Our Anniversary - Therapy and I that is!

Well it is officially the day, one year since I broke the sporty and bought my Therapy! What a ride it has been, 33,000 kms most of it on the island but also with many trips off the rock and a few to the states, including our inaugural ride!

Started off heading out of the dealership and straight to the states to carry on with the planned trip to Anacortes and the Oyster Run. What a difference it was to ride the Heritage over the sporty along I5. No more of the bump bump bump of the concrete highway! Returning home, I was halfway to my first service already. The next day was of course to nice to stay in and go to work so we headed off to Courtney and the FBI for lunch. Just had to add a few more miles and of course grinnin like the Cheshire cat the whole way. Hard to believe it was a year ago already. If I remember correctly we stayed on the island until the new year, and we rode up until December when the snow hit and couldnt get out of the driveway by truck let alone bike! Not for lack of trying mind you. I spent a good deal of time outside trying to clear a path up the driveway, number one to walk along but 2) if the snow melted away there and I had the dirt driveway I was damn well going to take the bike up it as the roads were clear. All I got for my efforts were a nice walking path and some killer biceps with all the shovelling!!!!!!

Come January the snow had left and we headed to Vancouver for the bike show. Yep 3 of us nuts decided to ride to Van in 0 degrees. Lucky me, my vest decides to pack it in and my heated glove liners decide to burn my damn hands. Nothing like trying to ride thru Langley on Hwy 10 flapping your hands cause they need to cool off. Need to hit the highway quick so I can get some wind air speed blowing on them!!! Although this little incident resulted in a new set of gloves and a new heated jacket that is now known as my sauna, cause damn is it warm!!!!!! Definately worth investing in the more expensive product cause it sure does the job nicely. Our return home was quite thee adventure to say the least. The boys decided to get themselves tickets going thru Delta but for some reason even though I was keeping pace with them the cop went around me and after the 2 of them!!!! HA HA am I good or what! They will never let me live that one down. Well the ticket was a mixed blessing actually, for some reason the ticket slowed us down and we were not at the front of the line to load first, but they did load us on the bottom deck and pushed us up to the front. Thankfully we were parked there safely under the bulkheads cause on the upper deck where we should have been a car caught on fire and the boat was evacuated. Well even though we were off the boat and safe we were still concerned about the salt water they were pumping into the fire and it running down onto our bikes. The guys kept telling me to shut up as mine was new and not to worry about replacing it, as for theirs, that was another story and 03 and and a 90 could be a bit hard to replace. I was also concerned cause of the electronics I was packing with me, my camera and laptop were in my bags. Well besides a 4 hour wait for the boat to sail all was fine and the bikes werent even wet. Thank goodness for small miracles. The only other downfall to this trip was coming home to a new dusting of snow down my driveway. I wasnt to sure about riding her down so I got Len to do it for me. He had no problems but a day later when he came down the drive with his bike he didnt have such good luck getting back up it, which resulted in Lynn and I pushing him up the hill and blocking traffic so he could shoot straight out on to the road! Okay maybe if he had some tread on his rear tire he might have made it.

On the island again for another few months, of course any chance or excuse to head out on the bike was used and the mileage racking up with each day. Come March I took off for a week to the mainland again to visit some friends and ride some different roads. Had a great time over there riding around and visiting and taking full advantage of Kaylees visit with her dad. Nothing terribly exciting happened on this trip just good to be off the rock.

Well now it seems April and May are here and Im in need of a new rear tire. Already! Hard to believe that I have completely worn one out already! I stretched it as long as I could and got a new one installed just before my biggest excursion of the year, heading off to Conga with Flo and raise money for breast cancer!

It was planned for the end of May for me to leave and head south to meet up with her. Of course me needing some kinda challenge besides just riding off on my own to places unknown. I decided to try and push myself for the Iron Butt award. I mapped out where I was heading to meet with Flo and how to get the mileage that I needed. Pretty much had it all figured out with allowing some time to sleep and also taking into count the fact that the main portion of the ride was going to be on the US Memorial Day weekend. well the time came, had 2 bags packed one, for a weekend away with the girl and the other for the trip. Had a great weekend then came home unloaded and reloaded the bike then off I went for the ferry.

