Bitten, bad...

I'm in so much trouble! I have a buddy needing to sell his 2007 FZ1 quick for what he owes on it and I have the go-ahead from the wife given that I would sell the ZRX in the near future. I would HAVE to do the naked mod first off as I really can't stand the stock fairing and headlight setup. I would really miss the storage area below the ZRX seat though.

This video is viewable in HD. I usually snooze through the restricter plate races, but yesterday was a good one. The replay at about 2 minutes is a really good one. WOW.

My thoughts on cats...

ROFLMAO!!

Possible Ride for Tuesday the 19th

Been looking at my maps tonight and this is what I'm thinking so far.
Sparta could be our meet-up point. It's the red star on the map above.  I'll talk to John to see if he likes this plan, but it would have him and me slabbing it to Sparta, which is just southeast of Springfield. You two heading north would have your pick of plenty of good roads and I could give you some suggestions if you want.
From Sparta, I really enjoy taking HWY14 southeast (mostly east) through Ava, MO and then over as far as HWY95 South or even HWY181 South. Look for Gentryville on hwy14 on the map above and that's where hwy95 heads south.
I think hwy181 is where the really pretty water mill is located. Look for Dora on the map above and it's south of there. I've been there a couple of times, once with Chuck, and it's a nice cool stop. You all may have seen pics. I'll attach one.
That will dump us out on MO hwy160 near Gainesville. From there, we either take hwy5 south or hwyJ (aka 201) south to Mountain Home.
Then from Mountain Home, we take either HWY 341 (AKA Push Mountain Road) or HWY5 south to Mountain View. If you'll remember back in the summer when we all met in MtView, you two guys met me at the top of Push Mt Road. From there, I was almost out of gas and so we took hwy5 south thinking I may be able to fill up along the way. But instead we wound up coasting into the Angler down in Mountain View. Just trying to jog your memory.

Doug in his glory

I was quietly enjoying my morning coffee and cigarette in Mountain View Arkansas when....what should appear but Douglas in all his glory.

Ride Naked !!

Douglas takes a swim in the White River on one of our many jaunts to Arkansas. Undeterred by common decency he stripped down and bailed off into uncharted waters.

The New Face of Yellow Freight

How I get business as an freelance ethnographer is by searching for companies that do ethnographic research either primarily or as a part of their usability studies. I seek out companies that may need my assistance on large projects. Basically, this is the "sales" part of the job: I have to sell myself. I'm actually pretty decent at this. It's comfortable for me. So anyway, today I get a phone call from Jane at Design Science, a company I contacted last week. And we had quite a productive conversation. She liked my resume and felt I had a lot of relevant experience. She also liked that I've done lots of recruiting for projects. So that was great. A step in the right direction.

After the phone call, I got dressed, went and took a urine drug screen, and reported to my first day of work at my new temporary work assignment. I'm at YRC, Yellow Roadway Corporation. Yellow bought Roadway about five years back, and now YRC needs some help as they switch everything over to the new name. That's where I come in. No heavy lifting this time - just data entry. Due to the standard non-disclosure agreements, that's probably about all I should say. I'll add just one more thing: as a son of a life-long truck driver (most years as an owner operator) I find this assignment quite interesting.

Some of you may already know that I take temp jobs from time to time to help make ends meet when there aren't any ethnographic jobs rolling in. That's just a part of not having built up a sustainable clientelle yet. I've palletized freight in warehouses and I've worked in mail rooms, and that's just in the past year.

Off to see the Wizard!

Headed to see my brother and his family this coming weekend and am really excited as I haven't seen them since Christmas! Some of you may know he raises cattle in Arkansas but see video below that explains more about the breed he is focusing on. The Gerald Fry mentioned in the video is my brother's "mentor" in ranching and has really provided him with an immense amount of information that would otherwise had to be gained through trial and error.



Here is a picture taken last spring of the beginning of my brother's Devon herd guarding a new-born calf. I'll take some more pictures and video this weekend and post up next week.

Saturday Nights are made for...

Saturday evening, Dick was coming over to catch up and watch movies so I thought I'd give him the full-Monty Hickl barbecue experience. First picture is of my little helper, second picture is my "secret" ingredient and third is the finished product. We had a great evening catching up, discussing politics and watching the movie "Rock-n-Rolla". Good times!

Friday Night Fun!

Went to the Nickelback concert in Tulsa Friday night with some friends from work. Concert was at the recently opened BOK Center which I had yet to attend a concert at. We had good seats right at the mezzanine rail at the beginning of the horseshoe. See video below for a little taste of the concert.

