a world of shadows

Posted on September 30, 2006

Of course there is a forum and giant web page for Shadow owners … this is 2006! Truthfully, this site is huge … www.hondashadow.net … I have already registered and posted. This was today’s ‘ bike of the day ‘ … which is a ‘93 or ‘94 like mine. Without the wind shield it really makes it look tough. My shield looks like it was driven or dragged through the Sahara desert. I can barely even see through it. Anyway … we rode around yesterday afternoon … it was a beautiful afternoon … it was tons o fun. Neenie got the insurance settled while I still checked out the things that might need replacing. She thinks the tires need replacing … like pronto. Go Neenie, go Neenie, it’s your birthday. No, I won’t be buying Neenie tires for her birthday … maybe a helmet though … along with several pairs of Ecco’s … I know that’s coming.

I did contact a guy who makes wiring harnesses for Shadows … he said that if I just buy the front turn signals that go on a newer bike they will fit … those things just bug me. Today we head up to Gainesville for Caleb’s soccer game … that should be fun to watch. October is here! What a blast! I hope everyone is planning to ‘ get out of the house ‘ and enjoy what little fall like weather we have here in Texas … Srewolf has already hit me up for a ride next Saturday morning … might be able to take a short one … it’s the grandkids birthday party. All in all … it was a pretty good week. We cranked out a lot of tshirts, signs, and stuff. I got hooked up with the bikerchaplains.com dudes, bought a bike, rode a bike, … life is better.

I did find out yesterday that friends of ours … Mike and Angela had a major upheaval in their lives. Their house burned down last weekend. Angela is pregnant and they lost everything in the fire. Talked to Mike yesterday … he is in great spirits and is looking for a new home. Everything has purpose … right? Sometimes it just takes a while for that revelation. Our prayers go out to Mike and Angela. They also go out to a couple of other friends of ours … Vonda, Casey and Beth. Vonda is going through a tough time right now and needs our prayers. Details are only for gossipers … so don’t ask. (Man, I wish I had that much boldness when I was a Pastor)

Congrats to Mercy Place Co-ed team for winning your ball game. Way to go! 13-0!! Wow! Must be the coaching. And another word for MG … share your bat man, I taught you better than that! The Mercy Place Pro team, I hear LOOKS really good with their sharp uniforms … Go Moose. Also good news about finding a permanent home for MP. Steve-O … stay tough and drive a hard bargain. Like I said before … Neenie and I are hanging at Genesis Metro for the time being along with Mer, James and the kids. GM meets at Pink Elementary School in Frisco at 10:45 am if anyone wants to come.

The whole Fam is looking for a little different Christmas celebration this year … I hear we may take xmas on the road. Going south for sun and surf? Maybe! I so like that better than the whole presents thing. If we get to go to Cabo or maybe Baja … there are lots of ‘ outdoors ‘ things to do.  That would be cool.

I guess you figured by now … that I am an avid blogger. So no matter what day it is … you can find me blathering on about something.

happy Saturday

hg

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so, I got the ghost right

Posted on September 29, 2006

When I was picking the name for my blog … it came to me quickly. Harley Ghost … a play on stuff that is and was going on in my life. I had every intention in buying a Harley until I found out that they cost as much as a car and a payment probably would be involved. Which meant … that would be difficult for us to make happen, right now. So I searched and searched. Ebay, cycle trader, craig’s list and then yesterday morning I happened to go to the Denton Record Chronicle classifieds … they usually never have anything and I mean anything worthwhile to look at. There it was … a 1993 Honda VT 1100 located in Sanger for under $3K. Mileage was a little more than I was hoping to find but I called the guy and felt like he was honest. He is 68 and hanging up riding … he was the second owner to an airline pilot who kept every scrap of paper concerning what he did to the bike for the first 13K. It was like reading about someone’s life. The guy I bought it from kept it covered and in his garage. It is clean to say the least and it looks like it had a pampered life. Not much in the after market arena … just a set of Cobra pipes which have discolored a bit. I’m not real crazy with their sound, but they will do for now. The buckhorn bars were a little tricky getting used to … a little too close together for me … but comfortable. The front pegs are more forward than the Road King I rented a couple of months back … which actually takes some pressure off of my rear. The thing I least like about the bike is those dog gone turn signals on the handle bars … what genius thought that was a good idea. That will be my first project. The windshield has never been replaced … so it is impossible to see anything through it. It looks like it was sandblasted … but an easy fix. The guy threw in two helmets, a dust cover, some really old saddle bags and a little roll bag. The bike handles really, really well … much lighter than the Road King … I think the Shadow is about 550 lbs.