Well challenge it was, I was mainly on time but found that a ton of construction managed to hold up my pace and delay me from successfully completing it. I did pull off 1700 kms in a matter of 27 hours but for the award it has to be in 24. The whole trip I did in PINK! Lord help me. I had pink pool noodles strapped to the front and rear of the bike and I also had a long braided pink wig on for my whole travels. Crossed the border with it and flew by the troopers in a few spots but nobody questioned a thing. Met up with the gals and then spent a week coming back home, all in all put close to 5000 km on the bike in that one week and in the process helped to raise $12,000 for breast cancer.

i was home for 4 days and off again but this time I left Therapy at home. Dont think she was happy with me but she needed a rest and so did I. Went with Len to the Kamloops poker run and this is when I decided I was a shitty passenger with little chance of a long run on the back again.

Summer arrived and of course every weekend was full with rides somewhere. Think we managed to hit just about everywhere on the island over the course of the summer as well as winning many awards in the show n shines.

The next big trip was up to Salmon Arm for the Stomp and my birthday. We took a bit of an extended trip here instead of straight there and back. Even thought the fires were burning in Kelowna we found some great roads and had a great time of it. Think I added another 2000 on that trip to the bike, between the trip to Salmon Arm, riding around up there and then taking a major detour for the trip home. Was nice and relaxing and enjoyable to travel some roads that we hadnt been on before. While we were there we rode the Monashee pass and then heading home took highway 33 to Rock Creek to get to Ossoyoos, looped up towards Penticton and back down to Keremeos before heading thru Manning Park and home. Mind you the next day we got to run back across on the ferries and up the Coqihalla to look for our lost belongings.

The rest of the summer has been filled with day or weekend trips up and down the island. Have rode the new circle tour a couple times and it is awesome! After making some new great friends in the Comox valley, we have gone up there for several weekends. Planned a ride to Mount Washington just for the hell of it. Campbell River as well for their poker run, which if it wasnt for the company and great hostess for the night, would have been a horrible time. We basically have finished off the MAIN riding season with the Port Alberni toy run, which is always a marvelous event and glad that I made it this year as it was the 25th anniversary of it. Very large turnout indeed!

Back in April, I remember a trip to the FBI for lunch and oysters to bring home and my odometer rolled to 10,000. Not more then 3 months later we were on the same ride and I was over 20. It seems so hard to believe. I basically said to heck with the truck and let the insurance expire as I wasnt using it at all. Every time I had to go somewhere I went on the bike. I have been riding daily to Lake Cow for work and still am. As of now I have no plans of reinsuring, atleast not until I know the rains are here to stay.

I was hoping to end things off with a ride to Anacortes for the Oyster run again but it just wasnt in the cards this year. But Therapy and I did get out and add a few more miles together this afternoon in another excellent fall day that seemed like summer.

Happy Anniversary Therapy and I promise to not talk about trading you in for awhile!

Busy times ahead

Well thankful for the fun weekend at the toy run and blowing off some steam. It was another truely great event, with good friends and laughter. The only thing that I didnt like was the pace of the ride this year. For some reason we were in first and second gear for the whole route! I can understand creeeping along thru town, and stopping to enter the quay but on the highway along Cameron Lake and over the hump we usually have a nice steady pace, not the speed limit but steady. Not this year, it was tiring thats for sure. There were many food vendors but not really any others there this year. That was kinda dissapointing as usually you can find some good deals at the end of the season.

We made our way to the grounds and both Kaylee and I got attacked as we were parking the bikes, by my girlfriends grandson(who is 14) and was dying to see us again. Eventually my girlfriend showed up for a great visit and joined us at the motel party. Kaylee went off wandering PA with Ashton but knew where to find us when it was time to return home. As usual we all had fun in the courtyard as everyone trickled in from the event grounds. Great to see people that you dont see very often and of course those you do. Drinks were flowing, laughter abounded and before ya knew it, it was time to head to the dance. Well, drinks were doing well cause poor Len doesnt remember going to the dance but he did have a good time! I told him so!

We took a leisurely morning to get ready and leave, then we rode out with Rick and Sheila and stopped at their house for a bit before carrying on home. Tired but full of a great weekend and memories, well for some of us!

Now the chaos starts for me. I found out on the Thursday night that my EI claim had been exhausted and that Im not going to receive anymore payments. Now what the hell do I do and how do I pay the rent!!!!!!! Some notice may have been nice, that my claim was running out. Anyways guess I have to get my arse in gear and find out what I can do to change it. Wether there is something I can change on my claim, going to school or lord forbid welfare well trying to find any job that will pay enuf to live on.

