This is the view out my back door this morning at about 10. It was 70 yesterday, and will be in the 60's tomorrow, but today it's snowing. It's not going to amount to anything, and I may head out to Silver Dollar Raceway to watch a friend run his car anyway, but it's windy and cold. 37 degrees. And to think I was planning to ride the bike out there all week.
What a week. A lot happens in a week lately. This time it was job related. I found out Thursday that I'm now in charge of our contractors. Something tells me it may be a bit harder to get private contractors in compliance as opposed to company employees, but we shall see.
We had another car club meet, this time in Atlanta at the Varsity which is a very popular drive-in restaraunt down town. The place is huge, but the food isn't what I'd call healthy. In fact, I wish I had some Lipitor after eating a chili dog. Anyway, it is a great place for this type of thing. Both Deb and I got quite sunburned while we were up there, and the temp was around 80.
I did get a visit from the local rent-a-cop after this:
It was all in good fun though.
No earth shattering news from this end for the weekend. I "worked" (see last entry) last Sunday, so I got a three day weekend....and no babysitting duty either! (thanks Christyn)
Friday I waited around until it got over 60 and hit the road for a long ride. It was a little cool riding the ridge of Pine Mountain, but still a nice day for a ride. That evening we were invited to dinner with some old friends to Ben's Chop House where I discovered Tiramisu a couple years ago. Like every other place around here the price goes up, but food and service don't. I was ok, but not great...the company was though, so I'll not complain about it.
Saturday I sent Deb off to work and headed for the gym. We missed our normal Friday evening so I wanted to catch up. It's not nearly as fun by yourself. Then I spent a few hours cleaning up the yard. We had sweet gum balls everywhere from dropping the tree a couple weeks ago. By the time I finished that it was pushing 70 so I hit the road again. I didn't stray to far this time, basically riding all over Columbus.
Today...well...we didn't accomplish a damn thing. Had brunch at IHOP then went to a couple Dodge dealers looking for the latest SRT's. Don't need one, just wanted to check out the new colors. We topped off a wasted Sunday with a stop at Ranger Joe's coffee shop.
Yeah, I worked harder typing this than I did at anything all weekend, other than the gym. Deb has us signed up for another car club get together in Atlanta in a couple weeks, so there's something to look forward too...more car pictures!
What a nice weekend we had. (Although waiting for you mother to post an update when she's traveling the world is a bit troubling)
Our main car club, Georgia LX Car Club, had a meet and greet in Columbus for a change. Usually we end up having to drive to Atlanta. This meant I could finally have a truely clean car without brake dust and bugs. I sent Deb to work Saturday in her moms old car so I could spend the day getting the car cleaned up and doing a couple of modifications. The biggest job was installing the tail light "halo's" seen here:
That was no small task, but they look great in person. We met at the local Mellow Mushroom because one of the club guys runs the place. The parking lot is being redone, so we did fight dust because of folks rolling through checking out all the Chargers (and one lone Magnum). After we ate we hit the road for a cruise around town and also to find a place to take some pictures. Only six of us went cruising because the folks from out of town wanted to get home before it got to late. One fella drove all the way from South Carolina! Debbies brother Donnie recently bought a Charger and showed up too. He's the second car in the picture below.
We followed it up with a BBQ at Celeste's house. That was a nice change of pace because we usually do that sort of thing over here.
Damn, I forgot I was going to do a "new van" entry. I guess it will have to wait, because we had a rather large project to take care of today...
Sweet Gum trees are a pain in the foot due to the prickly "balls" they leave in the yard. To make matters worse, the rather large one we had in the back yard had been struck by lightning years ago taking the top out of it. So, it was rotting from the top down, dropping rather large limbs.
You'll notice we are pretty far into this project when the pictures start. I didn't think about the camera, and Deb didn't want to see the scary part.
I had the help of son-in-law Tim. One very large limb was handing over the shed, so we tied it off over another limb. He had a harness on in the tree, cut the limb, then I lowered it. The rest were just dropped straight down. The tree was tall enough to reach the house, so I had to notch it about 20' up to section it down some. I cut the notch from the ladder, then had Tim stand on the shed with the pole saw to make the back cut. We also roped the tree to Tim's truck to provide some directional assistance. I fell right where I wanted it, which is good because neither of us is an arborist by any stretch of the imagination.
Now the yard is cleaned up, I've got quite a pile of brush for the city to pick up Friday, and the stump has a pile of charcoal smoldering on top of it. Debbie is really happy to have this project done, not because she wanted the tree gone, but because there was no damage to people or property.
Thanks to Tim, for the help, and the extra saw.
We planned to attend the International Motorcycle Show every since we left it last year. It is a huge show with every manufacturer represented (even some I'd never heard of) and all kinds of aftermarket vendors as well. Sort of a nice way to kick off the '08 riding season.
Speaking of riding season, when I got up yesterday morning Weatherbug was raising hell about a "snow storm warning". Well, that wasn't going to stop me, and before we left it had been cancelled anyway. So off we went.
At first it was just a nasty day...cold and rainy. But before we even got 20 miles from home the snow started. The pictures tell the story, but it snowed pretty hard in Georgia yesterday. Of course, it's all gone now, and pretty much was when we headed back south last night. It is pretty cold out there, but sunny as can be.
We made it to the Georgia World Congress center just fine. For my kin it is pretty much like a large Bartle Hall. It's right in downtown Atlanta beside the Georgia Dome and CNN Center. We ate at CNN which is a very cool place to check out.
All in all, a fun day. I will go on Sunday next year though...to many damn people there on Saturday.
Oh, and I heard Ron Paul placed second in the Nevada primaries. I'm sure this won't stop the media from ignoring him, but at least some folks get it.
I suppose I'm due to type an update since it has been a week. My excitement for the week was getting a new work van! We've been told for the passed six months that we were getting new laptops and for good reason. The one I had was over 3 years old and SLOW. We were also told that the supervisors were getting the first four new vans that came in. When I left Montgomery on Wednesday I was informed that I should be there Thursday morning because the IT guys were showing up with the new laptops. While enroute I found out that we were also going to pick up our new vans! Hell, I've been living in that thing for over 3 years, I've got a lot of stuff to transfer. The laptops are quite nice, Dell widescreen with a wireless card....not networking, but wireless internet! Now that part is great, because the way I've always done it when I needed to email was cruise around a development until I came across someone's unsecured wireless connection. NO MORE. I can be on the net wherever, whenever. I got the important stuff setup at the office, and threw the rest in the back of the new van....then spent Friday and Saturday getting things right. I'm actually happy with everything about the new one, other than the DirecTV billboard on the side. That was one thing I didn't have to deal with in the old van. Now I can't stop anywhere without someone wanting to ask a question. SO, I got it waxed up, installed my XM, center console, and several other non-approved accessories that make my life easier. Now tomorrow I shall go to work in the thing. I'll get some pictures also.
I did get a ride in this afternoon, but had to cut it short to get back and head to the gym with Deb. We joined the YMCA before Christmas, and have been hitting it pretty regular. I notice she's cut off my food supply a bit as well....hmmmm, I think it's a conspiracy of some sort.
For now this is the only picture you get, from my Sunday ride
