Friends versus Biker Friends

I have added my own individual ones that I feel are warranted and appropriate.


Friends: Never ask for food
Biker Friends: Are the reason you have no food

Friends: Will say “hello”
Biker Friends: Will give you a big hug and a kiss

Friends: Call your parents Mr. and Mrs.
Biker Friends: Call your parents Mom and Dad

Friends: Have never seen you cry
Biker Friends: Cry with you

Friends: Eat at your dinner table and leave
Biker Friends: Will spend hours talking, laughing and just being together

Friends: Know a few things about you
Biker Friends: Could write a book with direct quotes

Friends: Knock on your door
Biker Friends: Walk right in and say I’m home!

Friends: Are for a while
Biker Friends: Are for life

Friends:  Nod when they see you
Biker Friends:  Wave at you every time they see you

Friends:  Hear you are in jail and say, "Gosh that is too bad"
Biker Friends:  Are sitting in jail with you, wondering where your ride is and say:  "What a helluva of a ride!"

Friends:  Prefer to take your dog with you in the car and can't understand why the dog sticks their head out the window while traveling 50 mph
Biker Friends:  Sees the dog hang it's head out the window and appreciates why the dog does it and is envious because it isn't you.

I believe....

I have paraphrased the words from a Harley Davidson video.   These words ring 100% for me.  I can't nor will elaborate more than what is here. I have take the liberty to add a couple of lines at the end that are my own that are in blue. You will find this video at this end of this blog. I am a biker and this is what I believe:

• I believe in going my own way, no matter which way the rest of the world is going.
• I believe in bucking the system that’s built to smash individuals as bugs on a windshield.
• Some believe in the man upstairs.  I believe in sticking it to the man down here.
• I believe in the sky, and I don’t believe in the sunroof.
• I believe in freedom.
• I believe in dust, tumbleweeds, buffalo, mountain ranges and riding off into the sunset.
• I believe in saddle bags and we believe that cowboys had it right.
• I believe in refusing to knuckle under to anyone.
• I believe in wearing black, because it doesn’t show any dirt or weakness.
• I believe the world is going soft, and I'm not going along with it.
• I believe in motor cycle rallies that last a week.
• I believe in road side attractions, gas station hot dogs, and finding out what’s over the next hill.
• I believe in rumbling engines, pistons the size of garbage cans, fuel tanks designed in 1936, freight-train size headlights, chrome and custom paint.
• I believe in flames and skulls.
• I believe life is what you make it, and we make it one hell of a ride.
• I  believe the machine you sit on can tell the world exactly where you stand.
• I don’t care what everyone else believes.
• I believe that everyone should accept others for who they are.
• I believe others should not try to persuade others to change to promote conformity.
• I believe that what you believe in is your right and what I believe it my right.
• I believe no one should assume all believe or feel the same way.
• I believe that cheering for the underdog is not wrong.
• I believe in standing for what is right and not making compromises.
• I believe that stereotyping and profiling is wrong.
• I believe there is good in everyone.
• I believe in doing something for another because it is the right thing to do, not to seek the glory for do it.
• I believe everyone deserves another chance.
• I believe trust is more valuable than gold.
• I believe when I give my word it is as if I have gave my soul to make something happen.
• I believe in doing something right and sticking with it until I have completed it 100%.
• I believe in not gossiping.
• I believe if I am preavy to gossip I go right to the person that the gossip is about to ask the validity of the story.
• I believe if I have a problem with you, I come right to you so that we can work through it together.
• I believe that truthfulness and honesty is the only true way to conduct yourself.
• I believe a person must be proud of themselves, no matter who they are or what they do.
• I believe a handshake seals a deal and is as good as a written contract.
• I believe in respect as well as believing it is a two way street.

Reflections of Riding and What It Has Done For Me.

I thought it was about time to open up the door and windows here, wipe away the dust, and resurrect this blog. I didn’t ride and write as much this past Spring, Summer, and early Autumn as I did last year. Does that make me any less of a Biker Dietitian? No, not at all. It pretty much means Life 101 got in the way. So, now with the Highway of this Life of mine slowing down a bit, I thought I would write about more of an insightful aspect of what riding means to me.

