Sturgis Bike Week 7-31-08

Just a reminder to the viewers of this blog here in the States, Canada , Europe, Africa, Russia & the Middle East and all others, Sturgis Bike Week starts this week. In my searching out of interesting sites, I came across the live street cams at Sturgis. I just took a look and you'll be happy to know, the streets are filling up with motorcycles.

Go the left side of the page, scroll down till you see FAVORITE LINKS. Then, scroll down till ya see "Sturgis Live Street Cams". Click on the link and it will take you to about 6 different cams.

So, if your stuck at home this year & can't make the run, just watch the action on the street cams. Enjoy the site!!!...................Until next post, ride or event, ya'll ride safe and keep the rubber on the road......................JOHN

Update on Sheila at Surles Loan 7-30-08

Today, Wednesday, 7-30-08, I took my leather vest down to Sheila at Surles Loan 4132 Burkburnett Rd, Wichita Falls Texas (right outside the main gate of Sheppard Air Force Base), to get another patch sewn on. While there, Sheila told me she has a website now & that she is also making and specializing in thin military ribbons. (http://www.thinmilitaryribbons.com/cgi-bin/tmr.cgi).
Those of us who had more than a couple of, what we called "hero ribbons" and were forced to wear by regulations, know what a pain in the butt those things could be at times lining up in the correct order, spaced right etc. You guys in the military now, experience the same thing..Well, Shelia now makes the pain in the buttness with putting them on and lining them up, a thing of the past. Here are a few pics I previously posted of Sheila at Surles and these will have to do until I go down there again with my camera. Scroll down for a refresher of where Surles Loan is & of Sheila hard at work. REMEMBER: IF YOU WANT TO SEE THE PICTURE BIGGER, CLICK ON THE PICTURE..




This is Shelia hard at work. She does quality work at very reasonable rates. So reasonable, that I use her exclusively for my vest work. She also does a tremendous amount of sewing on of patches, stripes & other military things for all branches of the military.

This is Sheila & Capt. "Pattie". Pattie is a good friend and we ride with her & her husband Jim quite a bit. She is stationed out at Sheppard AFB and I think Sheila sews items on Patties uniforms too..

Since there are all branches of the military out at Sheppard AFB, Sheila sews on items for all of them, including the USMC!!

Here is a board containing some of the patches Sheila has been given by the troops she has does business with..

Surles loan is located just North of the main gate of SAFB, on the West side of the street. The phone number is: 940-855-3241. Sheila can be reached at 940-636-9565 for info on the Thin Military Ribbons. Give her a call and order up yours today. And don't forget to check out her website:

http://www.thinmilitaryribbons.com/cgi-bin/tmr.cgi

That will conclude this post. Be sure to scroll down for more rides, events & posts. Don't forget to click on the "older posts" link at the bottom of EACH page for more of the same, back to Jan. 08................Till next post, ride safe & keep the rubber on the road......................John aka "Snapshot

Blue Knights Tx XX Meeting 7-29-08

On Tuesday, 7-29-08, the Blue Knights Tx XX had its 2nd meeting of the month. This meeting was for those who could not make the Saturday meeting. Scroll down and check out this brief post and REMEMBER: IF YOU WANT TO SEE THE PICTURE BIGGER, JUST CLICK ON THE PICTURE.

Greg's Harley, my Vulcan & David's Goldwing parked out in front of the WFPOA Building.

Inside are: Doug, Greg & David...

Me & Greg..Gregg is the Chapter Secretary/Treasurer & I am currently the chapters President

Doug, Clint, Greg & David enjoying the air conditioning..

After the meeting, David mounts up & prepares to depart...

Doug watches as Clint sits on Greg's Harley. Greg stands back and waits to see what happens. That is Clint's Police car in the background..It was raining in various parts of the city so he came by car

Doug & Greg watch Clint as Clint sits on Greg's Harley. Clint drives a yellow Suzuki Crotch Rocket & is thinking about stepping up to a cruiser

It was raining at Doug's, so he also came by car...

This will conclude this short post. Although attendance was low for both meetings, we got a lot accomplished...Scroll down for more rides/events & posts & don't forget to click on the "older posts" link at the bottom of EACH page, for more 0f the same back to Jan 08. Til next post, Ya'll RIDE SAFE...............JOHN

Reaching Out for Nothing

Tonight I went for another run. It wasn't anything spectacular. It was probably only about 4 or 4 1/2 miles long. But here's the catch, according to the weather report, even though I went out late, after 7:30 pm, it was still above 90 degrees out with a brain-frying humidity level of 90 percent. So it was hot and it was nasty and damp and the air was thin.

