Ummm... What Now???

You know that you have bought a serious motorcycle jacket when the tags on it advertise a "Gun pocket".

Happy Birthday Megan!

Katelyn found these pictures and posted them to her Instagram account, so I thought that I would share them here as well. Happy Birthday, Megan! We love you very much!

Sari's Pictures (Blog 30 of 30)

The art gallery in town held a picture taking marathon today and Sari and her buddy Melanie decided to participate. She ended up taking about 100 pictures, but here is a sample of some of the ones she liked the best.

Sunday Stuff (Bonus post)

This is what we are talking about in church on Sunday.  If you would like to hear the rest of it, you would be more than welcome to come and check it out.

Why I Ride a Motorcycle (Blog 29 of 30)

Bugs splattered across my motorcycle windshield is the sign of a good weekend (Well, for me if not for the bugs).

One of the reasons I ride a motorcycle is that it simplifies your life and thought processes.  When I am on a bike, my entire world boils down to three essentials......

1. Finding fuel

2. Avoiding rain

3. Not dying

The first one seems simple, but it is not.  Fuel is a tricky.  You don't want to stop too early, because then you would never get anywhere (and you feel like a bit of a bozo putting 2 dollars and 32 cents of fuel on your debit card).  The challenge is to see how far you can actually ride without running out of gas and having to walk.... and that does not always end well (Right, Lenny?)

The second part - avoiding rain - is good, but not nearly as critical as the fuel thing. Riding in the rain is actually quite refreshing.  I rode through 5-10 minutes of torrential rain this past weekend (not to mention a slow drizzle at times) without even putting on my rain suit. 

The third part (not dying) is quite a bit more important than the other two (So say my wife, my kids and my mom anyway).  But the danger part (such as it is) is beneficial too.

Riding makes you concentrate on just one thing - riding!   You can't (or at least should not) be ripping down the highway thinking about your taxes, whether to buy a new refrigerator or not, or what colour your next dress should be (Not that I wear dresses..... I am just trying to include the "lady bikers" in the thought process here.  I need to make some amends after insinuating in my last blog that ladies possibly travel in herds).  :(

In a world that demands that you do 6493679469048 things all at once, an activity that demands a singular focus is a very therapeutic thing.

Boil off the stupid and find the essentials.... that is what it does for me.

Forget counselling sessions..... buy a bike!  :)

A whole new world (Blog 28 of 30)

This past weekend, I experienced something new and completely foreign to me.... I went to a greenhouse.

Now, before you get all uppity and say "Boring!" let me explain.  This was no ordinary greenhouse!  This was "Secord-Crowe Greenhouse" in Dauphin, Manitoba.

If you are still saying "So what?" then two things are obvious......

1.  You have never been to Dauphin, Manitoba!  To those people, gardening and flowerbeds are life and death issues.  You don't even want to know what goes down if two neighbours buy the same coloured petunias!!!!!  Let's just say.... it won't happen again! (wink, wink)

2.  You do not know Sari that well because just the mention of "Secord-Crowe" is enough to make her swoon (and use her debit card so much that it almost catches on fire).

Monday was greenhouse day and I was half-heartedly invited along.  To everyone's surprise, I said that I would love to go.  This prompted my mother-in-law to start an "over/under betting pool" on how long it would take before I got bored and walked home (I think the average bet was 4 minutes and 23 seconds).

To everyone's surprise..... I stayed till the end!  And I not only stayed.... I was fascinated!

This place has a gaggle of women working there (is that what a group of women is called.... a gaggle??  A hoard????   A posse????  A herd????  Hmmm.... I am pretty sure "herd" is not right).... anyway there is a bunch of them and they are on a mission!!   If you don't watch out, you will get trampled in their plant looking after rampage!  

They are grabbing pots here.... moving things over there.... plucking flowers off this plant.... watering another one.... carrying trees two at a time (one under each arm).... it was AMAZING!  

Then they would say things like, "You know that Chrysforalanythymum over there is a zone 3 plant!" and all the women within earshot would nod knowingly as if this was the most important information ever relayed in the history of the world.  (Editor's note:..... don't tell anyone..... but I don't even know what zone I live in!!!  I did not think it wise to mention that at the time - so I just nodded knowingly too and threw in a "For sures!" just for good measure..... but I think they knew I was faking!).

I did do one thing right, though..... I picked up a box and followed Sari around.  She then started piling plants in the box.  Eventually, the pile got so high that I could barely see over it and she had to guide me down the aisles.

When I did get a peek out from behind out moving foliage, every woman in the place gave me the same grin.  It was a look that said, "You poor dumb boy!  You have no idea what is going on here do you??  Bless your heart!"   It was the sort of look that everyone gets when they watch a baby trying to eat chocolate cake with her hands for the first time.  The effort is sweet even if the execution is a little off.

Anyway, it was amazing place!  I had no idea that so many plants existed.

