Basil in the Garden

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Well, it has been a few weeks since I've posted something. Not much has been going on with motorcycles so I figured I'd post up a few pictures of our cat Basil.

He was hiding out among the shrubbery in our backyard one summer day and Troubadour snapped a few pictures of him hiding amidst the foliage.

And when he has had enough of picture taking and wants to go back to sleep he looks like this ......

Most of the leaves have fallen off our trees and shrubs so when he goes outside he wanders off into the forest behind the house where he can hide among the evergreens out of the rain. Before long it will be spring and he will once again be looking for a cool spot to snooze in the yard.

-Au Revoir

"If the pull of the outside world is strong, there is also a pull towards the human. The cat may disappear on its own errands, but sooner or later, it returns once again for a little while, to greet us with its own type of love." ~ Lloyd Alexander
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Motorcycle Blues

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It has been several months since I've ridden a motorcycle and not been on the back. I find I am missing it. I am sure that will please Troubadour to no end. I don't miss it enough to ride the Ninja, but I do miss it.

I hoped the Ninja would sell prior to Autumn setting in and that by now I would be riding something different. Alas, things don't always work out as we plan.

I am still thinking of the Suzuki TU 250 and I am looking forward to the International Motorcycle Show in Seattle next month to look at everything and sit on a few bikes too. Although I love the Bonneville SE, I just cannot justify spending that amount of money on something that will more than likely be ridden only on the weekends. Mind you if I wait long enough there might be a good used Bonneville come up for sale in the Spring. I do not want to bite off more than I can chew however.

I find myself thinking of riding when I am driving around in the car. How would I handle this corner? Do I think I coud ride up there or down there? I think of these things too while riding pillion. I study the lines that Troubadour is taking and how he reacts to different situations. I can only hope to one day ride as smoothly as he does. For now I shall ride pillion and try and soak up all the kowledge I can in hopes of putting it to use come Spring.

Last Saturday morning we met the bike night crowd for coffee. It was sunny when the Triumph came out of the garage and starting to sprinkle by the time we arrived at Coffee Culture. After visiting and solving the world's problems for a few hours we took off. Troubadour and I decided that since the weather wasn't too bad we'd go off in search of the latest photo tag, which was at Fort Hoskins. Part way there the skies opened up and it just started coming down. We arrived at Forst Hoskins and the sun came back out. If you don't like the weather in Oregon, wait 5 minutes, it will change. Troubadour took the picture and we walked around a bit since we had never actually been to the old fort. You probably recognize the picture from Troubadour's blog.

Since we were already out in the weather and didn't have any particular tasks that needed doing we decided to take the long way home and see where a gravel road went. I must say Troubadour did an excellent job manouevering over the 9 miles of gravel to the next backroad. I think there were a few surprised hunters in the area too. Strange looks ensued as we rode by. It was a really nice ride with little to no traffic, just puttering along at our own pace. All too soon we were back on the highway and heading home. Gravel roads and rain make for a dirty bike.

Note the clean spot on the surface of the pillion seat. Can anyone guess what the back of my jacket and riding pants looked like by the time we got home? The front of Troubadours pants were the same. They have since gone through the wash, both the riding gear and the bike.

Good times.

- Au Revoir

"If you don't ride in the rain, you don't ride."~ Author Unknown

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Have a Devil of a Hallowe'en

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When I was somewhat bored last Saturday I pulled out a box of old photographs just to see which ones were in there. I then proceeded to think I should take some digital pictures of them. With this day and age of technology the easiest way to share your photos is not the old fashioned way. Also, some of the photos were quite old and faded with no known negatives and I wanted to store them digitally before they were too far gone to be photographed. We do not have a scanner so that was not an option.

I found several old photos and grabbed the digital camera. Some of pictures were of Troubadour when he was little, a few were of me when I was little. I even found some of us when we were first together, but we'll leave those for another post.

When I saw this picture of Troubadour dressed up for Hallowe'en, I knew it would be perfect for a post this weekend. He doesn't remember how old he was but it's cute all the same.

Whatever happend to mom's helping their kids make homemade costumes? It seems too easy nowdays to just go to the store and buy whatever you want.

One of my most memorable Hallowe'ens had homemade costumes. My brother Tiger dressed as an outhouse. He had taken an old refrigerator box, shaped the roof, and cut a door complete with crescent moom shape and it even had a toilet paper roll hanging inside. He had used paints and markers to make the outside look like wood. The same year I was a tube of Crest toothpaste. I had an ice cream pail as a 'cap' and I remember coloring the butcher paper by hand to look like the toothpaste tube. Wonder if there are pictures of that somewhere. Ahhh the good old days of imagination and homemade costumes.

May you all have a devil of an All Hallow's Eve.

- Au Revoir

"Proof of our society's decline is that Halloween has become a broad daylight event for many" ~ Robert Kirby

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Back in Time

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We took the Ninja off consignment and brought it home for the winter a week or so ago and as Troubadour was putting the title away in our lock box, he started looking through it to see exactly what we had in there. Apparently we have all kinds of things. Titles to the other motorcycles, our marriage license from 1996, passports, mementos, etc. Well.... one thing he happened across was a picture that I had thought lost in one of our moves. I don't think I've seen it in 10 years.

