black chevrolet

I look back on the last few posts I have made and am appalled at how closely they are spaced in time. Am I really this bored? Do I have to be this bored?

I promised my boss that I would be good and stay put and man the office while he was gone, and not be seduced into manual labor projects into which I am normally plunged, by my midwestern bluecollar pride that whispers "people who sit on their butts and give orders aren't for real". So far my conscientious attempts to sit still have involved reading issues of Architectural Digest, researching New Urbanism online and...

...blogging. (ehem)

I ordered Suzi's full-dress windshield yesterday. I'll try to remember to post a pic when I get it installed. My hardcore, naked street machine image is slowly melting into dressed-up freeway cruiser. Practicality takes its toll.

I guess I was born to cruise, but I've never been a fan of the cushy blatting electraglides. On the other end of the spectrum there's the molded plastic 14,000 rpm Gixxers and Chibbers, and that's not me, either. Give me a bike that's minimalist and functional. Bare cylinders, a couple of fenders, a big round headlight, windshield for the cold, luggage for my stuff, and a comfortable upright perch that lets me maneuver the thing and see where the canyon road is going, and style be damned.

(I see a BMW in my future. I don't see a pay raise corresponding to that BMW, but oh well, we all can dream.)

I have no intention of ever being without a motorcycle again. I've discovered a whole new world to explore, one that I used to know only through GM's living room. A new world of freezing cold, pause-and-go fill-ups without ever dismounting the motorcycle, bystander kids asking me "what year is that?" bystander old guys telling me "That's a good bike, buddy, wish I had one...you'll never wear it out" bystander young women telling me "you ought to get a Harley".

A new world of tumbleweeds and rabbits and gravel in corners, of velcro and backfires and oil leaking on my boots. A little taste of the elements again, something I have missed since leaving the midwest.