Fun Over the Weekend

I am extremely excited about the return of decent weather. Yesterday morning. I managed to get out for a quick 70 mile ride. It was good.

You might notice the grin. What can I say? Nice weather inspires expeditious riding.

Weekend Full of Building Stuff

This past weekend, I attended a forge-building workshop at the Mesa Community Arts Center. It was most righteous. It took about a day and a half to build the forges. I think it could be an quick, one-afternoon job if you have the right tools and are just working on your own.

We built a forge for each of us, and one for the art center. They've got a pretty sweet workspace for blacksmithing. I expect they'll probably get more people interested in taking the classes when it isn't 105 degrees outside...

I learned a bunch of new stuff, including how to tap a hole (wow, was that easy...) and how to forge a bottle opener. Somehow, I forgot to take a picture of the bottle opener, but I do have a picture of my shiny new forge. I have, for reasons I think are obvious, decided to name it Dante.

Now I just need to rustle up a stand for it, and some kind of large piece of anvil-like metal to beat on, and I'll be set!

If You Don't Like Talking To People, Don't Ride.

This morning as I stomped my way from the parking garage to my office, some dude riding his bicycle said "Man, you look like the Terminator in all that gear!" as he went past.

So, I replied like anyone would, "Fock yo, ahsshole."

No, not really. Here in real life I just smiled and kept walking. Now, don't tell anyone or I'll lose all my righteous biker cred, but I kind of like talking to strangers. At least, until they prove annoying. Sometimes they'll tell me a good story, other times, I get a good story out of having talked to them. Like the time a very drunk guy staggered diagonally towards me as I was putting my gloves on and talked about his old Suzuki Ninja and how he remembered the turn signals.

I like getting dumb questions from people I work with. Yes, I get hot in the summer. Yes, I get wet in the rain. Yes, some people drive like idiots. That's too bad about your uncle that rode straight into a tree, I guess he'll know not to do that again, eh?

I like talking to other bikers at stoplights and at gas stations. I'm always mildly surprised when another biker doesn't want to talk. I mean, dude, the day can't be THAT bad, you're on a motorcycle!

Now, I have heard some cynical biker-types complaining about waving and saying "hi" at stoplights as ridiculous attention getting: "Hi, hey, hey, we're both on motorcycles, isn't that great? Hey. Hey!"

I say, yeah, it's pretty great. Why aren't YOU more excited about it?

I don't mean to say that everyone needs to be outgoing and friendly. Believe it or not, I'm pretty reserved (except when it comes to motorcycles. You just try and shut me up about motorcycles...). I don't think you have to be nice to annoying or rude people, though I personally try to be cordial and polite until it's no longer possible.

But on a motorcycle, a person kind of stands out. Other people are going to notice you. Other people are going to attempt communication. People will yell from the sidewalks. People will roll down their windows to chat about gas mileage and top speed. People are going to tell you about friends of friends who've been mangled. Other bikers are going to ask where you've been today and where you're headed and what you think about this crazy weather.

So if that bugs you, you might want to reconsider your transportation choice.

Why I Like the Speed Four So Very Much

So the weather is finally cooling down a little bit here in the desert. Yesterday for my ride home it was a cool 103 degrees outside. I thoroughly enjoyed the brisk fall weather, as you can imagine.

This morning, the temperature was GLORIOUS.

Anyway, I rolled the bike out of the garage as usual, hit the starter and I swear the bike went "WOOHOO!" before settling into it's idle.

I love the Speed Four.

Some Random Stuff for Thursday Night

So, I got to see where the cop disappeared to the other night. There's some construction going on right around the location of the disappearance the other day. I was behind another motor-cop on my way home yesterday and saw him sneak into a little spot in the construction. I'm thinking that's where my ninja cop went.

In other news, we just got the car out of the shop on Tuesday after having a bunch of transmission seals replaced, and now the A/C compressor crapped out. Yay for everything breaking at once!

In other other news, the Mesa Arts Center is having a blacksmithing forge building workshop in the next couple of weeks. You KNOW I'm all up on that scene. Once I've got that sucker, I'll just need to find a section of railroad track to use as an anvil and I'll be able to do some more smithin' this fall.

And that's about it. I've got to get back to novel revision...