The Bostonian Abroad

Here it is, the end of yet another year, and I'm feeling my typical chipper self: anti-interactional, nervous, and bored. This has actually been a banner year for me, as I am full-time where I work, meaning that I get some job security, a pension, and medical bennies (first time in my career!). I also paid off my credit card debt, which was really vexing to me for a long time - but no more!! The drawbacks have been emotional, mostly. I've been fighting what my mother calls the Irish Melancholy. I also have a penchant for being alone, which means friends have to be very patient with me. Seems I don't have much room in my life except for my wife and my pooches. But I'm generally happy about this, except that I keep having these pangs and guilty feelings at not being more social. I'm hoping that either I'll get more social, or I'll just stop feeling these pangs. Then there is the wife being downsized. The economy has definitely affected us. I lost part

Watched some videos recently on youtube. That site is my porn, especially when it comes to Harley Davidson. On crappy days when there is no hope of riding, or when I have a free moment at work, I like to look up new and different versions of what I have, or I even scope out bikes I'd like to own some day. One thing I've noticed both in the videos and the comments on videos is how many people hate Harley Davidson. When I looked up videos of the Blue Ridge Parkway, I saw all kinds of comments about how Harleys are junk, the company is junk, the riders are all followers and faux bad-asses, and how real men ride crotch-rockets that can go from zero to a billion in a tenth of a second. I looked up videos of Ultra Classic Electra Glides and found comments on how this or that guy traded it in for a Honda Gold Wing so that he could, "keep up with my wife." I even ran into one of these hate-mongers in the parking lot at the gym. I was getting on my bike and a rice rocket

What a lousy month this is. The temperature hovers around freezing, it gets dark way too early, the landscape is blandly absent of color, everyone is sick, and it is often too cold to ride my scoot. Today, I missed a whole morning of teaching due to a sinus headache, and as I lay there in pain and fits of nausea, all I could think about was getting on my bike and riding. I finally got my leather over-pants back from my second tailor, so I can be protected from the wind. I bought a second Under Armor shirt to wear over the old one, adding a layer for warmth, and all my other gear is very well suited to the colder weather, but I'm sick, and, even if I weren't, I would still have few places to go - places that I would want to see are all a day's ride away. Complain complain complain. The older I get, the more I want to ride. I think this is my midlife crisis residue. When I was a kid, I'd ride with my best friends Chris and George, and we'd go far and wide, even tre