Besides lack of sleep, Great week!

Well not to bad of a week over all. Besides the never ending monsoons! The main portion of the week was uneventful really, besides lack of sleep. Len has had some kinda bug but is feeling fine except for this never ending cough he seems to get around 11pm. It seems to want to last half the night which of course causes no sleep for either of us and we are both so rudely awaken by the semis on the highway by 5:30 in the morning! I love the property I live on, but damn I hate those trucks. Dont know why they need to use the air brakes going up hill at that hour! Really pisses me off, especially when I am lacking on sleep.

As for school, handed in my project, which I was ready to rip my hair out over last weekend. Teacher said it would be easy and we could find everything we needed via the internet. Ya like phuk we could! I spent 2 and a half days researching and found nothing. I even had another student trying to research for me and my buddy Suzie in Cedar looking for Nanaimo resources to no avail. Finally I went to Duncan on a mission Monday morning and found the basics for what I needed. Monday night I did the project and got the thing together. I ended up with a 96 on the project. When it came around to doing the review for the final, I thought I had the answers but then when we checked them, the teacher had me so confused over a few of the questions I didnt know which way I was going. She was basically trying to tell me that two seperate questions and answers were the same and I was not getting this at all. Oh well, mark down her answers and try and remember them. I cam home on Thursday night with the review answers in hand and tried to put my mind to it some what. I t didnt last to long as I was so friggin tired. I decided at 10pm that I was going to head to bed and try to be asleep before Len and get a decent nights rest, then get up and cram for a few hours before leaving. Our exam time was changed from 1 pm to 10 am, so needless to say I didnt have the morning to deal with things like I usually do. Well sleep came but not for long, Len came to bed an hour or so later and managed to wake me up with the coughing so little to no sleep again. I got up at 6 and then tried to focus on my notes for a while but it just didnt want to sink in. Some of it was there but the major points didnt seem to be sinking in. I finally said to hell with it and went off to check the weather for the bike.

Im running with this philosophy so far that if I ride on exam day it is clearing my head of the garbage and therefore I am getting the good marks. Since it was dry and clear and no threat of rain, I was riding, 8 am or not. Well guess it worked cause I rode to school after a lovely fight with the bagger before leaving( tell that later) and ended up completely acing the exam. 100%, holy shit sticks batman!!!! And here I was worried ad concerned, no sleep, not really studying and well the mark says it all. So needless to say Friday turned into an awesome friggin day!

Like I said, we had the wonderful monsoons at the beginning of the week, but Thursday rolled around and it wasnt to bad. I had all my homework and review doe Wednesday night, so I took a ride into Duncan on Thursday morning, opps ya on the bagger, yep its still first in the basement. Then I decided what the hell, Im taking her to school. Sure nuff and like I figured my honey decided he wanted to ride home, so he met me at school and swapped vehicles. Hell its the least I can do. Bring him his bike so he can ride home, and I can take his tools and truck home for him!!!!! We stopped for a beer on the way, then headed up the hat. Mind you he did ask why I get to enjoy the good part of the day and he gets to ride in the dark and cooler portion of the day. Hey a ride is a ride! If ya dont want to do it then I will ride home myself! Anyways we had noticed that my heated jacket seemed to have momentary issues ad we werent sure if it was working. So needless to say with my early morning ride on Friday we start to look over a few things. Well the jacket seemed fine Friday moring but for some reason Len took his seat off and the god damn bolt that holds the seat down dropped out of the fender. Jesus, now we are both in a rush to leave and trying to get this thing back together. Tried putting it up the side of the fender to the top to no avail, then I took the bolt and tried to slide my arm up from the back of the fender to the top. Hey I didnt do so bad until I got to my elbow, but there is a 2 inch piece of something attached to the chrome he has at the bottom of the fender and I couldnt get my arm past it. Next thing we try is fishing it thru. We dropped a piece of string thru the fender hole and the tied the bolt to it to fish it up and try to get it in place. Well with a lot of frustration and cursing we managed to make it work and got the damn seat back on. Now we are both running late and off we go likea couple of screaming memes!

