Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Riding

It's still winter. I'm reading the February issue of MotorCyclistmagazine and it's having the same affect on me as the movie Faster did a few weeks ago. There is a great series of articles about dream bikes and the Barber Motorsports Park in Leeds, Alabama. I would love to ride there on track day sometime but would be too intimidated. My riding abilities are strictly street. I think my best riding was in 2003 during a job I had at Camp Hale in Colorado. Camp Hale is in the mountains between Vail and Leadville. There is a twisty stretch of road (US 24) that climbs from Vail at approximately 8000 Ft to Leadville at over 10,000 Ft. It's a fairly scary road in parts with long drops to the canyon floor below. I would ride the thirty miles at least three times a week. I came to know how fast I could go in the straight aways and when to start breaking. There are two sharp, nicely banked horse shoe turns that I learned to master until I could scrape the pegs. Then I started riding State Rt 131. It had more curves per mile by far than US 24. The second weekend I rode it I was pushing like I never had. I'll never forget that ride. I can't think of any time in my life that I've been that exhilarated. I was literally laughing out loud several times. It was a moderately cool day but I was sweating and grunting from the exertion. As I came down out of the hills I pulled onto a flat stretch of ground and started to slow down and it reminded me of pulling in to the end of a roller coaster ride. I did something I've never done before, I cried. Yes, I've cried before but I've never been moved to tears from joy. It sounds corny but it was the most pure feeling I've ever had. I also met Lisa on that job at Camp Hale. 2003 will go in my history books as my best year to date.

Several years ago I was diagnosed with "clinical depression". After a particularly severe bout of depression, a few things happened that changed my life. I determined that the counselor I had was fruitier than I was and I started riding in earnest. I'm not suggesting that this is the cure for everyone but I know it worked for me. I haven't cried from joy since that time in Colorado but some of the happiest times I've had are while I've been locked away inside my helmet and myself.

NSA Evesdropping Leads To Dead Ends

In late 2001, the National Security Agency began sending the FBI large amounts of data from intercepted communications garnered from its warrantless wiretapping program. Virtually all of the leads that came from the wiretapping data resulted in dead ends or innocent Americans, the New York Times reported.

Read the rest of the article here...

That's from the Libertarian Party's website.

State Of The Union Address

As I sit here watching the President's speech, I'm reminded of my last post...

MONKEYS!!!

It's confession time again. This one is about chimps. I love chimps on t.v. My current favorite is the Jackson Hewitt ad. If you haven't seen it, Tarzan is sitting at a desk with a chimp on his lap. When the accountant asks Tarzan who did his taxes the chimp raises his hand. Classic use of an ape.

Then there's the Career Builder.com website. A virtual cornicopia of chimp ads. My favorite is Titanic.
I think this all dates back to Lancelot Link: Secret Chimp. A favorite of my youth.

The Long Trip Home

Well, Lisa just left on the 14 hour trip back to Littleton Colorado with the girls. It has been a rough weekend for all concerned. Lisa arrived Friday morning after driving all night (no Cyndi Lauper or Celine jokes please). We had a nice pleasant afternoon. My boss (who helped Lisa and I get together in the first place) gave me the afternoon off and we just relaxed in the room. If I had an inkling of the weekend to come I would have enjoyed every minute more.

It started out okay, we had to get up early to get a few supplies, collars, leashes and a blanket for the cage Lisa had brought. We had to pick them up at about 6 in the morning. The pups were terrified when we picked them up and put them in the cage. It took us about fifteen minutes of sweet talking to calm them enough to even be able to pick them up. Once I started down the dirt road they started shaking uncontrollably.



Lisa insisted on riding in the back with them and she's not one you can argue with where a dog's well being is concerned. It was freezing until we got down off the hill, then it was only cold. We had to get the dogs to the Vilonia Animal Clinic between 7:30 and 8:00 a.m. They were booked up but made an extra effort to get the pups in for the rabies vaccine. Like most people that deal with animals, they love them and we're really good with the scared dogs. On the way back from the vet's it started raining. It would continue raining for the rest of the day.

Lisa wanted to go to Hot Springs for site seeing. Her original trip was planned before the dogs so we wanted to at least do something together. We have a National Parks pass and Hot Springs National Park is right downtown. It's all the old bath houses. It's very cool, I'll right more about that later. Anyway, it's about an hour and a half from Conway. I was a little nervous about dragging the puppies that far, it was already a rough day for them. Lisa pointed out that they might as well get use to the road on a little break-in journey. They had a long trip ahead of them. They handled it like troopers, I had a tarp over the cage and they stayed surprisingly dry and relatively comfy in the back of the truck. There was a minor incident and one of them "made" in the cage. It was our fault though because they were barking and we thought it was just because they didn't like it cooped up. We got the mess cleaned up and everything was fine from then on. Once we had done the tourist thing we walked them around a park. Lisa and I were constantly amazed at their good nature and adaptability. They were getting used to being on a leash quickly.