And I discovered that I don't have to leave Canada to experience other languages, customs and cultures.  I just need to go to the greenhouse.  :)

A Windy Sunday Preview (Bonus Post)

Here is what we are talking about Sunday morning.  Come out and hear the rest of it if you like.....

Tenting re-cap (Blog 27 of 30)

(Note: If you have not read blog #26 below, you may want to do that first)

So my tenting experience in three words:  Awake.... freezing..... sweltering!

Actually "awake" is more a function of both "freezing" and "sweltering".

First off, though I was in the backyard, I wanted to make this as much like what I would do if I was on a bike trip.... minimalistic.... only using what I would carry with me normally.

Things started well.  I was warm enough and fell to sleep quickly, but I woke up at 2 am because I was cold.  Fortunately, my sleeping bag is a "mummy" type with a drawstring at the top, so I cinched it up tight around my neck to keep the heat in.... that worked well.... for a while.

At 4 am I woke up again because the temp had dropped 5 degrees (according to my phone which I took out there to be my flashlight) to 8 degrees, but it said it felt like 6.  The part that felt like 6 to me was the wind that was blowing through my tent.  Like most new tents, the body is mesh and then you cover that with a solid rain fly.

Now, maybe it would have worked better if I had used the ropes that come with the fly to secure it tighter to the ground, but I didn't so the wind was blowing under the fly, through the mesh and freezing my head.  I cinched the drawstring on the sleeping bag a little tighter and told myself that most of the time the wind would not be blowing at 79 km/h (seriously) at night!

Then the sun started to come up and I could feel the tent getting warmer...... ahhhhhhh...... until it got warm enough to cook nachos in there.... so I was out of bed and had everything rolled up and put away by 9 am.

Verdict:  I think it will work.  Everything was comfortable enough.  It will likely be warmer in July than now so that will be better.  If the cheap zippers on the tent don't break, we will be good!

As Megan noted..... only by tenting in Saskatchewan can you get frost-bite and heat stroke all in the same night!

Bike trip prep (Blog 26 of 30)

For some guys, their wives leaving town for the weekend means it is time to go out and do a bunch of unspeakably crazy things (or so I have heard).

 Me..... it is a chance to do this.....

Yes I am sleeping in a tent in my backyard.

Why you ask?

Well, it could be that I am actually 11 years old...... or I am prepping for my yearly motorcycle trip.

You see, I bought all this camping stuff (tent, air mattress, air pillow, thin backpacking sleeping bag) but I have no idea whether I am going to be warm enough or what I will hate about this stuff once I am on the road..... so the best place to test it is 20 feet from your back door, right?  Already I am thinking that maybe the tent is not going to make it.... the zippers are really cheap.

Anyway, that is my grown up reason..... but I really like tents too!  :)

I have Seen the (Traffic) Light (Blog 25 of 30)

I like the old 50s diners that have neon lights.... old advertising signs.... jukeboxes.... and (sometimes) traffic lights.

In fact, I like that stuff so much that I have often commented that I would like to have a traffic light for my garage.  Not a cheap, plastic one mind you - but a real, honest to goodness traffic light.

Now I have searched for them at swap meets and stuff like that, but either they were sold before I got there or they were crazy expensive.

Today is my birthday.  When I parked my motorcycle in my garage, this is what I saw.......

Sari bought me a birthday present!

Our friends Nathan and Melanie found the lights at a swap meet in Red Deer and they bought it.  Then Nathan made the stand and wired it up for me.  It was a great surprise!

So I am thinking that it will not only be a cool display thing, but I can also use it to indicate whether people are welcome in the garage..... green means you are good..... yellow means you better be on your best behaviour.... Red means turn around and leave immediately (I am not sure what the arrow pointing down will indicate but.....)

Anyway, it is a very cool present and it is even nicer to know that people cared enough to remember that I wanted one and then doing the work to make it happen.

Happy birthday to me!

(Ps.  All last year - for some reason - I told everyone I was 47.... but I just turned 47 today - so now I feel like I have got a free year here.  I am like "Benjamin Button" or something)  :)

Ummm..... What now??? (Blog 24 of 30)

I saw this sign at Tim Hortons today...... correct me if I am wrong but if the "signature donuts" belong to "Tim" shouldn't "Tims" have an apostrophe???  

As in "Tim's signature donuts".

Now I understand the company chose years ago to go without an apostrophe on "Hortons" even though the chain was started in part by "Tim Horton" (no "s").   In fact, I think it was "Tim Horton's" originally.

So does this mean that "Tim Hortons" has done away with the possessive apostrophe completely?????

And for that matter...... why is our Canadian "doughnut" shop selling "donuts" anyway????   I think their American takeover is showing.

Anyway, just thought I would ask.  If we can't trust a doughnut shop to do the right thing, then who can you trust?????

My Bike Gang (Blog 23 of 30)

So this crew of tough.... crazy.... ready for anything bikers assembled at my house today and then rode out to Bienfait and picked up another dude and his ride.

