Saturday afternoon, Chief and I went to hear Craig Vetter give a lecture on his "How they got 470 MPG in the Craig Vetter Fuel Economy Contest." Chief has a high mileage vehicle project with his school kids. So, that fit right in for him. Pretty interesting talk.
Chief knows a lot about this shit so he shared with me and I'm brighter for it. Of course, that SOB knows a lot about a whole bunch of things. He really is a Wise Ass.
We went and hunted out Gary Nixon in the pits -
I bought a cool photo from the stuff he was selling. Chief and I both had him sign things also. He was funny as hell and very friendly. And Damn, he still rides fast.
We watched him haul ass on this thing - Yeah, he's an old fart but he can still run rings around most people.
Oh yeah, the picture I bought looks like this- (Again, click it to see it full size)
Bottom Line ............ Major Good Time. Woke up really, really early Friday morning. I wanted to get an early start, because I fully expected the weather to be bad. As usual, I was correct. It started raining within 3 miles of leaving the house and didn't stop for about 150 miles. Just absolutely poured. I drove thru Cincinnati during rush hour in the middle of a downpour. That was fun. Not something I want to do everyday.
Lessons learned? I need a better helmet and a better rainsuit. I bought a good rainsuit at Mid-Ohio, so I've got half of that fixed. The Concours was solid as a rock thru it all. I don't know why that should surprise me. It's ALWAYS stable and solid. I do love that Bike.
Cleared off some for the 2nd half of the trip. I took the Superslab all the way and after the rainstorms, it was pretty uneventful.
I met some Fella from N. Carolina who was riding a Suzuki scooter to the event. Gotta love that.
I forgot to zipup the ziplock bag with the cellphone in it. OOPS! Lost my connectivity for the weekend. I relayed thru the Wife and got hooked up w/ my brother, Chief, w/o any problems.
Major Goal for Friday was this -
Yep, that's the man, Agostini, signing Chief's Book and looking thru the pics. He was pointing out folks in the picture that was taken at Daytona in 1971 (? if I remember right) that Chief asked him to sign. (Click the pictures to enlarge them). That was definitely the highlight of the day.
Saturday, Dick Mann was signing autographs so - What a gentleman. He would stop and smile everytime he saw a camera pointed at him. The AMAMuseum opened a special exhibit, SuperMann, Saturday evening.
See the bike in the background above? A 1974 MV America. I included this pic for my buddy, Dr J. His all time favorite bike.
Chief and I were walking thru the pits, checking out the bikes when we just happened to come across Agostini getting ready for his lap of honor. He and the crew were tweaking an MV triple and he started it up. WHOA! Maybe the loudest motorcycle I've ever heard. Not loud like an HD w/ straight pipes. Piercing loud. If I'd have known how to record video on my camera, I'd have gotten some sound for you. And me.
Adjusting the controls. Still looks like he belongs on it. Enough for now. I'll post some pics of Gary Nixon later. Damn, he went fast in the Thruxton Cup race.
This is one of the few times you'll ever hear me say - "I'm glad I didn't have a shit load of money on me". But it's true today at least. Good Lord, I could of, would of or maybe should of, bought all sorts of cool shit there. What a variety. In type of machinery, price, condition. Most anything a guy could want.
Everywhere you look around the place, there's a cool bike. Either being ridden, parked, on display or for sale.
And then there's the Pits. Oh Baby. Tons of beautiful bikes. Like the one below - Just sitting there in the Team Obsolete area. Yeah, Almost to much.
I'm in the unwind zone right now. I took secondary roads all the way home and it added a lot of time (but not miles) to my ride today. Hot, hot, hot. Wore my old ass out. I'll do a ride report tomorrow for ya'll.
But just to give ya an idea ............. Saw Agostini, Dick Mann and Gary Nixon.
That's the Grand Marshal in the pic. Yep, Agostini. He'll be signing autographs - You can be sure, I'll be standing in line for one.
Like a little FanBoy.
Go ahead and laugh. I can take it.
15 World Championships. 122 GP victories 12 Isle of Man wins.
Yes indeed, I'm looking forward to going. It's about a 250 mile ride up to there, so I'm gonna have to get up early Friday and haul ass.
