00:00.000-06:00

Had a good weekend.

Friday the gymnastics team, myself included, headed off to a small academy and performed our show for them. Its the first show of the semester and our routines need some, ok a LOT, of polish. but the kids really enjoyed the show and were happy to have us there. I spent a bit of time performing, read: showing off, on the trampoline during the show. I believe it was captured on film so I"ll have to track that down and stick it online for y'all to see.

Friday evening our team held vespers for them. Did a great job and the kids came away saying they were blessed.

The coach, the bus driver and myself got to stay in a school sponsors guest house. Much to the chagrin of the team who stayed on the over-full dorm's lobby floor. The bus driver is my old coach and also coached the current coach when he was in college. We wound up acting like a trio of girls and sitting up till 1AM and swapping stories and eating ice cream. The tales we were telling were quite a bit different then I would expect from a similar gathering of females. Politics, guns, gymnastics, family, food were just a few of the subjects that were covered.

Saturday morning we got up around 0830 and headed to Sabbath School that the team (it was all my brother in this instance) lead out. Again the kids enjoyed it and came away blessed. Many gave us hugs and thanked us for coming.
The bus had to be back in town for another school function so we skipped church, ate lunch and headed home.

To shorten the trip home, I called my friends in GA. it helped but I was quite sick of the bus after 3.5hrs.

Landed back here about 1545. Got the equipment all unloaded and I landed at the apt around 1630.

Sat around not doing a whole lot till about 1800 when I met a friend and another couple for a trip to the FTW Stock Show and Rodeo. I didn't think far enough in advance and the Rodeo was sold out so we wandered the stock buildings looking at a bunch of horses.

Hit On The Border for some grub, stuffed ourselves silly, got a free brownie ice cream thingy (which is huge, but mighty tasty) for an upcoming birth day, (which reminds me, I still need to find a costume for that party...)
then headed home.
I normally hate waiting for a train, but it makes for some nice talking time!

had a great weekend and the weather is looking wonderful for the rest of the week!

Cirque

2007-02-01T11:08:00.000-06:00

If you've never seen Cirque Du Soleil, your missing out.

Cirque is bringing their Corteo show to Dallas Feb 9 - Mar 11.

Those of you in Houston get the pleasure of seeing it as well. but you'll have to look up your own dates.

Their shows aren't cheap, but they are worth every penny.

Ah, now THATS a weekend!

2007-01-29T14:19:00.000-06:00

Saturday I managed to get out and go for a 140mi ride on the ST1300. I managed to turn a normally 30min trip into a 2.5hr adventure! county roads are so much more fun then the highway.
By the time I got home, the temp had dropped 11*F and the wind was forcing me to lean the bike way over.

Sunday my Pathfinder club (think Royal Rangers, boy/girl scouts) went down to Carl Chandler's Law Enforcement Academy for some firearms and self-defense instruction.
We had kids ranging in age from 13-17, both boys and girls.

Started the day off with a "This is what I've done" from Carl Chandler and continued into the rules of the range.
We then took the kids down to the three (handgun, rifle and shotgun) ranges. Went over the basic rules again, showed them how to load and handle the guns and turned them "loose." (they were still under very close supervision)

They took turns with the weapons and continued rotating around to the three ranges and trying their hand at the options. We had .22LR, 9mm, .40cal, .45cal pistols. Shotguns ranged from 410 to 12ga, rifles were all .22LR. one of the instructors brought out his AR-15 for us to shoot a few rounds through. And Carl brought out his Savage 10FP .308 rifle for some of us to shoot.

Let me tell you, that Savage was VERY addicting to shoot! I only put four rounds through it and I'm really wanting one! too bad I can't afford to get it any time soon. Someday!

Kids had a great time and we brought all of them back so it was a safe day.

Productivity

2007-01-26T21:55:00.000-06:00

Had a rather productive day today.

Arrived at work at 0830 and proceeded to solve the worlds problems, well not actually the world, but a couple various depts on campus were happy with me today.