Friday afternoon rolls around, my exam is finished and a bunch of us congragate outside for a smoke and to dwell on the results of how we thought we did. We decide to go for lunch and a beer and then go from there. Len met me for a bit but had to go and argue about his pay cheque so I said ok, Im going to head back to the school and see if the teacher is done marking yet to get my mark. She was leaving for a holiday that afternoon so she was rushing to get things done. Another 2 of the girls had already headed there anyways. He went his way and I mine. I met the girls at the school and the teacher was just trying to finish up on the marks so we wasted a few more miniutes waiting for the marks. The teacher knew that we were there and stuck her head out when she was done to give us our marks. I think she was just as excited that 2 of the 3 of us that were there got 100 on the exam. Ya baby, now Im dancing outta the school on cloud nine! No idea how I really pulled it off but I did. Doing the Happy Dance! What a way to end the week. I headed up to meet Len just grinning like a Cheshire cat. Sure I had some people wondering as I rode down the road, tunes blastin, big ole grin on my face and not a care in the world. He was a little upset with the end of his day but super proud of me, so we decided to stop and celebrate a little before heading home. So I gave up the riding gear and bike and took the truck and off we went. Good thing we did hang around a bit as we had to stop at Home Depot to get more flooring for Rick.

Saturday rolled around and we went off to Nanoose again to do some more flooring for Rick and Sheila. We were planning on going there annyways on Sunday, so Rick just thought come up for the weekend. Kaylee decided to tag along with us this time and she brought her homework, so that was good. But she is so hard to try and help. I dont know if she just doesnt want to pay attention and wants me to give the answers to her or what. But she really doesnt seem like she has much interest in doing the work. Even Rick and Len tried to help her at one point just working out measurements on a ruler and she was sitting there confused. She may not like it but I may have to get her some help if she isnt going to try. I tried to do some work for my next project but didnt have internet access so I was limited on what I could do. Thankfully I had download some info that I could read thru and pick out info. After dinner on Saturday we ended up playing poker again and Rick walked away this time with most of the money. Len was out and I think I came away with 12 of my 20 bucks. Oh well always tomorrow.

Sunday was the Grey Cup party and we sat around until people started showing up. We did have the pool for winning scores in each quarter to bet on and we all bought a bunch of squares. It was a great game, right up to the end when the losing team won by 1 point. I luckily won the 2nd quarter and got 20 bucks back that was lost the day before.

We ended the weekend by heading home, relaxing for a bit then a hot tub under the full moon then off to bed. Guess we were both pretty tired as neither of us woke up til 6:30 this morning.

Oh well another week, I wonder what it holds? Well a few things off the top of my head, are Thursday, I believe Kay is coming to school with me and then I won tickets at school to the Shriners Xmas Fantasy show so we will be going to that, just dont want to rush home to get her and then back down, so what the hell, just bring her along. And of course Saturday night could turn into trouble up in Cedar. Having a Xmas party at Ed and Sue's and there are 3 couples that are staying the night. This could prove to be interesting, very interesting. Especially if Ed gets his way and manages to coax Rodney out at the end of the evening!

Damn, I missed something yesterday

Well with all the other stuff going on and my damn "N" falling off, I forgot all about the other good news I had. Ya most may have read it elsewhere but might as well add it to my blog as well.

I won the Ladies of Harley HOG Motorcycle Memories contest for Most Adventurous story. I wrote it last year and sent it off just before Xmas, all about my escapades of taking off on my own to the states to track down Flo on the Conga and bring her home. It was more about me and the trials and tribulations that I had then the actual Conga itself.

In the contest there was a grand prize winner and then 3 other category winners and I was one of them. I win a $200 gift certificate. How kewl is that. Everyone keeps telling me that I can write and hell I guess I can if I impressed the judges.

Just thought I would add this on, Im attaching the story below if ya are interested in reading it.

2008 Most Adventurous

What began as another woman’s journey turned into a challenge and triumph for me. A fellow lady rider on Vancouver Island decided to buy her first Harley in Florida and ride it home instead of shipping it. This would be an incredible journey. With the assistance of lady riders from online forums her trip across North America (nicknamed the Conga) was born. She had offers from ladies across states, to travel with her and aid in her safe return to Canada. This worked well until she arrived in New Mexico. For her trip north to Canada, she had no travelling companions. This is also where my journey began.

In hearing the time frame and lack of companions to finish this ride, I decided I was going to head south as far as possible to meet with her and bring her home. At this time, I had been riding for not quite 2 years, but for me the only thing that I could think was not to let fear or common sense hold me back. I just knew that I was going to take advantage of this opportunity and go and get my fellow rider and bring her home. I consulted a few maps and plotted out what might be my best course to travel. I wasn’t looking for scenery just mileage. I had 5 days to travel as far south as possible and return. I had a few naysayers but I didn’t care and just knew I could do it and be fine.

