Today a friend and I celebrate a ritual we call simply, “Man Day.” My shooting partner’s wife is out of town giving him the rare freedom to indulge in a day of manly pursuits.

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Saturday Share is taking a hiatus. It’s becoming a lot of work to do on a weekly basis and I’m completely lacking inspiration at the moment. I’ll continue dropping the occasional song into a post, mostly to reflect my mood of the moment. Like this one, which pretty well sums up my current melancholy.

This week’s Saturday Photo Scavenger Hunt theme is “Old.” The photos I’ve selected were taken while on a motorcycle ride around the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State.

A friend and I decided to leave the pavement and circumnavigate around Lake Quinault via gravel road. Sounds simple but not so much when you’re riding a pair of sport bikes that really aren’t designed to slip and slide around on gravel.

So here we are working our way through this dark, primordial, rain forest. The forest itself is old growth so I probably could have just used a photo of the trees. As we traveled along though, we came across an old truck nestled near the road with the sign “Rust In Peace” marking it’s location. There was very little civilization near this thing, so someone with a sense of humor obviously happened by at some point. Of course, I had to take a picture!

So, this week you get your choice… old forest, or old truck!

I love this song. I dug it out of my archives to use on the recent riding video. I had forgotten how much I like it.

You could be my someone
You could be my scene
You know that I’ll protect you
From all of the obscene
I wonder what you’re doing
Imagine where you are
There’s oceans in between us
But that’s not very far

“Blurry” by Puddle of Mudd

I think I’m about ready to indulge a minor dream of mine. It’s not a major thing, I could have done it anytime in the past really. Why I didn’t is hard to say.

What I’m rambling about is pursuing studies in Tai Chi. I’ve always been fascinated by it. It’s considered a “soft” or internal martial art. The graceful movements attract me. Not that I’m graceful by nature. It does mesh well with my riding style though I think.

I’ve found a local school that looks like a place I could be happy visiting. I think I’ll pursue this as soon as the show I’m currently rehearsing for is complete and I’ve returned from my ride down to California.

No really, I need friends! On Netflix anyway… If you are a Netflix member and would be interested becoming Netflix “friends” to share ratings, recommendations, reviews, etc using their system just post a comment here so I can send you an invite!

And if you aren’t using Netflix but still renting DVDs, what the heck is WRONG with you?!

I was going to steal this from Marianna but she was missing the “i”… so was Shephard. I wound up having to track the missing “i” all the way back to Gemmak. What this says about me I leave up to you.

Addendum: Gemmak is missing the “n” so I have stolen one from Shephard!

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Thursday is apparently movie day. I had dinner with my editor last night and picked up two assignments to attend press screenings for movie reviews. I’ll get to watch them back-to-back at the same theater at least. One is a documentary, the other is a drama. Both sound interesting.

First up is “An Inconvenient Truth,” a documentary about global warming starring Al Gore. It’s a subject I have some interest in and I’m curious to hear what he has to say. The second is “Peaceful Warrior” starring Nick Nolte, Scott Mechlowicz and Amy Smart. This one sounds like a very mystical movie, also something I’m looking forward to.

The movies aren’t due out until late May/early June so I don’t expect my reviews will be published until closer to the scheduled release. I’ll post links when they are available.

You know it was a good ride when you’re still mentally exhausted the next day! Fortunately for you, I did find the energy to edit down all that video into something a little more manageable.

This video will give you a MUCH better idea what a few hours in the saddle of a sport bike is like. Yes, it can be dangerous, yes we pushed a bit hard in spots, and yes we’re rusty after being on hiatus for so long. But… we still had a blast!

For the record, this photo is from the last time Jim and I rode together. That would have been our trip to Mount Baker the day before my accident. That should give you a little context on the significance of yesterday’s ride, a major milestone for me really.

Visit the download page!

I am freakin’ exausted. I mean totally drained. I can’t even work up the energy to roll the garbage can out to the curb yet. I may need a nap first.

I left home a little after 3pm PST. I got home about 15 minutes ago. In the intervening hours I rode nearly 200 miles, got gas, ate dinner and had maybe two stretch breaks. Half of that 200 miles was intense twisties and maybe a little excessive speed.

It’s all on tape, I’ll edit it down tonight and tomorrow. If you saw the demo video I did last week let me just say that this new video is going to amp things up several times over. I teamed up with my regular riding partner Jim as my camera subject and followed him up Hwy 9 in Washington State. I think you’ll find it interesting.