Left work promptly at noon and had lunch with my mom and brothers.
Following this, we drove to Dallas and crashed the Apple store, where I picked up a new iPod to replace the one that died on me over Christmas.

80gb iPod in white, 2yr extended warranty, protective case, education discount, 10% off for trading in the old iPod, plus uncle sams sales tax brought the total to $461 and change.
coulda been worse and I fully expect to have over 2yrs of service out of this iPod as well.

Arrived home around 1530 and got back to work on the alternator on the 4Runner. Discovered it wouldn't quite fit so a trip to the parts house was in order for a persuasive device. some would call it a file. a few minutes later, I had the alternator bolted in place and verified to be working.
That accomplished it was time to replace the aging and no longer brilliant headlights. Got those swapped and realigned to point correctly and what do ya know, I can see!

finish the day off with mom's hot cinnamon rolls and thats what I call a good day.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

for the love of dead alternators

2007-01-26T11:26:00.000-06:00

The alternator died on the 4runner the other day and I started replacing it last night.
I say started, because I didn't get it finished.
of the two bolts/nuts that hold the alternator on, I dropped one of the nuts. and of course, it was never to be seen again. I spent 30min looking for the stupid thing.
it didn't go through and land on the ground.
it didn't stop in the frame anywhere.
it didn't land on the skid plate.
it didn't wind up on the axle anywhere.

It just plain vanished!

so off to the local parts house for a replacement. they were closed.
Ok, so I'll run into town and get one there.
Lowe's didn't have one, spent 20min looking.
the other parts place didn't have one
Home Depot did have one, but I had to track somebody down to find the stupid thing for me.
So I spent over an hr and a half trying to find this thing and by the time I got home, it was too dark to bother working on it. so I'll work on it this afternoon.

oh and how much did the stupid nut cost? $0.38

The ST is home

2007-01-25T13:39:00.000-06:00

Finally made it up to Honda West to pick up the ST1300. They said they looked and performed about every test they could think of, but couldn't find the leak.

So I'll ride it and see what happens. should the leak come back up, I'll take it back.

Heated grips sure are nice!

Not good news

2007-01-23T11:08:00.001-06:00

Got a call from mom this morning. Apparently my grandfather was scheduled to get some angioplasty done this morning. Well once he got there the Dr's decided his heart was too blocked to for angioplasty to work. So they rescheduled him for heart bypass surgery this afternoon.

Oh and come to find out that he fractured his wrist getting out of his chair late last week.

If you could keep him, and grandma, in your prayers it would be greatly appreciated.

Funny rendition of PMS

2007-01-22T17:56:00.000-06:00

Stumbled across this on one of the motorcycle forums

PMS = Parked Motorcycle Syndrome

I know I get grumpy if my bike(s) are parked for too long!

Rollerskating

2007-01-21T12:33:00.000-06:00

The school took all the students up to Arlington Skatium for rollerskating Saturday night.
I didn't have any specific plans to go, but a friend invited me along and she's plenty cute enough that its hard to pass on an invite. So she and another friend of mine took off to beat the buses.

got up there and missed the turn, shoulda been paying more attention to where I was going, so took the next turn into an adjacent parking lot in hopes we could cut across. well no such luck, but the grass separating the parking lots was just too inviting and I drove the 4Runner through there. I know I'm a horrible person.

Skated around for a couple hours then came home. Watched an episode of The Unit then decided that since it was after 3AM it was time to crash.

Had a good time. not enough sleep, but hey, you can sleep when your dead right?

Woo Hoo! Captain's reunion!

2007-01-21T03:01:00.000-06:00

After not having seen my former teammates from an old gymnastics team
for way too stinking long, we had a reunion Friday night.

Putting a bunch of ex-gymnasts in a gym with me being the most senior
member is not exact the brightest idea ever.
We played a wonderfully fun, yet highly prone to induce injury, game
called trampoline tag. when the person who's "it" lands on the
trampoline your on, and your "frozen" until a non-frozen player lands
on your trampoline. the third time your frozen, you become "it"

now put 10-15 people bouncing every which direction on six
trampolines, and you get the idea how it could be detrimental to the
health of one's ankle's.