I hit 3 solid hills, with the first one being exactly 1 mile away from the house, so that I hit it at just the perfect time, as I'm beginning to loosen up and sweat well. It's steep as hell, but not the steepest or the longest of the 3.

Another half mile or so away is the second hill. It's not the steepest either, but it is the longest, seeming to go on and on.

After that I run probably 2 1/2 miles around and come in from behind, where a road climbs the hill in the steepest and most rapid ascent by far. It's a heart attack paved with asphalt and concrete, but my heart is healthy so it's all good. At the top I start to think about my pace. It's lousy. I've been running entirely for the hills, not really caring how fast I'm going throughout the run itself. So I've been slow. I'm done with the hills now, so I pick up the pace. I try to do something respectable for a change, something that might be worthwhile in a race. My energy is shot so I focus on my form. If my form is good and I'm moving along at a good clip then that's the best I can do. Normally I work my way down all the hills and then throw in some intervals all the way home, bursting into sprints between telephone poles followed by slogging along as I rest in between. This time I just decided to try to hold a good pace to the end, which I did.

Throughout the entire run there wasn't a soul in sight. Cars passed me, blinding me with their headlights, but other than that I was the only person out, which is how it is on most nights, especially in July and August when the heat is unbearable and the humidity is just plain gross.

By the time I got home I was soaked from head to foot. My shirt was glued to my gut, which only helped to remind me of why I need to run so much in the first place. I went inside the house and did some ab exercises. Then I jumped into the shower.

After my shower I called My Wife. It was around 9 pm and hadn't gotten to talk to a friendly person all day. It is difficult being here, living away from home. I am constantly lonely, and I had hoped that My Wife and I might have a reasonably happy conversation and perhaps cheer me up a bit.

My Wife has blamed me for years for being "responsible for bringing us to Memphis" due to my job there. She insisted that it was I who brought us there and it must be I who gets us out. Several times I had opportunities in nice cities like Nashville, Austin, Dallas, and Denver. Always there was some reason she had for us not moving to any of these cities. She insisted that we must stay close to family, whom she never talks to, and limited our choices to a few cities. One of those cities was Rocketown, Alabama, which is my hometown and the city where we met.

2 months ago I was offered a job in Rocketown, complete with a moving package included. It was a heck of a deal considering that we wanted to move to Rocketown anyway, and moving is extremely expensive. I accepted the offer.

Accepting this offer means selling the beautiful house we just bought and moved into last year. My Wife knows this, of course. She's not stupid. Oddly, last week she informed me that she was taking off from work this week to paint the rest of the house in colors that she likes.

"But we're selling the house," I remarked. "And that is a lot of work. Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Yes, I hate these colors in here," she insisted. "I want to make it my house."

So she has been painting. Last weekend I drove all the way home to Memphis and spent my weekend helping her.

Tonight I called her on the phone to talk. "Hi, how's the painting going?" I asked.

She told me about how she thought the hallways might only need the one coat that she had put on. She then made it a point to tell me that it had taken her 5 hours to do it. Then she complained that she thought the woman at Home Depot may have given her the wrong color red for the kitchen.

"Was she an idiot? What did she do that you think she gave you the wrong color?"

"No, she's not an idiot!" My Wife yelled. "She was doing the best she could considering she was helping 12 people!"

Okaaaay.

We talked a bit more, but it continued along these lines. Nothing I said was ever right. She always found a reason to yell at me. I gradually talked less and less. It was quickly becoming apparent during this conversation that no matter how hard I tried to keep it nice and friendly, My wife didn't want to. And she wasn't going to let me be on her side, either.

"OK, so you've decided to paint the kitchen red then, I take it?"

This apparently set her off. She began going on and on about how clearly she's the only one who cares about this house and the colors and paying off the house early and on and on and on.

"I wanted a vacation this year," she screamed, "but now I'm having to stay here and paint! It's all your fault!"

I never asked anyone to paint anything. I was happy with the colors exactly as they were and I had said so repeatedly. But as usual she paid no attention to anything I said and did as she pleased. I hadn't even been told that she was taking this week off to paint until she casually mentioned it last week. But somehow it is all my fault, as is everything she decides to do.

She became increasingly hysterical as the 'conversation' went on, demanding that I sign some papers to let her get her tubes tied and how it isn't fair that I make so much more money than her and she wants to get off birth control because it makes her fat and it's not fair that I'm running while she chooses not to and on and on until she began to cry, at which point, and I could see this coming, she hung up on me.

