BlueLghtning

I've decided to take a break for awhile

2005-04-15T06:47:00.000-05:00

I've got so much going on right now and I just can't keep up with this blog. I apologize, but I'm going to close it down for awhile. Maybe in the future when things are looking better for me, I'll be more into it. Thanks for the small group that's been watching it.

I'm behind again

2005-04-06T05:20:00.000-05:00

I apologize. I'm not keeping up here. It's just been so busy around my place and I've been really keeping myself busy with new friends to keep my mind of things. I hope everyone else has been doing well.

Last weekend, myself and about 25 other motorcycle friends took a 350+ mile ride from Douglasville, up to the mountains via all back roads and then over to the Mall of Georgia area for a huge cookout one of the GSB members was putting on. It was a blast and I had a great time. The weather was perfect too.

Last night was my final class for this kayaking roll clinic. I'm glad that was over so now my Tuesday nights will be back open again.

Weekend trip to Barber

2005-03-21T06:52:00.000-05:00

Saturday, myself and six other friends took a ride out to the Barber raceway and museum in Leed's, AL. I led a nice route all back roads. It was about 150 miles and it took us about 3 hours to get there.

The morning started out at a very bone chilling 41 degrees. Here was 5 of use dressed for the ride.

We stopped somewhere around Lineville, AL to warmup and take a break. I think it had made it to 45 degrees by this point. I was trying to make sure we were still on the correct path.

We stopped for lunch at a Sonic just down the road from the track.

This was the view from the Barber Museum

The Barber Museum is awesome. It is 5 floors of Mr Barber's personal collection of motorcycles and some other items. You can see more pictures here.

Cynthia has her PC back

2005-03-14T21:58:00.000-05:00

Well, Cynthia came by and picked up her PC today. Hopefully we will see her back on here soon. I hope Rebuen has a speedy recovery.

I went riding Sunday again. It was another beautiful days. Those are the days I live for to ride.

Oh yeah, Friday, I did have my friend James help me replace the starter and the fuel filter in my car. The starter had been going and I was having more and more problems starting my car. I thought the fuel filter was going to fix my stumbling problem, but it's still there. I'm not sure what to try next. We are thinking maybe the fuel pump, but that's in the tank and means I have to drop it.

Great riding Saturday

2005-03-13T12:21:00.000-05:00

I helped out with a huge newbie ride with the GSB group on Saturday up in the mountains. It's getting that time of year where all the new riders start coming out of the woodwork getting on a bike for the first time and those that don't ride during the winter brush off the cob webs and get their bikes off. Since we try to be safety oriented on GSB, we put together newbie rides so we can help these people learn to ride safe in the mountains. The final count was about 37 riders. We ususally end up with a wide variety of skill levels, so to keep everyone safe, we break the group into smaller groups. We ended up with 3 groups. I led the experienced riders and couples that were riding 2 up. We also had an intermediate group and of course the very beginners. It turned out to be a safe day and the only casulty was a video camera that fell off someones bike and took a 40ft tumble of the side of the mountain.

Here was the group at lunch! That's our GSB salute!

Where everybody met up at.

We even have ladies that ride their own bikes! This is Stephanie & Shannon

Self hair cut

2005-03-06T15:57:00.000-05:00

Well today I got up, looked in the mirror and decided that I've had enough of my hair. I like to keep my hair short as it's easy to manage, but it has been getting pretty long lately, and I haven't had anyone here to cut it for me. So, I got a wild hair up my ass and decided I was going to cut my own hair. Remember me saying how cheap I am. Yep, I don't even want to spend $10-$12 on a haircut, thus the reason about 8 months ago, I went out and bought some Wahl clippers from Wal-mart so someone could cut my hair. Usually that was Jerri, but since she hasn't been here, well that didn't leave me anyone, so I'll do it myself.