The main source of frustration was being in a hotel and fleas. We couldn't bring them in the room but they would bark when left in the cage. Drunk guys in the hotel next door didn't help. Lisa and I got them a few toys at PetsMart and drove them around with us. They like riding. After returning to the hotel after dinner I had to take them for another ride at 9:30. That put them out and I parked in a quieter part of the parking lot. We kept our fingers crossed and the window open and it was all quiet until this morning.

All in all it wasn't so bad, the weather and hotel were the biggest obstacles. They are sweet dogs with two distinct personalities. The good news is Lisa's mom is going to take one and her aunt is keeping the other. They will be well loved.

Sisters

Sisters,
originally uploaded by briankeithglass.

Here is the source of my stress and anxiety for the last week and a half. Today was a big day. The geophysicist bought them puppy chow and flea collars today. They were pretty happy. They were full of energy and spent a good part of the morning chasing one another and wrestling. The mid-day consisted of naps and by the end of the day they were chewing on one anothers ears and back at the chasing.

Things are looking better and worse. The Humane Society finally returned my calls. They don't have a building here. It's foster families for the dogs and some families have eight dogs! They are going to work on finding a volunteer but in the meantime I think Lisa and I are going to take them to a clinic for a free spay and shots and any medical attention they need. Hopefully there will be a foster family willing to take them in but Lisa is prepared to take them to Denver to a better no-kill shelter.

The Canine Underground Railroad

Well, the dog plot thickens. After trying for two days to get the Faulkner County Humane Society to even RETURN my calls, I finally found out there's no room at the inn. Animal control can't turn them away but they would have to euthanize two other dogs to make room for these pups. I don't want that. Conway Arkansas is not a good place to be a dog. So I've brought the fullest extent of my vast resources to bear on the problem. My network discovered a shelter, the only catch being I have to live in Little Rock. My network (i.e. brother) is devious so it came up with a fake address just in case. The whole thing is turning into a surreal Hogan's Heroesque episode. If two dogs' little lives weren't hanging in the balance I would be enjoying the subterfuge. To up the suspense factor we've got some crazy-ass redneck threatening to kill the dogs if they get into his chickens. I've convinced him that I'll take care of the pup's this weekend so I think he'll hold off. I can't bring them back to the hotel, no dogs allowed of course.

As ugly as all of this sounds, I'm feeling pretty good about this. If I can't get them into the shelter in Little Rock they'll be making a trip to Denver with Lisa. She's coming down to visit this weekend. Denver is a big dog town so there should be plenty of good shelters. We will not let anything bad happen to them even if we end up with two goddamned black lab pups! They are awful sweet.

A Kinder Gentler Me

I've started about four different entries over the last week and none have stuck. I'm getting into one of my annoyed at everything moods but really haven't felt the desire to inflict my sour grapes on anyone. I hit the little "Next Blog" button and came across this annoying ninny. I would love to meet someone like that in person. They must be a real pill at parties. I wonder how people can be that negative and worked up all the time? I guess that's why I haven't been into my old political rants. It takes a lot out of you when you get worked up. I can't imagine doing it every day, she must have very high blood pressure.

I had a little thing on the death penalty going. I'm oddly inconsistent on several issues and this is one. I started out with an argument against it but by the end I had myself convinced that it wasn't so bad. The libertarian in me is in constant struggle with the conservative. The conservative in me long ago cut off the liberal's heat, thus forcing him out into the cold.

The kinder gentler me has a cause to fight for. There are two abandoned black lab puppies out in the woods where we are working. I'm taking lessons from my brother, the samaritan of the four legged world. The dog in the picture is Kirby, the newest member of the Glass household. The dogs offficially have the majority vote in the house (of course they always did). So now I have the soft touch. Lisa and I have been talking about adopting one of the pups but we're pretty busy this year and might not be able to give her our full attention. We'll see though, Lisa is a bigger softy than I am. It's kind of nice to think that these two little dogs have people worried for them as far away as Denver Colorado and Columbus Ohio.

So there you have the week in review. It was a good week, it's always better when I don't get worked up.