After an intense few months of "new job", I had a really good day. Customers were calling ME! They were placing orders over the phone, and calling to ask questions. Good times! The ridding is pretty much over for now, until I get settled. Till then a little video to remind myself why I go to work every day. Alexander and I had a real good day with Walker and kids at the ranch. We tore around in the truck, shot things, and I got to shoot Walker's bow. Reminded me of YMCA camp. The highlight was Alexander shooting the... Continue reading

Since the return from Fort Worth I've kept up with the riding but have lost the drive and routine of blogging. The new job has sapped most of my "digital energy". Hopefully I'll get back on the blog wagon soon. Continue reading

Back in the saddle! The two weeks of no riding were hard to swallow. My new job training would have been very difficult to juggle with finding a ride every night unless I had my own bike. Went on a late night ride with Dad. We prepared communion for Sunday and then took a little prospecting run around town to look for potential Chemsearch customers. We toured around the industrial district, cruised down the train tracks and went home. We both agreed that it was hard to not whistle the CHiPs theme tune. CHiPs Patrol My Goldwing is still on... Continue reading

Hello all! Missing everybody terribly. I did not get a ride to any church. The busses don't run on sunday, the hotel shuttle only goes five miles, and I found no one in the lobby headed out looking churchy. I did call richland hiils to see if they had someone in the area but didn't get a responce. It was a sad lonly day at the hotel =( I watched lots of TV and did some laundry. Found a large black man at the convenience store riding a CanAm. Talked to him for about an hour but he did not... Continue reading

Ride-alongs are over and I spent Saturday trying to entertain myself. Took the bus to West-end Market Place in Dallas to see the Bodies Exhibit. Very cool! I also made it over to the Sixth Floor Museum at the Texas Book Depository and learned tons about John Kennedy. Seems like there are lots of similarities between the countries view of JFK and our current president. Lots of folks were equally outraged by both presidencies. I think these were two adds in Dallas papers the day he came to visit in 1963. Trying to find someone to come pick me up... Continue reading

Spent the whole day training with Eduardo from Spain. Visited a new prospective customer at Cowboy's stadium and got to walk out on the field. Crazy opulence! Everything is giant and state of the art. After training he was in a hurry to get back home and dropped me at my hotel. I scrambled to get on the bus to the Honda Dealer for a ride. I did some research the night before but could not get a hold of anyone. Alas, after an hour on the bus with some very helpful city employees and some very unstable passengers, I... Continue reading

Leaving for the airport soon and the weather is very intense. I'm sad to leave my family. I got my short ride in to drop the Shadow off in Dad's garage. Continue reading

Getting ready for training trip to DFW. I ironed LOTS of shirts which I never needed to do at Dickies. At dinner alexander said he no longer wanted a "kid" fork, so he picked out his own "boy" fork. Rode Dad's Shadow to the Elder's/new Deacon's meeting. ODO 36314 After meeting I topped off the battery and started recharging, the continued to look for loose connections, shorts, burnt wires, etc. with no luck. Continue reading

Goldwing running terribly! Still will not idle, and this evening she won't start. Battery does not want to hold a charge which may be another symptom of a short in the system. I checked the timing belts, plugs plug wires and electronic ignition. The ignition was "off" by a 1/4 turn. Reset the ignition but did not have enough juice to start. I gave up at 11:30 and called dad. Thanks Dad, for answering all my midnight calls! I figured you might be up. Psalms 119:55 (just to prove I was listening) Rode out to Combes and back. Got waived... Continue reading

Very lazy day! Rode to church to do communion prep., the Goldwing is running very rough after the run on the expressway. Will not idle and back fires badly on start up. ODO 11208 Continue reading

Today was my last at work with Dickies. Pretty uneventful. I closed up shop, left my keys in the safe, and sent my last email to corporate office. In the afternoon the kids went to a tee-ball game to cheer on Jakey and Parker. Trudy got blowpops for everyone. After work all the "ladies" wanted to say goodbye so we met at Paradise which is frequented by a big motorcycle clientele. I got to park my dirty Goldwing next to all the guys with shinny, loud Harleys. I haven't seen so many straight pipes since visiting the plumbing store. ODO... Continue reading