The style I like to keep is what's called "high & tight" Using a clippers, I use the #3 guard on the top and then a #1 on the sides and back keeping the short part pretty high up on my head. I knew trying to do the #1 and matching the lines in the back was going to be hard, so I decided I would just try a #3 all over and that would be easy enough by myself. Okay, mental picture here. I'm standing in my garden tub in my underwear with the clippers in my hand neverous as crap. I start on the top going from the front of my head back. I get about 3 strokes in and the damn on call phone starts ringing. I shake off the hair and jump out of the tub and go answer the phone. It's a lady from the UK. We are both speaking English, but can't understand each other. Finally I make out that she says the UK is down, but they have it under control. (ugh, why did she have to call me then) Okay, back in the tub. So on the way back to tub, I stop and look at the mirror. Holy Shit, I didn't know you could look that ugly!!! So, go back at it. I really can't see my mirror from my tub, so I'm doing it all by feel. I go at it for a few minutes until I think I've got most and it's time to look in the mirror. Well, I can tell I have done the top fine, but the back needs some work. I can still see long hair back there when I turn my head sideways. I trim some more in the back. Next I take the #3 gaurd off and start triming around my ears and then the back of my neck. I'm doing this all by feel mind you. Oh yeah, at this point I have gave up on the tub so I'm getting hair all over the sink and the floor. So I trim the back of my neck and at this point think I've done pretty well. The hair all over me is really starting to bug me, so I jump in the shower to rinse off. I get out and decide I really need to go find a 2nd mirror so I can get a good look at the back of my head. I finally resort to grabbing one of the wall and using it. So I'm standing with my back to the bathroom mirror and holding the other one in front of me, so I can see the back of my head. Well, remember the triming the back of my neck part. I have just totally messed that up as I got a little too far up in spots and I have crooked lines all over the place, so I've got to touch that up some. Other then that, it looks pretty good. So trying to hold one mirror in my hands, the clippers in the other and do this all while looking through 2 mirrors, I attempt to fix my mistakes. My first cut, I totally miss and shave a part of my hair on the back about 2 inches higher then everything else. Well, there goes the #3 on the back of the head. I'm going to have to pull out the #1 and try to rectify this.

I realize from what I just did, there is no way I'm going to be able to do this while looking in a mirror. My only hope of semi straight cuts is going to be using something on my head as a feeler. I can do pretty good just feeling where I need to cut. I decided to put a baseball cap on and make it small so it sits up higher. I go away at it. A few minutes later I look at the damage. Okay, it's working, but the baseball cap insn't exactly straight and it's sitting too low on my head, especially on the sides. I need to go higher with the #1 blade. I try a few more times going higher each time, but it's not looking right. My final resort. I go grab about 3 different bowls out of the kitchen. I put each one on my head and find that one that puts the cut at the correct spot. (For future reference, the white ceramic cereal bowl worked the best) So, now I'm at it again, this time with a bowl on my head. After going through all this again, I look at it and hot damn, it doesn't look too bad. A few touch ups here and there, but it's looking halfway normal again.

So all said and done, my self haircut took about 2.5 hours of my time, 2 showers and crap load of hair to clean up out of the tub, the floor, sink and everything else that was in the bathroom. Yeah, I wasn't exactly bright enough to get everything else out of the way first. Hmm, was that worth it? Not sure, but it was entertaining.

So, you guys be honest with me at work. If it looks like crap, I've got the clippers and you can fix it!

Some time with friends

2005-03-05T21:00:00.000-05:00

Well, since i'm on call this weekend, I couldn't get on the bike and ride at all even though the weather is awesome today. There were a bunch of people going up to the mountains today too. That totally sucks and had me bummed out.

Well, to start off my Saturday morning, I got woken up at around 8am from the on call phone. It was someone in PS and their issue had to be escalated. All and all, the issue took about 40 minutes to resolve. I tried to go back to sleep, but I got another call from the same person about an hour later. I gave up and just got up.

I was just planning on just hanging around the house Saturday. I did some cleaning and then just hung out playing on the computer and listening to music. Around 3 or 4 pm, my best friend James called and invited me over to his Dad's house where him and his wife were having a birthday party for their son whe was turning 4. I decided it was a good time to get out of the house. I enjoyed seeing James' parents who could really be a 2nd set of parents to me. I have known them for about 12 years now. They are always so nice. I had a great time. I also got some help while I was there to put some parts on my car that I needed to. Now, I still need to get a starter for my car. It's not catching every time and if it keeps that up, I'll tear up the flywheel and then really have something to fix. I might be on the bike until I can get that taken care of.

I got home around 7pm from that and was going to catch up on some TV shows I've been tapping and not watching, but I just got interested in the TV watching stuff I've already seen? Does that ever make sense?

