gaysknits

today is just the day for doing things...

like having a bike ride.  well i guess i should say sunday was the day for doing things like having bike rides.  when i say bike ride i always picture myself pedaling a bicycle and getting actual exercise which is laughable if you know me. i rode a bicycle once.  it was years back and although i am capable my butt hurt. it hurt really bad.  it hurt so bad in fact that i can still remember the pain and i don't wanna have that pain or that memory any more.  i have always been more amenable to walking those biking trails and getting a good workout for myself, my dogs and my camera.  bicycling is for other people's butts...not mine. motorcycling is a whole other deal. always has been for me. always will be.  since i was a girl in kindergarten i have been sneaking rides on the backs of peoples motorcycles and i guess it's in my blood.

some days my back feels other wise though and i wasn't sure how it would feel about a long ride but a we didn't really have a long ride and it felt ok. saturday we worked sunday we played. we ended up meeting up with the daughter and her kids and aunt l and cousins d and d and we all motored by bike or by trailblazer to the new hofbrauhaus in south side works  and enjoyed some german food which is my all time fav. we sat ourselves in the quiet end of the joint which was by no means quiet but was by no means as loud and rowdy as the rowdy side was which has music and barmaids dressed up in ridiculous outfits and standing on the tables. wow and wow.  the schnitzell was dyn o mite and so was the german potato salad...love german potato salad and the beer was quite good too.

it was almot 90 degrees on sunday and the bike ride was nice. the daughter took a ride with us to the meadows to check out the new gambling spot which i vow never to check out ever again and the youngladygrandaughter took over the back seat of cousin d's bike for the ride to the restaurant while the daughter took to the trailblazer with the little guy and aunt l.  sounds complicated but it was not really!  the daughter is getting her own ride ready for the season after last years unfortunate accident and plans to ride herself again this summer at some point.  she is recovered and healed up nicely but the bike needs a few things here and there to be road ready.  i told you the family that rides together...it's in the cards...it's in the blood!  later...love   g

no i'm not getting a pixie...

i've been there and done that.  i was looking through an old box of crap i have and came upon a pic of my mom and i in south beach and my hair was soooo short and so cute but sooo short.  when i cut my hair for the first time in five years in february i intended to go really short.  if you want to know the best way to get a hairdresser to not cut your hair too short it is to go in there with butt length hair and say cut it off...cut it all off...give me a pixie.  what? they will say... are you sure? have you thought about this?  inevitably they will get to...what is your husband gonna say or does your husband know about this? they do not bother to ask if you even have a husband. then they will proceed to cut your hair the way they think your husaband imiginary or otherwise would want it as long as it is not short. they do this because they don't want to hear you cry or throw a hissy fit or try to stab them with their own scissors.  my evolving haircut has finally reached the shortness that i was looking for in the first place and here it is the end of summer and now i feel a chill coming on and am wanting it to cover my ears again.  the days for a pixie are over. as are the dog days of summer.  if they are not over they are fast approaching.  we took advantage of those days on sunday.  we had 82 degrees of sunny gorgeous day and five family members went for a motorcycle ride together.  the guy and i on his motorcycle, his brother in law and neice on theirs and his nephew and a frequent riding partner for years was riding on the daughters bike.  she is not able and he was visiting from out of town without his bike.  we missed her. i swear we did. all day i could see was her face and how sad it was when we talked of this ride.  i am still haunted by the vision in my head of her lying on the pavement in a neck brace and it sends chills up my spine but i also know that this is a significant  family activity and her desire to participate is great and her absence was noted.  i hope she heals and gets well and then we will talk about her willingness to ride or her ability to ride but for now i will leave you with the thought that tradition is important. family is important and it is important to continue to connect with your family in whatever way possible and in whatever form that connection takes.  some people have connections that look very different from yours. ways of connecting that may seem odd to you or just wrong. that is ok.  different is not necessarily wrong.  on sunday i also discovered the joys of an ipod.  i know  i know i am more than likely the last person on earth to have an i pod but i am catching up with the rest of you...i swear i am. maybe wanting a copy of cornflake girl or pass the dutchie on the left hand side is reason enough for me to get an ipod.  maybe i want to tune out some noise but at any rate i'm joining the club.

    

in the meantime...i leave you with a few pics.  next time i'll arrange the pics better and crop them maybe but i'm tired and this is another first for me.  later...love   g

i don't ride myself...

not in the true sense of the word. i ride on the back. were talking motorcycles here. ever since i was a smalll child i have always loved riding on the back...we're talking at about 5 years old here.  ever since then.

 yesterday i bumped  into my older cousin at a motorcycle rally and my own past memories flooded my conciousness and i was 12 or 13 again and he was riding around town with his two buddies and me on the back of his first motorcycle.  he's been asking me ever since then if i'm riding yet and why not. i don't know why not. i  thought about it of course many times but the older i got the less likely it seemed to be in the cards for me.

they don't make a bike small enough for me.  that's my story and i'm sticking to it besides the guy has never encouraged this activity and in fact has frowned on it because he likes the fact they we ride together and talk while riding and so do i.

yesterday we rode. we rode in a pack. the guy and i rarely do this mostly because we are too busy doing our own thing but riding in a rally is usually for a good  cause...some charity or another and it can be fun to spend time with like minded souls on a beautiful sunny day.  it makes me nervous. it always has. riding with a pack that is.

i've already talked about going from wearing flip flops & a bathing suit to jeans, boots  & leather jacket and every combination in between but even though the helmet and i will forever have an antagonistic relationship it will now be a permanent fixture on my head.  i wasn't riding with one yesterday. until the ride home. back to riding with a pack.  it makes me nervous.