I made arrangements to meet my friend in Northern California, in a day and a half. Against mixed blessings from friends, I headed out on a Thursday morning to catch a ferry and head for the border. I had decided to take the I5 straight south to make the most of time and mileage. I left in a heavy rain but thankfully it tapered to just a mist. Little did I know this was only going to be the beginning of the inclement weather I would hit. After 7 hours of straight riding except for gas stops, I was in Roseburg, Oregon, approximately 600 miles. I could have continued to travel further but knew I had to stop and make contact with those at home that were waiting to hear from me.

The next day, we would meet in Klamath Falls, Oregon. I was advised to take highway 138 through Crater Lake and to connect to highway 97 into Klamath Falls. Supposedly Crater Lake is gorgeous! Well I have no idea as all I saw was snow! The Umpqua valley before heading up to 6000 ft was beautiful even with the light morning mist. But as I ascended in elevation it got colder and sure enough it started snowing! Thankfully it wasn’t heavy and wasn’t sticking to the road. So I persevered, I was determined not to let a little thing like this stop me and not to mention there was nothing along this stretch of highway to stop at! I still had an hour to travel to our rendezvous point. I warmed up and gassed up and off I went.

For the next day and a half the weather was great and we had a wonderful journey to the border. Although my weather tests were still not finished. In Bings, OR, home of the windmill farms, I truly experienced high cross winds. Nothing like riding a sportster sideways in a corner, being pushed towards the guard rail and praying that the gust doesn’t stop. I laugh now but there were more than a few expletives coming out of my mouth on the way through. We finally crossed the border into Canada and our welcome home to BC was typical Wet Coast weather. It turned into a torrential downpour and we had to keep going. You could barely see the lines on the road. We arrived on Vancouver Island soaked to the gills but to the awaiting arms of many friends.

There was so much more that happened in those few short days. I met many people along the way that thought what I was doing was a little crazy, not to mention those at home. Well I may be crazy but to have the chance to have the freedom of the open road and the wind in my face is something I would never have passed up. For me it was a test of my skills, my determination, independence and my love of riding. At some of the worse points, I did have to dig deep within myself but it was all worth it in the end. I proved to myself as well as many others that I had come a long way in a few short years. From a minor accident 5 days after getting on a bike, to taking on the open road by myself. Now that I have bought a Heritage, there is no end to where I may travel to next. The love of riding has been in my blood for years and this trip just confirmed what I already knew

1 Course down, bunch more to go!

Well when I left last weekend, I had finished my first course and the final exam. Of course had to wait til Monday to get marks for the exam, project and overall mark for the course. Needless to say I was still bitching about the first project and loseing marks by not being able to be there. I was just hoping and praying that it would not lower my overall to badly. We had 4 marks combined to get the overall. The midterm was a 94, the bad project gave me a 77, hopefully the next two would keep my mark up but that is a good 15 point spread. Monday rolls around and She has decided to split things up a bit. She is going to give us our project back at the beginning of the class and then not get the final until the end. Whats with that, we all wanna know! Well for the few of us that got there early to jockey for best seat now that new ones came available she did let the cat outta the bag to us if we went up and asked her. Well low and behold to my surprise, my project was a 93, so hmmmm I can still see that 77 dropping my overall. Then she gave me my final mark. HOLY SHITSTICKS BATMAN! I scored a 97!!!!! I just about wanted to fall over, right there and then. Blew my mind for sure. And surprisingly enuf, it didnt lower my overall that badly. Somehow when she totals them up I ended up with a 92 overall for the course. Not bad for some redneck biker chick!

Now the only problem I can forsee for these great marks, is keeping them up there. I have obviously set a standard for myself and need to try and keep all marks in the 90s. Ya sure no pressure, ya right. I was panicing before the first mid term exam and stressing myself over it, now that I know I am capable of these marks, I am going to drive myself insane trying to keep them there. Im not sure which is worse, having slightly lower marks and giving yourself room for improvement or being at the top and pushing yourself to stay there. I can surely say that it would be great if I ended up with honours at the end of the course, if not even validictorian. Not that I much on public speaking but that is something to accomplish. I thought I was going to be worried about the final because my head was in the clouds all week with the crud, but somehow the info sunk in and got thru when I needed it. Maybe I should try that more often. Not pay attention and hopefully it will all just sink in via osmosis. Now that would be the ticket.