My new header

2005-03-04T18:35:00.000-05:00

Wooohooo! Angela, it looks great!! That is perfect! Thank you so much!

Today was a pretty good day at work. Cynthia brought me her PC to work on this weekend, so you guys keep me on my toes!

Vortex

2005-03-03T23:00:00.000-05:00

Thursday nights are bike nights down at the Vortex. I had a member of GSB that lives in PTC call me and ask if I wanted to go. He said he didn't know anyone on the board and wouldn't know who to look for if he went by himself. We ended up just riding in his Yukon. I really wouldn't have minded riding down there on the bike, but the car ride was nice since it was warm.

It was a pretty dead night with less then 30 bikes there. I can't wait for the warm weather as there is usually between 200-300 bikes there on any given Thursday. Sometimes as many as 500 bikes.

Seven of us that were there decided to eat. I had already ate at home, so I looked for something cheap on the menu! Well, they had tator tots for $3.50. That sounded good, so I ordered that. When the food showed up, I was given this huge bowl of tator tots! I probably ate 1/10 of what was there and took the rest home.

Well tomorrow is Friday and I'm so ready for this week to end. It looks nice this weekend, but I'm on call so I guess no riding for me.

Good Wednesday morning

2005-03-02T08:12:00.000-05:00

Well, after my post last night about a bad night, I did have a pretty decent night sleep considering what was on my mind. I'm very glad I was able to sleep well, because I'm at work at 6am every morning, and that's a drag with no sleep. I have been falling into a pattern of being a few minutes late though each morning. It really isn't a big deal as I'm the first one here and I have about a good 20 minutes before the 6:30am people start coming in. I just like to be prompt.

With my "body rejuvanation" I've been worknig on, I've been trying to make sure I get something to eat every morning and that's what has been putting me behind. It's normally just a carnation instant breakfast, but it does help me avoid the snack machine all day. By the way, I'm down about 23 pounds which is awesome. The scale said 211.6 this morning. When I started this, it was around 235. I didn't measure my body fat, but I'm probably still at 21%. I have got to get that lower.

I would really like to be hitting the gym like Magic Gnome, but I just don't have the funds right now to sign up and commit to a contract. I hear Gold's is pretty nice over there. I used to go to Newnan Racquet Ball club probably over 2 years ago and I really enjoyed that. For now though, I'll have to sufice to riding a bicycle or home exercises I can do.

Tonight?

2005-03-01T19:44:00.000-05:00

Well tonight has not been a very good night. I really don't want to get into it though. I'm just not ready to share it.

I do want to thank Angela for the changes to my blog. I love the title. I am knid of thinking that it needs the "i" though even though that isn't the way I spell it? Maybe in lower case letters, it isn't so bad, but the missing "i" just stands out in all captial letters. It's not Angela's fault though. She did a great job and spelled it just like I do. Well, if you get bored Angela, feel free! :)

BlueLghting out for the evening.

Cold day

2005-03-01T16:00:00.000-05:00

Well, I just posted a blog from Sunday, but since it really is Tuseday, I guess I'll post another one. Today is a cold day. I guess from the news some of the N. Atl cities got snow last night and today. It kills me how much of a big deal they make about it.

Work was busy today. The recent software update has been causing numerous problems. Hopefully they will have it all worked out.

I guess this one is a short one, but you have 2 posts to catch up on now! :)

Oh well, wasted my weekend

2005-02-27T22:00:00.000-05:00

This is just a post just to make a post. I keep meaning to add posts, but I've been swamped. I swore I wish I had more hours in the day.

I guess I can talk about this past weekend. I went down to Jennings, FL with some friends Sat afternoon. My plans were to just watch a bunch of the GSB folks ride the track as I really didn't have the money to get on the track or buy tires for my bike for the track. I've never gone to the track and not rode, so I thought it would be fun just to watch and help in the pits. We got down there late Saturday just in time to see the last groups finishing up. Then after that, we had about 30 of us meet for dinner that night at Sonny's BBQ and had a blast. But then Sunday, mother nature had other plans with a monsoon of rain that came in. Some of the guys stayed and rode in the rain. (The track doesn't give rain checks :() Others changed to Monday if they didn't have to go to work. The guy I rode down with decided it wasn't worth it to ride in the rain and just wanted to head home. That ended up being a wasted trip for me and huge waste of my time. I should have just stayed home Saturday and enjoyed the nice weather. I could have taken a nice trip to the mountains or something as the weather Saturday was great.