On top of that, we built a couple three-high's, butterfly's and a few
other things that I wouldn't advise trying at home.

But the most fun was had once we got tired and sat around swapping
stories of old times and munching on pizza.

now if we can just get together more often...

An unwelcome sight

2007-01-16T22:05:00.001-06:00

Took this yesterday morning but forgot to post it.

My Viffer sitting forlorn under its ice-covered cover

It really WAS leaking!

2007-01-16T15:19:00.000-06:00

Honda West called me this morning in reference to my ST1300. Seems they couldn't find a leak in the brake system anywhere. I can go pick up the bike.

The reason it went up there in the first place a leak I found in the bottom of the Proportioning Control Valve (PCV) between the back and front brake system (linked brakes).

I bled the brakes and filled the rear fluid container and took the bike to them last Thursday. By the time I got there, the rear brakes were feeling quite mushy, so I figured it had run out of fluid (it was leaking a lot just sitting on the center stand)
They said it was full of air, requiring nearly a whole bottle of brake fluid to get it cleared.

Guess I'll go get it and ride it and watch that rear brake fluid container like a hawk

Oh yippie, Ice.

2007-01-15T09:37:00.000-06:00

So the weather weenies have been screaming that this is the ice storm to end the world. Typical of the news media selling fear to everybody.

The weather finally got cold enough to freeze the streets. so this mornings 5 block drive to work took 2x as long as normal. not like its an issue, work is actually closed for MLK day.

Here's a pic I took this morning while I was waiting for the defrost to work on the 4Runner

As always the camera didn't capture what the eye saw, but thats the joy of a less then pro camera.

A video to make you smile

2006-12-21T10:55:00.000-06:00

Grumble, grumble, gripe, gripe

2006-12-18T07:54:00.001-06:00

Attempting to talk to my very good friend in Africa this morning and
the phone kept cutting off!

I know its Africa and the cell service is terrible, but it wasn't the
signal that dropped. for some reason or another, she couldn't hear
me. It would work fine, then I'm gone. I could still hear her just fine.

Oh well, guess I'll try again tomorrow

My little aluminium butt trip to GA

2006-12-12T17:00:00.000-06:00

I’ve been planning on going to visit my friends on north side of Atlanta for something on the order of 2 months now, so as the time drew near, I thought it would be kool to take the bike.
Since the ST1300 was finished, it looked like a prime opportunity to give the thing a good long run. and besides, bikes all get 40+ MPG on the hwy, I can’t even get 20mpg out of the 4Runner. sounds like a no brainer to me.
I had been watching the weather for the week prior to the trip in hopes that it was going to warm up and be a nice ride. It didn’t. I decided that I was going to go ahead and take the ride. Thats what heated grips and Belstaff jackets are for right?
When I started loading the bike at 0530 the thermostat in the apt was claiming it was 28.4*F

The bike thought it was a bit cooler then that

(forgot to reset the trip meter prior to the pic, but you can see the odo 15308)

it was cold, so I layered up, cranked the heated grips to High (or so I thought) and hit the road. the clock on the bike read 0607 when I pulled out of the driveway.

I didn’t make it to Dallas before I thought I was going to get lose my hands to frostbite. I stopped 3 times to warm my hands on the exhaust and/or the heads.

By 1000 it was all the way to 38* (according the the not-always-correct bike)
All this and my body was just fine. Knees got a little cool, but it was hands and toes that were cold. So I kept stopping every ~30-45min to warm back up. to say the least it was a slow trip.

About 1130 I made it to the LA border
yes, thats ~250mi in about 4hrs, yeesh

Stopped and grabbed a Quizzno’s sandwich and hit the road again about 1220. I was warmer by this point so I was able to make some better time.

Somewhere in LA, I stopped for a break and saw this sign. What are they implying??