Well Monday is here and we start a new course. This one is only 2 weeks long but we have two exams and a project to do. The project seems simple enuf but we will get back to that later. Each night she is giving us our homework assignment to try and drive the info into our heads. Well not so easy when you really only have a few days to comprehend it all before writing an exam. Well in usual style, Im over doing things and the notes that we get from the homework assignment, I am typing out to make more legible oh and of course understandable. Ya just never know what she might throw at us on the exam. She also gives us the review for the exam on the Tuesday. Holy crap how can we do a review when we only have 2 days in. Just dont make any sense. Oh well carry on, type out the review questions, with the answers that I have so far and wait til the next day to add the rest. Meanwhile she decides to give us even more the next night. Well all ya can do is hope for the best and go with it. We ge to Thursday, go over the homework, the review and the extra review she gave us. Everyone seems a little worried about it all and trying to make sense of it. A few in the class know what marks I have got and they want help from me. Ya sure no problem, I still need to get it in my head. I do what I can that evening to help them out and carry on with my own studying or shall we say cramming! I keep at the cramming on Friday morning til I just about give up.

Well the Pineapple express has been here all week with monsoon rains and it hasnt been pretty. Friday morning, Im sitting in the sunroom office and what is this...... but sunshine and warm beating down my back while studying. Damn is it actually going to be a nice day? Should I even comment about riding to school. The bike really clears the head before the exam, it would be nice. I head downstairs and have a look at the 2 bikes sitting there growing dust and mold. They both have such pitiful faces, staring at me wondering when they are going to get out and get abused. I talk to them both for a moment and tell them they might be inluck today, well atleast one of them. Well going to have to send a message or two cause it seems the bagger is closest to the door and either I will have to ride it or Im going to have to juggle them around to get Therapy out. If it stays like this and Len gets done work early, he may want to get out for a ride as well. So I talk to him and he says no just take mine, dont worry about it, he prolly wont go for a ride. This is around 10am. I call another girl in the class and let her know that I am planning on riding, so if she wants a ride, then it will be on the bike. Sure no problem she says. So thats the end of that, I am riding to school and taking the bagger to boot. I get myself ready cause I have given up on studying at this point and head out the door. I get down to Langford and pull the phone out to call him and let him know to take it easy as the cops have radar both sides at Bamberton and lookie here there is a text message from Len. Think Im going to meet you at school and trade vehicles. Ha I knew it! He couldnt pass up the rare moment of clear weather, he needed a ride as well. No problem, I will see ya down there shortly, just heading out from east LA. Good thing that we can both where the same gear, cause he is wearing most of mine for the trip home. I had his Cordura jacket on, but my chaps and my heated jacket. His gloves were in the bike but no doorag or his regular helmet. I did have his spare so he would use that. He didnt care just happy to get a ride in. So off he goes with a big ole grin on his face heading homeward and Im off for my midterm for course 2.

Well, we have already been given our project assignment for the next course because the teacher is going on holidays and to give us extra time to work on it. This one is a partner project, so I was staying behind for a bit to talk to my partner and figure out what we were going to do. When we finish an exam we turn it in then are allowed to leave. We dont have to spend the whole day there. So my partner and I met up in the lobby to discuss our project and a few other girls stayed around BSing with us. Well looking at the time we figured she might be done marking them so we went and checked up on her to see if we could get our marks before going home. Well after a bit more waiting and a few smokes we finally got our marks. Yahooo, I did it again, another A this time 90%. The exam was only out of 40 so I got 4 wrong but that equates to an even 90. But we also had the new guy hanging with us and damn I got me some competition now. The boy scored a 99!!!! Well I like what Dave said on FB to me..... Learning isnt a competition..... Now go kick his ass!!!! Guess Im going to have to heed his words and do just that.

So the weekend is here, no homework for a change, but I do have my project to work on. Ya that easy one.... my ass! I spent the better part of Saturday surfing the net and consulting all the resources I had to come up with the info that I needed. I cant find shit anywhere. Im going to have to change the whole idea behind my project, unless something miraculously appears overnight. Well I finally gave up racking my brain around 3 and just decided to relax. We are heading up to Cedar tonight to play poker with the gang. Hopefully I will have a repeat of the last poker night and it wasnt just beginners luck. Not to metion, I really wanna see Ed pout!!! Now in the process of all of this I have lost my "N" on my keyboard. I have a laptop and the damn key popped right out. I have been finishing this entry pushing on a little rubber nub to get the "N" to work. Damn it, hope I can get it fixed. Mind you it could have been pretty funny leaving the "N" out and letting you decipher it!

