Who'd Have Thought...

...Atlanta would see these temps? Yes, that is in Fahrenheit.

This may be trifling to some, and I claim no great surprise either, but this is a big deal here. Schools were closed today due to these temperatures. No rain, no snow, no sleet, nice sun, but cold. Kids here aren't generally equipped, clothing wise, for this. The administrators were also worried that the buses wouldn't start. Valid if you think of diesel engines. As well as a concern of heaters not being able to adequately heat classrooms. Ok. I'll give it to them.

I haven't seen any motorbikes on the road today. The big concern would be from breaking sprinkler pipes laying great sheets of ice across the road. Don't laugh. It is happening. :)

 

Changes They are A'Comin'

Hello? Is there anybody out there?



Life has a hectic bent to it lately.

Life as we know it is changing forever.

In the spirit of looking on the bright side, or making lemonade out of lemons, the new man cave is going to be something to behold. The woman cave won't be anything to shake a stick at either. More details to follow in one week.

We've taken a a couple interesting moto trips since I last voiced any greetings to you. A couple even deserving of a post. Due to all the other changes occurring, I just haven't had the gumption to write. In all, though, we haven't been doing much riding. Given the upcoming, immediate change of location, it looks like it might be awhile before we get out again anyway.

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To keep a little motorbike content in this post, another reason for ATGATT (All The Gear All The Time).  This is for those people that believe riding gear is too expensive...

Out for an Excursion, Though Not a Ride

It was beautiful riding weather this past weekend. The temperatures were perfect near 72F, wide blue skies, slight breezes light enough give you a whiff of the blooming flowers. And we didn't ride.

Of course, people are constantly telling us that there is more to life than riding. I guess I have to agree with them, but that doesn't mean that I always want to do much more with my life than ride.

This weekend was a change. There has been some crazy stuff going on in life lately, and it was a wise idea to have a relaxed weekend and just take the 4 wheeled vehicle some place.

Years and years ago we learned of a place in Alabama called the Unclaimed Baggage Center. This is an interesting business paradigm that purchases the unclaimed baggage that the airlines are not able to get back to their owners. (You can read about the process on their website.) They have discovered some unimagineable items in luggage they have purchased, from African Tribal Breastplates to live snakes. They purchase the bags, catalog and clean the contents, and put them up for sale. (This is legal as the airline has already reimbursed the bag owner for the lost luggage.)

We had never traveled there as it was on the cusp of a day trip vs an overnight. It is about 3 1/2 hours away by car, one way. When we had puppies, I didn't want to subject them to us being gone for that amount of time. So we never went. Of course, by the time we lost our beloved puppies, we had forgotten about the place.

We were reminded of it a couple weeks ago when some friends wanted to go. Again, we agonized over making it an overnight trip. But truthfully, there isn't anything in Scottsboro, Alabama that one would want to see, other than Unclaimed Baggage. Going there for just that seemed a waste of a good weekend. (Though there are a couple of good roads on the way, just add another 2 hours to the trip to get to them.)

We also had to question if we should ride or drive. Riding would be more enjoyable, but the saddlebags are only so big. What if a canoe had come in that just had to come home with me?

Well, we decided last weekend was the one, and instead of staying in Scottsboro, we would hop over another hour to Chattanooga, TN for an overnight trip. Now, to ride or drive? Bah...drive. As much as we would have enjoyed riding, we wanted to relax and spend some time together.

The Unclaimed Baggage Center was interesting. At one time it may have been an hodge podge type place where you could uncover some phenomenal deals because someone didn't know what they had. With the popularity of the internet, ebay, and amazon everything can be discovered quickly and can be priced competitvely. Though deals can still be found on items that are not mainstream yet and people don't know what to look for. (Case in point, our friend found a bluetooth headset attached to a charger. It was placed in with all the chargers on a large peg board. For his knowledge of what the item was, and his eye to actually spying it, he would never have seen the $140 bluetooth headset that was priced for $16 amongst the hundreds of other chargers.) However, for iPad's and iPhones, they darn well know the market price for those and price those items accordingly

