The Oil Change

Saturday morning I woke up between 7-9am. A little ticked about not being able to go for a run and plus not feeling well. I am running a bit late already as well. Need to change the oil in our car, and then get going to VA.

I just don’t feel like driving. But might as well, get started.

So, I change the oil. Take the filter out, oil drips. After a while, put a new filter in and fill it up with new Castrol Synthetic 5W-30 and we are good. A little surprised to see not enough oil dripped on the pan. Hmmm, maybe the car read the oil level wrong.

Wake Tina up, and convince her to go with me. Talk to family members in VA and make the arrangement. Approaching 11am, we need to head out. I have this bad feeling about something wrong, something about to go wrong. Regardless, we start off. Drove about 4 miles when I see some serious smoke coming out from the tail pipe and the car jerks once and starts to slow down. Something is wrong, big time. Turn signal on, and pull into a small road. Check the filter, oil level and stupidly oblivious to the super high oil level. Put some more oil and try going few inches. Nope, the car doesn’t like it.

Pull into a local shop parking lot, keep head cool to figure out what’s next. Wife & kid with me, and their wellbeing and safely is most important. Call the insurance first and ask for a tow since that will take time. Ask wife to call one of our friend for a ride home and then call family members to let them know about our misery. And then call insurance back for a possible rental car expecting the worse. Progressive declines rental coverage based on break-down issue. Oh well, worth a try. Good friend shows up to pick up wife and kid and drop them home. And actually his showing up was the best thing. Till then I couldn’t figure out where to go. He suggested, I take it to the Toyota dealer. Hmm, interesting.

It has been almost 3 hours since I called for the tow and as I am waiting I jack the car up to figure out the problem. As soon as I went under the car I realized my mistake. I never took the cap off after taking the old filter off to let all the old oil out. The biggest giveaway should have been when I didn’t see any oil in the pan. Now, the car starts up just fine and drive ok as long as the engine is cold. Only when it hits up, all that extra oil tries to expand and get out. Ouch. Well, better suck it up and wait for the tow and hope for the best.

Tow drops me and the car off at the Toyota of NorthCharlotte. Ask them for an oil change, explaining my stupidity. After another hour they come back and it’s all done. Take it on the freeway for few miles to make sure things were really OK.

Lesson: when in doubt, check it out!

Turned Around

This particular one happened a while back and it has been on the back of my head for a while now. So here it is.

On my way to work, left the house a little after 8am. It is cold. As I go past a signal, I see a cop going the other way. I can clearly make out his look, the look that says 'Are you kidding me?' By now, I rode about 4 miles into my 11 miles commute. Can't feel my fingers especially on my right hand. Kinda surprised since usually it is the left hand that causes most grief. As I am approaching the next signal, I am thinking pretty soon I will be going close to 60mph and the windchill will drop even further for me. I might end up not being able to break safely at that point.

That's when I said hell with this. I am going back and working from home. Did you U-turn at the signal and headed home. Stopped at the gas station. After going inside, the right hand vein started to hurt and I feel it wanted to pop out. I also started to feel warm, like sweating warm.

Went home. Took my time to warm up while drinking coffee.

Lesson learned: get good gloves, and know your limit.

D & D

No not Dungeons and Dragons. I had friends who used to play it religiously, but I myself never really got hooked on it.

D & D = Dream and Determination.

I was out on my usual 2 mile run on the trail at work. When towards the end, the 'D & D' dawned on me.

I dreamed of riding a motorcycle, made the determination after dreaming of it and it came to fruition. My wife dreamed of a big (at least bigger than what I had in mind) nice house in a good neighborhood, we made the determination to find such house without much compromise and it worked.

Running is pretty much same way. I dream of running nice and smooth, like floating/walking on water. Determine to do it, and try to follow through.

Respect

I think it is time for me to come out of shell. I think it is time for me let everyone around me know about my disbelief. Why?

Last night wife got a call during dinner. She let it go to her voice mail. After dinner as we are settling down to finish the new Will Smith & Jaden Smith movie, she listens to her voice mail. Immediately she calls her friend back and tells her we are on our way. One of her good friends father has passed away.

So, we change and head out. We go to their house. People coming and living. The whole atmosphere is not as somber as I thought it would be. Someone reading a religious book, another person talking about afterlife from time to time. After a while they all stand up and pray, except for me. I seat quietly. After their prayer everyone gathers around to talk and pray for the departed.

