Category: photo

Git-R-Done!

We had such a good ride yesterday! As you can tell from the pic there was a good size group as well. Even though I have to go slower, I love riding in groups. Its hard to explain but I just really get a thrill out of being on the road with a small contingent of riders.

I had originally planned to ride with another group but they ended up canceling their Saturday ride due to rain on Friday and early Saturday morning. I totally borrowed their destination, albeit with my own route. I think I’ve mentioned I co-host a very small group of riders on Facebook. It started as just an easy way for a very small group to post rides and has kinda grown into a fledgling club. Working full-time I can’t give it the TLC it probably deserves but it serves its purpose. I’m hoping to expand it a bit this year with a few other types of activities. I’ve gotten great feedback from the guys so I think it will be fine. Oh and speaking of, the weather was almost perfect. Just a little chilly but sunny and absolutely no rain! Oh hell yeah, it was on! lol

My poor beast was just itchin’ to get out of 2nd gear.  We ended up going down to Santa Cruz via some really awesome small back roads. We started out with a much larger group but many didn’t wanna go quite so far so we kinda bled riders until the half-way point. After that, we had pretty much the 7 knuckle-heads above for the duration. We had lunch in Santa Cruz, watched the American Hockey team lose the gold medal in overtime, and then headed home back along the ocean/Hwy 1.

*

On a side note, Apple guy is in the process of getting his bike shipped here for his upcoming move. He is working on painting the fairings this week to give it his personal touch/look. I can’t wait till he gets here so we can ride together!

*The rest of the post is random details, feel free to skip if you’re bored. *

Continue reading Git-R-Done!

VD

I’m referring to Valentine’s day of course. Usually, I play for the opposing team, but this year having Apple guy in my life, I had to switch teams, so to speak. :p  He came up for VD and is spending the week with me. I don’t even need to tell ya how happy that made me. He had only been gone a little over two weeks and I was beside myself missing him. Speaking of, I know I haven’t been talking about him in much detail here since we met. That has been on purpose. One, I didn’t wanna jinx it and two, I’m a little gun-shy after my last two botched dating attempts. [1]Actually, I was kind of avoiding dating all together when he and I met.  I figure rather than over thinking it here, I’d just let things develop at their own pace and see how it goes. To my delight, its been going very well. I find that our comfort level together is such, I’m quickly moving away from my fears and lack of trust. Even after realizing how deep my ex’s betrayal hurt me, I hadn’t let it go. It jaded me and I’ve been going into potential relationships sort of expecting them to fail. I guess it was a twisted self-defense mechanism to protect myself from getting hurt. Whatevs…

Anyway, enough about that. The above pic is the very nice bouquet he got me for VD. I really like it a lot. I took the more traditional approach for him (see below).

We both got mixed up and thought Valentine’s day was yesterday. lol  Money is tight because of his upcoming move so we didn’t do anything too extravagant. We ended up going to see Valentine’s Day, the movie. It was just ok. Cute to watch on the holiday as it had some tender/sweet scenes sprinkled in. Overall, it was entirely too long and several scenes seemed to almost never end. I was kind of disappointed. It had such an all-star cast, I expected a lot more. If you didn’t get your dates confused like we did and you aren’t planning to see it today, I’d recommend waiting until DVD.

After the movie, we hung out at the Metreon playing video games and air-hockey for awhile. Of which, he soundly beat me. He has a a bit of a competitive streak and hates losing. lol [2]He and Brett would either either instantly love or hate each other.  The upside is he won me a life-size tickle-me-Elmo (I have a thing for Elmo) from one of those stuffed animal machines. 

Even better, when we got home he made us some gourmet grilled cheese “sammiches”. OMG, they were so good! I can already tell I’m definitely gonna have to up my cardio once he moves here full-time. lol 

Overall, we had a nice relaxing enjoyable day together. Some of you have noticed, I changed my Facebook status to “in a relationship”. I never realized anyone paid that much attention to such things but apparently you do. I was tickled from all the responses I got the day I changed it. hehehe  Yeah, we’ve decided to make it official. And so far, he manages to put up with me pretty well. :p

Actually, the comfort level is really good between us. I usually feel completely at ease around him. He has commented he feels the same way. This month is our 6 month marker, can you believe it? I can’t wait for him to make the move to SF. If everything goes well, he could be back permanently within 2 weeks. If not, probably 3-4. Either way, things are finally wrapping up and I’m glad he’ll be here soon.