Well did our poker thing and I got slaughtered, couldnt win a hand, no matter how hard I tried. The worse one of the bunch was having a nice high flush with an Ace kicker, was gigling on the inside thinking, I finally got a hand. Only 2 hands could possibly beat me and with 8 people playing the chances of getting either were slim and none. Well wouldnt ya know it, the one in a million hand showed up and I got beat by a Royal Flush. Ed, dont let it go to your head, you wont get thru the door! We had a great nite with our good friends. That little devil Kazza walked off with everyones money but mainly ours. Suzie had a bit too much fun but even so, she is surely a little slow today for it. Thanks to both for the hopitality as always.

I thought the monsoons were ending but yet they seemed to kick up again yesterday. Wasnt too bad going up island but hell coming home was a different story. We were driving down the highway on the centre line, just trying to keep the truck on the high ground. Places that you dont normally see the wheel ruts, you could now see were full of water. Thankfully most idiots were off the road by then. It was nice to wake up to a clear day today, instead of more of this crud. Took a look at the long range, and Im sure the weatherman is just phuking with me again. It is showing a few more days of liquid sunshine and then a week and a half of sun into December. Lets just wait and see how right they are this time. Im getting a little tired of this as you can do much of anything but hide in the house. Cant ride, cant use the hot tub, you just dont even want to go out. Atleast it isnt the "S" word, thats all I can say about that. I dont want a repeat of last year.

I managed to fix my "N" last night before leaving, so I have a fully functional keyboard again. Thank goodness, was really a little difficult trying to get it to work. Oh well, guess now that the groceries are done, I guess it is time to try and do some school work, or say frig it and do it tomorrow, or I could start dinner. Going to kill a roast beast tonight, I might even get my arse in gear to do some Yorkshire for a change. Mind you the sun is still shining and I might just have to go for a little ride, while the opportunity is there.

Hmmmmm decisions, decisions!

Busy 2 weeks

Well, its been a bit since I posted anything, but between being sick, having 2 projects and a final exam to get in and going away last weekend to help friends with a new floor Ive been a bit busy.

Fighting this damn bug has been the worse. I thought it was just the same old Sinus cold I always get. Atleast that is how it started out. Like I said the girlchild was sick the whole week before and only went to school one day. That was the day I woke up feeling like I had eaten a sandbox and the pain was shooting thru my eyes. I went with my regular regime of fighting it off with over the counter meds, sinus cold pills and double doses of neo citran for sinuses. I still went to school even though I felt like a bag of crap and took in as much as I could. Kinda worried though, thinkin that I was going to have to cram a ton to get this couple days into my head for the final. I made it thru Thursday and Friday at school and Saturday didnt feel to bad, maybe the meds were makin a difference.

I packed up all my homework for my project that was due on Monday and off I went with Len to do Rick and Sheilas floor. We were also having a poker game that night but at the last minute, Ed and Sue jammed out as they were sick as well. Damn good thing they did as I would have had to take all their money too!!! LOL Rick ended up helping Len for the most part and I sat and did most of my homework. It was more a matter of making all of the visual aids for my presentation as the written portion was finished. Ok maybe I am a bit of a perfectionist, or maybe Im just going full tilt to make sure I get a good mark but I had a ton of things I was trying to make to use. We had a great time in Nanoose getting the floor done, and what great hosts. Huge roast beef dinner, Sheila went and got oysters from the ocean and we had those as a midnight snack. We played poker with the 5 of us, Adam came and joined us as Kazz was away. Well it is the first time I ever played and I had to ask which game it was cause I knew the basics but not the names. I ended up being the big winner for the night and for once Sheila lost and had to add more money into the pot. We finally called it quits around 3 in the morning and went to bed. We got moving again in the morning and Len finished the last of the floor before heading home. I must say though that I think the gallon of wine I drank actually helped cause I felt pretty damn good the next day and was coughing the crude out of my lungs. Typically a good sign that it has broken.