Next time, I'm going down with my bike in my own vehicle.

I'm proud of the friends....

2005-02-18T07:02:00.000-05:00

that are on georgiasportbike.com site I frequently visit and people I hang out with from there. Nomak (Neil) is a Canadian that here in the U.S. going to school. He's paying his own way (out of state tutition) and has very little exta money. His sole transportation around Atlanta is a Suzuki GS500. His bike was in poor condition from a wreck he had and was just about down right dangerous. It was missing guagues, had a bent frame, bent subframe, mising plastic, bent forks among other thnigs.

Well a couple guys on the board got together and secretly hijacked his bike while he was away on a trip back to Canada. When Neil got back, they presented him with a completely re-done bike that was in much better condition. I was there for the unveiling and it was so awesome to see.

If anyone on the board deserved it, it was Neil. You can read about it here.

I'm not doing very good, am I

2005-02-16T18:46:00.000-05:00

Okay, I've got to keep up on this better, huh! It's been so busy here. Today after work, we took Hunter (1 of our 2 cats) to the vet today. He hasn't been looking well, and was making horbile sounds anytime he tried to use the bathroom. We took him in and ended up having to leave him there as they wanted to watch him. They think he may have some sort of blockage. He's only about 2 years old.

After that we headed to Target. I was in desperate need of some new work shoes! I found some that are a bit different then what I normally wear. Only $16.99! (Yes, I'm cheap) I can wear out a pair of shoes though. So make sure you look at my shoes tomorrow!

I'm doing very good with my FitDay. I've dropped about 8 lbs and 3% body fat so far. The new eating habbits are working great. I enjoy eating much smaller meals more frequently. It just takes more planning to make sure you don't give in and hit the vending machine.

Yesterday, when I got home from work, Jerri & I rode bicycles the 3.5 miles back to work. It took us about 27 mins to get there and that was going pretty slow. I was glad to see her wanting to ride a bike and get out of the house. We made it back home a little faster. I might try riding to work some days, but we will see how that goes.

Rain, Rain, go away

2005-02-09T20:27:00.000-05:00

Man, I wish this rain would go away. I just really don't like rain. It puts me in a pissy mood. I'm really ready for the nicer weather to come around and stay. I've hardly been riding my motorcyles lately. It's not that I don't ride in the cold, but seeing how I'm only 3 miles from work, it's just not worth my time to put all that gear on and then take it off again at work, and then do the same thing at lunch. Jerri's also not ready to put a helmet back on her head yet since her surgery, so I'll have to wait until she heals more. I think she probably could wear it, but I'm not the one that had my head cut open twice just a month ago. (Am I being inconsiderate?)

Now on to my weight loss and muscle tone up. Link (I think I'll just call it my body rejuvenation from now on). I started last Friday myself, but the official contest with the other sportbike guys started Monday. My official weigh in was 235 lbs. My goal is 195 lbs, but more important then weight is decreasing my body fat and increasing muscle mass. Our contest only runs to 4/22/05, so I'll concentrate on weight loss until then. I know muscle weighs more then fat, so I might be at a higher weight after that, but that will be fine. I picked up a new scale from walmart that measure's body fat. I'm currently at 25%. Ugh! Men my age should be less then 18%. I'm aiming for around 14-15%.

As for exercise, I've been doing stretching and other exercises at home. I have a few free weights, but nothing special. I would really like a BowFlex or home gym, but I sure don't have the money for that right now. I'm also very seriously considering riding a bicycle to work. It's just over 3 miles, so it's not that far. It also helps me save money and puts me in shape!

Let's start this out

2005-02-08T08:10:00.000-05:00

Well, I gave all the other bloggers here a grade on their blogs since they have not been updating them regularly. Cynthia turned around and gave me a "G-" on my non-existent blog. I guess I have to prove that I can keep a blog. I've never been one to keep something like this either, so I'm going to have to try hard to keep mine up to date.

I figure I can atleast post on a daily basis on my progress over at my FitDay profile. I've decided with a few other friends on my sportbike board to trim down some weight and lean out my muscle mass. So far, it's been going well. It's interesting to see what kind of calories I take in and what's in it.

Yes, I know my Blog is not very appeasing right now. I will be working on my HTML to make this better.