Viene la Tormenta!

An unseasonable storm's a-coming, forecast to dump a couple of inches of rain in the area in just one day. Winds up to 60mph gusts. All this is traced back to the typhoon that hit Japan hard less than a week ago. The worst of this storm will occur around 2:00pm PDT on Tuesday, 10/13/2009 and expected to leave quickly, tapering off by Wednesday afternoon or evening.

Hoping to get through this unscathed.

Nirvana

It felt good strapping on my motorcycle boots this morning, followed by the ritual of donning my riding pants, jackets and gloves. I had to carefully pull the glove over my recovering hand. Straddled my bike, backed it out of the garage and fired it up... pulling in the clutch lever was an effort, but I managed to endure the discomfort from the stiffness that remains from those 6 to 7 weeks of immobility.

Today was just a trial run, staying close to home to see where my pain threshold lies. Besides, this nasty wind is the shits. Once I got past the pain (ignoring it best I can), it was sheer nirvana. There is a oneness between my motorcycle and me that provides all the therapy that I could ask for. I can't wait to get some time out on the open road!

I ride 12 months out of the year and will have to dismiss February 2009 as the lost month. Up until the mishap I was on a pretty good roll racking up the miles on my R1200GS, purchased in early November last fall. I covered over 3,600 miles in the three months that followed.

The windchimes are sounding a busy ruckus, but I can still hear the whispers cajoling me for another spin in these extended daylit hours. I'll bite.

Hump Day

All quiet on the homefront, so I figure I'd post something, say anything. Here goes.

After many days of triple digit temps, we've had a cooldown. This week has been and will be around 80 degrees tops. It's quite a welcome respite, save for one niggling annoyance: the wind. I've ragged about the wind in past posts which, along with fog, are my least favorite weather conditions. The crap that the wind stirs up have been a nuisance for allergy sufferers. There's also stuff that get blown over, our region having gone through just that only a few months ago. Trees. Power lines. Fences.

It is Wednesday, mid-week and often referred to as hump day. It's a mystery to me how calendars came about where weeks begin on a Sunday and end on a Saturday. If God rested on Sunday, wouldn't the week begin with a Monday and Thursday will be smack dab in the middle and become the hump day? Or we can credit the bankers for giving us the 9-to-5 M-F schedule that sandwiches Wednesday between two pairs of other work days.

Memorial Day weekend is around the corner and there are sales advertised everywhere I look. Kinda nice that I just received my stimulus check from Uncle Sam, except that it's all been spent (e.g. the insurance deductible and then some, for my motorcycle engine damage). I guess that's the latest excuse. Going back chronologically I could say that it had already been spent on the central heat and a/c replacement. Or last summer's vacation. Or a myriad of purchases hi-tech or home & garden related. Ad infinitum, but a buck's a buck.

Have a safe upcoming holiday weekend!

And Then The Wind

All this wind just blows!

Today's storm has brought down power lines and many trees, and tossed about property that wasn't securely tied down. Watching this evening's news revealed more traffic collisions had occured than is imaginable. Some of the fallen trees have destroyed parked cars and crashed into homes. My truck was okay while it sat at the light rail station, although the trains weren't running resulting from this abhorrent weather (a coworker's husband drove me from work back to the parking lot). The trees surrounding my house were still rooted, although my yard was littered with some branches, none so big as to cause noticeable damage, if any. The rainwater level rose on my back patio due to the poor drainage, so water leaked into the mudroom. Damn. Good thing I have a wet/dry vacuum cleaner. I was most worried about my 10'x10' canvas topped metal gazebo; the winds were more violent than I have ever experienced. Whew, it was still standing and appeared unscathed.

However, half my backyard redwood fence had blown over (onto my side), knocking over a metal citronella torch and nearly disrupting some stones I set up around a little pond I've been working on for over the past year. Hah, did I not previously hint that when it rains, it pours?

C'est la vie!