Motorcycle

The Great Unplugging

By Lisa B on October 3, 2010

It was supposed to be last week. Then the rains came, and didn’t stop. So we postponed it to this week. Tomorrow we’re packing up our motorcycles and heading to the mountains. We’re celebrating our 14th wedding anniversary a little early this year. I’m just thankful we’ll get to go this year. I really missed not going last year.

I’m leaving my computer at home – so no email, Twitter, Facebook, working on websites, none of it. I will have my cell phone to call home, but other than actual voice calls, I’m not going to use my phone. This is major for me. I’m quite the computer addict. I decided to leave you with a list so you may know when it’s time to go on vacation or just unplug for a bit.

5 of ways you know it’s time to unplug

when you dream in code (html, css, php)
when you wake up in a panic realizing you didn’t set your alarm last night, rush into your child’s room to wake them up for school only to realize it’s Saturday
when you get a speeding ticket on a back road because you’re running late to pickup your child from school
when you hear your spouse snoring down the hall, and you’re still working on a project
when your child has to ask you repeatedly for a drink

and one last bonus way to know when you’re ready to unplug, when you feel like this:

Yes, that’s me. I remember the exact moment this picture was taken. I don’t know why I was upset in the first place, but Dad had sat me on the kitchen table. My oldest sister, Sue – who is 11 years older than me and should have known better – snapped this picture of me which made me even more upset. And Dad got mad at me. I couldn’t understand it. But Dad didn’t get mad at me a lot, so it kinda jerked me back into reality and stopped the gushing.

But if you’ve been feeling like this, I pray you get a vacation sometime soon! Or if you can’t do a vacation right now, just get a book that doesn’t make you think and go somewhere away from your house for an hour. Give yourself permission to unplug. I promise Twitter, Facebook, and the rest of the Internets will still be there when you get back. After all, you’ll be here when I get back, right?

| Filed Under: Family, Motorcycle, Personal, Vacation

Road Trip!

By Lisa B on July 7, 2009

Oh yeah! We’re going on a road trip! Just Duck and I on our motorcycles! Woot! Woot!

So Mom, Dad, and anyone else who might stress this, pray for us to have safe travels And don’t worry. I’ll be tweeting when we get places so that ya’ll know we didn’t fall off the side of the mountain.

Doodle is headed to the beach with Grandma and Grandpa. She’s in very capable hands. So we decided to take this opportunity to run for the hills We’ll be leaving Wednesday afternoon headed to Roanoke. I hope to see my buddy Heather @ Desperately Seeking Sanity and see if she’s found any sanity yet. Then Thursday we’re on the Parkway all day — all the way to Boone where I hope to meet up with Real Life Sarah. Sarah tweeted yesterday that she wants to have her picture made on my bike I think we can do that!

We’re hanging out in Boone for awhile, maybe hitting the ziplines. Lord, have mercy on me, I’m afraid of heights. But I’m totally determined to *not* ride up on a Harley and then chicken out because the lines are too high. That’s just not cool.

Back home Saturday by the afternoon because Duck’s group is playing Saturday night at one of their hot spots — a local retirement home. Honestly, they love playing Southern Gospel and old Country music, and the residents adore them.

And, since I didn’t post anything about the 4th, here are a few pictures from our weekend project. Duck and I bought Doodle a basketball goal (well, Duck likes it too!) for her birthday. He and I (mostly he — I hate hard labor) put roughly 800 lbs of concrete in the ground and the pole, and over the course of the weekend — got that sucker up! And it stayed up! It’s a miracle I tell ya!

She Shoots!

It's Going In!

Nothin' but net

Duck Basketball Goal

I’m not quite sure what look Duck was going for? Maybe he thought it was going to fall? But actually he was getting ready to slam dunk quite a few. We just won’t mention that it was set at 7’5″ when it should be 10′ for him

I will mention however, that I really don’t like the pictures I take with my camera. I need a new lens, a new camera, or a new operator. Serious lessons would be appreciated. Do ya’ll have any tips?

| Filed Under: Family, Holidays, Motorcycle

Valentine’s Day – YUCK

By Lisa B on February 14, 2009

I’ve always had a thing against V-day. If you can’t love on me 364-days a year, then don’t try to make it up with one day where “everyone” is “supposed” to buy their honeys flowers, chocolate and other assorted gifts.