Sure, I have talked in the past where I got my love of riding. I got that from my dad. But I haven’t talked about the aspects of what riding means to me. This idea came to because of a passage from a book I am reading my new Kindle. The book is: “The Devil Knows How To Ride: The True Story Of William Clarke Quantrill And His Confederate Raiders” by Edward E. Leslie. I was drawn to this book because of where I am from – I am from Missouri, right in the heart of where Quantrill wreaked havoc. I have learned that Quantrill was probably one of my country’s first terrorists. Reading about all of his exploits, I have learned he was a man committed to his cause. Throughout this commitment, he was beyond lawless, living by his own set of rules, in between the law. It might have seemed as if he was out of control. It wasn’t that he was an uncontrolled terrorist; he was very much in control. He was fearless and confident. He was decisive and calculating at the same time.

For example – this quote from the book: “Quantrell speaking to Confederate Secretary of War James A. Seddon. When Seldon asked: ‘What would you do, Captain Quantrell, were yours the power and the opportunity?’ ‘Do, Mr. Secretary? Why I would wage such a war and have such a war wages by land and seas as to make surrender forever impossible. I would cover the armies of the Confederacy all over blood. I would invade. I would reward audacity. I would exterminate. I would break up foreign enlistments by indiscriminate massacre. I would win the independence of my people or I would find them graves.’ Seldon asked: ‘And our prisoners, what of them?’ Quantrell replied: ‘Nothing of them, there would be no prisoners. surrounded, I do not surrender; surprised, I do not give way to panic; outnumbered, I rely upon common sense and stubborn fighting; outlawed, I feel through it my power; hunted, I hunt my hunters in turn; hated and made blacker than a dozen devils, I add to hoofs the swiftness of a horse, and to my horned the terrors of a savage following.’”

While I would never go to the extremes as Quantrell describes. But this passage solidifies the characteristics of control, fearlessness, confidence, decisiveness, and calculating. I would hope that I would never be regarded as a terrorist, but I would like to be compared to Quantrell for the qualities he exhibits in this passage. My riding has helped me become fearless and confident as well as decisive and calculating at the same time. If nothing else, admiration and comparison of these qualities in Quantrell can be made to what riding has done for me.

Heat Safety Measures - Riding a Motorcycle or NOT

The escalating temperatures can be a person's worst enemy in the summer. Whether you are walking or working outside or riding a motorcycle.

Whether you are on a motorcycle or not - you can or MUST take measures to protect yourself in the heat.

Body Automatic Thermostats
Your body has automatic "thermostats" to protect the core organs from heat stress, including sweating, vasodilation, increase in heart rate and reduction of blood pressure. Prevention measures are not put into place to keep core temperature within the redline, the body gives you warnings such as heat cramps, even more serious, including heat exhaustion and heat stroke.

Sweating

Sweat glands to keep the skin damp. Evaporating sweat sucks heat from the skin, and transfers it to the air. Sweat is water and some electrolytes. It’s critical to keep hydrated. The body needs to about a pint of water every hour during hot, dry conditions. This rule of thumb is even more important for motorcyclists. At highway speeds, the sweat glands may not keep up with the evaporation causing dehydration with even more serious complications.

Vasodilatation
To help cool down the body, blood vessels enlarge to circulate more blood and body heat towards the skin. If ambient air temperature is lower than body temperature, excess heat can be absorbed by the air. But if the air gets hotter than the skin, the increased blood flow simply soaks up more heat from the air and pumps it back to the body.

Heart rate and blood pressure

The heart responds to increasing heat by increasing the heart rate to pump more blood into those enlarged blood vessels. As the air temperature rises, heart rate can increase 50% to 70% faster than the normal resting rate. The increased flow causes blood pressure to drop, and blood flow is shunted away from muscles and brain, towards the skin.

Symptoms of trouble
The human body won't take much of an increase in temperature without complaining. The symptoms of overheating are leg cramps, tired muscles, headaches, dizziness, and even fainting. The various symptoms are trying to tell you how overcooked you're getting.

The bottom line and your first line of defense is HYDRATE, HYDRATE, HYDRATE, HYDRATE!

My Bubble Has Been Busted...

Got this comment on my blog about the award I supposedly received.  This is from Alex Zorach, who did a little more research about this supposed award.