GET YOUR TAXES DONE! Honk, Honk!!

We all know this guy, right. I saw him today and thought, hey, that guy looks like Dick. And I suddenly visualized that very same image of Dick in that patriotic hat. Ooooh, I thought, I've found my next blog post.

I can't wait to make it back to ES for some more cat-head biscuits. Hell, them might be considered dog or horse-head biscuits. All the old familiar haunts: The Angler over in MtView, La Familia mexican restaurant there in ES, the Ozone Burger Barn, and we can't forget about Oark. Those are some good memories.  In the picture below, notice Special Ed, Chad, and Joe B himself representin' the Hoolie Crew.

Staring Down the Barrel...

Staring down the single barrel of the Mikuni Carb on my Yamaha that is. The only carb I've ever done any real work on is my 2-stroke Lawnboy. So, I figured the SR500 single carb would be a good place to start and get the basics down.

I started the job tonight at around 11pm or so. It seems I pert near had to disassemble the whole damn bike to get the airbox back far enough to get the carb out, but it was some entertainment. What I'd really like to do is leave the airbox off, replace it with a pod, and even remove the battery - clean up that entire space so you can see right through there. It runs a magneto, so you don't need a battery at all - just replace it with a capacitor. May not do all that RIGHT now though.

Where's Waldo in this pic? I know the garage may look a bit cluttered, but it actually straightens up quite nicely. Once I'm done working on whatever I'm doing, I can set the Yamaha off to the side and get at everything I need, including the Rex.
Funny thing about this bike is it looks better the more you take stuff off of it. I think it's a dead sexy bike.

Happier'n Pigs in Shit

These two characters look pretty darn happy.  The adjacent photos in the file folder reveal a group of us sitting out under the awning of the hotel....listening to Chuck yappity yap yap.  Just giving you crap, Chuck.  You know we all like your stories.  Apologies to Joe for dredging up a "husky" photo.  Just a good pic.

Burnouts are Contagious

This one has probably been looked over as well.  But likely not forgotten.  This one is from the Fall 2006 Rally.  It was a group of kids at the Swiss Holiday who were heavy handed with the Jagermeister.  I guess the ZRX burnouts were getting their goat.  They decided to put a show on for us with their big, fancy pickup truck.  They get it smokin' pretty good near the end of the clip.  Again, no sound, but still good video.  (Just imagine clutch and tranny noises.)

Flame Thrower Carny Guy

Is anyone here old enough - and were you sober enough - to remember this kook?  The random dude who showed up at the Spring 2006 Rally.  The video has no sound, but the video tells enough of the story.

First Time Ride Leader

My first time as ride leader wasn't that long ago.  We were up in Missouri making our way to some better roads and finding ourselves behind a lot of traffic in the process.  Finally a long straight opened up and I made the choice to pass the multiple vehicles in front of me.  All I remember was the FJ1 Cruiser bearing down on me.  It didn't feel like a close pass to me, but others disagreed and it WAS questionable at best.

When we stopped just up the road for a jack-knifed trailer stretched across the roadway, I pulled my helmet off and apologized to the group.  

Chuck responded reassuringly, "Oh, no, you're doing a great job of making an ass of yourself."

Reeds Spring in Missouri

I also really liked this route north up through Reeds Spring.  Take 248 from east to west.  It would make for a nice route up north into Missouri.  I took this route on my way home from the last rally, back in October.  (Click on the pic and you get a much bigger view.)  

"I was a god...."

We could use the blog to discuss possible ride routes.  We all remember hwy9 in Arkansas.  That was a day we'll not soon forget.  After passing nothing but 20mph and 25mph signs for the duration of hwy9, arriving down at the Angler restaurant near Mountain View only made me want to turn around do it all over again.  I was heard to exclaim, "25, 25, 25!  Give me a HUNDRED!!!  I was a god!!!"

FIRST POST. This is my idea for us to have our own "space".

Hey guys.  My friend Dave has set up a few blogs and it's kind of neat to see what he has done.  I had the idea to set up a blog for the five of us to keep track of what's going on in each others' lives.  Kind of like Facebook or some of the other social networking sites.  All five of us would have access and could just post the stuff we're up to, i.e. Jody and his carbs and forks, Chuck and his little dirt bikes, Joe B and his house, Deek's kid pics, and my pocket bike crashes.

Thoughts and suggestions are welcome.