But … I am very excited about it. I was upset about my blog name though. I certainly do not want to mislead anyone … and then it came to me … right now … it’s the ghost part … get it, shadow. With the mileage up there … I’m sure that it will be a semi-project … which will be fun to tinker with. Neenie has her own helmet and she is very anxious to get her first ride *wink, wink*.

On the road again,

hg

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just passing through

Posted on September 28, 2006

I was checking out this blog this morning … BluepoofBikes Motorcycle Adventures … if you are into ‘motorcycle journey’ blogs … this one is great. A couple touring through Nevada, AZ, and Utah tell of their road life for a few days. Good writing and good details … Kudos.

40 years on Two Wheels also has a great (very funny) post on overly optimistic motorcycle ads. I encourage you to read it. I also borrowed his pic for my headliner today … hope he doesn’t mind. I don’t know if this was the actual caption to the ad … but even if it wasn’t … it almost made me snort coffee through my nose. Caption to above motorcycle ad pic … 1970 Bultaco for sale. Needs minor cosmetic work and tune up to be ready for vintage mx or concours events. The Bull caught my eye because my best friend in high school used to have one and we used to ride together.

Ah, the journey of life. It truly is what you make it or how you view it. Neenie is reading a book that someone recommended to her. Margins. Sorry, don’t know who the author is … I get Neenie’s cliff notes version of it at meal time. It is a much faster read to just listen to her tell me about it. It gets to the good parts faster. It’s about how we DON’T have margins in our lives … in other words we live from edge to edge … which creates more stress and more work. Something that 40 on 2 did not mention in his motorcycle ad spoof was this one … "Don’t have time to ride, Too busy" … what that means is … this person is living a marginless life. "Margins" proclaim that technology is great … but it just compounds the fact of "getting more done". We are quicker to say that we will take on a project because all the "tools" are there. Take for instance … when people find out that I print tshirts for a living … the first thing that they think about is getting a custom tshirt and wanting to know how much it costs. Thinking that I can just whip one out in the next few hours. I hope you are following me. My oldest son Casey is very talented with "Flash" and has done websites … when folks find out the type of work he does … they immediately think … hey, Casey is my friend … he has all the tools … he can crank out a website for me. Thus, creating less margin is Casey’s life (if he agrees). I think I get the premise of the book. Last night we ate dinner at Buchanans (sp) … a local restaurant in Pilot Point. We love the food. But last night drove me insane. Seems that Don and Greta bought a new stereo for the restaurant … and they haven’t gotten all the bugs out of it. It was extremely loud. They were playing Ray Charles … which I didn’t mind at all … i liked it. But it seemed that everyone got a call on their cell phone while they were eating dinner. One guy talked on his phone the whole time I was trying to eat. PLUS … he was hard of hearing and screaming to talk to his elderly father and screaming WHAT! every 15 or 20 seconds. He did this for at least 10 minutes! Neenie said, "Marginless." If that wasn’t enough he got a second call and he had to describe in detail how to cut a piece of sheet rock and install it. I was on sensory overload. Hearing Ray Charles sing … "I’ve got a woman" and then hearing Homer scream "What!" … was just way over the top. We laughed so hard as we left the restaurant.

We are heading into October and I love it. I know that by next May I will want the summer to get here. But right now … I am loving the fall. Looks like another big day at Red Roof.

Hope you have a good one …

hg

miami ink & house

Posted on September 27, 2006

            

I like Tuesday night TV! We sort of have the same routine every Tuesday. We always go to eat at Ernesto’s in Pilot Point and we watch TV. Ernesto’s is usually not very crowded on Tuesdays and we have noticed that others have the same habit as we do. Like, my doctor and his wife … they are there every Tuesday as well. Then we fly home to catch House … since they bumped it to 7 pm. I think I like that show because of Houses’ irreverence and rebellious nature. The writers of this show are great … they give an honest approach to a guy who … on the outside … looks like he just doesn’t give a hoot … but inwardly he desires to help and heal. Then at 9 pm … I have to watch Miami Ink. I really like this show. The artists are incredible and the show is believable … much like American Chopper was in the beginning … (sorry the Teutul’s have ‘jumped the shark’ … their arguments are way too staged now). Anyway, last night … the two tatts that I think were the best were … the Penny with wings and the Tiger sleeve. I thought Kat did an incredible job of detail and heart into this work. The tiger … what can I say … it was a great group project … It fit well on the guys arm and flowed with the other work. I wonder what they charge for their work. Must be expensive! Sure wish you could get it done as fast as it is on TV. One commercial break and the whole thing is complete … unfreaking believable!

