Escape the Heat

It finally got hot here in the Willamette valley. I love the summer. I have a love/hate relationship with the heat. On one hand its the best riding weather, on the other it can be *too* hot to be fun to ride anymore. Then there's times when you simply can't escape the heat or its muggy, none of that is fun.

While riding the other day I had the thought: what we do to escape the heat is what we remember as the best parts of summer. Riding a motorcycle into the mountain wearing mesh gear, going swimming, eating ice cream, drinking beer. Sure its nice to sit in the AC in your house and veg out, but will you remember that fondly when its cold again outside?

Thanks to pandemic I spent almost all day every day from March to Late June working from home. Needless to say now that I'm on sabbatical and its summer I get antsy as heck sitting at home doing nothing, although the AC is sure nice to come home to. The other night I rode my mom's bike (still waiting on mine back from the shop) one town over the get ice cream. Sure I could have bought a container and taken it home to eat while watching the myriad of streaming services I pay for, but where's the fun in that?

Would you know it? by dark on the ride home it was nice and cool.

Best Laid Plans

A few months ago in the pre-pandemic era a local brewery/pizza restaurant had a Robert Burns night. The premise was to drink Scottish ale, read poetry from Scotland's Robert Burns, and of course wear kilts. While wearing my awesome kilt I read the somewhat famous poem "To A Mouse". The gist of it was bemoaning that the mice's portion of the grain and corn he steals is insignificant but we try to kill him anyways, and how human's careless action will destroy a mouse's home and stored food. Hence the expression that the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray.

Two months ago I had a plan. Continue working my tail off in a profession that pays well but is an emotional grindhouse. Keep pushing rope and work for the weekend. Race a few rounds, ride the track, maybe get away for a few long weekends. Never really unplug. Keep holding on until I get to 10 years with the company and get 20 days off a year. The mentality of "just hold on long enough to be able to unwind later".

Sounds like a horrible plan right?  Chris Nolan's Joker character made the observation that "You know what I've noticed? Nobody panics when things go "according to plan." Even if the plan is horrifying! If, tomorrow, I tell the press that, like, a gang banger will get shot, or a truckload of soldiers will be blown up, nobody panics, because it's all "part of the plan"." The plan was horrifying, exchange little bits of my soul for money to spend on recreation to try to rebuild what I'm losing every day. Its that perverse extension of "making up for lost time" that I've talked about and nobody including myself panicked about that horrible plan.

As you know that plan was ripped away as fast as a businessman can say "line item on the budget". So I replaced it with a new plan, go see the world on my motorcycle. One of life's little ironies is that the reason I lost my job is the reason that travel is now impossible (internationally) or inadvisable (domestically). Even further, my main bike (the VFR) went down with a bad cam chain tensioner (probably). When I lost my job I panic sold the ZX6R, so no race season and no backup bike.

So the new plan is to ride my mom's bike around until my VFR is back. On the upside its reliable although not sporty.

I test rode a used Ninja 400 and loved it, almost bought it, but my practicality stopped me. "Hey Tim, you might need that money if you can't get reemployed in X months".

Since I wasn't racing I volunteered at OMRRA as a corner worker. My corner didn't see much action so I took some pictures and talked bikes with the other corner workers. It was a refreshing change of pace I suppose.

"You were a schemer, you had plans, and, uh, look where that got you." - also the Joker.