References

References
↑1 Actually, I was kind of avoiding dating all together when he and I met.
↑2 He and Brett would either either instantly love or hate each other.

Ho-Hum

 

Well, the holiday season is upon us. The pic is a shot of me being silly at the work holiday party. I was a little apprehensive as I didn’t really know what to expect. Actually, it was loads of fun watching my co-workers get shit-faced. It was at a bar up in North beach, which is total straights-ville. (Now you see my apprehension. lol)  And true to form, there was only 1 other gay co-worker in attendance. He was smart enough to bring a mini-group of his own friends. I should have dragged (read ‘tortured’) several of my own brood into the mix. Now that would have been a show!

I don’t socialize with my co-workers a lot so it was an interesting experience. Some, I had pegged dead on and others really surprised me. Its amazing how some people change personalities after you pour a little liquor in’em. Me, I’m pretty much the same rambunctious flirty homo as I am sober. The only difference is I tend to be a little more rambunctious and a little more flirty. No surprise there. I’ve never booze (or anything else) to loosen up.  Anyway, I ended up having a good time. The place was full of off-duty cops and I took turns with several co-workers taking bets on who would hook-up with whom. heehee

Beyond that, I don’t really seem to be in the holiday mood this year. I didn’t even put up a tree. I’m not sad or depressed or anything like that. The mood just hasn’t really hit me this year. Normally, i get excited when I start decorating and doing cards. Speaking of, I got the cards out at a decent time this year, btw. No disasters other than getting glared at by the post office clerk for purchasing 50+ one-cent stamps. I glared right back at her. lol

The new roomie has been gone for weeks with his new romantic interest and apple guy is still 2000 miles away so it was just me [1]He is coming up for xmas weekend though.. I guess I didn’t really see the point of doing all the decorations just so I can sit and stare at’em for 2 weeks and the take’em down. Ba-humbug right? lol

Oh well, I may not be all gaga for the holiday but I am still grateful. I’ve made a lot of friends over the years and they of course reach out to me on xmas via cards, calls, and texts. That to me is the best part of the holiday.

References

References
↑1 He is coming up for xmas weekend though.

Light Speed

So the rims for the bike finally came! I’ve been moaning for weeks now. [1]Actually, they arrived 2 weeks ago, but “I has been buseee!”  And let me tell you they were worth every damn penny!

Today was the first day I’ve had a chance to go out on a ride. (My new romantic interest has been keeping me nicely preoccupied!) I’d originally planned to go on a solo ride to give myself a chance to adjust to the new feel and demands of the bike. That is until I woke up to a text from two of my riding buddies inquiring if I wanted to ride today. I never turn down a good opportunity to ride so I jumped on it.

The new guy (hereafter referred to as The Apple Guy) had to go do some of his own stuff anyway so I had some free time on my hands. I’ve been doing my best to monopolize his free time so I figured he needed a break. What? Don’t look at me like that. I can be intense at times and I don’t wanna scare him away. :p

Anyway, I digress. I met up with the guys and we took off on our ride. We didn’t go very far but picked a nice windy road. [2]Lucas Valley Rd – it was just repaved last week!  The new rims are so light the entire feel of the bike has changed. If you’ve ever ridden any sort of two-wheeled contraption, you know body-weight and balance play a large role in controlling said device. The same is true of motorcycles. I guess I never really thought about how much weight rims can add to a bike. I know better now! My bike feels completely different even on straight-aways. Leans and swerves take a fraction of the body shift and I don’t mind telling you I love it!

