Time to move on

After my father died, and a little soul-searching, I decided to take a little time off from the work world, finish up some classes that needed finishing up, and do some things that I always wanted to do. Hence the new motorcycle -- I know, I know, it's one of those things old guys do in a vain attempt to recapture their youth. However, since I COULD do it, I did it, and I'm glad to say that, other than a slowing of reflexes requiring me to look a little farther ahead than I used to, I don't seem to have lost the ability to ride.

It's been about twenty years since I rode my last Beemer, and not wanting to own any other brand, and BMWs being so costly, I had just about written them off. But I bit the bullet in October, and now I'm getting my skills back, slowly but surely. In fact, I may be riding to California to have a custom seat made this month, and I'll see if I can navigate the freeways there. Ain't looking forward to that, but I'll deal with it.

Things have changed on BMW motorcycles since I first started riding in the 70s, some for the good and some for the, well, not-so-good, but the good outweighs the bad. More horsepower, more bells and whistles (anti-lock brakes and automatic suspension adjustment on a motorcycle!). Missing is the hand work that used to be apparent in the pinstriping, etc. But all in all, I can't complain.

The one thing that has changed in the twenty years I took off from motorcycling is -- assholes with cellphones. Twenty years ago there were no cell phones, or at least not like we know them now. It was bad enough that people twenty years ago could look at you and just not have it register that you were actually driving a motor vehicle. But that was only SOME people. Now it seems that the majority of people driving the roads spend half of any drive with a phone jammed on their ear, talking about very important things like Buffy's coming-out party or "wow, I think that guy in Biology class is cute," etc. I find I spend a lot more time making absolutely sure that the drivers around me aren't semi-comatose and actually do notice me.

The good thing, and luckily I've been quick enough, is that with the massive amount of horsepower vs. the small amount of weight involved in a motorcycle means that, given a couple seconds of warning I can rocket the hell out of the way of cars careening into my path. I do have to say, however, that the time has come for law enforcement officers to be authorized to shoot to kill cell phone-using drivers. We'll see about that.

So, I'm semi-retired, I guess. Next month we're heading to the Bay Area to revisit my home where I grew up, and I have a tour arranged where I used to work at the biggest public aquarium on the west coast. I'm sort of excited about seeing things that I saw when I was a kid, although the aquarium has been completely overhauled. I hope they saved some of the old structure. And San Francisco Zoo (Fleishhacker's Zoo when I was a kid) should largely be the same -- old-time structures for Pachyderms, Lions, etc.

Lots of things happening, and there isn't an internet flamer that can bother me anymore, so life's looking pretty good about now.

Love,