Last year the day before V-day, I wrote God made me weird. I have some good stuff in my archives by the way. I need to go back and read them! It’s almost like reading a different person writing, and then I think, “oh yeah, I wrote that!”

If you wanted to read about my first Valentine’s Day with Duck, I wrote about that too. Seriously, go read. I’ll wait.

La-te-da-de-doh. Oh good. You’re back.

Well, I have to share with y’all that I absolutely adore Duck. He truly is God’s Perfect Gift to me and only me — so you’re out of luck Last weekend he encouraged me to go to BlissDom and socialize, meet friends, and have a good time. Although I lost my mind and didn’t call him enough — he worries about me — he forgave me.

While I was out of town, he shampooed the carpet in our bedroom (something that hasn’t been done in years probably), rearranged furniture, got rid of some clutter, dusted, vaccuumed, and did the laundry. I can’t tell you how awesome it was to walk into a clean house Yep! I’m keeping him!

He’s also got a great sense of humor. Yesterday I went to eat lunch with him. He told me he was going to run 3 miles and asked me if I brought my stuff to run with him. I don’t run. Well, I’ve learned to run — but only 70 feet at a time (softball bases) — and definitely not 3 miles. See? He knows I couldn’t run 3 miles! He’s so funny!

So, Duck — here’s my v-day card to you. I love you with all my heart. Thanks for buying me a Harley — the one that I actually ride

{edited to fix the link above to God Made Me Weird Thanks Kellie!!}

| Filed Under: Blessings, Blissdom 09, Holidays, Marriage, Motorcycle

Beautiful Day

By Lisa B on February 10, 2009

I interrupt the BlissDom recap to share that I got to ride my bike today! WUHOO! It felt so good to be back on my motorcycle, I just can’t even explain it. We only rode about 20 miles but it was great to get back in the saddle — at least on my iron horse. Until I go live with A Cowboy’s Wife, it’s all I got

| Filed Under: Motorcycle

Our First Motorcycle Group Ride

By Lisa B on October 27, 2008

Back in March I took a Basic Riders Safety course at a local community college. One of the instructors, Jim ‘Ape Anderson, took everyone’s email to keep in touch with his students. I don’t really know how many he’s had, but I know he taught pretty much every weekend until this weekend. I talked him into letting me start a blog for him with an email list so he doesn’t get accused of spamming — trying to send out 300 emails at one time. That site is Triangle Biker.com. You can check it out

About a month ago, Jim asked through email, who was interested in a reunion ride of sorts. He arranged a ride up through the country to Virginia, around the lake, across the dam, and back home. We went on that ride yesterday and it was so much fun! I can’t really explain the feeling of being a part of a large group like that. It was amazing! Jim is part of the Blue Knights (a cop motorcycle group) and he got some of his buddies to ride with us. It was pretty cool because they would ride up and block intersections so we could all stay together

There was another couple there, the lady rode on the back of the bike taking pictures. I’m not at all sure how she got such good pictures of us going about 60MPH, but here are a few that they sent me — of me, Duck and Doodle. We had a blast, but it was a little too long for Doodle. She got tired quickly and kept leaning on Duck which made him tire quickly since he was holding her weight as well. I’m glad we all went, but next time we’ll probably leave Doodle with Grandma.

| Filed Under: Blessings, Family, Marriage, Motorcycle

Random Updates

By Lisa B on October 18, 2008

Because I know you’re just dying to know some of this stuff … ok, seriously, it’s because it’s stuff I might want to remember one day and I know I’ll forget

Doodle’s School: She recently had her fall intersession break (3 weeks out of school). My mother-in-law, Doodle and I went to the beach one extended weekend and then they went back for another trip in the middle of the week. Doodle loves the beach. I, do not. She is still #3 on the waiting list of the school, but I’m afraid it’s not moving much any more. Doodle is doing awesome in Mr. Teacher’s classes (Math and Language Arts). She’s doing pretty good in social Studies but got a D on her report card for Science. This miffs me, but I haven’t spoken to Mrs. Teacher about it. You may recall Doodle got in trouble for chasing a boy around the room. The punishment was she gets a zero on the pass/fail project they were doing. Oh, but she could read in a book and answer questions … in class … yeah, that didn’t happen.