I took it easy on the curves at first as I was somewhat afraid of over-leaning and low-siding the bike (again). On the way home after lunch, I gradually eased back into my normal style of taking curves. The boys let me lead as I also have a new front tire. New tires can be a bit slippery for the first 100 miles or so until they wear in. Anyway, I deliberately went wide in some of the curves to test how well the bike responded. Needless to say, I’m loving how the bike handles now. You might say, I’m happier than a pig in slop! lol

Sadly, summer is coming to a close here and there aren’t many good riding days left. We tend to get most of our rain in the colder months. I’m sure there will be some good days as winters here are never severe but I hate riding in cold and/or rainy weather. I’m hoping to get a few more good rides in beforehand though.

References

References
↑1 Actually, they arrived 2 weeks ago, but “I has been buseee!”
↑2 Lucas Valley Rd – it was just repaved last week!

It Happened

Well, it finally happened. I banged my bike up a bit yesterday. Now, before you freak out, it was minor and I am fine, albeit a few scratches. Totally my fault this time. I went out on a late ride with my buddy Mark and we’d just left lunch at Alice’s. We were taking one of my favorite routes, Hwy 84 across to Hwy 1. It has a ton of different types of curves.

As usual I was spending too much time making sure the person behind me was keeping up and less attention on the road. I have an awful habit of doing that. Lesson learned.  Anyway, I came around a curve a little out of balance. [1]The irony here was my buddy had just finished bragging about how well I handle curves.  I figured since I was already going wide I’d just pull off onto the large shoulder. I assumed from the look that it was pavement. I was wrong! lol  Turned out it was very soft gravel.

Since I was already coming out of a the curve the bike was moving too fast when I hit the gravel.  Still having a bit of momentum from the turn, I knew as soon as I hit the gravel I was gonna loose it. Sure enough, the bike fishtailed and down on its side it (and I) went! The gravel was slippery but it was also soft, which turned out to be a good thing. I slid for about 20-30 yards before coming to a stop just shy of a guard rail. (Now that would have hurt!)

The fall/slide/crash was actually quite benign (luckily). I ended up with a few scratches and road rash and that’s it. I had all my gear on, as usual. My riding jacket/pants got all dirtied up but was none worse for wear. I didn’t even bang my helmet!

As you can see from the pics, my bike suffered some damage. Thankfully, I have sliders and the left one took the full brunt of the spill. It will need to be replaced as its bent now. I also broke the left foot-peg (below) completely off and scratched part of the engine casing. I’ll probably leave the casing for now but will eventually replace it. I don’t like it looking all banged up. That was about it! I was really (pleasantly) surprised at the lack of damage to my baby.

We spent some time looking over the bike before taking off again. All looked to be in good working order other than the foot-peg. I decided I’d just bend my leg back and up and prop it on the passenger peg. It worked like a charm. [2]Other than forcing me to lean way over on the tank and constantly push my balls into the tank. Thankfully, they were still in tack after the 40 miles home.  There was one more surprise in store for me though. About 3 miles further on, the gear-shifter peg fell off. (The blue lever in the below image) They are made to break to prevent the frame from being damaged so it wasn’t surprising. However, this created a unique problem because I had no real way to shift gears now. The lever was still there and working fine but the little peg I catch my foot on was gone.

I originally decided to just start the bike in 3rd gear. This would have reduced the need to keep switching back and forth.  It takes some timing to get the bike to take off in 3rd but it worked. Knowing I couldn’t ride all the way home in 3rd gear, I practiced using just the lever with my foot.  After about 10-15 miles, I started getting the hang of it. I had to look but I was basically just sliding my foot high and tight under/over the lever to shift. I still had to look down for most of the trip but I managed and made it home w/o any other incidents.

The down side is my moto shop is closed on Monday’s so I have to wait till Tuesday to take it in to get the foot-peg and shifter replaced. I’ll get generic ones until they get some more of the shiny blue ones (that I just bought 3 months ago).

References

References
↑1 The irony here was my buddy had just finished bragging about how well I handle curves.
↑2 Other than forcing me to lean way over on the tank and constantly push my balls into the tank. Thankfully, they were still in tack after the 40 miles home.