Now, granted, we are all guys from church..... so we may not be that "ready for anything" (anything is a very broad term).

And some of us are getting a little older..... so "tough" is sort of a relative term.

And our ride took us out to Oxbow for ice cream..... not the "craziest" thing in the world (though some of the guys are on diets - so this was a "cheating" situation..... that is sort of crazy, right?   And some of the guys even got extra sprinkles on their sundaes.....EXTRA SPRINKLES!!!)

We have bikes.... we have places to ride..... all we need now is a name..... suggestions are being taken (comment below - be nice!)  :)

Saturday Update (Blog 22 of 30)

Here is a quick Saturday update.....

Megan had to work all day, so that is where she was.

Sari, Katie and I went to the church building at 9 to help with a "Spring cleaning/Work day".  The girls spent most of their time (I think) sorting out the classrooms and cleaning up/going through the Sunday School supply room.  I mostly worked on getting the underground sprinklers going.

The I headed out to the speedway for the start of the 2016 Estevan Motor Speedway season.  It was a little chilly so we did not get as many fans out as normal, but we had lots of cars.  

Here is my view of the Stock car hot laps before the races started.....

Snowbirds (Blog 21 of 30)

I have posted stuff like this on here before, but I still like their new videos.

Growing up in Moose Jaw, I was fascinated with the Snowbirds.  If things work out, I plan to see them perform a couple of times this summer (Once during the Sask Summer games right here in Estevan).

Until then, this will have to do.  Enjoy!

Sunday Stuff (Bonus post)

Something to Remember (Blog 20 of 30)

For several months now, I have been meaning to change the battery cable ends on Megan's truck -Fonzi.

Normally, this would not be a big deal.  Easy as can be!!!

However, I glanced at the cables the last time I did an oil change on and I thought, "Hmmm, that is not going to be easy.  Those cables are very short already, so if I cut them off........"

You see, I have an issue.  As a friend of mine likes to point out, "You think too much" and that is likely true.  I can think up all kinds of things that can go wrong with all kinds of things.

So tonight I tackled this minefield of an issue....... and I was done in like 1/2 hour.

In fact, when I actually got to work on it tonight I thought, "If I just re-route that cable everything will be lovely" and it was!

Yesterday I read an article about "avoidance"..... about how people often create a bunch of hoops to jump through or imagine hoops that are much bigger than they actually are so that they do not have to do the thing that they know they ought to do.

The author's advice:  Take the first step because most of the time the horrible things that you are imagining will never actually happen...... and even if they do, at least you will be a step closer to actually solving the problem.

Or - as my Dad might say - "Shut up and get to work ya sissy!!!!" (He wasn't a trained counsellor).  :)

And then this happened (Blog 19 of 30)

Now we will have two of them there......

My Saturday (Blog 18 of 30)

I spent the day at "Test and tune" (Basically a practice day) at the "Estevan Motor Speedway".  It was the first day that cars were on the track since last fall and it was a lot of fun.

Go check out the schedule and come and see the races in person.  It is a good time.

As for everyone else..... Sari worked in the yard and started planting some new things and the girls hung out with their guys...... I would post pics of that too but I have none.

This Sunday at church (Bonus post)

I am NOT coming to get you.... maybe! (Blog 17 of 30)

You know those times when you scare someone so badly that they think you are a raging lunatic who is coming after them to hurt them really badly?????

You don't?????

Oh - me neither!  :)

Well - actually that may have happened to me today.

I was sitting on my motorcycle at the corner by the church building.  I got the green light, but like every good biker, I waited.  You always wait because you need to make sure the vehicles that have the red light are actually going to stop.

The big truck in the closest lane stopped..... but the young girl in the white Malibu in the far lane did not.

About 1/2 way through the intersection, she looked up and realized what she had done, but by then it was too late.  She could not stop and just kept going.

At this point, I did the only logical thing I could do..... I blared my horn (as much as a motorcycle horn blares) at her.  This got her attention and she looked over at me as she cleared the intersection.  I raised my hands in a "What are you doing?" sort of way.

Now here is the thing..... I was intending on making a right turn anyway - so that is what I did. Unfortunately, this put me about 1/2 a block behind the white Malibu going the same direction.

The driver must have seen me coming and she must have assumed that I was upset, because she suddenly sped up and took off.

She made a right turn by "Room by Room" furniture..... unfortunately for her, I was needed to make that turn too, so I was still following her.

She sped up even more and ripped around the corner by SARCAN and I lost sight of her for a second.

By the time I made the SARCAN corner, she was gone.  All I could see was this huge dust cloud that she made as she ripped down the next alley.  I slowed down when I got there, but she was no where to be found.  She was probably hiding in a backyard somewhere hoping that she had given me the slip.

So if you happen to know a young girl who drives a white Malibu who swears that she was chased through the streets of Estevan by a crazed lunatic on a black motorcycle..... tell her that the story is only partially true.

And then tell her to stop running red lights.... just in case!