Happy Birthday DBZ

It was fitting that Das Beak Zwei turned 39 (thousand) today, just a scant six miles from the location of the event that brought me to this particular bike. It was almost 7 years ago when I dumped my ST1100 at Exit 2 on Rt 101. That crash has been chronicled (click link), but not the circumstances of the arrival of DBZ.

It wasn’t until the fall after my accident that I began to ride again, and even then, it was just a couple of short jaunts on my “SlightHawk” (a Honda Nighthawk 650, circa 1984). Around springtime of the following year (2002), I began to think about another bike. The insurance company had settled quickly and fairly on the ST11 (thanks Progressive) and the money was sitting in a separate account waiting on my decision. I had lots of help from my buddies who would occasionally find listings on IBMWR and send them along. I began to think seriously about a BMW R11GS – I had ridden one before and enjoyed its tall stature and wide handlebars for easy leverage.

Because of my lack of a capable bike, I did not ride out with my friends that year on a trip down the Blue Ridge Parkway (known now as the “Blue Lips Tour” – I guess VA/NC can get pretty cold in May when you’re at elevation. However, on the way back, the friend who got most of our group onto BMW’s (lets call him BeemerBoy), stopped off to look at one in VA that he had found on IBMWR. He called me up on the cell phone from right next to the bike, put the seller on, and the deal was struck for DBZ. The bike in 2002 was 6 years old with only 16K miles – pretty low miles for a bike that’s meant to ride in all kinds of road conditions. I struck a deal with the seller, with the understanding that it might be a few weeks until it could be picked up.

A few weekends later, I met up with BeemerBoy in NJ. Arriving on a Friday night, we decided to make the trip down and back to VA on Saturday, spoon on a new set of tires (pre-ordered) and send me on my way Sunday. We got up early, jumped into his Taurus SHO, and pulled his trailer down to VA. After loading the bike, we headed back, listening to the music of our youth and recounting riding tales, especially those of recent Blue Lips Tour.

Sunday dawned warm in NJ. After a morning ride to acclimate myself to my new ride, we worked our way north through western portions of NJ. For those of you who have only experienced the NJ turnpike or parkway, it is probably hard to imagine the variety of riding conditions in NW NJ. After dumping me out on I84, we split off and I headed north. All was going pretty well until the rains came.

It would be an understatement to say that it began to rain. It began to monsoon. At first I thought I could take shelter under an overpass, but the first one I came to was so damn high, that there was little shelter from the wind whipped rain. Eventually I got to an exit and I pulled off the highway searching for refuge. I tried to hide under the overpass from the highway exit I had just left, but it was not wide enough to safely park. I rode on until I got to restaurant. I ended up parking next to a loading dock, climbing up and standing under a short roof that protected me from the worst of the downpour. Imagine the surprise of one of the cooks when he opened the door to the dock for a smoke, and saw a man standing there in a vinyl riding suit wearing a helmet.

After a while, the rain lessened from Monsoon to Steady and I decided to take off again. Unfortunately, I had exited at one of those “you can get off the highway here, but you can’t get back on” exits in CT. After riding around and looking for signs, I was soon back on the highway. Eventually the rain cleared and other than road spray, I began to dry out. Unfortunately, as they often do, the violent rainstorms were harbingers of a cold front coming in. By the time I hit MA, my hands, having sweated up inside rubber gloves, were chilling fast. I pulled into a fast food joint just before the MA pike to have a cup of coffee and to warm up. I felt more like pouring the coffee on my hands than drinking it.

After that respite, I moved on. There was one more stop where I stopped at a rest area in MA to dry out my face shield. Unfortunately, the MA Highway Department decided that they didn’t need to stock paper towels in their men’s rooms. After a long session with a blow dryer, I was on the last leg.

The six years since that day have been good ones with DBZ. She still runs great, helped by occasional maintenance from BeemerBoy. She’s been to all coastal states in the East all the way down to a quick touch into South Carolina. She’s been several states deep. She’s been deep into the woods on roads that her owner had no right to ride. She’s been a capable two up tourer. She had a string of over 3 years of being ridden every month. She waited a year while my back recovered from surgery.