We headed home and I finished up with my homework and made sure it was all ready to go on Monday. Headed to bed hoping for the best in the morning. Well that was short lived. I woke up, had a coffee then proceeded into an almost three hour violent coughing fit that would not quit. Len took me up to the clinic and after $100 worth of meds I was at home again. Thankfully the meds seemed to suppress the cough but damn I was hurting. My throat was raw, my ribs were aching to the point it felt like someone had beat te tar out of me with a sledgehammer, my head was pounding. I was in rough shape. When I thought I could talk, I called into school and talked to my teacher. Explaining that everything was ready but after this morning I didnt know if I could make it to class let alone do a oral presentation to the class, without breaking out into another coughing fit. She told me that there was no other time to make the presentation but I could email everything to her so that I did not receive 10 percent off for being late. However I would lose 30 marks for not doing the presentation portion of the project. Shit, phuk, damn, I dont need that. Well I did email everything to her, including some of the visuals, just not as nice as if they were there in person. Len then decided that he was going to head down to Vic to get supplies for the next day. He said to get it all together and we would drop it off so atleast maybe I would get the marks for my visual aids. So that is what I did, had my written work, all of the pamphlets and secret books I had made for the class, the doll I was using as a client and all of the thought bubbles for her feelings and the book that I used for the project. I put them all into a bag and off we went. I did well on the way down, not coughing, but I was very raw in the throat and sore in the chest, and wheezing some to boot. I should have said screw it and give me 15 minutes, Im going to push my way into going first then getting the hell out of there. Instead cause I felt so bad, I just dropped it all off at the front desk. Oh well what can ya do.

On Thursday, we went back to class and handed in the next project and got the first one returned. Yep I knew it, should have friggin tried and prayed for the best. So the highest possible score I could get without making the presentation was now 80 only because I submitted everything including my visual aids which were worth 10 marks. If I made the presentation there was an additional 10 marks for the organization and presentation portion and then 10 marks for a Q and A session afterwards. Well I didnt get those so tops was 80, I got 77 and Im still friggin worked up over it. Needless to say, if I had of made the presentation then I would have been in the 90's again!!!!! Dont quite agree with the logic behind all of this. If we are legitamately sick and can provide doctors notes then we should be given the opportunity to make the presentation the next day that we are there and in that case only lose 10 % for being late. Not lose 20 marks off the top and no chance of getting it back. If I had not got everything submitted on the Monday, I would have got 77 with an additional 10 % off my mark. However, if I were allowed to make my presentation the next day, I may have got around a 95 then had 10% taken off and had a better mark then I did receive. I just got to vent cause it really pissed me off, and on the course completion we have to fill out a survey on how we think things were done. Well I said my peace and griped about it, not that it will do any good but I think it is only fair to allow it. Hell she gave me 5 minutes of floor time the next day to explain what my visual aids were that I was passing out to the class, another 10 and I could have done the whole thing!!!!!! Oh well my blog and if I wanna bitch Im going to, maybe this will calm me down and I will be done with it, well atleast until Monday when I find out how much it dropped my mark in total! LOL

Well Friday rolls around and even though I am still feeling a little off, its time for the final exam. I continued to cram in the last few things into my brain until it was time to go to class. I really was not all that concerned. I still knew all the stuff that was on the mid term that I obviously had no problems with and the questions she put on the review I could answer without checking on them. But there was all the stuff we had covered in the last 2 weeks with my head in the clouds with this damn cold. Oh well, as she said the biggest portion was going to be the short answers 15 questions worth 43 marks. Holy crude! Oh well she said just look at the point value and make sure that you make enough points to cover that total. Well I went overboard again! I was the last one there cause I wrote so friggin much. I was using the backs of thee pages and had more then I needed but figured what the hell, somethings going to be right and the more I have the better chance I have of getting the answer right. There was only one section that really slowed me down a bit but that wasnt really covered, it was more a matter of our choice and what we might do in this situation. Hopefully the things I picked make sense for that type of problem. Guess I will find out on Monday.

Well the week is over and so is my first 4 week course. Hurray, I did it and better then I thought on the first day. Im actually understanding it all. Monday we start a new one for 2 weeks. I think it will be a busy 2 weeks as we have 2 exams and a project to do. The weekend is here and it is not looking all the best right now. I noticed on the way home last night that there was calcium already sprayed on the Malahat. Got to hate that shyte. So needless to say, before it starts raining, I would like to get out for a ride, even if it is short and get a little wind, then bring her home and wash her down good! I have quite the big chip on my front fender and need to get the touch up paint on it before I continue to ride thru the winter. Someone suggested that I should check with Dranes and find out if they would fix it as a large chunk of paint should not come off in the first year. Maybe they would, who knows. Oh well time to get my butt in gear and get something done, even though sitting around sounds great too.