So I start off with calling EI to find out, no the letter is right claim for regular benefits is exhausted, but if you cant work due to sickness then you may be able to renew the claim. OK fine, need a doctors note for that. Called a school and made an appointment to see about enrolling in one of the choices I had previously thought of. So be it wait til Monday and go to the appoinment. Monday comes and I head off for the school, hmmm sounds good, have to commute to Vic but so be it, but how soon would the course start as I cant receive funding til I am in school. First Im told January - great, then she finds one starting on October 12th - much better, I might be able to work with this, if I can get all requirements taken care of before then. You have to write an entry test to be accepted and she was going to rebook me to come back, I said to heck with it lets do it now, I dont want to have to dwell on it and I hate any kind of test or exam as I typically freeze up and forget what I know. The test is 2 parts, math and english proficientcy, ok not toooo concerned with the english part but math could be another question if they start throwing fractions and algebra crap at me!!! I didnt take algebra in school as I figured it was useless to me in the real world and prefered to take business math which was and has been way more practical. Oh well, off I go to write these tests and see if Im bright enuf to enter school again at my age, 20 plus years out of highschool.

Well shyte, Im friggin smarter then I thought I was, and I didnt freeze up either. I got 2 wrong on the english and 1 in the math, and I also told her which ones they were that I got wrong. Yep they did throw in some fractions but got them and some of that XY algebra bullshit but managed to figure it out too. I still dont like it and really hope we dont hit alot of it in grade 10 math while I have to help Kaylee this year. So with tests past, I have basically been accepted into the course, I just have to go thru the loopsholes now to receive the funding for tuition and living allowance thru the EI program. She had me make an appoinment with my councillor and then directly come back to see her. From there I will be given a letter of acceptance to take to the Education funding people and work thru their application with them. All in the mean time, I also have to get a criminal record check, TB testing and a letter from my doc that says I am capable of doing this type of work. Basically easy enough.

Now, I just have to figure out even if accepted how to pay the rent and bills for the next month. If I get the training funding, I wont receive anything til the end of the month, that is just the way that it works. So I need to fall back on welfare temporarily or see if Im toooooo sick to work and get my EI back on line for a bit, hence a letter from the doctor again. So I start the day off with talking to welfare, oh what a joy and have they ever changed things around from a decade ago. Man they might as well be a friggin credit lender the amount of stuff they want from you. I listened to all she had to say and wasnt overly impressed with a few things. They take over any maintenance agreement that you may have and go after the father for more. GREAT, him and I are finally getting along and not fighting over shit and he pay 200 a month usually on time or atleast lets me know when he is going to be late. Now they plan on going after him to pay more! Wonderful so much for peace. They also for some reason want to run a credit check on you, what the hell does it matter to welfare what your credit is like???? not to mention by them doing so it also makes a minor hit on your score. So that will be nice next time I want to apply for something they see that welfare is looking in on me! Really not impressed with that one. Besides all that, they want 2 years of income tax, both my vehicle reggies, documents for the Harley with the outstanding balance of my loan(cause if I have any equity in it then Im screwed), 60 days worth of bank statements, your left leg and right arm and dont forget your first born! Holy shitsticks batman!! It is friggin nuts to try and get a hand up now a days. So I say fine to all the requests not happily and am told I need to stop in and sign the waiver for them to do the check and start the ball rolling, then I can have my appointment on the 2nd of October.

Then off I head to Victoria to see my doctor. 1) I need my shot, 2) the letter from the school and 3) will he tell me Im friggin insane and need to stay off work, or is that a contradiction in letters. Well I tell you with all this running around, appointments, paperwork and mess Im trying to sort out, I have sent myself off the deep end. I have havd a headache for 2 days, my head is spinning with information and a to do list a mile long for each different thing. My chest was tight and my damn nerves are off the charts, can I go back to the weekend where I can just drink myself stupid and forget everything. Anyways all goes great at the docs and I get my shot, and both letters! Guess the next stop for the day is going to EI to see if I can get it reinstated, well with a detour thru Shawnigan to the RCMP station for the crim check. I stop and have lunch with Len before leaving Vic partly so that he can calm me down cause I have myself wound up like a top and spinning just as fast, then head up the hat on the rest of my missions. The crim check is nothing, have been in there a few times over the years to get them, fill out both sides of the form and come back to get it tomorrow. Thanks and off I go, still think I may try and go to the lake in to put in a few hours so stop at home to change my clothes and head to Duncan. So go into EI and explain what has transpired and that I was told if due to medical reasons that I could be reinstated. You will need a letter from your doctor, yep right here. Ok fine lets get this rolling then. Well she didnt question anything as the state I must have looked would compare to how I was feeling. My head was killing me, my chest was tight, my nerves well dont ask me to sign anything cause I wouldnt have been able to. She just took the information needed and told me it would be up and running in a couple weeks again and to use the same access codes as I was using before. Great now I dont have to go to welfare and torture myself with their inquiries any further.