Chief, Surly's Dad and My Brother, is gonna meet me there around noon. If all goes well. You know how things like that go. I just hope the weather holds up for the ride there.
You can tell this is an old picture. Check out the advertisers - Marlboro and Beretta. Smokes and Firearms! That's what we old Farts call - The Good Old Days.
I've written here before about FRED PHELPS and his Family Circus of Gay Hating, American Soldier Hating, Morons from Kansas. They travel around the country celebrating the deaths of American Soldiers at their funerals. They're the reason I joined The Patriot Guard Riders.
You can do a search on this site or google them up for further info. I'm not giving them a link.
BUT, I found a hilarious video of some British reporter interviewing Fred Jr. over at Ace of spadesthe other day. Seems that if you REALLY want to make an impression on those people, a little inappropriate touching goes a long way. As they say, Hilarity Ensues. Really worth the time to go see.
Deployed Guardsman's Family Murdered in Washington State .............
And how do the loving, compassionate Leftists respond? Well, you be the judge.
First, here's the original story. Deployed Soldier's Family Found Murdered . Wife, Her Sister and 2 children, all stabbed to death. I found it from a link to AOL News, who Like many other news organizations, has a comment section where folks can post their thoughts on the articles.
What can you say about some poor guy losing everything in a tragedy like this? Well, here's an example - "MOre Deaths indirectly caused by Geroge W. BUSH!!!! If he didnt lie to start a war.....and the husband was at home, the people would all be alive. The was is for Halleburton, Exxon MObile, and all the other members of the Industrial military complex, who ar to benefit by this war. THANKS BUSH, hope you can sleep nights... But people without a conscious dont have trouble sleeping...I guess."
Or this gem - "WHO CARES THIS IS'NT NEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THIS IS NOT NEWS.THIS HAPPENS EVERYDAY IN LOW INCOME AREAS HERE IN OAKLAND.IAM A BLACK WOMAN WHO SEES THIS SHIT EVERYDAY.JUST BECAUSE THEY BE WHITE ITS NEWS?COMON YALL." Is it just me, or do these sorts of responses to a horrible crime and personal tragedy seem more than a little sick?
"i feel sorry for the family but not the soldier since he killed people in iraq himself. he didn't fight for anyone's freedom except conner sciermann's (The man charged in this crime-Unk) freedom to be a drug-addicted child killer". "BUSH WILL GO DOWN IN HISTORY... AS THE PRESIDENT THAT HAD THE MOST PEOPLE KILLED DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY FOR NO REASON AT ALL BUT HIS GREEDY SELF AMBITION... THIS IS NOT 1944 WHEN JAPAN AND GREMANY TRIED TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD. WHY ARE YOU PEOPLE KILLING YOURSELVES FOR BUSH ?... CAN YOU JUST TELL ME THAT HUH ?..." Damn! How exactly does one get to be a shithead like this? "Too bad the paid assasin wasn't home also... Got what he deserved for serving an illegal government in an illegal war."
Feel the love here - "The p***k bush has cut funds to lock away the lunatics, just to pay for his illegal war. May the same fate await the evil bushites.......they are evil and will be treated as such. They, the pig bushites, are truly the enemies of America!" Something is terribly wrong with these people. The big problem is .......... these folks are not unique. Every single day I see examples of irrational hatred like this from leftist bloggers, MSM reporters and commentators, and Politicians.
Is it ok to question their patriotism now? And don't even start with the, "Yeah, but what about .... on the right" I'll agree that it's there. But it's - NOT. EVEN. CLOSE.
Interesting New Site for Beginners on Bikes ..........
I got an email the other day from Matt at http://beginnersguide.com/motorcycling/ requesting a link from here to his new site. So I moseyed over to check it out and it's got quite a bit of good info. The only thing I had (Past tense) a problem with was while I was there, there was a blog entry about riding helmetless and a picture next to it of three bikers drinking longnecks. Ugh, wrong message.
I emailed Matt back and pointed out this inconsistency to him and explained the problem with the message that would be giving new riders. Matt seems to be a pretty squared away guy, as he took my advice in the spirit it was intended and got right back to me telling me he'd replaced the picture already. If I'm not mistaken, he did it about 3-4 hours from when I sent him my email.