What a great night

What a great evening we had for the party. Although there were others who were being pessimistic about the weather, all indications I got were calling for clear skies. And that is exactly what we got! Clear skies and a big full moon watching over us. Len had created a monster bonfire that had to be atleast 5 feet tall to start. Took a bit to get it going because of the rain but once it did, wowzer was it good. We built it on the stump of the old maple that was in the middle off the yard and had soaked it down with the old oil from the bikes since Thanksgiving.(thanks Jeep for the suggestion) The fire is still smoldering away and all ya need is to just add wood at this point and it would start up again.

We were a small group this time, not near as big as the corn roast but we all had fun none the less. We did our best rendition of Adam and Eve, yes I had the forbidden fruit and Len had his serpent. Now that serpent really kept the girls entertained! Not just was he popping out of the fig leaf but every time Len bent over to pick up firewood the snake would pop straight out between his legs. The girls were in stitches. I thought they were going to laugh themselves out of their seats. Do it again, come on Len bend over the other way. Kazza finally got a pick when he assumed the correct position. As usual Ed was in character, this year he was an aged hippie, handing out gerber daisies to all the girls and a few of the guys quoting peace and happiness to all. Ed and Sue didnt match as a couple but Suzie had a gorgeous sari on and she even wore a dark wig. Yep she had the bindi dot and there were a few jokes on that , and sorry Sue but couldnt help poking it a few times, hope I didnt give ya a headache, but then again I think you took your biggest headache home with you! Because he was in fine form by the end of the night. Dont think Ive ever seen Jammer let loose completely, he must have been enjoying himself, cause "it was the best party he had been to" Think I heard that a half dozen times. Adam and Kazz went all out as usual with matching costumes, Lord Spider and Princess of the webs, funny thing though the real spiders and webs kept attaching to Kazz. I knew those shoes although absolutely gorgeous, werent going to last long and sure nuf they did come off for more comfortable shoes. Rick and Sheila, well what can ya say, Sheila was a great Tina Turner, with those legs, definately had Ed drooling for awhile and Rick went all out. I guess on Sunday he finished the job and shaved the rest of his head. He came as a punk rocker and actually gave himself a mohawk and shaved the sides off, so he had to finish the job the next day. My friends Sue and Steve came up from Vic and considering all of Sue's creativity is in her baby toe, she did an awesome job getting their costumes together. They were Frankie and his bride and considering Steve is not relly into dressing up he did great acting as Frankie especially when we were all dancing around the fire to the Moster Mash. We had a few other miscellanious costumes and people there. And of course Miss Kaylee finally arrived home in her fancy witch costume that makes her look oh so grown up. I think I need a gun!

Lots of great food, and fun for sure.

Sunday rolled around and thankfully no hangover, I did my best to try and behave myself knowing what Sunday was going to bring. After being up at 5 on Saturday the time change was a pain in the arse. Mind you I managed to stay in bed til 6 which was actually 7 so I guess in a way you could say I slept in. We sat around doing the usual morning routine and waiting for Sue and Steve to get moving. The weather and roads were looking great and Len was starting to twitch. He needed a ride, well I kinda wanted one too but I had some major studying to do. He was thinking of heading to Vic to meet some of the boys club for coffee then Mountain called and said he was on the bike and free, so we decided to just meet up with him and have brunch, then they could go and play if they wanted while I returned home to study. So off we went for a good hard run to 18 and then circled back to meet the Mountain at the Oak. Wouldnt ya know it but the boys Len was going to met showed up there as well. Nice to see them all. The boys decided they were going to get some beers and attack Mountains seat. Changing it back to a solo. Only problem is this old 90's bagger can be a real bitch. When we did the lights for him, I think Len cursed for an hour trying to get the solo seat off just to do the wiring. Now they had the tour pac and two up seat to deal with. I wished them luck and off I headed home, while they went back out to the lake.

