The Bostonian Abroad

Two years ago, I was a very new rider, and I was eager to get as much experience as I could on the road. At least, that is how I justified to myself the fact that I was riding in weather that is too cold to stand in, let alone ride a motorcycle! I have no such out this time around - two years later, 18,000 miles more experienced, and having no excuses to turn to. I simply have to admit to some form of mental dysfunction, or the simple incapacity to utilize rational thought. Perhaps it is just my base desire to affect some sort of macho posture: "I can ride in weather so cold, penguins step back and say, 'DAMN!'" I don't know what it is that has motivated me recently. All I know is that, the colder it has gotten, the more I've wanted to ride in it - and without a windshield!!! So the temperature dips down to the lowest level it has been in years. It's 18 degrees, and the meteorologist is warning everyone to stay inside lest their flesh freeze solid. ...

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...

Here I am again, living in the afterglow of yet another Red Sox World Series Victory, and this time, I have to say, it feels different. First, it feels great, don't get me wrong. I absolutely adore the knowledge that the Red Sox are, right now, the Champions of the World in Baseball. Wow! Amazing! Incredible! I'm so lucky to be alive at this point in history! Think of all the people who lived from the early 1900's, all the way to the end of the the century, who lived their entire lives without seeing even one win. My god! Having lived the first 34 years of my life in that suck town, I know how bad it was. The mentality was, "I'm from Boston, where being a sports fan takes courage because we lose so much and at such heart-rending times!" "Life sucks," was a fundamental way of seeing the world in those days. But now, as Strong Bad likes to say, "It's Over!!" So I feel blessed, grateful, and just plain euphoric about the state ...

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Everyone always says that Camden Yards is the most beautiful ball park in America. They rave about its design, its beauty, and its food is supposedly great - for a baseball park. Bearing this in mind, I was hoping they were all right about it, and that I would love it as they had. And, while the park is quite beautifully designed, the seats we had were amazing, and the food was pretty darned good, I have to say, I came away from my three days there with a negative appraisal. The problem wasn't the park, which was quite nice; the seats, which were really excellent; nor was it the food, which was very good, and not really too expensive. The problem was the people. For the most part, numerically, most were normal, but for a three day stint, I seemed to run into quite a few who did their best to make sure I did not feel welcome. First, was the loud-mouth two rows behind, who shouted as loudly as possible at every player and play. He boomed such keepsakes as: "BOOOOOOOOOO!!!...