Bogieblog

Graduation Congratulations

Soon we will be heading out to attend the graduation of WS's niece. We understand she is to receive a couple of rewards.

Congratulations Natalie!

HMD

Happy Mother's Day to Cop Car.

Hope everyone around spoils you today, or leaves you alone in peace - whichever you prefer!

Continue reading "HMD"

A Little Firing

Last Saturday I was here earning this

by going thru about 6 hours of training on safety and assembly/disassembly. Then I got to go out to the indoor range and figure out how best to use my non-traditional eyesight to do this:

Not bad for the first time ever handling one of these (. 25 shots - 25 hits; all the ones in the black were my first shots.

I took a women's only class, where once again (as in the motorcycle class) I was the only one who didn't own a the equipment already. Once again, I'm thinking that some people are doing things bas-ackwards! However, I was surprised by the spread in age; there were two mother-daughter teams (daughters were under 18), several my age and a couple of ladies in their 60's or 70's. Out of a class of 12, that is quite the diversity.

Some time in the future I will attend a mixed 102 class (Orientation was 101), where the time is spent mostly on the range.

And a good time was had by all.

Spring Garden Sights

We are finally getting some color here at the Bogie spread. Actually we had this color at the end of April (don't ask me what it is, I have no clue):

I have placed the rest of the photos under the fold so as not to slow the loading of the "front page" later on.

Continue reading "Spring Garden Sights"

Motorcycling

Everyone wants to know what class I was taking all of last weekend: I was taking a basic Rider course (for motorcycles).

I already have my motorcycles license; I got it in 1995 after taking a Basic Rider's course held by the state. i rode for a couple of years and then had a wrist injury, to the throttle wrist, that took me out of riding for one summer. Although the injury heeled, I have scar tissue built up along the tendon that pulls and tweaks at times. This is especially true in summer when I am in the sun a lot (for some reason, sunlight encourages more scar tissue for those of us that scar easily within the muscle). I had one surgery to take care of the problem, but they couldn't do much more, so the only remedy has been to keep exercising and massaging it to keep the scar tissue from latching too much on the tendon.

Last summer, toward the end of the summer, I noticed that I hadn't had a problem with that wrist. Oh sure, maybe once a month I got twinges and pulling, which reminded me to exercise and massage, but not like in the past. It used to be daily - or at least several times a week.

So, I began thinking about taking up motorcycling again. No, I didn't want off the back of WS's bike. I have loads of fun being a passenger and getting to take in all the sights while someone else does all the work and has to pay attention to traffic. I just wanted to be able to go off solo sometimes, and maybe ride into work.

I looked up motorcycle classes on Google and found that not only the state offered them, but that M.O.S.T. was offering training too. No, I didn't have to take a course, but for my own peace of mind, I wanted to do that first. I opted for the MOST training, and took the session last weekend.

Now, as the first time I took the class, I was surprised by the amount of people that already had bikes before taking the class. I, being the only one with a license, was the only one that didn't have a bike and wasn't currently riding. On guy even road his in to class.

Out of the twelve people in the class (12 is the max class size), 6 were women and 6 were men. 5 were from Maine and the rest from NH. We ranged in age from 20 to somewhere in the 60's; most people were somewhere around my age. One family was there; Mother, Father and Son.

We had classroom instruction Friday night, then Satruday morning it was on the bikes. By early Saturday afternoon I could see who would not pass and had questions on a couple of them. One gal was scared to death, it was a big trauma just picking out her bike for the weekend. Another gal (Miss Priss as another student named her) was there for bragging rights and show. Late Saturday afternoon we had more classrome instruction then Saturday evening we took the written test - I got 100, everyone else passed (needed an 80 to pass).

Sunday, in the rain, we had another 6 hours of instruction and practice, then we took the riding portion of the test. I passed,although not perfect - I knew what portion I would blow, and was content that a U-turn in a parking lot was something I could practice later (besides, I figure in a parking lot, most of the time it won't hurt to power-walk the bike thru tight turns). Only two people were perfect on that part anyway. And I only lost partial points for crossing the line twice; others lost all 8 points because they also put their feet down. Miss Priss dang near crashed her bike into the line of students waiting their turn at that portion of the test.

The swerve portion I have always been good at - no issues for me there, nor were there problems with the quick stop. Miss Priss and the gal who was scared to death, completely blew the swerve portion (completely blew means they lost 15 points). At this point, although they did not know it, had lost more than 20 points and would not pass the course.

The double curve, where the rider is supposed to accelerate thru each curve, slowing down just before entering the curve, is something I had trouble with in both classes I took. Not that I slowed down, crossed lines, or anything - it is a timed event and I don't accelerate enough thru the curve. I didn't feel bad as only one person did not lose points for the time.