Joined at The Hip

Today my buddy kristaki married his sweetheart Ramune. Inserted is my self-inflicted mugshot taken before the big shindig commenced.

In a not so random turn of events, I knew both the bride and groom, I work with both of them. The groom and I were in the same academy class together. We hit it off as buds pretty much right away. Ramune started about 3 years later. They’ve been living together as a couple for some time now but today was finally the big day.

I normally avoid formal events as I hate the fussiness behind all of it. We’ve become a society focused more on the appearance of tradition vs the actual meaning behind it. [1]A topic in itself, but we’ll save that nut and crack it open on a later day when I’m desperate.  I couldn’t not attend their wedding. While I know kristaki more, Ramune was indoctrinated into the local chapter as a Steward and I’m hoping to mold her in my professional image. [2]Don’t go there! lol Seriously, I think she is a sweet soul with a mischievous side that doesn’t come to light until you really get to know her. I’ve always thought they were a good ‘fit’ for each other and I was reminded of that today. Looking beyond the nervous apprehension, I saw a couple secure in each other with a bright future together. I wish them all the best.

You can stop here unless you wish to read my reminiscent ramblings, which as you know can be significant at times. :p

Continue reading Joined at The Hip

References

References
↑1 A topic in itself, but we’ll save that nut and crack it open on a later day when I’m desperate.
↑2 Don’t go there! lol

Testing

I downloaded a new app for my G1 which allows me to update the blog on the fly. Not that I’m gonna be writing long-winded posts on a qwerty but not a bad idea. It has a very small memory footprint which I like.

The interface is a bit bare but simplistic and clean. It offers limited editing and the option to attach pics. It did a good job of pulling down categories and supports tags as well.

Not sure how often I’ll use it but its nice having the option. [1]This post was written and published using the app.

References

References
↑1 This post was written and published using the app.

Quickie

No, not that. Get your mind out of my gutter. lol Just a couple random shots from the ride this past weekend. I ended up going Saturday and Sunday.  Saturday with a few of the guys and Sunday solo. I’ve been forgetting to grab the camera but I managed to snap off a few this time.

This was on Sunday when I went by myself. This chick was walking by staring at me like I had two heads because I was taking a self-pic. I guess she’d never seen anyone taking pictures with one of those ‘new-fangled thinga-ma-jigs’ referred to as a camera. Of course, I promptly ignored her. Whateva! lol

I sometimes like to ride solo as I can do my own thing. Riding in a group (especially as the lead) requires a lot of effort and you have to always be thinking about how a particular move will affect everyone. Plus, not everyone rides at the same skill level and/or style. I tend to be aggressive (without being crazy) but ride much slower in groups. It really isn’t fair to ride too fast or aggressive in large groups as it isn’t really safe. It encourages people to ride outside their skill level and that’s always a bad idea. Solo or in groups of 2 or 3, you can haul ass and pass a lot more.

Saturday, there were only 3 of us so it wasn’t bad. We didn’t go far, just down to Woodside/Alice’s for lunch and back. On the way back, we were cutting across Hwy 84 to Hwy 1 (which runs along the ocean), I was a ways ahead and came across a guy that looked to have wiped out. He was walking and carrying a fairing so I was thinking, ‘holy shit!’ lol Turns out, it worked loose and blew off while he was riding and he was just retrieving it. He was kind of a hottie but totally straight. I stopped to check on him and let him use my tools to try and jerry-rig his fairing back on. I think he pegged me for being gay but he was way cool about it. [1]He might have caught me staring at his rather pronounced crotch but I’m not sure. heehee After that we just cruised home along the coast enjoying the beautiful weather. The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful.

Sunday, I got a wild hair and decided to go solo. I went back down South thru Woodside, up over Big Basin, and then down Hwy 9 which has some awesome curves. I took a couple of rough roads that I normally avoid as its just not safe to have large groups of hard terrain. [2]My wrists weren’t too happy about that

It was crazy busy with bikers everywhere. I couldn’t believe how many bikes were out on the road. At one point, I’m cruising along at my speed feeling quite proud of myself for being a bad-ass until this guy blew by me pushing close to 90 mph. He was taking curves like a maniac and burning thru the route. It was very humbling because I’m a good rider but I’m not a pro. I think its nice to keep perspective when you are traveling at high speeds on two wheels with nothing between you and the pavement but leather and pads. I wasn’t even tempted to try and catch him. Anyway, this last shot is of my bike parked up among the throng at Alice’s.