I didn't bother calling back. There was no point. That was the conversation that she wanted. She chose to make it that way. I wasn't even really a part of it. I was just there as a sort of punching bag. And that is exactly how I feel most of the time lately.

This is my life. I work all day, sitting in an office by myself at 3 computers. Most days I don't see or speak to a single soul. Then I go 'home'. I can't afford to pay the mortgage on the house, all my bills, gas for my truck to drive back and forth between Rocketown and Memphis every weekend, plus rent and utilities for an apartment, too. So I'm staying at my parents' house with My Mother, who wants me there very badly.

Returning to this house, the house where I grew up, is painful. I was never happy here and I'm afraid a great deal of that unhappiness remains within these cracked and ragged walls. Getting off work and driving to this house, I can feel the weight pressing down on me as I draw closer and closer. When I come inside, it is always dark. The stairs creak and so does the floor in the hallway. My Mother is always sitting in her room watching TV. I say "I'm home" and she says "OK." Then I go into the bedroom where I am staying and I shut the door. This may have once been the home where I lived, but it is not any home to me now. It feels strange and I do not belong here. But I have little choice, and as my sisters tell me, Mom really needs someone here.

Meanwhile, the calls to my home in Memphis, to My Wife, are a random hit-or-miss situation. Some nights she's nice. Some nights she's hysterical and everything she has decided to do with her life is all my fault. I end up sitting on a crummy green couch with the phone in my hand saying nothing as she rants and raves. I feel as if she's pounding me into the floor with her fists with the jealous, hateful, spiteful words she's so fond of directing my way. It's never good enough. It's never soon enough. There's always some excuse for why she isn't going to keep her word to me on anything that really matters to me. But it's my fault somehow, at least in her mind.

I want to go to Australia. But there is no one waiting for me there. I will be entirely alone, although the beaches are said to be nice and the women very beautiful. I guess I could be the 'creepy American' who is always sitting on the beach watching everyone else. I know a few people there thanks to this blog, but they all have their own lives and I'm sure they won't have all that much time for me. Then again, that really wouldn't be all that much different than here.


And now for some international fun with drama and tears ...



Now back to your regularly schedule funny:


Married Life

Three women: one engaged, one married, and one a mistress, chatting about their relationships and decide to amaze their men....that night all three will wear a leather bodice S&M style, stilettos and mask over their eyes .

After a few days they meet again.....

The engaged girlfriend said: 'The other night, when my boyfriend came back home, he found me in the leather bodice, 4' stilettos and mask. He said, 'You are the woman of my life, I love you, then we made love all night long.'

The mistress stated: 'Oh Yes! The other night we met in the office. I was wearing the leather bodice, mega stilettos, mask over my eyes and a raincoat. When I opened the raincoat, he didn't say a word. We just had wild sex all night.'

The married one then said: 'The other night I sent the kids to stay at my mothers for the night, I got myself ready, leather bodice, super stilettos and mask over my eyes. My husband came in from work, grabbed the TV controller and a beer, and said, 'Hey Batman, what's for dinner ?'


And now, as a double bonus for tolerating my whining, here is something ... um .... what the fuck ???

Monday Ride to Medicine Park Oklahoma 7-28-08

On Moday, 7-29-08, we took a ride up to Medicine Park Oklahoma, to Chaps My Ass. We went primarily because Steve & Lacy and Clint had never been there. We also went to Mt. Scott & Meers for lunch. Scroll down and check out the ride and REMEMBER: IF YOU WANT TO SEE IT BIGGER, JUST CLICK ON THE PICTURE..

I want to start this post off by showing this patch. When we went to leave Meers after eating lunch, a soldier in uniform walked up to me. He had apparently seen the PGR sticker I have on my windshield. He asked if I was a Patriot Guard Rider (http://www.patriotguard.org/). When I told him that I was, he took his unit patch off of the right breast of his uniform & handed it to me. He said he wanted me to have it and that they appreciated what we did. So, needless to say I was moved and rendered speechless. I thanked him for the sacrifices he & the others make for our freedom and then we left. I would like everyone that reads my blog to remember to keep the men & women in uniform, in their prayers daily, for their safety & safe return home from where ever they are sent. Like it or not, we would not have the freedom that we have, if it weren't for these soldiers and others before them. A fact a lot of American's seem to forget lately..