Happy 39K Birthday DBZ and many more.

Ice Out 2008

While we suffer through global warming, we just got out of the second snowiest winter in the history of NH. Perhaps it's been too cold to snow until now?! Anyway, if this blog does nothing else for me, it does serve as the journal for when the ice leaves my pond. Here's ice out* for the last three years:

2005 - April 7
2006 - March 27
2007 - April 15

And this year, official ice out is.....(drumroll).......April 10.

*Ice out is defined as the last day I've seen a chunk of ice on the pond. Light skimcoat refreezings need not apply.

Update April 28: No, there's no more ice. I just wanted to post the Lake Winnepesaukee ice out dates (thanks to Kreblog).

2005 April 20
2006 April 3
2007 April 23
2008 April 23

We're not too far off and yes, 2006 was unusually early for both my pond and the big lake.

Direct link to over 100 years of Lake Winnepesaukee ice outs here.

Seriously

Is there any reason that local news stations need to hype the wind?  I mean, it was practically the same coverage they give a significant snowfall (which is also overhyped).  They have a reporter on location near a flag so you can see the wind.  If they really want to show the effects of the wind, they should send one of those female or male reporters who have hair that is so sprayed that it looks like it is carved out of wood. 

Breaking news – Wind (no pun intended).  Story at 11.

Today's sky report

Hey, if there’s a rainbow when the sun comes out while there’s rain moisture in the air, how come there’s no “snowbow”?  I thought of this yesterday as I looked out the window while the sun lit up the clouds and the snow kept falling.

Paradox

There’s a pair of ducks who have taken up residence in my pond.  It’s not the first time and I’m guessing that the pond is a kind of highway motel on their way to whatever winter haven they travel.  But the weather has been so unnaturally warm off and on for the past few weeks, that I think they’re just waiting to see which way they should be heading.  If they follow the wing of geese that went over yesterday, they’ll head southwest.

Today's sky report

I wanted so much to like Carpoolers, the new sitcom on ABC Tuesday nights.  I mean, I am one.  A carpooler.  I spend at least 90 minutes a day (most days) with two other guys driving to and from work.  We talk about a lot of different things and it’s always amazed me how well we all get along given that our ages are each about 10 years apart (I get to be the old one).  A lot of what goes on in our carpool (which will stay in carpool), is thought provoking, funny and mostly entertaining.  We’re at our best when we’re inventing things, and you can find a lot of our best ideas in Kreblog’s excellent blog.

First, I have to admit I’ve only seen the first episode.  A vacation during the height of premiere weeks has given me a serious case of DVR backlog.  But I made it a point to watch the first episode as soon as I could and now I’m thinking I’d have been better off going to bed early.  The four characters were broadly drawn, with some classic sitcom personalities (the philandering divorced guy, the p-w family guy, the insecure guy and the young newlywed guy).  Done well, these personalities can lead to a successful run.  But the Carpoolers all seemed shallow; maybe it’s the fact that it’s only been 22 minutes of TV so far and you can’t reveal much in the way of complexity, but I’m not holding my breath.

I think what disappointed me most was the scenes in the car.  While we’ve been known to break out into song together (it’s a little hard because of the age differences – I can’t remember any words to songs written after 1979), we don’t cry.  There’s no crying in carpool.  And we don’t get real explicit about our certain parts of our private lives (who’s on top?  Ewwww!).  It also seems weird to me that these guys all work at different places and that there is special parking for carpoolers.  That must be a California thing.  Here in the east, we all work together and we park with the masses. It would be way cool, however, if the FE Everett turnpike would install a carpool lane.  We’d be pretty lonely, but we’d shoot through.

What does work for me is the funny scenes of other carpoolers.  Old carpoolers not moving with their blinker on.  Rich carpoolers eating sushi.  Chuckle. Chuckle.  And the kid, Marmaduke, has his comedic moments, or maybe that should be moment.  Interviewing on-line without pants.  Nice.

I will give Carpoolers a few more rides before I kick them off my DVR list.  They’d better develop some more creative plot lines and flesh out some interesting characters.  I have read that Rebecca Romijn will be making a guest appearance later in the season.  Wouldn’t mind having her in the carpool….