I got out of the riding test only losing 8 points (5 points for crossing the lines twice on the box of U-turns and 3 points for not making the time on the curves). Only one or two people lost less points, two people lost more than 20 points - 20 points or less was passing (I think one of them lost every point available - somewhere along 48 points total). I felt pretty dang good since as I mentioned earlier, I was the only one that hadn't been riding already (it seems to me that people taking the classes are doing things backwards).

So, I got to practice my rusty skills and the test proved that I can probably manage not to crash into anything in an empty parking lot (and, that I can get up into second gear - woohoo). Now I just need a bike to practice on more before riding in to work or on solo trips. WS's old Wide Glide is a bit big (heavy) for me, so I'm on the lookout for a good deal.

Still got a couple of weeks to go before it quits raining and warms up (we've had the woodstove going all week), but riding weather will get here soon enough.

All About Cats

Cop Car, being both and engineer and a cat lover, should find this presentation facinating!

I saw this a couple of weeks ago, at I know not where, but The Weekend Pundit featured it recently, so I will credit him with the link.

A Glimpse Into the Last Couple of Weeks

It's been a couple of weeks since I've written; now I will let you in on some of what has transpired in that time.

I got a new laptop: This is the first Birthday or Christmas present I have gotten in several years that didn't involv heating systems, refrigerators, stoves or other necessary home appliances/repairs. I had been looking for a while and had one requirements and a couple of nice-to-haves in mind.

1. 17" Monitor - a must!
2. Built in wireless networking (nice to have, but could install it myself)
3. 101 Keyboard - a really nice to have, but I could get by without the numerical keypad.
4. Win XP - nice to have, but I could live with Vista if I had to.

I had been coveting an HP system at Circuit City - but it was $900 after $200 in instant and mail-in rebates - and I wasn't about to spend that much on something that didn't even have an Office program. I had been keeping an eye on Craig's List, but when there were machines with 17" screens - well, I might as well have bought one from CC.

Then, 2 Sundays ago I picked up the ads in the Sunday paper. Staples had what I wanted (with Vista instead of XP) on sale for several hundred dollars less than what CC had (the only real difference being the use of AMD instead of Intel). I hemmed, I hawed, I didn't like the amount of bills coming at the end of the month already (all insurances on house, cars and bikes). I gnashed my teeth.

WS came to the rescue and just told me to quit my bitching and just go get the thing (after all, he was the one that told me to get something that I really wanted for my birthday). I went and picked one up on Thursday and set it up that night. I still had to get a wireless router, which I found at Amazon for 1/2 off (the starts must have been aligned right that week!).

Sunday evening I set up the router on my desktop. I expected to have problems, but only had to install it twice (I picked the wrong software the 1st time). Then I set up the laptop to catch the signal, and viola - it worked like magic.

I downloaded Star Office, which works fine for Word and Excell type documents. My only problem is that the database does not seem to play with MS Access and one of the big things I want to do on the laptop is work with my plant database (yes, I am just too geeky - I made a database to store info on plants and their locations in the yard). I really don't want to shell out the bucks for MS Office Pro 2007 (or even just Access), so if anyone knows of any alternatives (or knows of a reputable place I could get Office Pro 2003 - let me know).

So, playing with my Birthday toys has kept me busy for the last couple of week. I've also had other things going on, and will not be here tomorrow (so no more posts till Sunday.

Sorry Cop Car - no pictures, but the only thing blooming is the forsythia - maybe next time.

Fun Time

This is a piss-poor post as a first post in over a week, but go see how fast you are. Me, I'm a bobbing bobcat. My excuse is that I wasn't sure what to expect so was caught dozing when that first one went (and I only took the test once).

Thanks to Kehaar over at Siflay Hraka for this demoralizing test.

Nope, don't have time to blog about anything else - that's why I supplied some entertainment for you.

Nice Spring Saturday

I brought the table and chairs up onto the deck yesterday to use as a potting workshop. I repotted all the pepper seedlings, which were still in their individual starting cells. Late in the afternoon, I transferred the tomatoes up to the greenhouse. The peppers will stay inside a day or two so they don't get double-shocked (transplanting and getting cold at night).

While I was transplanting, I brought the geranium that I overwintered out onto the deck to slowly adjust it to brighter conditions - it is really happy that the seasons are changing:

The repotting took longer than I thought it would, so the only other thing I got done was cleaning out the two flower gardens between the yard and the driveway.

WS and Jim took down 4 trees that were dead; two of them in the center of the driveway, one by the shade garden (it will be a bit less shady now) and one further back toward the house. He also got most of the wood transported to the behind the dog pen for storage before cutting and splitting for firewood.

After that, we both just kind of piddled around and started feeling our sunburns (not too bad - we both used sunscreen). Oh, another sign that spring is here - I hung clothes out on the line to dry both Friday and Saturday.

Next to come - black fly season (nasty buggers!).

Another Birthday in the Family

Happy Birthday to Cop Car!