Yeah, it's a 1300

Finally rolled the bike back & forth and cleaned the chain yesterday evening.

Was a bit weary on my way to work. Making sure, I didn’t mess things up. Cleaning and lubing the chain is really not that hard.

On my way to work this morning. Kinda glad about the early start,  7.20am. Hoping to avoid the school traffic. Wave at few bikers on the opposite site, focusing on zooming past cars. And that’s when the HD shows up on the right lane on red light. I suspect he would’ve come to my lane, had I been not filtering on the right side of the left lane. It’s a big bike, definitely bigger than mine. However, I am not sure what kind. All HDs look same to me.

Light turns green, and we have lift off. He moves over to give me space and I go for it. But wait, is he trying to race. To my absolute amusement, my ‘Elanor’ keeping up with his HD. We are in formation, weaving through cars & trucks a little faster than the 55mph. Traffic ahead, we come to stop behind this Lexus. As we stopped, pull my visor up and turn to look at him. He won’t make eye contacts; he’s too cool for that. Not the first, have seen the same attitude on other HDs before.

Light turns green, traffic is moving. We see and opening and we are both reading for it. He jumps on the right lane, and guns it. I do too. I felt a little jerk and look down. Wow, I am going 80 on 3^rd. The rpm jumps to red and then jumps back down. Elanor doesn’t like it. Caught up in the moment, I didn’t have enough time to shift up and didn’t think of it either. I start to shift up while trying to catch up with the HD. Adrenaline kicks in, all the while I am thinking ‘Dude, don’t be stupid.’ HD able to squeeze through between a landscape truck and a car on the right lane one car ahead of me. We start to slow down, and I catch up with him again.

Still no eye contacts. We take the same right turn, and after that we go our separate ways.

Funny, just yesterday I stopped all the way before making a left turn as another Sports biker going past me. And we both threw our hands down (waved).

Last week, came up next to a HD. Complement the guy on his bike, and his response, ‘Yeah, it’s a 1300.’ Oh, thank you for that useless info, honestly I could care less.

Catching the ball

Wednesday evening. Daughter and mom got home after me. My wife is busy preparing dinner. I am trying to play catch with our daughter with a football. Instead of throwing the ball raising your hand, I am trying to teach her how to toss it, more like glide it.

But it’s not working. She’s scared of the ball and she’s sticking her palms out every time to prevent the ball. Naturally the ball hits her palm and just drops on the floor. Ughh, this is getting a little frustrating.

I can tell, I am starting to get upset. And just then, in a last effort I tried something different. Instead of standing three/four feet apart, I actually get really close to her, about half a feet.

Now I am throwing the ball up close and slow. It’s working. She’s getting the hang of catching the ball, instead of just sticking her palm out. Slowly over time, I distance myself. And she’s still with me. Awesome.

Next, I throw the ball with some variations to make sure she’s getting the hang of it. And she is. She’s catching it every time. I am amazed at myself of course for taking the time to invest rather than get mad. Next we play 50 catch, counting up to 50 catches. After that, I get my wife to join us on a three catch. So, we take turns throwing the ball to her, and she’s catching it every time.

And she’s super excited, confident and happy as well for being able to finally catch the ball.

LESSON: kids can teach you how to be patient or get bad real fast. How we choose to invest in the relationship is up to us, the adult. 

Coleman Rocks.

For sometime now I have been eyeing a 8/10 person tent. More for the room, than anything else. We go camping at least twice a year, and so far I have been able to get buy on the 3 person tent. But it is time to get something a little bigger, so we have more leg room. Wife won't have to lie down to change.

For a while, I was eyeing the Ozark Trail 10 person tent, but it is just big. Too big whereas I would have to check out the X Y Zs of the tent site before booking to make sure my tent will fit. Just then, saw a sale go up on vminnovations.com for the discontinued Coleman Bristol WeatherTec 8 person tent. I couldn't resist anymore. We own a Coleman 3 person tent already and love that tent. So, I bit the bullet and purchased it.

A day later (yes one day later) the tent showed up. Both me and our daughter super excited to set it up, counting down days for the weather to warm up. 4 days after delivery, yesterday it was warm enough for us to jump outside and start setting it up after I got home from work. But the temp was dropping fast.

After the initial setup, daughter wanted to sleep the night outside. Wife was taking pictures and videos. But the temp is still dropping. So, we start to break it down. Fingers are freezing. After we pack everything up, when we go to put it back in sack, we didn't tie it enough. The load is too wide for the carrying bag. The zipper won't close. Mess around with it for few minutes, when the zipper just comes off. Wife gives me the 'I knew it' speech. I listen, drag the whole thing inside the house.

After everyone goes to sleep, I sit down with my tool. Put the zipper back in place and repack the tent. Went to close the zipper and it snapped again. What the hell?! Take a look and the bottom plate is broken. Ughhh.

Stayed up a little longer wondering if Coleman doesn't fix it, how hard would it be for me to get a replacement zipper and fix it myself. Wondering all day next day (today) about if I could do it myself.

Called Coleman few minutes ago about the carrying bag. They didn't ask for the order number or SKU, just took my name down, address and another carrying bag on its way at no (absolutely no cost) to me.

Wow....Coleman rocks. I love this guys. Thank you.

Dad Reflexes

It's a very funny thing being a dad. I realize I've never really talked about that part of my life.

I guess for me it was more or less natural. Kinda hard to explain, but being a dad is something that's just part of me. That's a big part of my life.

Reading about 'Dads are Great' on Reddit, stirred up few times I was there to save my daughter vs. few times I choose not to.

Like the time, as we usually rent a two bed hotel, my then two year old daughter was playing in one bed. Me & wife hanging out on the other bed, all the while my eyes are locked on my daughter. As expected, all of a sudden she starts rolling , gets too close to the edge and about to fall. When I sprint to her and save her fall.

But also the time, when we are hanging out in KC and my daughter is playing on a chair. The floor is slick and just by the look, I know she's going to fall. But she also was a cushioned backpack on, as she's falling I know she will be fine falling on the backpack rather than anything else.

Funny, how I sometimes these memories comes back. When we went to the community pool. I just took her life jacket off and put her up. As I am getting ready to get out of the pool, she decides to jump right back. And yet again, I catch her fall.

What I don't remember, is my own father saving me such way. I remember him throwing me in the water, being how scared I was. I remember him mocking me, dragging me down. But not saving me.

Was he too busy because we were two brother and one sister? Or too much of a man?

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.