So now that I have given myself a major headache that does not want to leave, I have managed to get things falling into order for me. Still a few more hoops to jump thru but hopefully mid month I will be starting school for the next year. I will be taking a course for a Community Support Worker in Social Services and then after working for a while in that field I plan on taking the probation officer course and hopefully get into that. Well unless I really enjoy what Im doing at the time. So here is hoping that the funding will happen and I can do this. It will definately be a change to get use to going back to school but Im sure I will adjust to it but finding the time to study in the evenings could be a real chore. Will have to get on a schedule for sure and make sure to chase the kidlet away from me so I can have peace while studying.

Thinking

Well now that the week has past, I am reflecting again. I didnt get the job, I was hoping for or the other for that matter. And was really kinda bummed out by it as her reasoning didnt make sense. Oh well so be it, I guess there is a reason behind it and there is something better waiting for me.

I have been contemplating alot about going to school, but cant really decide on what course of study I should go into. Any suggestion would be great. I have thought in the past about going into welding, or a pharmacy tech.... ya I know 2 different ends of the spectrum! Have also thought of social work and working towards being a probation officer. Heck I dont know. Then there is always the option of furthering my admin skills and get actual certification. By all means if there is a decent paying job out there that I can take a course within a year to complete that you think I would be good at please give me your opinion. Maybe it might be right up my alley and I have just never thought of it. I would prefer to be able to do an online course if I can, then I would still be able to work part time and make a little extra money, but if I have to enroll full time, I will figure things out. I need to come to some kind of decision soon as my EI will run out in December. Yea, Merry friggin Ho Ho again!

Beyond all of that things arent so bad right now. Had a great weekend in Comox last Saturday helping out at Ruths and doing her roof on her outbuildings. Then headed home on Sunday with a stop at the Cassidy for the show n shine. I won my first, first place in the softail division. But my other bike(Lens) only got second this time, even though he had the help of Kaylee cleaning it up for him. I said to heck with cleaning and just took my windshield off instead. I was really surprised to win and happy at the same time. And now looking forward to the Port Alberni Toy Run.

Some apprehension here. Little worried that there could be a fair bit of tension. Not so much on my part as I have not done anything wrong to those that are concerning me. Hopefully with the first couple, that I will continue to get the silent treatment from them and that all will carry on. If they care to approach me, well my response I think will depend on how they come across to me. As for the next couple.... well that could get real interesting. I have no ill feeling towards either, dont agree with what has been done or is still happening, but that is theirs to own. As for approaching me or Len, that wont be a very good idea right now as his feelings have been subsequintly hurt. My curiousity does grow though to see the reactions or interactions amongst the group towards these people. I know some may just regard things as if nothing has transpired and that is wholey understandable. But there are others who will either voice their opinions or show their feelings in expression. This could turn into an interesting weekend for sure. None the less I plan on having a great time. Kaylee is coming along with me this year, although riding with Len(she likes his seat better) Also have my friends Sue and Steve joining us for the ride. This will be their first time for the toy run and Im sure they will enjoy it. I stopped tonight on my way home and bought the toys for our donation. I got some NERF guns and some kinda critter that hooks to the puter that is adopted by the new owner. (Got no clue but sounded cute) We are also rooming with Rick and Sheila this year which should be a blast! Gotta love those guys. K might enter some of the games but she cant do the potato hunt cause it is a little too physical and she got her nose pierced last weekend. I might think about entering the show n shine there but havent decided yet. Wait and see what kinda competiotion there is. Oh well couple more days before we head up.