On a frustrated note … I jumped on Craig’s list yesterday afternoon and caught a Kawasaki 1500 Classic with 6,800 miles … it had extra chrome, windshield, bags, etc. … the guy was asking $3850 … which I thought was a pretty good deal … I was one call too late. He had promised to let someone else see it before I could. I’m sure it is gone. I tried to call the guy back like 3 times and he never returned my call. That was disappointing. Oh well.

I contacted the guys at bikerchaplain.com … and they actually got back with me. Why am I surprised? I can’t tell the number of times Pastor’s tell me that they will call me for coffee or to talk … never to do so. Too busy, I guess. But … Chappy and Sidecar both emailed me back … that was helpful. I know that I may sound hard or harsh concerning preacherly types … (I was one) … but really guys … the focus of ministry should be helping people. I kick myself in the butt everyday for becoming the guy who hid behind his secretary everyday … screening his calls. I really thought I was busy. I didn’t know what busy was! I know that I got to the point that I thought I was ’something’ on a stick! Only to realize that I was isolating myself in an ivory tower of my own making. I know Pastor’s can’t do everything … but they can make themselves available to people. Some may disagree, that’s ok. Anyway … thanks Chappy and Sidecar for spending a couple of minutes to email a brother.

Well … it’s time for another cup of joe and a fun filled day of screen printing!!

keep the ink moving,

hg

you think you had a bad day

Posted on September 26, 2006

Ouch! Javelin through the foot … trumps plywood dropped on big toe, any day.

Track and field line judge Lia Mara Lourenco is helped after a javelin hit her in her foot during ‘Brazil Trophy,’ a national track and field competition, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Sunday, Sept. 24, 2006. (AP Photo/Jonne Roriz, Agencia Estado)

Remind me not to volunteer for the state track meet this year. Makes getting sand in your shoes at the triple jump pit … not so bad. I want to ask a silly question … I wonder what she was looking at … if she was an official … if she was a spectator … someone should not have been in the javelin throwing competition.

With that great lead in … let me say … I had a great Monday (comparatively). Very busy, of course, but I did get all of the projects done that I had scheduled. This morning … not a good start … no water … seems our co-op well is down again. The joys of country living. I’m still doing a lot of research on the bike buy … struggling with the whole metrics vs. Harley choice again. Let’s face it … I want the Harley, but still can’t get over the sticker shock. I guess I should look at the fact that the resale on Harley’s are just off the chart … so I wouldn’t really lose a lot of money down the road. Don’t know.

I also have been reading a lot about the local Christian Biker Ministries … there are so many to choose from. I did email the guys from bikerchaplain.com yesterday … but have not heard back from them as of this morning. Maybe they can help with a little guidance. Neenie and I are thinking about going to the CMA - changing of the colors in Arkansas next month … sounds like a lot of fun. We’ll see.

I have been contemplating a lot about church these days. Unfortunately, I see more and more fruitless labors around getting the structure and the rules right than I done actual help. After-all … isn’t helping people what it should be about? We spend so much time and resource preparing for the ‘big day’ (Sunday) that we neglect the everyday support of people. I know all the excuses … we don’t have the time. Our lives are too busy. Cut the crap … you do what you really want to do. I remember when our kids were small and all played ball … we made every game … EVERY GAME … and still did church .. and I was the PASTOR. So really, y’all … we make time for the things that we value. How long do you think most churches would last if they did not have a service on Sunday morning? Just a thought.

Okay, you say, whats the solution. Stop and connect with people at a common interest. Make friends … not church members. Stop and listen to people talk … I mean really listen, not just listen so that you can ‘tell your stuff’ too. Listen and empathize with their situation. Then what … help!

What if. I picture this scenario on a typical Sunday morning at church. The praise team lead us in great worship (connecting with God) … we pray (God connecting with us) … we stop and ask if we can help anyone with a problem they are having … whatever it may be … we get released to talk with that person, pray, cry, laugh, and share some type of spiritual insight with them based on a personal experience with Jesus Christ (connecting with each other) … we worship some more … we invite people to come to Jesus … a personal savior … we pray and leave for fellowship. I think most of us have heard enough sermons for a lifetime, but have very little practical experience in putting into practice. What if Sunday morning was a practicum in ministering. Heck, I think that’s what Jesus did.

It’s just a dream I have … wouldn’t it be cool?

hg

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