Not being a big clothes shopper, or handbag user, much of the place is lost on me. Though even I could see the attaction of some name brand handbags for $2. I am just more attracted to electronics. The bags and bags of chargers wasn't appealing, as I had no interest in sifting through them, so I sauntered over to the camera counter. There were oodles and oodles of point and shoot cameras, mostly just slightly used looking. I love seeing the rows of colorful cameras all lined up like little soldiers. But my passion lay in the DSLR cabinet. You could take your pick of Nikon or Canon. I can't tell you what Nikon models were there as I'm not up on those, but there were plenty of Canon's with many Rebel models well represented. Yeah...unfortunately my eye was captivated by the 7D...

We also went to the Lodge Outlet, makers of fine cast iron cookware. I am a firm believer that all women should own a cast iron skillet. For self defense. ;) (No pictures, I don't know what is with me and my missing camera lately.) I did happen to purchase a skillet for pancakes and a couple jars of jam.

Our only form of sightseeing was this cool bridge in South Pittsburg, TN that Moose thoroughly enjoyed. Moose was less than thrilled to see the Bellefonte Nuclear Generating Station. Though it has never produced any electricity and has been sitting for more than 20 years, even supplying spare parts to other reactors in the area.

 

All work...

...and no play makes for no fun riding.

Some people like to think they are integral at work; that work will not function without them. I am NOT one of those people. I prefer to teach everyone my duties, so that I can leave for vacation and be able to let work go completely. But sometimes you are integral if people just aren't qualified or prepared enough.

That just means that I have been working way too many hours, shirking my wifely duties of household chores like cooking and cleaning. (Who am I kidding, those don't get done even when I'm not working an ungodly amount of hours.) And no riding...

The weather hasn't exactly been conducive to riding. The last two days we've been getting snow flurries from the grey clouds scuttling by. Nothing that sticks. Just keeps it darn cold.

Oilburner and I did manage a ride a couple weeks ago. But no pictures means no proof. :) That's ok. It was without destination, meaning that we ended up seeking roads that our tires had never seen before. It was laid back and relaxing and kept us sane for a little while.

Time is just blurring by... Grab it while you can.

 

Just Taking it Easy

The weather this winter just hasn't been cooperative for riding.  Unless you really don't mind riding in the rain.  So these past few months have been difficult since the weekdays have been absolutely wonderful and the rain has been coming in just for the weekends.  Then Monday morning dawns beautiful, blue and clear again. Just in time for work...

The past couple of weeks have thrown more into the mix with the freezing temperatures and rain.  Yes, the nighttime temps averaged 18F.  And for a week the daytime temps averaged 29F.  This little mix made for some wonderfully icy roads. Ice and snow are rare here.  So it isn't reasonable to expect the region to have all of the de-icing equipment.  And with the recent economic conditions the state wasn't able to de-ice every road.  The community at large was going to have to make due with having the interstates, state highways and primary roads as the only ones to be taken care of.  Leaving secondary and tertiary roads and drivers to fend for themselves.  Just to reinforce this, the road in front of our house remained ice covered for 5 days.

I have seen a few hardy individuals that did ride through all of this.  But that was just in passing through an intersection.  I'm not sure how they fared on the rest of their journey.  My two friends that don't have cars both hitched rides to work for a couple of days or stayed home sick.  So not everyone is brave all of the time.  At least they recognized a foolish situation and decided not to push their luck.

Here are a couple pictures of the parking lot at work at the end of a 28F day.

Yes, this is ice still in the parking lot after a day of full exposure to the sun.

Once again, the rain was here Thursday.  Was beautiful on Friday.  Saturday was supposed to be partly cloudy and relatively nice with the rains coming in late Saturday night and all day Sunday.  Even if they hadn't been wrong, because today is overcast, cold and drizzly this morning, we couldn't have ridden.  The darn pickup needs some attention.  But Monday should be dawning blue once again.  Not sure if the truck will be back in one piece.  So I just might have to ride to work on Monday.  DARN the bad luck.  ;)