BRAVO!! I'm not telling you the email part of this, to show you that YerUnk is a socially responsible, NetNanny. But to show how Matt's the responsible kind of guy we need in places that are geared to new bikers. He was all over it as soon as a problem was pointed out to him.
That's impressive. And rare. So, yeah, he'll get a kink on the sidebar.
As soon as I get off my ass and update that stuff.
Hell, a mega, high traffic blog like this one should generate at least 3 or 4 visits to his place. In the next decade.
Hot Fun in the Summertime......... With apologies to Sly and the Family Stone for stealin' that line .
I made a new windshield for the BigBluePlasticBike the other day. Just needed some more airflow in the heat we've had around here lately. I wrote it up and posted it at www.themotorcyclegroup.com .
You can go there to read the entire thing. It was easy and cheap to do. So if you have a shield on your bike, you may wish to try it.
Yesterday. Old fella, about 75 years old. He came in for care of a problem and as I was triaging him and asking him about his medical history he mentioned "a bunch of broken stuff from motorcycle wrecks".
That, of course, got us going on about bikes. Seems he was a flat track racer way back when.
But even better. He's got his old bike in his garage here in town. If I heard him right, it's a 650 BSA motor in a Triumph 250 frame. He invited me to come by and check it out and bring Dogboy along.
Which I plan to do as soon as I can. I'll get the story and some pics. Maybe a bit more background and what not. Very interesting guy.
A nice change from the usual Zombies we see in the ER.
I've been asked to contribute to a new group Motorcycle site that's just getting off the ground. www.themotorcyclegroup.com .
This is either quite an honor ......... Or they're really hurtin' for material. I'm hoping it's the former and sticking with that idea till proven otherwise. Go check it out in the next few weeks and tell me what you think.
Blog BS and Updates..... I did finally add an Email link in the profile section here. So you really can share your thoughts on things if you're to chicken, or the sign in is too much of a pain to post a comment. I should post the email addy on the front page I suppose and I think I'm gonna get rid of the comment sign in and see what happens. If I get spammed, I'll just have to set it up again.
I haven't been doing anything much at all blogwise for several weeks now. One reason is - My friggin' life is pretty boring and I can't imagine anyone being all that interested in the stupid shit I've been doing as of late. Secondly, I've been busy as hell with getting all the legal crap done for Ma's estate, getting her place in order, working, trying to keep up w/ things at my place ............ You get the picture.
Plus, I just haven't been in the mood to sit down here and type anything. I've been in a funk over all the bad things going on here and I do best when I'm in a good mood. Don't worry, I haven't been thinking of tossing myself off the Dam at the local reservoir, like some dumb bastard did last Saturday. Yeah, Darwin got his dumb ass. OK, I did give him a thumbs up for originality. But we docked him 5 points on style when he couldn't do it again.
Things have been weird here in Unkland the last few weeks. Oh well, it's all part of the plan. This shit'll settle down soon enough too.
Stole this from the www.classicbike.net site today and thought you might like it. I know I did.
Took off Wednesday afternoon with Dr. J and rode a couple of hundred miles North to South Bend. Yeah, I know, rode North to South Bend. It sounds funny, but it's accurate none the less.
Robin Trower, one of my all time favorite Guitar Players was performing in a small club up that way. It was waaaaay back in the late 70's or early 80's since I'd last seen him live and a little thing like a 200+ mile ride only made it better. This makes the 4th time I've seen him play and although He's 61 years old, He played better than ever. This was the best I've seen him play. Ever.
The Club was a pretty nice place. Nice stage, small and they had seating for most everyone. I'd paid a few bucks extra to get VIP seating when I'd ordered the tickets, but it wouldn't have been a problem as the seating was all good.
But, as you can see from the picture there, we got up close. He's a truly amazing guitar player and you could tell he was enjoying himself throughout the show.