The new Blinker showed up in the mail. Yay! BUT... soon noticed that it was not quite right. Only one wire was was connected to the blinker the current one has two. I went cross-eyed looking at wiring diagrams, till I discovered that both turn signals were incorrect. The new one was for a different model and the old one was for the "front" turn/running light. So, some surgery was performed to get all the right wires coming out of and going to the right places. I used all the guts from the original broken signals that were hanging off... Continue reading

Today was Hot Chili Day. This is one of the few meals that I can make with confidence and there have been many other Hot Chili Days. Yvonne, Clint and I made chili for 60 people. We made brownies for desert and used oil that was found on the shelf. They were less than satisfactory. They looked delicious but tasted like an old railroad tie. We had to start over on the brownies to keep everyone happy and healthy. My daily ride was back fourth to church building and a quick run to Walgreen's for oil. On the way I... Continue reading

Today was my 100th consecutive ride and half way to work I got a picture of my odometer. Before heading out I sat and watched the kids get some home school lessons. Alexander had more fun than Elizabeth Mom says I need to relax a bit with the "red eye remover" After watching the kids learn there was some maintenance to be done. Re-install the timing belt covers and trace wires to find a short. On the way to work I blew another fuse, so here is the improvised safety light in case the next fuse blew on the highway.... Continue reading

Drove the kids to school in the truck, so I missed out on the relaxing ride to work in the a.m. I look forward to that ride for getting into a positive mental state before work. The day went by quickly! I did get a chance to post a request on the goldwing site for help with my riding while in the north country (Dallas). Chris made an awesome dinner of Dennis' maple/sage sausage tacos with fried potatoes. Yum! you can't tell from looking but the whole family was tired of me taking pictures. I took a very short ride... Continue reading

Sunday Very busy Sunday. Church, lunch @ Gams' house, hang the kids while Chris preps for class, Church, good-by for Whitts @ Jason's. Gams got a few pictures of all the kids eating "Roasted Bear Brains". I'll try to get some of those pictures from her and post later. ODO 11095 Continue reading

Alexander spent the night with Gams. Jakey was under the weather, so Xander had the place to himself. He had some good engineering practice. I've been told that the goal of "geotrax" is to use as many pieces as possible and try to minimize the dead ends (according to Gams and Xander this is not easy). Usually they get building plans off the the internet, but Alexander did this one on his own. Sour Dough Pizza at Grandpa and Gams' house. Off to vote on the school bond issue and a few errands around town including a gift for Mother's... Continue reading

Mom got to sleep in! Once everyone was up and around we took a family trip to the store. While we were at the HEB I found a good recipe for braciole that I thought would be a great way to prepare the Whitt's venison. Once my hands got meaty I quit taking pictures, but it came out quite tasty and beautiful. After dinner it was straight to the softball game. I rode the goldwing and discovered on the way home that I had no tail or brake lights!! ODO 11075 It was the last ball game of the season,... Continue reading

Spent the morning with my kiddos and had a great time. We hung out, tried to clean, played outside while Chris went to MOPS. When she got home I met with about 20 folks for praying on "National Day of Payer". Then it was to work to interview some guys for part time jobs at Dickies. Beautiful day to ride!! It was so nice I took a few back roads. ODO 110068 Very nice additions to the odometer! warm, sunny day, the Gold wing running as good as ever, no oil leaks, no burnt fuses or valves... just hot breeze,... Continue reading

Work has become quite tiresome. It is very hard to keep myself looking busy. On the other hand, I'm getting more and more excited about the new job. Rode to church for beef tips on noodles and classroom prep for Mommy and Me. A whopping 5 miles! ODO 11022 On the way home my gauges and tail light went dark. Another blown fuse! Dad suggested I had a short somewhere. Ridiculous! Oh, yah. lost turn signal means the bare wires are just bouncing around behind the fender. I leave for training in Irving in a little over a week. If... Continue reading

Great ride! Erick Gomez bought a brand new V-Star from the Yamaha dealer in Mcallen. He has never ridden before so he wanted me to get the bike back to Mercedes for him. ODO 26 Fresh off the show room floor!! Continue reading

ODO 11017 Long day at work. Had to let an employee go. I'm not sure if its a regional thing or the job itself, but I've gone through more employees in the past 2 years than in all my previous "adult" work experiences. I came home to my loving family and Alexander wanted to have a campfire in the back yard. We had a little suburban redneck fire instead. I took a short ride to the church building to pick up some venison left for us by the Whittingtons. Continue reading