We met at the Braums in Burkburnett Texas at 0815 hrs with ksu at 0830 hrs. Pictured are Lacy, Steve & Clint. Christina had a Dr. appointment and caught up with us at the Medicine Park exit off of I-44, just North of Lawton/Ft. Sill Oklahoma

Rolling down I-44 I get a picture of Steve & Lacy and Clint

We stopped on 281/277 in Geronimo Oklahoma to take a couple of pictures. Here are Clint, Lacy & Steve

Steve, me & Clint at the Welcome to Geronimo Okla. sign

Lacy, Steve & Clint at the Welcome to Geronimo Okla Sign

We meet up with Christina at the Burger King on Ok 49, just West of I-44. Left to right: Clint, Christina (by her Harley V-Rod), Steve & Lacy by their red Valkyrie and Clints Suzuki Sport Bike..

Clint, Lacy & Steve inside the Burger King

Clint, Lacy & Steve at the Burger King...

We start up Mt. Scott, after leaving the Burger King.. Behind me are: Christina, Clint, and Steve & Lacy bringing up the rear..

Steve & Lacy, Clint & Christina on Lookout point on top of Mt. Scott

Steve & Lacy, Clint and Christina at Mt. Scott

Christina, Lacy & Steve at Lookout Point..

Steve & Lacy on the summit of Mt. Scott Oklahoma

Christina at Lookout Point

Christina, Steve & Clint at Lookout Point

Christina, Steve & Clint

Christina, Steve, Lacy on Clint's bike & Clint

Clint and the red sportbike rider, walk to check out Clint's bike. If I heard correctly, the guy was in the Army and had just come back from Iraq.

Clint, Steve & Christina. Lacy is trying out Clint's bike

Lacy climbing around on the rocks

Lacy on the rocks at Mt. Scott, Oklahoma

Lacy on the summit

A view of Lake Lawtonka from Mt. Scott

Lacy & Steve on Lookout Point.

Me, Christina, Steve & Clint at Lookout Point

Steve, Clint, the Vet & Christina on Lookout Point, enjoying the nice breeze.

A view to the West from the top of Mt. Scott

The bikes & Steve, Clint & Lacy on Lookout Point..Christina had gone climbing down on the rocks.

We left Mt. Scott & went to Meers to eat. When we got their, this Harley & Victory were there.

All the bikes parked in front of Meers

Christina inside Meers

Lacy fixes her hair and Steve gets ready to take a picture as we get ready to leave

It was 106 degrees on the way home & Lacy was feeling every degree. We had to stop over and wet her down with cold water & cold bandana's. There was no shade to be found where we we at..But she made it home and I talked to Steve and after Lacy got to cooling off in the air conditioning, she felt better..Had me worried though..

This will conclude this post. Other than being too hot on the way home, this was a good ride & I had fun & got to know everyone a little better. Scroll down for more rides/events & posts and don't forget to click on the "older posts" link on the bottom of EACH page for even more, back to Jan 08. Until next ride, event or post, ya'll be careful out there & ride safe.........................JOHN

Monday Run To Medicine Park, Oklahoma 7-28-09 Part I Steve & Lacy's Picture

On Monday, 7-28-08, we made another run up to Medicine Park to Chaps My Ass, as Clint & Steve & Lacy had never been there. We also went up to Mt. Scott and to Meers for lunch. Scroll down and check out Part I of this ride. These pictures were taken by Steve & Lacy and they have given me permission to use them on this blog & this post. REMEMBER: IF YOU WANT TO SEE THE PICTURES BIGGER, JUST CLICK ON THE PICTURE...

We met at Braums in Burkburnett Texas, just off of I-44. Pictured left to right are: me, Steve & Clint. It was nice when we left, in the low 80's, but miserably hot, 106 degrees, when we came back.

This is me rolling North on 281/277 in Oklahoma.

Here is Clint Northbound on US 281/277 in Oklahoma

Here is the sign welcoming all to Geronimo, Oklahoma. Pictured are: Lacy, Steve & Clint.

The Geronimo Oklahoma sign with Steve, me & Clint..

Steve took this picture of his bike at rest..

Here is Christina. She had a Dr. appointment earlier & met us up on OK 49 off of I-44 near the Medicine Park exit. She is in her Harley V-Rod.

This is me rolling down the road

This is Clint, rolling on down the road.

Another of me

Another of Clint

Here is Christina rolling down Ok 49

Me & Christina Westbound..

Christina & me about to enter the Wichita Mountains Recreation Area & Wildlife Refuge

This is one of the cutoffs for Medicine Park, where Chaps My Ass is located.

Closing in on Mt. Scott. This is Clint, Christina & me out front.

This will conclude Part I. Scroll down and check out Part II of Steve & Lacy's pictures of the Monday Run To Medicine Park Oklahoma.....Until next post, ya'll be careful out there & ride safe...............JOHN