Watching him play and seeing the effort he puts into it was pretty cool. He's gotten a bad rap over the years as a "Hendrix Wannbe" that really isn't fair. Yes, the influence is noticeable, but he is a unique player and plays his own style of music. I'm really not able to describe just how great this show was. The band was tight. Three piece as always and they were all together all the time. The Bass and Drums were perfect, nailing down the rhythm and counterpoint to his lead. the vocalist,Davey Pattison did a great job. If you're a Trower fan, you know that the original singer and Bassist, Trevor Dewar, died a few years ago from cancer. Pattison Does a great job on both the old songs and the newer material.
I see, looking at the Trower web site, that they've extended the tour and added a whole shitload of dates and cities. Tour info If he's playing anywhere near you and you'd like a night of great music, I'd highly recommend it. I see they've added Cincinnati in October ............. Yeah, I'll probably go again. Here's an Amazon link for Trower. If your already familiar with him, you know what to do. If you're not, Try the Twofer reissue of "Twice removed from yesterday and Bridge of sighs".
The ride up and back was pretty uneventful. Which is always a good thing. Dr J has traded in his BMW K1200S for a big BMW K1200 LT Barcolounger. It's a sweet ride and he seems more comfortable on it than the sport version he was riding before. I don't mean physical comfort, though I'm sure it is. That K1200S he was riding before was gonna get him in trouble. Few guys our age really need 160 HP sport bikes. Not a knock, but as Clint Eastwood said - "A man's gotta know his limitations." I know I'd be better served with the touring version.
The Big Blue Plastic Kawasaki ran well, as usual. I'm gonna have to start working on reducing some of the Buzziness in it as it's getting a bit more noticeable in the handlebars. Other than that, it's bizness as usual. Oil, Gas, Air and Water. Check everything and go. I do love my Concours.
Yeah, That's YerUnk getting a flyer signed by THE MAN after the show. Got that little "FanBoy" grin going on and all.
Trower has always been a big favorite of mine and this was just the thing I needed to counter all the bad shit that's been going on as of late.
It's Been Over a Week .......... Since I last posted anything here.
I've been as busy as a one legged man at an ass kickin' party. But none of this shit has been all that interesting to post anything about. So I haven't. Just not able to put anything together.
I figure Everyone has heard about the New York Times latest act of treason against You, Me and Our Kids. You either care or you don't about that shit I guess. And it doesn't seem like anyone is gonna get up the nerve and hang a few of those shitbags. So what's a guy like me gonna say about that?
That's the kinda mood I've been in.
But!! Not everything has been ho Hum and mundane. Check this bad boy out.
Yeah, Ain't that a sweet piece of machinery? My Fathers Lawn Mower Gene has been hyperactive this year around here. You have no idea of the troubles I've been having with the TWO mowers this little gem is gonna replace.
The one I bought is a bit different than what's pictured, but it's close enough to give ya an idea of what I'm talking about.
I need some cool stickers and flames on it. This is gonna make things waaaaaaaaay easier for me to keep up with things here on the farm.
More Bad Shit....
Started my day at the ER this morning and the first thing we saw? A 2 month old baby in full cardiac arrest. Kids that age never have good outcomes, even if you get them back. Which is very rare. I suspect that this Kid was very dead when the parents found it. We did everything you can do and got totally nowhere.
Not a good way to start a shift. Ever.
One thing about ER work - You never forget a kid that dies on you. Doesn't matter why, how or if you could have done anything better, you just don't forget. This is another one to add to the bad dream gallery.
That shit was bad enough. But it got worse. Three hours latter, a good friend of mine walks into the ER and tells me his 20 year old daughter has been killed in a car wreak. I've worked with this guy at two different hospitals over the years and know all his family well. EMS transported her to our hospital and I just took charge of managing everything for the family and my friend.
Sometimes I wish I had taken the Plumbing apprenticeship I was offered as a kid.
Most of us never realize how we all dance on the edge of a precipice daily and don't even know it. How a matter of seconds makes the difference between life and death. I often wonder how many times in a week we avoid a catastrophe only because the timing just wasn't right.
I'm gonna go to bed now and try to sleep, so I can get up and go do it again tomorrow. I've had enough bad dreams lately and frankly, I don't look forward to seeing this new edition.
But it's what we do. So I'll go back tomorrow and hope for the best.
Yeah, he's an old fart but he can still run rings around most people.