But first ......a little background........

Troubadour and I met in Penticton, British Columbia the summer of 1994 when we were in our early 20's and shortly thereafter had the opportunity to be spontaneous and go on vacation to the Oregon Coast. A good way to get to know each other. His mother graciously lent us the use of her motor home and off we went. One stop we made was in Florence to wander around Old Town, and there we saw a little shop that took 'old time' photos complete with costumes. To memorialize the trip we decided to have our picture taken. Little did we know that we would be living in Oregon one day.

Here is a copy of that photo. It is sepia tone and a little faded. Troubadour took a digital picture of it.

I then decided to do a little tweaking with iPhoto and came up with the following version.

It was a nice surprise to find the picture and it felt good to laugh, reminisce, and walk down memory lane. I thought I'd share. I hope Troubadour isn't too embarrassed.

-Au Revoir

"Every man's memory is his private literature." ~ Aldous Huxley

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Turning Over a New Leaf

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No, not me.... Nissan.

Nissan has a new 100% zero emissions vehicle in the works. It is called the Nissan LEAF and should be available in late 2010.

Troubadour and I have a 2007 Nissan Versa 4 dr. hatchback, which we love. You have probably seen a picture of it when I did the blog on our canoe trip in June. We love the Versa but it would be nice to have something electric with zero emissions for commuting. Troubadour commutes 12 miles each way to work everyday, whereas I luck out with 3 miles each way.

The LEAF looks promising. Althought at first it reminded me of the Versa, Troubadour quickly pointed out the front end looks rather like a catfish. He says it like that is a bad thing.

According to Nissan's website, the LEAF is.... "100% electric. That means it burns zero gas and produces zero emissions. But, this is no golf cart. Off the line, Nissan LEAF performs like a V-6. Plus, there's room for five."

Nissan is claiming:

1) Zero emmissons tailpipe;

2) 100% electric - no gas required;

3) Competitively priced;

4) Speeds up to 90 mph;

5) 5 passenger, 5 door; and

6) Advanced airbags, premium audio, Nissan navigation and more.

Treehugger.com has a really good article on the LEAF as well, and it can be viewed through this link. Their article is reporting that Nissan is planning on selling the vehicles, but leasing the batteries. I believe this might hamper sales depending on how they approach the leasing process/terms and cost. They are claiming it can go 100 miles without a charge,that is good.

One can hope that Nissan has sat back and watched how the other manufacturers have designed their hybrids and gone one step further. If you have ever watched "Who Killed the Electric Car?", you pretty much know what happend to the first round of electric vehicles. It appears that Nissan is helping to bring electric transportation to us regular folk. Although they will not give a stated price at this time, they are claiming that it will be comparable to other family sedans. Does that mean under $20k, under $25k, or under $30k? We'll see.

- Au Revoir

"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower."~ Albert Camus

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Motorcycle Show

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Well, it is official. Troubadour and I are attending the 2009 International Motorcycle Show held at Qwest Field in Seattle, December 11th - 13th.

Last Saturday, while at coffee with the bike night crowd, Rick brought up the suggestion of a group trip to Seattle via Amtrak for the show. We jumped on board immediately. We have been wanting to attend for a few years now, but for one reason or another we never made it. This year the stars are aligned and we are going.

The show is rumored to be amazing. All those manufacturers, booths and bikes to look at, sit on, and drool over.

One of the benefits of living within 10 miles of I-5 is that Amtrak runs up and down the corridor. Rick's original suggestion was to take Amtrak from Albany to Seattle and leave early in the morning on Saturday, attend the show, and return home on a late train Saturday night.

Troubadour and I figured if we were going to spend that amount of money on train tickets and were already going to be in Seattle, we might as well splurge on a hotel room and stay overnight. We have always wanted to go to Pioneer Square and Pike's Place Market so this would give us a change to do that on Sunday before taking a late afternoon train and returning home. It isn't that often we get to go on an adventure.

Rick posted up the idea on the forum to see how much interest we could generate from the other bike night attendees and it was also mentioned at bike night on Wednesday. We are trying to get the wives to go with their hubbys. If they don't want to look at motorcycles we are luring them with shopping while the rest of us play at the show.

So far we have one other couple signed up to do the overnight. We found out the rooms at the Arctic Club Hotel are booking up quickly so went online last night and booked our room. We're locked in now. We opted for the cheaper non-refundable rate. This will assure our attendance. And....oh darn, there were only king rooms with jacuzzi tubs available. And the hotel has Starbucks coffee in-room. It will be tough but I think we can manage to stay there.

The hard part is going to be waiting until December 12th to go. Only 2 more months. We can do it. We will have bike night, Saturday morning coffee and sporadic group rides to tide us over as the weather allows.

-Au Revoir

"The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one's own country as a foreign land." ~ G.K. Chesterton

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