Have wendy coming to stay again tomorrow night, so it should be another good night full of laughs, well that is of course if she can find her way here and not end up roaming around the street corners in the big city of Wobble Hill.

Lots of entertainment this week and more to report or reflect on next week.

The week in review

Well after all the excitement from last weekend it has been up and down this week. Yep Monday off to try and recoup from the festivities, but back to work on Tuesday. Running around back and forth with a couple early mornings and hard labour type days thrown in to boot. Cant complain atleast it is extra money.

Of course in the mean time Im still searching for that full time job to get back to normal. Well found a few more to send out my resume too and one of them sounded really great and right up my alley. Heres hoping to hear from them. I havent had alot of sucess on getting interviews for some reason. Originally after losing my job, I was dealing with a job cousellor in Duncan and looking at different avenues available to me. One of the first things she had me do was reformat my resume to a style I had never seen before. It focuses more on your strengths and abilities over a chronological work history. Okay fine looks good but I have been wondering if it is the resume that is affecting the opportunity for interviews, even with a glorified reference letter from my last job. (Dans parents wrote it for me)

Like I said, sent out several this week and sure nuff heard from one that wanted an interview ASAP, well with trying to work with Mountain, I wasnt sure when I could make a break around the schedule he had me on. The interviewer said that he also lived in Duncan and was willing to meet me at the end of the day on his way home. WOW, that is amazing, maybe he really likes my resume if he is willing to take the time to meet me outside of the office. So needless to say I was alittle excited about just getting the interview. Finally, it has been quite awhile since I have been called for one. I met with him for the interview and it seemed to go well. Even though the position was classified as part time it was 4 days a week which would work out anyway, as well as benefits. He explained that he would be making his decision in the morning but only calling the person he would be hiring. Ok, guess we wait to see on Friday if I get a call.

In the meanwhile I was still hoping to hear from the one that really interested me and kept sending out vibes that I would be requested for an interview with them but would prolly accept the first one if I did get called. So Friday rolls around and I wait til noon before checking messages. DAMN, nothing there oh well wait til the end of the day. Little bit of a let down, when I thought the interview went well but heck, what can ya do. End of the day, I head out of the lake to meet Len for dinner and a drink and decide to check my home messages again to see if their was a job offer. Hey theres a message, excitement builds, maybe I did get the job!
Nope its a ladies voice, didnt get the job, but wait it is the other job that I am really interested in and she wants me to come for an interview! AWESOME, now Im really stoked! Heres hoping I can slam dunk this one and get the position. Good wage, and only have to commute to Langford. The interview will be sometime next Thursday or Friday, so send out some positive vibes for me! I would really like to land this one.

The rest of the weekend is going to be a rollercoaster as well. Last night we went over to Shawnigan Lake to one of Dans very close friends. Actually where he lauched the boat from and where last years tragic events unfolded. The anniversary was actually the 29th but because it was the long weekend last year, Fred was taking the time to reflect on it this long weekend instead. We sat out on the dock and had a couple drinks and laughed about some of the hijinks with Dan, trying to keep good thoughts in our heads. Kaylee threw some flowers into the lake for him and watched them float away. It was just the 3 of us with Fred and a friend of his there but Fred inform us that he was having a couple dozen people over tomorrow night and doing a large baron on the BBQ and we were more then welcome to come back if we wanted. Will have to wait and see how today goes first. That was why I decided on last night instead of making it one hell of an emotional day today.

Today we will be attending the ride and service for Gil Francis. I have known Gil for years and he was always a good natured happy person. Yet again someone that has been taken from us all to soon, thankfully though it was health and not an accident. Im sure the attendance is going to be huge as he was quite well known. He worked at Phoenix Cycle as the head mechanic and I also believe that today would be his birthday. Hard pill to swallow. Atleast it looks like the weather is going to hold off for the ride before the service. Thank god, I wasnt really looking forward to a ride in the rain.

Last night coming home from Duncan, I think I hit a road snake at the bottom of the hill coming out of Duncan and holy shyte, the bike did a nice big fishtail and I was holding on for dear life. Thats the first time I have had a bad one on the new bike. Not bad over 30,000 and finally got a good wobble to wake me up again. Sure didnt like it and had to check the shorts when I got home!

Well thats all the excitement for the week so far and like I said before send out those positive vibes for me in hopes that I get this job! I really want this one in a big way.