I parked my but in the office and after a babble session with the girl, sshe finally let me get on the task at hand. I finished my journal entry for Friday and then was starting to work thru the review sheet, when I could swear I heard a bike, and stereo. Thinking that didnt take them long and Len was back already, I was looing out the windows but couldnt see anything, opened the front door and stepped out to look. Kaylee banged on the window and told me to get back in the office and do my work, damn little boss. I tried to say I hear a bike and she is looking at me strange. I turned and looked towards the main door and HOLY SHITSTICKS BATMAN - there was Paws standing there all in her gear. I went flying to the door and just about wiped out trying to turn the corner. Wendy and Dez decided to ride down for a visit or to take me for a coffee, since we hadnt seen them for awhile and they missed having us at their party the night before. Glad to see she is back on her bike. They didnt stay long but it was great to have them pop in. Guess it is our turn next time, to head to Comox and surprise them. Doesnt look like she will be leaving for her training until after the Olympics. That kinda sucks cause she will be away for the whole summer then.

Finally got back to my books and managed to finish up the review sheet. Took awhile and there was a couple questions that I couldnt find full answers too, but I knew we would be going over them in class on Monday. Now just to make sure all this shyte is in my brain. Yep Im a worry wart and since I havent been in school for over 20 years I was concerned bout taking the test. Looking over the review, I didnt know if it was all going to sink in and if I wasnt going to confuse half the info then screw up the answers. Im going to keep going over this review and especially once we get them back, the ones I messed up, cause Im sure all of it plus the next 2 weeks will be on the final. I really pushed myself trying to study all of it and get it to sink in but I was finding that some of it just wouldnt go. I dint want to get perfect or high marks, sure that would be nice, but didnt want to fail it either. I am hoping for middle of the road 70s maybe 80s would be nice. I need atleast 60 to pass, and I think I got that for sure. I dont want the high marks cause then you feel like you have to keep them there, but with middle of the road there is always room for improvement. I worked away all day on SUnday, we reviewed our answers on Monday and then I spent Monday night trying to wrap my head around it all, and then Tuesday morning, I steped away from this contraption and sat at the kitchen table, trying to push the last confusing answers into my head before having to leave. I finally said phuk it around 11 and started getting ready to go. Had breakfast with Len then we jumped the bikes and headed south. Good idea to take Therapy to my therapy exam. I think I needed that moment of lucidity. If I had of taken the truck, I more then likely would have had my notes out and tried to keep studying while driving.

Well I got there and thankfully I wasnt tooo on edge. Quite surprised as I know in high school I had major test anxiety and would fail because of it. I was actually pretty relaxed and just wanted to get the show on the road. Kaylee has been home sick since the weekend (no dont think it is swine flu cause she isnt burning up, no fever at all) and before I left I went and checked on her and she wrote "good luck" on my hand again. When I got to class my phone was going off, so I had a look and it was a double text message from Kaylee repeating good luck for the whole 2 texts with a big exclammation at the end. Gotta love my girl. I think she realizes how important this is to me even though she doesnt want me trying any of these theories on her! Len took off to run a few errands around town, told him I wasnt sure how long it would take, all I knew is we are allowed to leave when we are done. Could be an hour maybe two, I would just text or call when I finished. Well it only took bout an hour to finish and I actually brreathed a sigh of relief when I did a quick scan of it all. Alot of the stuff I was trying to cram in my brain was done in the multiple choice or matching sections and not in the definitions or short answers. I know I completely screwed up one of the short answers. I wrote down one set of answers then thought nope not it and wrote another set, then thought nope not it, then I just said screw it cause I cant keep changing it and knowing my luck Im second guessing myself and the first ones will be right. There is a bit of hope on that one as the second set I put down could kinda be used as the right answer although I dont think it is exactly what she was looking for. When I looked at my notes after I kicked myself cause it was really one of the easiest questions to answer and I turned it into something difficult. Besides that, on the written stuff I should do ok at least get 1 mark out of the 2 for sure if not both just depends on if I described it enough. The matching and multiple choice were pretty simple but there was one that I considereed a trick question and could answer either way. I went with first instict on it but if she marks me wrong Im going to explain myself and argue with her, even if it is only 1 mark!

Now Im sitting on edge just wanting to know how I scored andif all the self torture was worth it. Im thinking I did alright but just to see how alright is the thing. How much am I going to need to improve or am I going to have to keep up the same routine so that I keep the marks consistent. Not sure when we get them back but hoping it is today cause I really want to know!

Oh well wait and see I guess, looks like another great day before the rains again, so I think we will have to have some Therapy again on the way to school and home of course.