Update

A few weeks back I started riding to work again. I joined an adult kickball team, the Repeat Offenders, part of the Little Rock Kickball Association. I've gained about twenty pounds since I injured my back, some of it has been poor eating and the other limited mobility. My back had been feeling pretty good, and I was looking forward to Kickball, being able to ride my bike again, and all of that and then I injured my ankle. So over this weekend I've had it with a compression bandage on it, and the swelling is finally gone for the moment. It swelled up pretty bad yesterday when I mowed, and edged the yard but it's better today. I went grocery shopping, and will be planning my meals out now and working to drop the weight. If I am diligent, it'll take me 2 or 3 months to drop it, less if I can motivate myself to do some paddling at Lake Willastein. I want to get back to riding my bike, and riding my motorcycles. I think this week my ankle will be back up to the motorcycles. My dad is doing somewhat better, he's lost a lot of water on his legs thanks to the prescriptions the doctors have him on... and hopefully he'll continue to improve.

Tired, but can't sleep.

Haven't posted in a while. Quick summary of random thoughts:

• New patio furniture (on clearance!)
• Patio storage box (on clearance!) for the patio furniture cushions.
• Bought dogfood/Dog bones. Gotta submit this great photo for the Milkbones Model Dog contest I have!
• Had an excellent weekend.
• Miss our intern at work who was so awesome (Good luck Rebecca, you're gonna go places!).
• Dad got his A/C fixed, and they upped his meds dosage again.
• Need to clean the house (seriously).
• Need to mow (we had over 3 inches of rain last week).
• Been riding the bikes. Vulcan is fixed.
• Lastly... Going to bed.

Hot Weather

The Vulcan is still in the shop. I have been riding the Buell this week. I rode for 5 or 6 hours last Sunday, just getting back in the groove of riding. I rode to work on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. It's HOT! I did lunchtime rides each day despite the heat. I filled the bike up twice to the tune of $6.00.

I've been thinking about having a place to garden, things like Tomatos, Peppers, etc... so I decided I'd build some raised beds. I was going to use either railroad ties, or landscape timbers. I thought of building a traditional landscape timber bed, with rebar, having to drill holes, etc... but I cam across a gardening blog where they used pressure treated 2 x 6's and landscape timbers with lag bolts to build 6" raised beds. I did an assessment of how much pressure treated 2 x 6's I had. I had two 10' long boards, and a bunch of 24" pieces. So I got 16 landscape timbers, lagged them into two 5' x 8' beds, and then made two 2' x 8' beds which I sat on top of the larger beds.

The photo is photoshopped to show what they'll look like filled with soil. I am gonna have to go get a trailer load of free compost from the city trash collection area and fill them next. I think they turned out pretty nice though. I left plenty of space to mow in between and all around them.

Vulcan 750

Here's a photo of my Vulcan before she went off to the dealership, she looks naked without her saddlebags. I yanked them since they gotta yank the back wheel to replace the seal on the splines, and regrease the splines. New drive shaft fluid, full 4000 mile oil change is coming. Some mods you might notice (all cosmetic), accessories like the tank bib, tool bag, and the sheepskin seat cover. The tank decals/badges have been yanked, and the turn signals relocated for the saddlebags. She looks like such a small bike when I look at her in these photos.

I tinted the truck windows, and I like it. But I am gonna have them redone by a professional next month if I can afford it.

Busy, Busy, Busy

I gotta go to bed, but I've been staying busy with friends, and tonight was the first night I've been able to actually clean house in a week it seems.

• The Vulcan goes to the dealership for servicing and to have that seal replaced. They said it might be two to three weeks before I get it back since it's the busy season.
• Dad goes to the hospital tomorrow, there is the real possibility they may hospitalize him. Thanks for all your prayers, I appreciate it.
• I tried tinting my own windows, hah. You warned me Rob that I should get extra tinting material, and I figured it out that I should have bought two rolls. Nevermind, the one I bought wasn't dark enough for my taste. So I'll be buying another couple rolls on the way home tomorrow and hopefully installing it tomorrow night!
• Got my truck serviced by a friend of my dad's, they did a great job. Oil and filter, and Lucas Oil engine treatment. (I provided the materials, normally do that myself), transmission fluid change (with Lucas Oil Transmission treatment added), checked the brake pads, belts, hoses, installed an anti-theft bracket on my tailgate I had bought (sweet), new fuel filter, and the truck drives really good. No hard shifts, etc... There were no metal shavings or anything in the transmission pan. We're thinking it may have shifted rough due to the fuel filter needing replacing. I'll be tracking the mileage to see if it improves.

Hey-ya!

Got my yard mowed, trimmed a holly tree/hedge (I'm so putting Christmas lights on that this December!) in my flowerbed, planted my two new hydrangeas, festuca grass, and hostas (eBurgess sent me 8 to replace the 3 that never came up! How cool is that!). Oh, and I planted the Royal Empress trees! It's hot out there today! I'm gonna try and stay out of that heat! I appreciate all the prayers for my dad! :-) Hope you're all having a great weekend.

Online Personals

I'm in the process of deleting my online personal ads. I've decided that I need some time to think, to contemplate the events of this week. I'm disabling my OkCupid.com account, it took me a while to set up and I went through the process of fixing it so it won't send me any matches anymore. My plentyoffish.com account, I'm deleting that tomorrow. I have only met a few good people on there, made a couple of friends in the past and had one slip away that I really wish I'd not.

My dad and I are going to dinner with my sister, and her family. Tomorrow I'm gonna mow the yard again, and plant the plants from eBurgess.com and do some work in my flowerbeds that needs to be done. My church is having it's opening celebration with our new building. I'm gonna try to make that. I've been doing laundry all day, and using my iRock to push music to the stereo in the living room from my office.

Books

I bought a small sketchbook with perforated pages, Watership Down (never read it), Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus (My friend Ann recommended I read this), and The Field Guide to Cocktails. I won't be shopping at Amazon.com as much.

Music

I decided to add some music I've been listening to recently... Been listening to a lot of ELO, the playlist site I use doesn't have any RENCH dagnabit! :-) Music is VERY important to me, it tends to suit my mood, and reflect how I feel. Lyrics mean a lot to me, certain songs are a good sign of how I'm feeling at times.

Slow Friday night...

Been a rough week, and it's been a slow Friday night for a change.

This has been an oddball week. Seems like a few weeks back, but more like maybe a couple of months ago, I found an artist on Podsafe Audio named Rench, he's a country/folk singer. I added a song of his to my MySpace profile tonight. I go through stages where I lock my profile, and then open it up. Anyway, it's called Just Crazy. If you've never heard of this guy, and you like country, or at least rockabilly I'd recommend you check him out. The song sort of fits with the last few weeks, and how I am feeling. Ever have something stuck in your mind, and you can't shake it? Well, that's how I am right now.

I appreciate everyone's prayers... They mean a lot to me.

Update: Check out http://www.renchaudio.com, you can download a bunch of his tracks for free and his latest album for free. Awesome music, if you like it, buy it when you can!