It's a slow time of year

"I have two best friends. The front wheel and the rear wheel."

I've not been able to spend much time with my friends lately. I go to work in the dark and I come home in the dark, and I've been fairly busy on the weekends. I've managed to get some brief rides in on Sundays, and have ridden to work once or twice each week (in the dark both ways), but that's about it.

I'm fortunate that I have a garage to park in at work, so that makes riding in the rain a bit more enjoyable (less un-enjoyable?). But riding in the dark has me wishing I had some retroreflective tape on the back of my helmet. Even though my bike is fairly tall and has some rather bright headlights, I wish it had more reflectivity and perhaps a brighter brake light.

I've been enjoying my Garmin Zumo 450 GPS. It's easy to use and easy to see. I mounted it on my left handlebar so it's easy to reach with my left hand. Some people mount their Zumo on the top-center of their instrument cluster, in the nook of their windscreen. That makes it easy to see but difficult to reach.

Thinking ahead

I will turn 40 next summer and thoughts of taking a celebratory trip have been crossing my mind. Where would I go? Would I go alone or take the spousal unit? Would I invite one or more friends to ride along? With the economy the way it is and feeling uncertain about my financial future -- I'm pretty responsible financially and have a stable job, but you never know -- money and cost considerations need to be taken into account. It probably wouldn't be a good idea to book an expensive trip that I can't cancel without penalty. I'd like to fly to Europe, rent a bike, and ride around for a week but that's not a cheap proposition and I don't feel that confident in my job security to plan something so expensive.

What I should do is take on more side jobs (I'm a web developer as well as an IT Manager) and just save up enough sheckels to pay cash for the trip -- and not book the trip until I have the cash in hand.

Where's Dr. Seuss on such a cold, cold, rainy day?

It's raining. It's Oregon. It's November. That's what happens in Oregon in November.

It rains.

I'm not talking namby pamby pissle drizzle. I'm talking rain.

All day long.

It's the reason why GoreTex(tm) is the State Fabric. It's the reason why owning a motorcycle in Oregon is a part-time job. Spring and Fall, and Summer, too = fantastic riding. Potentially some of the best three-season riding conditions in these United States of America.

But from November through February, it sucks. Here's the current weather radar image for the area so you can see what I mean. [external link]

In the meantime, what I do while I'm stuck inside looking out the window at the gray and wet is dream of past and future rides in a state that otherwise is my favorite in the land.