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Six of us ended up at Cedar Key on our ride this past Friday. Two of us stayed at the Faraway Inn over on the east side of town by the water.

The others were at other locations around town, but we all were within easy walking distance from everything! What can I say? It was great. The weather was superb, and we ate lots of seafood.

YUMMY! Grouper sandwich and clam chowder to die for… lunch Saturday at Tony’s.

Slideshow later, once I get all the photos assimilated and borrow a few from the other folks.

I came across this on Facebook. Pretty funny questionaire.

Created by Oatmeal

I have always been warned to use a SHARP blade for cutting things. Do not use a dull blade! A dull blade will get you into trouble fast!

So what do I do? I pick up the closest utility knife blade handy (”Oh!” I thought. “That blade is a bit rusty.”) I go to whack off a short piece of black electrical tape….and…WTF!

I had already made a second lid tether and was just going to wrap the loose string ends with tape!

You see, I’m improving on my lid tether design.

A couple of weeks ago I bought these…

…hoping I could fit them under my current leather gloves. No such luck. These little guys are sleek but they DO present a fitment problem when trying to slide them into lined gloves that already fit your hand.

So I had to go shopping for yet another pair of gloves that are bigger so I can wear the Gerbing liners and keep my mitts warm and cozy while riding in this frozen tundra we have here these days. Hopefully the frozen tundra will end soon, but at least I’ll have the capacity to venture out in colder than my previously low limit of 40F degrees.

So, at someone’s suggestion I looked at Sullivan gloves.

These are soft deerskin gloves that have a wide wrist opening, and with some luck they will fit over my liners. I actually thought about getting a pair with the little fringe tassels hanging off the side, but I relented, figuring that concept was just a little over the top even for me.

I just checked the web site and my Sullivans should be here by tomorrow or Wednesday.

I got the black ones.

Oops! We thought it was all over for this year. Then the signs started coming later in the week! School officials announced that it would not affect our Friday school activities, but counties all around us were shutting down for the day. At about noon yesterday it began: small dry flakes, sticking on all surfaces as it fell due to no wet precipitation before hand. It wasn’t long before it started to look like a winter wonderland in these here parts!

This is what my house looked like as I arrived home at about 3:30.

So I couldn’t resist the photographic appeal of getting some shots of the bike with the snow backdrop!

It continued to snow, and snow, and snow way into the night. Not real heavy but constant.

This morning it was absolutely beautiful in my back yard looking down the hill.

Even my grill and chair had become miraculously photogenic overnight!

I knew for three weeks or more that I was going to make this ride down to Washington, GA for the club meeting, but what I didn’t know is how cold or wet it was going to be.

As it turned out, the day was dry and mostly sunny for the first half, but when I left my driveway it was a balmy 34 degrees and I still didn’t have the leather covers for my heated glove liners. I put on the heated vest and cranked up the heated grips and took off.

I underestimated how long it would take me to get down there and really had no idea how far it was. It only looked like a couple of inches on my Georgia map! LOL I knew I was in trouble with my time when I filled up in Decatur and it was 10:30 with 90 miles to go to arrive on location at 11:30.

I made it to the Fitzpatrick Hotel on the square a little past 12:00 noon and went on inside the little cafe to order me some lunch.

The others had arrived at the appointed time and had already ordered their food. I ordered a soup and salad from the menu and it came fairly quickly so that I ended up finishing about the same time as the everyone else.

After the meal we reconvened next door at one of the conference rooms of the Fitzpatrick and had our meeting.

When we all came out it was CLOUDY again and the temperature had started to go down again after briefly reaching 50F degrees for about 20 minutes!

I said my goodbyes and hauled buggy back up I-20 through Atlanta and on to Woodstock central. It was really cold again by the time I got home…about 38 or so and I thawed out with some hot coffee and a nice warm couch.

First, I got the long anticipated Pelican side case lid tethers installed on my side cases this past weekend. I really like the big Pelican bags on the GS bike but the lids on them would just “flop” down unrestrained if I didn’t hold onto them when opening the bags. This always bugged the hell out of me and I was determined to put some kind of tethers on the bags eventually. This is my solution:

I went to the local Ace Hardware and bought a roll of spiffy camo nylon cord, along with 4 bolts, 4 nylon locknuts, 4 neoprene washers and 4 of those little cord end connectors to make a loop. The neoprene washers should keep out the moisture and the cords keep the lid from flopping down. They hold the lid at about a 90 degree angle open. One side may not be enough though, so I plan to put another one on the other side of each bag. Then it would feel really secure for me to place items on as I search through the bags for things I need.

Second, I began a walking program last week using a video on the TV. It takes me through a walking regimen using a variety of movements and brisk walking in place and back and forth style in the den. It has 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 mile steps. I am just beginning the 2 miles at a time tonight! My knees may not last with the “boost” as they call it at the end of each mile which includes a 2 minute jog of the steps on the end of each mile. But that’s okay. If I have to just do the walking without the “boost”, I’ll still be doing great.

Third, I have investigated that new Sensa diet powder that is supposed to be the bestest and newest diet program out there. It has been designed by some doctors who swear that if you use it on your food, your brain will be tricked into eating less! Sounds like some kind of wierd science to me, but its a FREE offer for one month. Can’t beat that. We’ll see how it works. If it DOES work, I’ll use it until I get the 25 pounds off I need to lose, then rethink continuing it for more.

It looks like there will be more crappy cold weather, bringing some sleet and snow tonight and tomorrow morning!

I really wanted to ride over to Blue Moon Motorcycles and pick up a couple of Gerbings wiring connections for my new heated glove liners. I also have to go shopping for a set of XL gloves to fit over the liners, but I think I can get those at a western store cheaper. Maybe not the gauntlet style, but I can check. Maybe find those with the fringe hanging down off the sides!

Thinkin’ about getting a set of these.