I’m sure they *meant* to point to some specific area other then the trash can, but I just couldn’t resist a little creative interpretation ;)

Back on the road I ran into a back-log of traffic on I20 near Ruston, LA. Turns out that they had shut down East bound I20 from Ruston to Monroe. I don’t know the cause but they routed us down LA33 to HWY80 and over to Monroe. That trip which is normally ~25mi, took almost 3hrs.

I got stuck between a couple big rigs and the one in front had a shiny trailer!

I wish i’d had a CB during that time so I could at least have somebody to talk to!
My hands were getting warm so I flipped the grips from Hi to Low, I QUICKLY discovered that they were wired up wrong! they got HOT in a hurry. too bad I didn’t find that out sooner
I don’t know for sure but I think the instructions on the grips are wrong, because I remember double and triple checking that I had them right before buttoning the tupperware back on, but I could very well just had some cerebral flatulence and put them on wrong. I’ll have to take the plastic off and get them straightened out.

I had my VX-7r along so I plugged that in and found a little country station out of Monroe. Their DJs weren’t good at all, but the music was great!

By the time I got to Monroe, it was about 1500. time to make some distance. next stop: Vicksburg, Miss. landing there just before 1700.

I spent the rest of the evening doing my best to make tracks across Miss.

I crossed the border in to Bama around 2200. It was dark so I didn’t stop to get a pic of the state sign. I decided that I’d had enough for one day and it was getting darn cold again. so I grabbed a room in Tuscaloosa, AL for the night.

Woke up about 0700 and hit the road by 0745. It wasn’t any cooler Saturday morning either.

all that time and I’d still only gone 600mi!

I was able to make better time on Saturday. Stopped for breakfast at Waffle House around 0900 then back on the road to GA. Crossed the border in to GA around 1100. Construction started at the border so I didn’t want to risk stopping for a pic of the sign.

I turned North at Villa Rica
headed up HWY61 towards Dallas, GA. From there it was up 92 to Acworth and I was done by 1215. phew what a trip.

Saturday I didn’t do much of anything. sat around and talked, read letters from their sister/sister-in-law in Africa and just had a fended off the 2 dogs and a cat appropriately named PITA.

Saturday night we went into town and picked up another controller for the newly-acquired PS2 (yes, the old cheap one :deal: ) and then proceeded to spend the rest of the evening playing games.

Sunday we got up and played more games. it was down right funny to watch her playing GTA: San Andreas and attempting to get away from the cops.

Oh, she decided that on GT4, the Ram 1500 Hemi Quad Cab is the best thing out there cause “it doesn’t turn quick” :scratch:

While she was playing GT4 we got under the house and ran a network cable so they could have all their computers online at the same time.

Then it was off to bed for some sleep before I had to drive home to TX

Sunday I got up 0700 (CST), had breakfast, loaded the bike and hit the road right at 0810.
Sunday was much prettier then friday!

Made I20 by 0900, topped off the tank and headed west for home.
Made a quick stop at the Alabama border for the requisite sign pic

and continued on my way.

First stop was for lunch at 1200 in Miss, but I don’t remember town name.

Hit LA at 1600 and kept on trucking.

It started raining just past Monroe and was wet and/or foggy from there to home. stupid weather. Fortunately Belstaff knows how to keep the water out, now if I can remember to tuck the gloves INSIDE the sleeves next time I’ll be set.

Crossed into TX and stopped in Marshall at 2000 for gas and food. Pulled out of there around 2030.

Once I got West of Canton the fog started settling in. It would be clear enough to see stars one minute then the next you couldn’t see the road 200ft ahead of you.

Arrived home at 2330, all told, 14hrs and 20 min to cover 850mi, need to work on my efficiency.

So what would I do different?

if the high temp for the day is below 40F, don’t take the bike.
make sure you know which setting is actually hi on your grips
take more pictures
stop less, or at least quicker
get a throttle lock
repeat

no taco bell?