"This award seems harmless, even exciting and flattering. But it's part of a far-reaching scam that has targetted hundreds of blogs. After almost being duped by this, I dug deeper and found what's really going on here...I wrote about it on my tea blog (which recently received this "award"):

Awards & Search Engine Optimization

I'd greatly appreciate it if you took the time to read that post. Thanks!"

Here is link from Alex Zorach's Tea Blog regarding "Awards & Search Engine Optimization
http://cazort.blogspot.com/2010/08/awards-and-search-engine-optimization.html

In other words...I got suckered.....Son Of Bitches!!!!  I am from Missouri - we have held onto grudges against Kansas since the Civil War.  I will NOT forget, I won't be suckered again.  Fool me once shame on me, Fool me twice shame on you.

Everywhere there are blogs - but Mine receives Top Blog Award?

A blog is a type of website or part of a website. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

Most blogs are interactive, allowing visitors to leave comments and even message each other via widgets on the blogs and it is this interactivity that distinguishes them from other static websites.

Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic.

There are way over 100,000 blogs on the internet today and the numbers keep growing.

Today I received this email:

O.K, if you know anything about me, I am a huge skeptic, remember "I am from Missouri, you have GOT to show me."  That means, I don't believe anything until I see it for myself.  Remember you take the girl out of Missouri, but you can't take the Missouri out of the girl.  That being said, I decided to start investigating this "Top Blog" award.

Here is the website description of the Top Blog Award
 
"XXXXX University proudly presents the Top Blog Awards, recognizing the top resources in a wide array of subjects for best representing the multitude of unique interests to be realized. Whether your interests lie in the savory delicacies of Italian cuisine, to exploring the abnormal paranormal, we have found those blogs that have excelled above and beyond the rest of their fellow blogs. Our aim is to provide the curious mind a source of information, and we hope that we have quenched your thirst for knowledge."

There is a School of Science and Technology and within this school there is a category of:

Top Motorcycle Blogs

OK, my blog is listed there.  Not sure what it gets me, but it is nice to be recognized.  I am quite surprised.  Like many people I blog for the fun of it.  I am a novice writer.  My writing can be raw at times.  I have written since I was in second grade.  I have been published in professional publications, one time in a high school publication, and several articles in my junior college newspaper.  I would love to raw a novel, but with my writing being so raw and unpolished, I am not sure if that will ever happen.  Needless to say, "blogging" is a way for me to write.

Typically I am NOT a boaster - if you don't know that about me, just ask some of my friends, they will tell you.  So with all of this being said, some of my friends are on this list with me - I recognized their blogs, I will accept this award and smile a little bigger this evening - even it is just a little somethin' somethin....

***Please refer to this posting:***  My Bubble Has Been Busted

Motorcycling and Protective Gear

I just returned from a brief trip to the midwest for family issues. All motorcyclists stop and observe others on motorcycles. That is just the way it is - we want to see what you are riding, how you are riding, and how you are dressed. We aren't usually critical outwardly. When we see careless behaviors, we usually just shake our heads, make mental notes our observations, and mentally review the safety practices we have been taught.


The part of the midwest I was visiting is the heartland - flat, little twisties, little tree canopy covered roads, and often the route for many to Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota. Sturgis is happening now. I saw many, many motorcycles - some two up riders, some single riders, some women riders, and a lot of men riders.

One unifying observation I was able to make about many, many motorcyclists I saw - they seemed to have forgotten basic motorcycle safety riding gear. I saw many in short pants, (even one woman rider hat hot pants one with a tube top on, yet she was wearing a helmet), sandals, flip-flop shoes, sleeveless shirts, shirtless, and even a bikini riding motorcycle female. I also discovered that the part of the midwest where I was there is a helmet law. So every rider wore a helmet.

I had to chuckle and thankfully say to myself "And they think that helmet is going to protect them from road rash on all that exposed skin, if they do go down."

When a motorcycle rider crashes their body, their skin makes contact with the pavement - often at a very fast velocity. Gravel and the road gets embedded in the exposed skin.

Many, many people who take Motorcycle Safety Basic Riding Couse. We are taught to be safe on a motorcycle, even down to what we wear.

These motorcyclists were taking an incredible risk and have forgotten the basic principles of safe motorcycle riding.
Please ride safe and remember to wear appropriate protective gear.