25 to 1

We just got back from my grandsons baseball game. They won!!!! 25 to 1!!!!

Catching up on blogging.

Since my last post, we have...as usual...been very busy.

Our neighbor had an accident with a gun and shot himself in the head. He lived for 2 weeks and when he was just about to go to rehab to get physical and speech therapy, he developed a blood clot in his leg and passed away. He was only 49 and had two boys in college. His daughter is 28 with a son of her own. His wife heard the shot and ran out to the garage and found him. His two boys were there too. It happened just a week before they were to go back to school. He was a biker and the family asked that anyone who rides would ride in the funeral. There were 39 bikes and at least 100 cars. They ran out of food and the church that they had the lunch at couldn't accommodate all the people who came.

I will really miss seeing him ride his golf cart through the neighborhood or hearing him yell through the yard or across the building any time we met in public...HEY NEIGHBOR!! He always had a way of making everyone feel special. It's a small town and he will be missed by everyone.

We rode to a car show in Amboy. Rich's boss has a 56 Chevy and we met up with him there.

Over Labor Day, Rich wanted to take a look at an old PPlymouth down in Jerseyville, IL. The guy that owns it is parting it out or selling as a whole. Our plan was to take the truck and car trailer and he would decide after looking at it if he would buy the whole care for a parts car or just spend the day stripping it for what he wanted and just buy parts from it. We also thought that since it was the last long weekend of the summer, we would find something to do in the area and stay for the weekend. Jerseyville is fairly close to Springfield.

After talking to some friends, who suggested we put one bike in the back of the truck and they would follow on their bike and do some riding while we were there. Sounded good in theory!

After finally getting a hold of the guy with the car, he said the car was in the back of a corn field and we couldn't get to the car till the corn was brought in. Scrap that idea. Rich and our friend talked and decided that we would ride to Alton IL. It's about a 5 1/2 hour ride by interstate. Then ride back on the Great River Road to Savanna and then head home. When these two make plans things never seem to work out for everyone. We packed for two nights out, thinking we would spend Saturday night in Alton and then spend Sunday riding along the river and take our time spending the night somewhere along the way.

When we got to Alton and found a room for the night and started talking about the next days plans we found out that they wanted to be home before dark on Sunday. This was never talked about when they planned the trip and we ended up riding the River Road to highway 100 and heading north to the interstate and heading home.

Then I hear from his wife...I thought we were taking the River Road up to Savanna and then heading home. I had to explain to her that it would take 7 1/2 hours with no stopping to get from Alton to Savanna on the River Road. Then another 2 1/2 hours from Savanna home, adding in time for fueling and lunch, it would be pretty late when we got home. On top of which, they didn't want to leave the hotel till 9 am. We ended up riding interstate most of the way home. It seemed like a wasted 3 day weekend. Why these two men can't just talk about what they want and try to plan ahead I'll never know. It seems to go this way every time we do something that they plan. Rich thinks we are doing one thing and our Friend thinks we are doing something else. They just don't communicate.

On Monday we went for a short ride with some other Friends and really had a good time.

The weekend started on Saturday with full summer temps of 100 degrees and by Sunday we were wearing full leathers.

It has suddenly become chilly...down right nipply! On the way home from Alton, you could spot some of the leaves changing colors already. I love the fall but I don't like what it leads to. WINTER...UGH!!

If I don't have a job by the time the leaves change, I might just take a car ride some day and head west out Stage Coach Trail and take some fall pix.

My son got teamed up with his dad and they have made several trips to PA, SC, NC, VA, NJ and who knows where else. So far, so good. I'm glad he is with his dad, I know they will watch out for each other. If you happen to see a Star Trucking semi with a skinny short haired red head or a skinny blondish red haired guy driving, wish them a safe trip for me.

The next few weekends are going to be busy. Saturday we are going on a long ride then the firemans dance, and Sunday is the town parade, car show, corn boil, etc. The next Saturday is our annual bon fire party. We have every weekend booked on the calendar for this month and have started on next month.

Rich is planning to take a week off work just to work on his 68 Roadrunner. He is really getting motivated to work on it.

Some time this fall we will be starting to remodel the downstairs. I'm not sure if we will start in the kitchen first or the office and living room. The kitchen floor needs to be ripped out completely, it has three layers to it and the cabinets need to be replaced. The ceilings in the office and living room have to come down and the wood foors have to be refinished. We need to do something with the walls in all three rooms. Between the trains being so close and the earthquake we had a couple years ago, every piece of drywall has cracks in them. We are thinking about maybe adobe finishing so it wont show so much when the trains do their dirty work.

My coffee is getting cold, I have a ton of reading for school and my grandson has a bass ball game tonight, if I want to go to that, I need to get busy reading.

Till next time...safe riding to all!

My ride last weekend.