2006-12-06T09:46:00.000-06:00

Listening to the news this morning and heard that in the North East
there's been an outbrake of ecoli (sp?) from people that have been
eating at Taco Bell.

so my first thought was, its ok, its up in the north east. Well
listening to the news story a little longer, I discovered that the
supplier of these Taco Bell's is located in Dallas!

is this the end of the world as we know it?

Tools

2006-12-06T09:07:00.000-06:00

HAMMER: Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays is
used as a kind of divining rod to locate expensive parts not far from
the
object we are trying to hit.

MECHANIC'S KNIFE: Used to open and slice through the contents of
cardboard
cartons delivered to your front door; works particularly well on boxes
containing seats and motorcycle jackets.

ELECTRIC HAND DRILL: Normally used for spinning steel Pop rivets in
their
holes until you die of old age, but it also works great for drilling
mounting holes in fenders just above the brake line that goes to the
rear
wheel.

PLIERS: Used to round off bolt heads.

HACKSAW: One of a family of cutting tools built on the Ouija board
principle. It transforms human energy into a crooked, unpredictable
motion, and the more you attempt to influence its course, the more
dismal
your future becomes.

VICE- GRIPS: Used to round off bolt heads. If nothing else is available,
they can also be used to transfer intense welding heat to the palm of
your
hand.

OXYACETYLENE TORCH: Used almost entirely for lighting various flammable
objects in your garage on fire. Also handy for igniting the grease
inside
a brake drum you're trying to get the bearing grease out of.

WHITWORTH SOCKETS: Once used for working on older British cars and
motorcycles, they are now used mainly for impersonating that 9/16 or 1/2
socket you've been searching for, the last 15 minutes.

DRILL PRESS: A tall upright machine useful for suddenly snatching flat
metal bar stock out of your hands so that it smacks you in the chest and
flings your beer across the room, splattering it against that freshly
painted part you were drying.

WIRE WHEEL: Cleans rust off old bolts and then throws them somewhere
under
the workbench with the speed of light. Also removes fingerprint
whorls and
hard-earned guitar calluses in about the time it takes you to say
"Ouch...."

HYDRAULIC FLOOR JACK: Used for lowering a motorcycle to the ground after
you have installed your new front disk brake set-up, trapping the jack
handle firmly under the front fender.

EIGHT-FOOT LONG DOUGLAS FIR 2X4: Used for levering a motorcycle
upward off
a hydraulic jack.

TWEEZERS: A tool for removing wood splinters.

PHONE: Tool for calling your neighbor to see if he has another hydraulic
floor jack.

SNAP-ON GASKET SCRAPER: Theoretically useful as a sandwich tool for
spreading mayonnaise; used mainly for getting dog-doo off your boot.

E-Z OUT BOLT AND STUD EXTRACTOR: A tool that snaps off in bolt holes and
is ten times harder than any known drill bit.

TIMING LIGHT: A stroboscopic instrument for illuminating grease build
up.

TWO-TON HYDRAULIC ENGINE HOIST: A handy tool for testing the tensile
strength of ground straps and brake lines you may have forgotten to
disconnect.

CRAFTSMAN 1/2 x 16-INCH SCREWDRIVER: A large motor mount prying tool
that
inexplicably has an accurately machined screwdriver tip on the end
without
the handle.

BATTERY ELECTROLYTE TESTER: A handy tool for transferring sulphuric acid
from a battery to the inside of your tool box after determining that
your
battery is dead as a door nail, just as you thought.

METAL SNIPS: See hacksaw.

TROUBLE LIGHT: The mechanic's own tanning booth. Sometimes called a drop
light, it is a good source of vitamin D, "the sunshine vitamin,"
which is
not otherwise found under motorcycles at night. Health benefits
aside, its
main purpose is to consume 40-watt light bulbs at about the same rate
that
105-mm howitzer shells might be used during, say, the first few hours of
the Battle of the Bulge. More often dark than light, its name is
somewhat
misleading.