Anniversary Trip: Our 12th anniversary trip is over. We’ve gotten back and settled into life again. We survived it and didn’t fall off the mountains. It was a beautiful trip. We rode our Harleys in the Shenandoah Valley — 2 mountain ranges on either side — and then road on the Skyline for 100+ miles. The Skyline runs into the Blue Ridge Parkway which we finally got to ride on Sunday. Sunday was a long day. We really rode too much but it was great to get home and sleep in my own bed! Total mileage on the trip was 785 miles. That blows my mind

Church: We’ve been visiting other churches when we haven’t been out of town. We haven’t found the one that we think God wants us at … yet. I’m beginning to wonder if we’re being too picky, but I figure God will let us know if that’s the case.

Family: My niece, Tiffany had her baby girl while we were out of town (10/9/08). She weighed in at 7 lbs, 10 1/2 oz. and was 20 1/2 inches long. Sounds a lot like Doodle’s measurements when she was born. Both are healthy and doing well.

Mom and Dad went to visit the old hometown in WV this weekend. They are doing well. Mom’s enjoying her retirement entirely and they haven’t killed each other yet — being home together all the time

Women of Faith: I just bought my tickets to go to Women of Faith on Oct 31. This was a difficult decision for me because I really want to go, but then there’s also taking Doodle trick or treating. Yeah, I know all the good debates about celebrating Halloween. We don’t have a church Fall Festival to go to and she still likes to dress up. Anyway, Duck said he would take her out. I know he will not enjoy it all that much, but I’m thankful he said he’d go. I’m meeting up with a couple of friends at the conference I haven’t seen in awhile — Lisa 1 will be there and I haven’t seen her in a few years at least. Hard to believe the time has flown by!

I’ve been following Patsy Clairmont on Twitter and responding to some of her tweets. I hope to be able to get a picture together with her or at least meet her. I love all the Women of Faith women and I’m really looking forward to going.

Party in Las Vegas: Well, not necessarily that kind of party. I know some of you may think I’ve lost my religion, but my niece is getting married in a few weekends in Las Vegas. My brother and his family have lived out there for, oh I don’t remember how long — maybe 20+ years? My brother was stationed at the Air Force base out there awhile before he retired. Anyway, Duck and I are flying out for the wedding. Doodle is disappointed she won’t be going. We’ve tried to explain it to her that she really wouldn’t have fun, but it’s probably more that we want to have some fun while we’re out there. Totally selfish, I know. Maybe I have lost some religion.

Identity Crisis: Thanks so much to all my friends who came out of the woodwork and were worried about me with my last crazy post. I really am in a better place now. I just need to get my act together and start blogging regularly. The trip to the mountains helped with my perspective. Whenever I lose perspective, I always love going to the mountains. Brings peace to my soul. So, no more excuses. Do or do not — there is no try — Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back. Yeah, that should be tatooed on my forehead, but then I wouldn’t see it all the time.

That’s my ramble for today. Oh, and the Twitter Mini Updates will stop now. I turned them on to be stored on my blog while we were traveling in the mountains. I wanted a kinda of diary of events, although I thought it would store the time with them. Maybe I should’ve put the time in the tweet. Oh well, live and learn.

Catch up with me when you can. I’d love an update!

| Filed Under: Bloggin', Family, Motorcycle, Personal

Happy 12th Anniversary!!

By Lisa B on October 12, 2008

Happy anniversary Duck! I love you more than when we got married, and I definitely didn’t think that was possible. It seemed like it took you for-evah to figure out you wanted to marry me, but when you made up your mind, you really make up your mind.

Duck said that our 10th anniversary was the best one up until then. We rented a Harley-Davidson Springer and rode on the parkway — a long time dream of Duck’s.

For our 11th anniversary, I talked Duck into buying a Harley-Davidson Heritage Softail Classic and we both rode on that on the parkway. We started on the south end and worked our way up to Boone.

This past year, I got my motorcycle license in March and rode on a Sportster for awhile until Duck was convinced I was going to stick with riding my own bike. Last weekend I was blessed to pickup my own Heritage Softail Classic — modified just for me. I think it may have hurt his ego at first that I was riding the same bike as his, but he got over it

He says this year is the best anniversary by far — that they keep getting better each year. I pray that continues, but I have no idea how we’ll top this one next year We rode to the north part of the parkway which actually is called the Skyline. Well, the Skyline may be separate, but we rode it yesterday. Today we’re hoping to go on the parkway some before we need to get home.

Say a prayer for us please — traveling mercies and to be able to find food and gas when we need them I get mighty cranky when I’m hungry! I’ll be tweeting when I can so follow me over there for updates.