Today's sky report

Um, wait until next week.  The carpool hasn’t left the ABC park and ride yet.

Today's sky report

Hey. They stole our lives.  Watch "Carpoolers" on ABC tonight at 8:30 p.m.

Today's sky report

Angry weatherman continues: “Hey, why is it so friggin nice today when I have to be inside with all these damn computer models?”  Or, “Earthquake and a hurricane in Hawaii?  Can’t the weather gods arrange it so they only get one at a time?  What the heck!”

Today's sky report

Scattered showers today, like the thoughts in my brain.  One thought I’m beginning to coalesce - we need angry weatherpeople. As in, “I can’t believe it’s going to rain today.  What the heck?  Haven’t we had enough rain?”  Or, “You know, if the temperatures are going down, somebody better ante up for my heating bill.”

Today's sky report

I realize I’ve been kind of a non-blogger for quite a while, but I didn’t want to let April 15 get too far behind me before I declared it the official “ice out” day for 2007.  Yes, the ice on the pond is finally gone for good.  We had a lot of melting the week before April 15, but at night, the ice was reforming.  Finally, one morning, it wasn’t there, but a mallard duck was.  So that was ice out.  Unfortunately, ice out was followed by water in.  We had worse flooding than last year’s Mother’s Day floods.  This time the water completely covered the basement floor and was 3 inches deep in some places (yes, I used a ruler to measure).  The only good news is that I was more prepared this time with my own surface sump and almost everything up off the floor.  Two 100 year floods in two years.  Hmmm, how long does that mean I’m covered for?

Today's sky report

With the hysteria dead from the Daylight Savings Time change, the real takeaway is how the sky changed during the morning dog walk.  I went from being able to actually see sun, to seeing the beginning of sunrise.  Today, strawberry sky with blueberry clouds.  Not unlike the fruit on my cereal.

Today's sky report

I’m sure I’m not the first to observe this, but email is like a never-ending snowfall.  If you don’t keep shoveling it into the “deleted” folder, it will bury you.  And if get behind, you’re forced to use the electronic equivalent of a snow blower….the “delete all” button.

Today's sky report

The birches bowed to the ground under the weight of yesterday’s ice. As the wind began to blow, the clicking of the tree branches sounded like hundreds of broken wind chimes. The crunch of the frozen ground underfoot drowned out all other noise. Winter has arrived.

Today's sky report

The ice is on the pond, again. Maybe this time it will last. This sure has been a weird winter so far. Riding my motorcycle in 70 degree weather in January doesn't just seem wrong, it is wrong. Wrong, but enjoyable.

Today's sky report

Had a little spare time and decided to convert my blog to the new blogspot look. Hope you like it. By the way, the pond had a skim coat of ice again. We'll see what's going on tonite after the temperatures hit 40 today.

Today's sky report

Earlier this year, I was going to write something about how the pond at my house had frozen. I didn’t get a chance and by the time I did, the pond was no longer frozen. Over the past few weeks, we’ve seen it start to freeze (skim coat of ice) and then thaw at least six or eight times. I’m not sure about this global warming stuff, but all I know is that I can usually walk on the pond by now. On the other hand, if the polar ice cap melts, I’m not thinking that the pond will rise.

The snow blower sits lonely in the garage waiting for the flakes to accumulate…. It’s December, right?

Today's sky report

It’s a darn shame that New Hamshire Blogging found my site. Not because I’m afraid of recognition or that someone is actually reading my blog, but because she makes me feel guilty for not blogging more over the last few months. Thank you for the kind review, NHB (read it here). While a lot of us write for ourselves or a small audience, it always feels good to know you are noticed.

Today's Sky Report

Fantastic news. Kreblog is now a recognized blogger in the annals of NH Blogging (http://nh-blogs.blogspot.com/2006/12/kreblog.html). I’m now prouder than ever to sponsor his link!

Today's sky report

I'm still here. I'm out of the blogging habit but I'm still here. I often think of posting, but it's usually when the keyboard is not under my fingers. More later, maybe.