We went for a ride on Sunday along Stage Coach Trail. It's a real scenic twisty road. We had a good time and the bike ran great. No pix since we had others with us.

I can't believe what I did. When my bike hits reserve, it coughs once and then it stops. Not much of a warning at all. I can never get the knob turned fast enough between finding it and then getting it turned. It is so stiff! On top of that, my left hand in that position does not work well after all my surgeries. It had been a beautiful day and it seemed to go so fast...so fast I actually never even thought it could be gas when it stalled. I pulled over and when Vic rode up beside me and asked what happened, I just told him, "Idon't know, it just quit." I was so embarassed when he said, "How's your gas?" DUHHHH!!!!!! Now that's a ride when you don't even realize you have gone far enough to run out of gas. Time flies when your having fun!

My bike is running real good...when I have gas in it...any way, it seems to be a little louder with the bigger cam and my exceleration seems better. It sounds so good, no more chattering.

Good job Rich!

Formatting

I seem to be having some trouble with formatting. It can be perfect in draft form and when I post it, the formatting either has too many spaces or not enough.

I thought it was because I was using Explorer 9 so I reinstalled 8. Same issues.

Has anyone else had problems like this?

My son's new job.

My son was working in a junk yard and was just sick of it. He sold all his tools for car repair, home improvement and for heating and air. He ended up with enough money to pay for CDL Classes. He passed with flying colors and has been driving for about a month now.

He took this picture of a picture from someone in his orientation when he started his job. The guy lived through a tornado with only scratches. Lucky man! My son was just a couple hours behind him.

The rest of the pix are from my son's iPhone that he took.

I worry about him being on the road. I'm glad he started in the summer so he has some experience behind the wheel before winter sets in. His dad drives for the same company and they are trying to team up. The company is against family teaming. I would feel better knowing he is with someone who knows and cares about him. They could look out for each other. I know he's a grown man...it feels weird to say that about my son...but he will always be my kid.

I miss being able to see him when ever I want to. They keep him on the road for some times, two weeks at a time. When he gets home, he sleeps and spends most of his time with his five year old...she, absolutely, with out question comes first!

I'm an unemployed deadbeat again.

On the down side...the job I was so excited about is over. The story is a long one so you may want to grab a beverage of choice.

When I started there, the girl who had been doing A/P (Girl A), was out for a nervous breakdown. After adding the additional two stores, it was too much work for one person, as was the case with the tax and title position, (Girl B). Both girls had asked repeatedly for help and was not given help. When Girl A came back from her nervous breakdown, she came back to find that someone had been hired to put the department in order. This person who was to "put things in order" was to report "tattle" to the CFO. This person...who was hired the same day I was...decided that she had a friend who was better suited for the job Girl A held. Within a short time it was out with the old and in with the new.

A couple weeks later, Girl B quit without notice, she said she didn't want to work some place where people were treated so badly.

I started feeling like I was the new target. Suddenly something said innocently by me was turned into major drama. I was using my personal email address to contact vendors because I had not been given an email account yet and I was doing all the purchasing for all four stores. Someone had walked by and noticed I had my personal email open and at the time I didn't
think anything of it. Later when I closed it for lunch, I happened to say to little miss tattle tale, "I hope she didn't think I was doing personal stuff on company time."

Next thing I know, the person who had seen my email comes over, and with a very angry and defensive attitude read me the riot act about assuming that she would think the worst of me over something so trivial. I just told her that I was sorry if anything I said was repeated in a way that was offensive and that it was not said in any way to be taken offensively and gave little miss tattle tale a dirty look. This was on Thursday of last week and on Friday, after Miss Tattle Tale just spent an hour in the CFO's office...she came to my desk and said she needed to know how far I was with the invoices and how I was filing them. At this point I'm thinking...Hint and a half...I'm next.

The rest of the day went quietly and nothing was said after that. I left thinking maybe I was just being paranoid since none said any more.

On Monday this week I went in as usual...everyone looked at me like I was a ghost. My
extension rang and it was my boss from the temp service asking if my desk was a little crowded. I said no...she said she had bad news for me...she had an email message at 4:50 on Friday...20 minutes after she left for the day...telling her that they had hired someone for my position and that I was no longer needed. With everyone listening to my conversation, I told her that I was actually relieved and that it was OK and asked if I could stop by her office. I just packed up my personal stuff and left with out a word to anyone...just like they treated me. On the way out I saw Miss Tattle Tale hugging the new girl and saying, "I'm so glad you got the job." It was another one of her friends.

Personally, I think it is a bad idea to have three close friends in the A/P department. Not my problem!

I was in the office for a good 15 minutes when the call came from the temp agency and no one had the guts to tell me I didn't work there anymore. The CFO called the temp agency and told her to call me and tell me. What a coward!