Well, in this case it was mostly one person talking during this time and everyone else just bowing down. Out of respect, I join them and sit in. I can tell already where this whole conversation is going. It is directed towards me. I am amazed. The guy that was reading from a book earlier talks about why we should pray or how god will be super mad and all. And then we all pray for. Even during this prayer, only two lines, two sentences were about the person who has passed. I thought it was rather self-fish.

The guy that lead the prayer, pretended to cry comes up to me, holds my hand and tells me how I should pray. I should think about my daughter and wife, and pray. If I don't, they won't and on and on.

Out of respect to my friend, I keep quiet, keep smiling. I check up on my friend, how him and his wife doing. I tell my friend, if they need us for anything to let us know.

So, I think it is time for me to come out of the shell.

Kawi Shoutout

I would like to give a shoutout to Kawasaki for their awesomeness, both bike and the company. September 25, when the one year warranty on my bike had expired. Before that I reached out to them about an issue with one of the plastic fairing.

Ealier this summer, I had taken my bike to Ridenow Powersports Concord, to have them install the plastic protector on the back. They did an OK job. It was only later when washing my bike, I found wires hanging between the protector and the fairing on the back. So, I took the whole thing apart to put the wires back in place and a little screw section under the passanger seat of the fairing broke. According to Team Charlotte Motorsports, I had over tighten the screw and broke that section in the process. They didn't think Kawi would replace the fairing, but they promised to give it a try.

Next day I got a call from Ben at their service department. He said, Kawi came through and agreed to replace it. Kawi said, 'well mistakes happen. Let's take care of him.' Amazing. I took the bike over the week after and got a new fairing at no charge.

Thank you so so so much Kawasaki. Thank you. This nice gesture means a lot to me.

With that I also wanted to give a shout out to the bike itself, Elanor. She is a saver. Last night I went riding to pick up 'Iron Man 3.' If you haven't seen it, don't. I couldn't wait for that damn movie to end. During the whole time, the only entertainment was cuddling with my wife. On my way from, making a left turn at the signal. As I am cornering, I realize too many things going through my head at once. I am calculating the distance of the on-coming car, looking for gravels on the road, it is super dark and I am also trying to find my focus point for a smooth cornering. It was dark, urban living dark and as I am cornering fast I lock my eyes right in front of me, nope wrong place. And then between the cars on the other side and the road I try to find the spot. And Elanor responded to my each moves and she was smooth.

This morning I am coming up to a signal light fast and at the last moment it turns red from green. This is one of those time when I don't have enough time to speed up and just go and the distance is not long enough either for smooth breaking. I had to pull the brakes with all my grips. And she came to a nice beautiful stop just where I needed to.

Love you Elanor.

One Morning Commute

On my way to work I am feeling pretty good. Riding a good speed on Harris Blvd. Traffic is light, just a perfect day. And that’s when I notice it bouncing.

You see I USED to tie my badge to my bike. I’d tie the neck wrap around the left mirror and then just stuck the badge in between the speedometer and the windshield. Usually I would do that after I get home from work, park my bike and made sure it was tight. I guess that particular night I forgot to do the last part.

Anyway, as I am traveling 60mph on Harris enjoying the morning coolness, I notice the badge holder starting to bounce. Immediately I check my mirror to see if there’s any car behind me. If there is I won’t attempt to save it. In a matter of second going 60mph the badge starts flying, hits the plastic fairing, the holder breaks and my badge flies off. Ughhh….

I put on the signal and pull over to the side. Park my bike. Have a pretty good idea where it could be based on my speed and wind direction. I start walking. See the bike right across the street. Check for traffic. Yup oncoming cars, however still a bit far. I walk over, trying to pick it up. Hear an engine roar. Another bike pulled over to a parking lot to make sure if I am doing ok. I give him the thumbs up and so does he. Again trying to pick up my badge and I can’t pick it up with the gloves on. And cars are coming fast. So, I kick the badge to the side. Move over and then pick it up. 

Pushing the limit and Riding at Night

Over the long weekend, Labor Day weekend, we decided to go camping on a very short notice. We made the decision so sudden and then after that tryint to get everyone to agree was even a bigger chanllenge.

By the time, we had a large enough group, most sites were booked out. We were primarily looking at Kings Mountain. Desperate I booked a Primitive Group Camp site at the Crowders Moutain. The site was a mile hike from the parking lot. And it was a test of our endurance both mental and physical, it was also a test of our friendship.

Overall, we hiked about 10 miles in two days and there wasn't a singles mile we were empty handed. We all had heavy loads on us and despite that we cared for each other, showed kindness to each other.

It was awesome.

Went riding during night the other day. I can relate to the coolness of riding at night. It felt cool and awesome. You do have to be more cautious at night making sure a SMIDSY doesn't happen.