 bikes and noise to the left and to the right and in front and behind kicks my claustrophobia into high gear.  old men in sedans who insist against the direction and hand signals of the traffic cops on driving into the middle of a line of bikes makes me really nervous.  the daughter and cousin dan have found themselves and few friends that they meet up with and ride with at these rallies. good friends. friends who watch their backs.

motorcycling is a risky business.  many...myself included feel the joys and benefits outweigh the risks and we take care as best we can.  no one takes more care than the daughter who rides with helmet and armoured jacket and heavy boots...always. still...things happen.  at the end of the day it is the friends who watch your back and the community of like minded souls who help out when asked that make all the difference.

a broken wrist and cracked ribs will heal. a bike can be repaired. a torn jacket can be replaced. but you can't put a price on good people who watch your back.  riding in a pack still makes me nervous but maybe it's just me. there's a lot to be said for having folks nearby to help out when you need a hand.  i guess this is a tribute to community and cooperation and lets not forget about cell phones and emergency personal who take that extra step which always makes an otherwise difficult ordeal easier to ride through.

so thanks to dan for an even head and craig for finding us when we were off somewhere and riding with us the entire day and dave and lucy for the escort home and all the folks who saw to it that the bike was in good hands and the lady in the van who drove up behind us got out of her vehicle and ran over to us at a stop sign to make sure we turned back and even though he gave us the wrong directions the helicopter pilot for having the foresight to give us the phone number to the er so that the security guy at the er could give us the turn by turn directions right into the parking lot when we were lost and wet and tired and stressed and all those who pulled over or got off their bikes to lend a hand and of course aunt woz on the homefront with the kids.

we are forever grateful. a broken wrist and cracked ribs will heal. a bike can be repaired. a torn jacket can be replaced. you guys can not.  lets keep our fingers crossed for the daughter today that her hosp stay goes well.  we and the kids will be picking cherries. more biker  pics here.  later...love   g

now that i've got my knitting groove back on...

the weather is too nice and i'm too busy being out side enjoying it.

 

sunday the guy and i took our first yamaha ride of the season.  it was a beautiful day and a beautiful ride even if it was a very lofty goal set by the guy and participated in by myself.  i mean it's been at least a year since i sat on the back of the bike a rode for anything more than a trip to the bank or the store and a three and a half hour trip each way turned out to be a lot more than by butt could handle my first time out.  i am tired like i ran for at least a half of that three and a half hours.

   

a trip that long is not usually daunting to us...we do it all the time but we haven't in a while so i'll have to make a note to myself..take it easy the first time out.  we met a bunch a nice  like minded souls enjoying the day along the way and chatted with a few at our destination which was bilgers rocks and if you've never been get on or in your  vehicle and make a day trip out of it. 

just find grampian, pa on the map and go there but don't blink or you'll miss it and don't do what i did which was to dine on chocolate cupcakes covered with pink marshmellow and coconut for lunch...i can't help myself when i'm in a convience store those junky snack cakes call out to me and i'm lucky i don't eat three or four packages of them at a time...i could but i don't!  it was a bit chilly in them parts so i was happy to have worn my leather jacket and  a hoody and lucky that jacket still had my winter gloves in the pocket.  the only sun i got was on my face and this new haircut has it's advantages and it disadvantages when being a biker chick.

advantages are when it flies around aimlessly in the wind you get way less tangles and you will actually be able to comb it again in your lifetime...not so with long hair flying around aimlessly!  the disadvantages were many.  my new kevlar helmet doesn't fit so great without all that hair and it wobbles around on my head making my scalp itch like i had bugs crawling in my hair which for a moment i thought i did  but i didn't...but i did have them crawling on me.   the truth is that for most of last season i never wore a helmet or boots for that matter and decided to stop throwing caution to the wind and buy a nice light weight helmet so i would wear one and put on a pair of my millions of pairs of boots rather than flip flops which really make your feet hot as all get out on a bike with a motor but now i remember why it was that i never wore a helmet.  it's hell being responsible isn't it?  anyway bilgers rocks are a group of huge...fabulosly huge rocks that you can climb on and wander around in be awestruck by powers greater than we...and i mean that seriously

i'm not just trying to make up for yesterday's highly but hopefully not too irreverent post and i'm not looking for ceiling cat but you should seriously if you get the chance don't miss out on checking out the lolcats bible translation project...it's a howl or should i say meow  i particulary like the ten commandments or noo rules!!!  later...love   g

lately the clouds....

have been haunting.  they are big and fluffy and dark on the underside...sort of ominus looking and spooky since the sky has been blue and the sun bright. the weather this saturday was beautiful for a bike ride and a few snapshots. yesterday was the guys birthday and as soon as we got home there was a message from the yamaha dealer that a k & n filter he had ordered for his bike was in so we drove out to pick it up and to have birthday dinner...at steak and shake...his idea not mine.   i was pushing for a real nice steak dinner but it wasn't my birthday or my choice.  we looked at some new kevlar low profile helmets and a new jacket and i got a few ideas but will probably order online.  i need a new helmet and want a lighter weight one and a smaller profile one...especially since a stupid woman almost ran us down tonite but i also need a water proof jacket for warmer weather...so i'm looking.  tonite after the installation of said part and after i cleaned the gutters on one side of the garage and pulled the weeds everywhere i could find them that was annoying me we went for a ride to south park  to see a bit of property and although we never found it we had a more suitable birthday dinner at big als.   so the guy had two birthday dinners and i feel less like a cheapskate since we had a nice dinner of prime rib to balance out the chilli and burgers!  so here's a view of his birthday present...a new light bar and lights...cool and retro and a few pics of the saturday sky...coming and going!   later...love  g