Sleep just isn’t coming tonight. It’s just past 1:30am here in Seattle. I was in bed hours ago, but wasn’t tired enough to doze off. My mind was working too hard on a myriad of things. It happens sometimes. I just can’t shut it off.

For some reason I started thinking about a pair of glasses that my Mom left here last year. She flew out to help me for a while after my accident. She went home prior to Thanksgiving and before Christmas came, she passed away. The idea for this photo slowly came into focus as I lay in bed wrestling with sleeplessness. I finally had to get up, stage the shot and take it.

It reminds me of her. She’s the one that taught me to love reading. And she never failed to start the morning with a cup of coffee while she was visiting me. And of course, it was her reading glasses she left here. Seems a fitting tribute. Maybe now I can get to sleep…

Oi… who would have thought printing invitations for your daughter’s 10th birthday party would become so complicated! It seemed easy to me.  Daughter creates invitations at Build-A-Bear website, Dad takes invitations to Fedex Kinko’s for high quality color printing. I am so naive! Read on to see what I had to say about the entire situation to these two corporations.

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The comments here are about this fund raiser.  Another opportunity to perform a random act of kindness.  Really, you should try it… support someone you don’t know with a few bucks. It’s a small thing but you make a difference and connect with people you might never meet otherwise. Also… it feels good, trust me on this!

Did I mention I’m an avid target shooter? It’s true… I’m generally at the range every Thursday afternoon, rain or shine. Yesterday was no exception. I had to take a few months off while recovering from my accident. Because of this I’ve been shooting my .22 a lot to get back into practice. I’ve just about got my form back now. I normally shoot .308 at 100/200 yards but with a .22 we normally shoot at 50 yards.

My .22 is a heavily customized Ruger 10/22. I was looking at it the other day and thinking, the only parts left from the factory are the receiver and the bolt. I think I’ve replaced everything else in the quest for accuracy. I’m pretty happy with it, it puts the rounds where I point it which is what I want. Any problems with accuracy are errors on my part now. That wasn’t much of a problem yesterday. I love a good day at the range…

Why can’t I meet women like this? If only she were on a motorcycle…

Ordered a new set of tires for ‘Precious‘ today.  After researching what other ZZR-1200 riders prefer, the Pirelli Diablo Stradas seemed like a good set to try.  A quick call to CycleWorks and I’ve got a set ordered up and will have an appointment scheduled to have them installed next week. The Dunlop tires I have on now still have plenty of life in them, but they don’t inspire confidence. Most ZZR owners hate them and my own experiences seem to confirm their opinion.  Just the day before my accident I rode with a friend to Mt. Baker and was complaining vociferously how badly they were handling the corners. Guess we’ll see how these do!

Friend Kelly is raising money for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. In August she’ll be walking 60 miles as part of the Breast Cancer 3-Day. Consider performing a random act of kindness today and contribute a few dollars in support of this worthwhile effort.

I can feel the excitement building, it’s like static electricity charging the air around me. Soon, I ride. Over the weekend and this evening I wrenched on the bike and finished up the repairs. I think she’s eager to go too. I swung onto the saddle for the first time since the accident to move her to a position with better light. The ankle felt good, strong and no major pain. I fired her up and and she started immediately. Warmed her up for a while. Revved her gently a few times. Finally twisted the throttle and let the tach climb towards red line. The banshee howl of 1200cc’s of inline-4 reverberating off the wall behind me and shredding the quiet of a peaceful evening.

The rest of the replacement gear is enroute now via Fedex, scheduled to arrive later this week. New helmet is here now. Long range weather forcast is calling for a beautiful weekend. Yeah, the stars may be in alignment this coming weekend. We’re ready…

Contrary to what Big Dave’s friend Bob has to say, I identify as a nerd. And as a nerd, part of my daily routine is surfing by Slashdot to see what’s up with my brother and sister nerds from around the world.

Today finds a raging debate about the history of invention from various world cultures. It was sparked by an article published in the The Independent newspaper from the UK.

From coffee to cheques and the three-course meal, the Muslim world has given us many innovations that we take for granted in daily life.

I admit I was suprised by some of the inventions in the top 20 list. The Slashdot debate makes a few interesting points regarding it though. Are these Islamic inventions?  Or are they inventions from people who happened to live in a part of the world we associate with Islam? As for me, I’m no scholar of history… I’m just glad *someone* invented these things, as I certainly enjoy the fruits of their labor.

I’ve been combing through my old photos so i can organize them and get them uploaded to Flickr. The latest set is a collection of aviation-related photos I’ve taken over the last few years. Most of them are from three different Gathering of Warbirds airshows in Washington State.

Visit Flickr to see the entire collection…