PHILLIPS SCREWDRIVER: Normally used to stab the lids of old-style
paper-and-tin oil cans and splash oil on your shirt; can also be
used, as
the name implies, to round off Phillips screw heads and can double as
oil
filter removal wrench by stabbing through stubborn oil filters.

AIR COMPRESSOR: A machine that takes energy produced in a coal-burning
power plant 200 miles away and transforms it into compressed air that
travels by hose to a Chicago Pneumatic impact wrench that grips rusty
bolts
last tightened 60 years ago by someone in Springfield, and rounds
them off.

PRYBAR: A tool used to crumple the metal surrounding that clip or
bracket
you needed to remove in order to replace a 50 cent part.

HOSE CUTTER: A tool used to cut hoses 1/2 inch too short.

Amen

2006-11-29T21:30:00.001-06:00

A good friend sent me this today.
I whole heartedly agree.
If your offended by this, then you need to read it again.
-------

I am Proud To Be White

There - someone finally said it.

How many are actually paying attention to this?

There are African Americans, Mexican Americans,

Asian Americans, Arab Americans, Native Americans, etc.

And then there are just Americans.

You pass me on the street and sneer in my direction.

You call me "White boy," "Cracker," "Honkey,"

"Whitey," "Caveman"... and that's OK.

But when I call you, Nigger, Kike, Towel head, Sand-nigger,

Camel Jockey, Beaner, Gook, or Chink ... you call me a racist.

You say that whites commit a lot of violence against you,

so why are the ghettos the most dangerous places to live?

You have the United Negro College Fund. You have Martin Luther King

Day. You have Black History Month. You have Cesar Chavez Day. You

have Yom Hashoah You have Ma'uled Al-Nabi You have the NAACP.

You have BET.

If we had WET (White Entertainment Television)... We'd be racists.

If we had a White Pride Day... you would call us racists.

If we had White History Month... We'd be racists.

If we had any organization for only whites to "advance" OUR lives...

We'd be racists.

We have a Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, a Black Chamber of

Commerce, and then we just have the plain Chamber of Commerce.

Wonder who pays for that?

If we had a college fund that only gave white students scholarships

... You know we'd be racists. There are over 60 openly proclaimed

Black Colleges in the US, yet if there were "White colleges"...

THAT would be a racist college.

In the Million Man March, you believed that you were marching

for your race and rights. If we marched for our race and rights,

you would call us racists.

You are proud to be black, brown, yellow and orange, and you're

not afraid to announce it. But when we announce our white pride...

you call us racists.

You rob us, carjack us, and shoot at us. But, when a white police
officer

shoots a black gang member or beats up a black drug-dealer running

from the law and posing a threat to society .. You call him a racist.

I am proud.

But, you call me a racist.

Why is it that only whites can be racists?

There is nothing improper about this e-mail.

Let's see which of you are proud enough to send it on.

"unsafe speed" is really hard to beat

2006-01-22T14:53:00.000-06:00

For what its worth, the ticket "Unsafe Speed" is rather hard to beat. Its
rather large and broad in its specifications.

Oh and when you are unable to beat a Unsafe Speed ticket, you can't take
drivers ed for it either

2 tips for you

2005-12-28T09:45:00.000-06:00

I have learned 2 pieces of obvious information first hand this past
week.

First, don't crash your motorcycle

Second, if you do decide to crash your bike, wear protective pants

Last thursday afternoon the weather was beautiful so I took my friend
for a Motorcycle ride. I wound up hitting a piece of steel rod laying
in the rod and went down at about 50mph. Fortunately neither of us
were hurt bad and were able to walk away from it.

The bike on the other hand took quite a hit. All the damage is
limited to plastic, but its going to run between $1,500 and $2,000 to
get it fixed.

At least Jen and I are ok. The bike is a machine and can be repaired

Got an Apartment

2005-11-30T17:13:00.000-06:00

Well, Jeremy and I got an apartment. It ain't huge, but its pretty nice.

Jeremy did a signal test and we can get Broadband internet!!