Miss Tattle Tale is married and has a boyfriend...she told me last week that the girl they had just hired to take over for Girl A was engaged to her husband’s best friend and that she hoped I
would not say anything to her about her boyfriend. I just told her I was not that type of person and she had nothing to worry about. Rich said we should go visit her husband and have a talk with him. I'm better than that...someday he'll find out the truth and it will all come back at her.

I'm still hopefull the next job will be better. As much as I would have liked to work for that
company, it just wasn't a good fit for me in regards to the people. I don't want to work with people who act like they are in high school. I felt stressed there and I am feeling so much better now.

I had a job interview yesterday at a printing company and it seemed to go well. With my experience in printing, I can get a good wage there. The competition is ruff but I can still hope.

As for school...I earned another certificate with high honors and I am registered for next semester. I start Monday. I have three Internet classes totalling six credit hours. This should
be manageable but busy with a job.

Update of my summer up till now.

It seems I have forgotten what it was like to hold down a full time job and have a life. It's been real busy here.

With my new job, I have managed to surprise myself and finish the summer semester with all A's...AND...enjoy a couple long weekends, not to mention a week vacation and have some fun in between.

In June:

• We rode to Galena with friends and went to a pretty cool Italian restaurant. We were seated in the wine cellar room...as always...away from the rest of the patrons.
• We went to a wedding and my granddaughter’s 5Th B-day party.
• Rode to Snug Harbor in Marseilles

Then over the fourth of July weekend:

• We went to see Kenny Wayne Shepherd at Rib Fest in
  Naperville, then spent the night with the friends we went with.
• The next morning we took a ride to Savanna, IL where I
  started hearing clattering noises coming from my bike...a set of cam
  shoes, cam, cam bearings, oil pump, and adjustable push rods later it's
  back on the road and sounding good again. Taking two paychecks to pay for
  it, and that was with an employee discount on parts and thankfully, Rich
  had the cam, bearings and shoes in a drawer from his bike when he upgraded
  to boost his power a second time. The parts he gave me were only in his
  bike for 3,000 miles before he decided to make it faster. So I have a cam
  that gives me just a wee bit more pep in my giddy up.

During July:

• We did a quick weekend trip to PA for Rich's family
  reunion.
• The next weekend headed to Cripple Creek, CO for a week
  with his Aunt and Uncle. We spent as much time with them as
  possible...they had more trouble getting around than we imagined they
  would and was only able to spend a couple hours in the early afternoon and
  a couple hours in the evening with us each day. He's 91 and she's 86. We
  did allot of sight-seeing while they were resting.
  

If you don't know the area, Cripple Creek is not a very exciting town...if you know locals you can find things to do to keep pretty busy other than gamble at the casinos and watching the donkeys roam the neighborhoods freely.

We went to the American Eagle Overlook in Victor which overlooks one of the country’s largest operating gold mines. It is at just over 10,000 feet and by the time you are done hiking the trails, you are ready for a nap. The next day we went back to do a tour of the mine. Notice the tire is twice Rich's height.

We drove to The Royal Gorge and took a ride down to the bottom of the gorge on a trolley.

The weather was perfect in Cripple Creek and at the Mine but when we got to a lower elevation it was really hot. The temps in Cripple Creek were about 70's during the day and sweater weather at night. It was a welcome break from the heat and humidity we had in IL.

One day we took a drive to the little town of Guffy just to have a look see, we found it to be a very small town scattered with small log cabins, old cars, and some rather strange displays.

We stopped for a beer and talked to the bar keep for a while and she had some pretty interesting stories about bears in the area and showed us pictures of them on the back porches of the bar and her apartment. She said they would come into town usually during the night and occasionally in the day time. The pix she showed us where in the afternoon hours and a little too close for me.

We took a ride along the Phantom Canyon Road between Victor and Cripple Creek. In some spots it was only one lane and you sometimes had to share the lane with cattle.

We went to a restaurant called Crawdaddies...not the chain.
It was bad. My order didn't come till everyone else was done eating. I ended up
taking it to go so that we wouldn't be late for the theater.

We went to see Calamity Jane at the Butt Theater and it was
a real good play...very well worth seeing!

When we got back from CO, we found that our garage freezer
had gone out and that the 23lb ham I had in it was 1/2 thawed. We put the Ham
in the kitchen fridge and the next morning I came down to go to work and there
was a puddle in the kitchen. The
evaporator for the self-defroster quit working. We got a new fridge from Sears’s
scratch-n-dent store the next day.

My niece from Evansville IN came for the weekend after that
so we had a big cookout with the ham. I really enjoyed seeing her again...as
always! The Thursday before was her 1st grandson's 1st birthday and he was with
us for the weekend too. I have to admit that I wasn't sure about having a newly
walking one year old in the house but to my delight he was a joy to have
around. He cried one time all weekend and it lasted less than a minute. He was
so much fun...always laughing and pretty smart at that.

Next blog…I am again...an unemployed deadbeat!