Bike Almost a year old

It's been a long time between posts. I don't think anyone is reading this thing anyway.
Well, I'm nearly 2 months shy of the Bandit's 1 year Anniversary, but I've got 8669 miles on her already. I'm really enjoying ridding it. I've taken some much better Pictures because I helped my daughter buy a digital camera, a real one that is. hehehe.

Here 'tis after a good washing, and chain lubing. I was thinking today, "Man, I should have gotten a shaft drive bike". But, I like my Bandit. I'm not sure I blogged about the wife and I going to the Patriot Guard Rider's Tennessee Gathering of the Guard. That was fun. got to go on about 3 missions during that get together. Anyway, the bike holds its own fully loaded with me, the wife, and enough clothes and accessories for 2 days.
You'll note the Pilot Road 2's on the bike, they are fine tires. From what I remember I have about 4500+ miles on them and they're only about half done.

Google's garbage had to go

Well, I finally upgraded to Firefox 3. I have been holding out waiting for Google to get off its duff and update the Firefox extensions. If you remember I ranted about this in an earlier post. Well, I finally said forget it. I found out one of my biggest problems with Firefox on Linux was Google's fault!! The toolbar was the problem all along. The problem? I could not open more than 2 Firefox windows without the whole app freezing up on me. I would have to completely shutdown, and restart Firefox to get anywhere else. So, I've rid myself of Google's extensions altogether.
I replaced my Book mark sync with Foxmark, and all my other extensions, except my Favorite theme, work fine with FF3. So, good riddance Google. And yes, if they want to shut me out of mail and blogging I'll go somewhere else with that too. I think its completely bogus that they can come out with a hundred and one new apps every year, and can't be bothered to keep the apps they've won people over to up to date!
On a positive note, I'm finding FF3 to be very fast compared to FF2, and not *that* much different on the appearance and features list. Meaning, if you think you're going to get lost in the new interface don't worry, this isn't MickeySoft and Office2007.

Oh, I haven't blogged in a while because I've done quite well at embarrassing myself with how I handle my bike. I have let it fall over twice now. The first time I'm still not sure it was anything I did, I think there were other factors involved. The second time was just my stupidity, I think. The problem there was by the time I tried to catch the bike (not too far over) my leg said "forget this" and just gave out on me. It has happened twice now, but the first time I wasn't really tilted enough to cause it to fall all the way over. This morning it hurt my leg. I'm not sure the bike got that far off, or whether it was too far I just couldn't believe how my leg reacted. You have to understand my legs have always been my strong point when it came to that sort of thing. I guess being 41, they just aren't going to take it anymore.

Old Timer's Day Dickson Tennessee

This weekend was Old Timer's Day in Dickson, TN. My daughter is a part of American Heritage Girls (AHG), (an alternative to Girl Scouts. As the GS allow gays to lead troops, and AHG has a strong Christian focus). So, she was on a float, and then at 4 was in a fashion show (My Mom sews and does embroidery). Who ever was responsible for the activities needs a serious education. Here's my laundry list of absolute imbecility that was exposed :
1. No handicap parking on paved areas. Yep, all the handicapped parking was IN THE MUD at the fair grounds. I don't know if you have ever tried to push a wheel chair through the mud, but its not fun. The "people", using that term loosely, responsible for setting that up should be jailed for violating Federal laws regarding that matter. My Dad has no legs, can you imagine trying to get him out of a car while parked in STANDING WATER!?!
2. They stopped the parade to let traffic through at various times, so much so that the parade had very large gaps in it, and at times cars just trying to get to the fairgrounds were in the parade! I can't fathom why they could not have spent a little time figuring out how to route traffic around the event. My wife and I spend about 2 minutes coming up with about three different ways around the whole thing! Those who were walking, or marching (interestingly enough there were no marching bands!) would have suffered.
3. There was a Golden Flake Truck in the parade as an official entry. No, it wasn't decorated, nor did it have any signage whatsoever reflecting the purpose of the event, it was just a truck. What? They need to force people to NOT do that kind of crap. If you put an entry in the parade for Old Timer's Day it should primarily be about Old Timer's Day. Golden Flake could have found an old truck, from 50 or shorter years ago and put that in the parade.
4. Absolutely no organization of other events. The Quilting show in the Rec Building had no sign to tell you that was what was in there (until Saturday at some time). The building where the fashion show was held, had no sign or indication of any event! We had to track down the guy with the keys just to get in!! The only folks who showed up for the show were those who were in the show! Why? Because there was no advertisement, and no sign! Nothing. What the Heck?
5. Pay for Parking? In the MUD?!?!?! You have got to be kidding! After all these years the parking at the fairgrounds is still on grass. Yes, ladies and gents you have to pay 2 dollars to park, and then some odd something to get into the fair, or buy tickets to ride, but you park in the grass. (well it was grass until a day or two of rain fell on it, and large vans and trucks got stuck in it.) I saw one very nice Chevy full size Van trying to free itself from the mud. The good thing for me is that they had an area for Motorcycles to park, on pavement no less. We can't park handicap people on pavement, but we can bikes. I think they realized in their small minds that if a bike fell over they'd be liable so they covered that.

It was a good day despite all that. My brother-in-law came down and looked my bike over, of course he was looking for an excuse to ride his down from Clarksville, because he's finally got it out of the shop. Michael and I rode back and forth, and he thoroughly enjoyed it. I gave my daughter a ride Friday. Michael woke up with a fever yesterday, took some Motrin and would NOT hear of staying home. It did appear that the fever had gone, and we were going to drive my truck to the parade, because we thought it might rain. (didn't want the son ridding in the rain). However, it cleared off and we rode back to the parade. Some nice folks across the street from where I parked gave me a board so I could park off the side walk, and my kickstand not sink in the ground.

My Niece and her daughter were in the fashion show, my Mom and my Sister had a booth at the Quilting show. I think this is as much as we have ever been directly involved in the festivities. I marched in the High School Band back in the day, but that was about it. The kids rode some rides, and they enjoyed the Ferris wheel, but not the second one that would allow them to go upside down, and went fast. They were screaming, and begging the guy to stop the ride. :-D

When turning left off of Walnut street onto Hwy 46 going south, with Michael on the back, I think I either leaned too far, or hit some gravel, 'cause the back end slid around. Far from deterring the young lad from ridding again, he hollered, "Wheeee!" What's up with that? The Back wheel just jumped over, but I can't find any scrapes on anything on the bike, and it felt like when you hit a part of the bike that doesn't give. Oh, well, I stuck with it, and we came through just fine. The bike has a lot of get up and go, I can tell you that.