Fucking April

We came home this afternoon to find Vaca, our long-haired cowboy cat lying in the mud in the ditch by the side of the road. We rushed him to the vet, where our good friend Dr. Dan checked him over. While there's no external trauma and no obvious breaks in the x-rays, Vaca's paralyzed from about two thirds of the way along his spine on back.

He's home now, lying on a towel in the bathroom next to food and water, after taking a good bite out of my hand and swipe out of Dan's upper arm at the office. We're hoping that there's just some bruising compressing his spinal cord and that the steroids and anti-inflamatories he's on will reduce that swelling and get him back on his feet.

If that doesn't work, though, but he's still eating, drinking, and not in terrible pain, then we'll have a wheelchair cat. Like I told the Wife, if one of us became paralyzed, we'd figure out how to deal with it. It's the same thing for the four-legged members of our family.

Oh, but that that were all for April.

This morning, I buried the car pretty much up to the axel in the mud in our yard, trying to get it out of the way for the truck I borrowed for a dump run. I lot my temper, snapped at the Wife, then wound up paying $83 and change for a twenty-foot tow.

At the beginning of the month, Molly was recovering from a near fatal cut to her forearm. She's fine, now, so that's good, but jeesh.

Last year this time, we had a chimney fire, the deck stairs collapsed under me giving me a nice little ride on sharp wood edges, and the Wife put a nail pretty much *through* her foot.

So here're three cheers for April. Ending.

Rev

I got the bike fired up Monday evening. I went home, ostensibly to sleep because I was running on about four hours of sleep, but then I saw her sitting there, glowing red in the late afternoon sunlight, taunting me.

So I figured I'd take a look to see if the battery cable was really the problem. Uh, yeah. It is. So now, I get a new battery, charge it up, attach a new cable, don the leathers and helmet and go for a ride. Of course, if you'd like to contribute to this little venture, feel free to send me a little gift. Or a bigger gift. Either would be great!

Love,
-aj

Bikes, For Pooh

Yo, Pooh. I sort of used to ride a 1983 Honda CX650E(pictures are not my bike, though it looks very much the same). That's a four-cylinder, shaft-driven, water-cooled sport touring machine that was released in Europe (hence the "E") and Canada, but never in the U.S. It's bright red with an after-market fairing that makes it look kind of like a BMW.

I got mine from a ferry captain who was given it by her father who thought commuting from Corucopia to Bayfield on a dirt bike was too dangerous. The captain found the bike to be too big and heavy for her, so she cut me a good deal on it.

I say I've "sort of ridden it" because in the last couple years I've had some smallish mechanical problems, and, of course, I've just had a kid, which has put all my death defying activities into a new light. However, I think I have a bead on the major problem with the bike (electrical). Once my insurance at my new job kicks in, I may just be back on the road. I'm sure Mom is thrilled to hear that.

As for Harleys, I've only ridden one once, but it was the mayor of our fair city's bike, so that counts for something. It was a pretty nice ride, but I think I may be more of a vintage Wing sort of guy, myself. I'm not sure, though, only having ridden such a machine once, as well. Mostly, I think I need a bigger bike with a little room for a long weekend's camping gear and a backrest for The Wife.

Huge Thanks!

The benefit was a huge success! With the food, dancing, and silent auction, we made over $5,000! I was shooting to raise about a grand or maybe $1,500, but never in my wildest dreams did I think we'd go this big.

Huge thanks to everyone involved from my co-organizers to local business folk who donated to the few hundred people who came and had a good time!

And just for the record, the reconditioned Linux box (Fedora Core 3) that I built for the auction went for $100 bucks. That, of course, was for the hardware. The OS, as always was free. ;-)