Now the fun part of getting moved in...

hmm, its been awhile

2005-11-01T11:37:00.000-06:00

well, I have been busy.

lets see if I can summarize this past couple weeks:

helping with Revelation Seminars: boring
taking tests: not fun
climbing ropes with pathfinders: woot!
work: its ok
dad bought a Land Cruiser: woot!
planning for Acrofest Video: busy
work: yep still here
sent some letters to the bro: finally

thats pretty much it.

Arg, I'm a pirate!

2005-11-01T11:34:00.000-06:00

My pirate name is:

Dirty John Flint

You're the pirate everyone else wants to throw in the ocean -- not to get rid of you, you understand; just to get rid of the smell. Like the rock flint, you're hard and sharp. But, also like flint, you're easily chipped, and sparky. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from fidius.org.

OK, so today is REALLY boring at work...if you hadn't guessed

Chili's gone

2005-10-17T08:16:00.000-06:00

Jennifer and I took Chili up to Oklahoma this weekend and handed him
off to Rick. Chili was fun while he was here, but its someone elses
turn to have a blast with him

New iPod's!

2005-10-12T13:07:00.000-06:00

Apple just announced new iPods! 30 and 60gb supporting H.264 and
MPEG-4 video. up to 20hrs battery life too.

check them out at www.apple.com/
ipod

San Antonio

2005-10-11T11:19:00.000-06:00

This past weekend we took the bikes down to San Antonio. Had a great
time once we got down there. The whole trip down rained on us. Let me
tell you wind and rain and an air temp of ~48 is COLD!!

Of course we went through all the missions down there and took lots
of pictures.

Went to the McNay Art Museum and walked through there. Art is OK, but
nothing wonderful, some of that stuff is stupid. I should be an
artist, its not like they actually do much of anything.

Oh, forgot to mention that I accidently wheelied my bike in SA.
Messing with the clutch as I didn't trust the pavement and up she
came. Fun but I will leave it down on the street. Leave that wheeling
stuff for the dirt.

Spam on blogs?

2005-10-04T08:19:00.000-06:00

So I was just looking at my blog and noticed that I had a few
comments. Well it turns out that these comments amount to something
like this: "Hey, your blog is great. check out my site"

Why is there spam on my blog??

All of this is from people that I don't know.

GRRR!! as if spam in email wasn't enough

If you have the chance: Don't

2005-09-29T11:22:00.000-06:00

I wound up riding home in that wonderful little thunderstorm we had
last night. It was not a lot of fun.

So if you have the chance to ride in the pouring rain, don't its
really not that much fun.

The good news is that the hard bags on the bike stayed nice and dry
on the inside and the tires (Michelin Pilot Roads) felt well planted
the whole way home.

Got the bags put on

2005-09-26T13:34:00.000-06:00

Sunday I spent about 3hrs putting the panniers on the side of the
bike. They look nice, but man are they a pain in the butt to put on.
It didn't help that the instructions are not much clearer then mud.

They're Here!!

2005-09-22T09:19:00.000-06:00

My mom just called and my Saddlebags just came in!

Maybe I will put them on over lunch

General updates

2005-09-22T07:38:00.000-06:00

Jennifer is getting a lot more from her Insurance company then she
was expecting. (It still isn't enough, but much better then expected)

Jen's parents live near the coast and so they are headed this way to
avoid Rita.

My Saddlebags have landed in Fort Worth so they may be in tomorrow!

The comm system should be showing up soon too! This could be a fun
weekend unless Rita messes up the weather too much.

Well, that one went away

2005-09-22T07:35:00.000-06:00

That ST1300 the I referred to earlier was sold as soon as I looked
at it.

I think that I would like try a ST but nobody wants to give me a test
ride. I am going up to Honda West in Ft Worth to have a test-sit and
see what I think.

I can get a brand new ST for $12,000 in North Oklahoma, but its a 5hr
drive. but for nearly $2,000 its worth the trip. I will try to talk
Honda West down.