On the way back, I stopped back thru Woodside and ran into a buddy. We hung out and had a late lunch before heading home. The fog, which had been unusually absent, had rolled in with a vengeance while I was tripping thru the mountains. It was down right frosty coming home along the coast. So the ride home was very windy and chilly. I got a wake up call when I saw a newer model cadi trying like crazy to pass every car in sight. This guy was driving crazy. He was passing on blind curves and hills. As we come into Half Moon bay, I see him cutting other cars off and weaving like an idiot. This was right before I pulled over to put the liner to my jacket in. After getting back on the road, I come over the next hill to see him pulled over with not one but two chippies behind him. Serves his dumb ass right. I drove by real slow, flicked open my visor, smiled real big, and gave him the gayest wave I could. What a douche-bag. I hope they impounded his car and made him walk. That idiot could have killed someone.

Anyway, I made it home in one-piece and promptly crashed on the sofa for a nice 2 hour nap.

References

References
↑1 He might have caught me staring at his rather pronounced crotch but I’m not sure. heehee
↑2 My wrists weren’t too happy about that

Here

Still here. Just busy busy busy. In a nutshell I’m:

  • disgusted/sad over greedy corps masquerading as “grass roots” efforts and spreading outright lies and fear regarding healthcare reform.
  • happy over last week’s moto-ride. One of the best yet.
  • adjusting to me new (old) schedule well.
  • working on a couple projects that are consuming a lot of my free time.
  • having hot sex with random hot menz.

There probably won’t be a WWMD this month as I haven’t gotten around to fleshing one out so-to-speak. No worries, I’ll get to it on the next go-round.

The new roomie is working out exceedingly well so far. We rarely see each other because of opposite schedules. Last weekend, he took it upon himself to do a very nasty chore, steam cleaning th e common areas. I was so surprised (happily so) to come home from my moto-ride and discover he’d done it for me. What a trooper! The old roomie is doing ok too.

The new rims for the bike are on back-order and won’t be here until September. I’m sad but can’t help it.

The boy is doing well. I miss him at times but we still talk daily.

Ok, that is about it for now. More later when I have some more time.

Oh, here. Enjoy a ‘purdy picture!

 

Boys & Gurls

This weeks ride was one of the biggest yet. We had nine guys (and girls) this time around. Even better no one got separated from the group. heh heh.

Actually, it was a lot of fun too. The moto group (Facebook link) is slowly expanding to include a bigger variety of riders but maintaining its close-knit feel. This week’s course was kind of the reverse of last week, with a few modifications. The weather was a teeny bit hot but bearable. I think at one point it was up in the 90’s. Oy!

Here we all are at lunch. We stopped at Mr. Pickles sandwich shop again. Man, those people go apeshit when we show up. lol The owner runs out and takes our pics and told us she was getting it framed for their wall. I have one pic where her head basically covers the whole shot. She was sweet though. We laugh and cut up obviously, which I’m sure might have something to do with it. heh heh So starting with me going clockwise, Moby, ‘bekah, Tom, Don, Stephen, Kevin, Patrick, William, and Michelle.

I’m a little sad as next week is my last Friday off before my schedule changes. I won’t get to ride w/the guys as much anymore. I talked it over w/William and we might host double rides, one on a weekday and weekend. At least this way, I’ll still get to ride with some of the gang. There are also a few riders I know who can’t ride weekdays so maybe we’ll get some new folks too.

Here I am checking my phone. The boy was flying off on vacation but he worries about me when I ride. I’m also updating my geo-location. I know, geek! What ever did we do before the advent of the internet and text messaging? Seriously, how did we survive? LOL

More pics on ride on the stream, if you care.