I am a leaf on the wind!

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Hanson
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Re: I am a leaf on the wind!

#121 Unread post by Hanson »

Day 388 : Monday June 1, 2015 : Miles 26088

Last Thursday I got home from work to find Mrs. Hanson in pain. She had fallen on the front walk and skinned both of her knees and one was hurting bad. After some discussions, we decided to take her into the clinic to check out that knee because Susi was not able to put any weight on that leg. With some difficulty, we got her into her truck and it was off to the doctors office for a bit of care, some x-rays, and some prescription pain medication and anti-inflammatory therapy.

I took Friday off work to help out.

Mrs. Hanson is miserable but she is now able to get around the house a bit without using crutches by furniture surfing like a toddler. This is a good sing. We will need to go have a specialist take a look at that knee. From the x-rays, there are no fractures, but it is still quite swollen and there was likely some soft tissue damage that will not be apparent without an MRI. I am inclined to wait a while for an MRI and see how thing progress and only start thinking about expensive imaging if it becomes necessary to make a decision about surgery. A few years ago I twisted my left ankle and fell and I spent some time on those same crutches that Susi is now using. I had a rather bad sprain and it took about a year to get back to normal, but no surgery was necessary. It is my Prayer that Susi will get lucky also.

My daughter, Miranda, is still in school until June 11, and I will be on taxi duty, likely for the duration. This means that I will not be commuting by moto. Gerrrrrr. I will be late for work each morning, and then I will need to go pick her up and return to work to finish up my day. I only put in about 9 to 10 hours a day, so my days will just get a bit longer, but I will be driving my truck for the duration.

I am so looking forward to riding up to Colorado latter this month.

Safe Travels,
Richard
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Hanson
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Re: I am a leaf on the wind!

#122 Unread post by Hanson »

Day 409 : Monday June 22, 2015 : Miles 27804

I rode to Buena Vista, Colorado and back this Saturday and had a great time. I love the mountains and riding along the Sangre de Cristo range on Colorado 69 is spectacular. Then is was north on US 50 along the rugged valleys carved out by the Arkansas river. It was a long time ago, but I took a young Irish girl out of Texas to go rafting in Colorado and she eventually relented and agreed to be my wife. We where camping in the Canon city area, near the Royal Gorge, and taking rafting trips down the river, but we where looking for a better place to camp and we just drove up US 50 and discovered Buena Vista and the Collegiate Peak Campground. We spent several days there and I hiked up Mt. Yale. One night, we came down out of the pass and took in a movie at a the Comanche Drive-In Theatre.

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>>>> Comanche Drive-In

Today, Buena Vista is much more heavily developed with lots of tourists and traffic, but the Comanche is still showing movies on the weekends.

I also saw a few dear and two massive elk on this ride.

Safe Travels,
Richard
Last edited by Hanson on Tue Jun 23, 2015 2:07 am, edited 1 time in total.
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blues2cruise
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Re: I am a leaf on the wind!

#123 Unread post by blues2cruise »

That was a nice flashback to share. Thanks.
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Hanson
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Re: I am a leaf on the wind!

#124 Unread post by Hanson »

Day 410 : Tuesday June 23, 2015 : Miles 27823

I got to work this morning, lots of bugs still on the motorcycle from riding this last weekend, and I got laid-off from my job after 24 years and some change. The company has been devastated by the 60% drop in the price of oil over the last year. My new job, 40 hours a week or more, will be looking for employment.

In some ways, it is a bit of a releife, which I found surprising, as I no longer experience the continual tension and worry I had experienced over the last year about my work. Now, I can focus on what I will do next and even if this industry is suffering greatly, the overall economy in my area is strong and growing.

I must admit to some measure of apprehension in those quite moments when the mind has a chance to reflect on just how big a change this will be in my rather comfortable life. The last time I was looking for a job I was in my late twenties, not my fifties, and I was only responsible for myself.

Mrs. Hanson wept.

But, Susi is a woman of strong character and will be fine.

Safe Travels,
Richard
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blues2cruise
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Re: I am a leaf on the wind!

#125 Unread post by blues2cruise »

Dang. Sorry to hear about your layoff.

On the bright side.....you can probably ride a bit more.....while the postal service spreads your resume around. :mrgreen:

Best wishes for something to come along soon.
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Hanson
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Re: I am a leaf on the wind!

#126 Unread post by Hanson »

Day 482 : Thursday September 3, 2015 : Miles 27823

I am still engaged in a maximum effort job search, but I have a final interview next week for a contract position that will start in late September or early October.

When I was let go, I had a few minutes to get a few items and then I had leave the building with an appointment the following week to pack up my office. It was nothing personal, just company policy. I took the elevator down and walked out to the motorcycle to ride home and I was a wreck. I should have called a cab, but I made it home OK only to drop the bike in the driveway. I was not in good shape and it was quite difficult to get the bike upright and then into the garage. Next, I went online and order a new front break lever to replace the one I had just broken, and a few other items.

I have not been on the motorcycle since that day, June 23, but this morning I went out and started her up. She was a bit reluctant, but I let her run for quite a while to put a charge on the battery and I changed out the front break lever, a painless procedure.

To be honest, and a bit wimpy, I don't like riding in the summer heat, and it has been quite hot, but I think it is time to have a bit of fun. I think I will go for a ride this weekend.

Safe Travels,
Richard
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Re: I am a leaf on the wind!

#127 Unread post by NorthernPete »

Well, glad to hear the search was productive. As a fellow resource based industry employee I'm always happy when I see people are able to land on their feet.

And as for weather based riding. I was never one for cold weather riding up here. So I understand not wanting to ride in temperature you find uncomfortable. Even if other don't.

Have a great autumn!
1988 VN1500
2009 GS500F

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Hanson
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Re: I am a leaf on the wind!

#128 Unread post by Hanson »

Day 504 : Friday September 25, 2015 : Miles 29307

This last year I have been working on an IBA ride , the Four Seasons Bun Burner Gold. Basically, your must ride a BBG on each of the Vernal Equinox, Summer Solstice, Autumnal Equinox and Winter Solstice. You can start with any of the rides, but the rides must be completed contiguously, I started with the Winter Solstice last December, and then rode a BBG on the Vernal Equinox and the Summer Solstice. This last Wednesday, I rode a BBG on September 23 to completed my forth ride with the Autumnal Equinox. If I had missed this ride, then I would have needed to start over so that all four rides would be completed in order and contiguously.

When I lost my Job in June, my benefits where continued until the end of August, and since that time my family has been without health insurance. I mention this as my wife does not want me riding my motorcycle without health insurance as the consequences of a crash/hospitalization would be rather substantial. I looked at the cost of COBRA coverage, but the cost was going to be about 2k a month and that would greatly increase how fast our savings would be depleted by my unemployment. Next, I looked at the Federal insurance exchange that is part of the Affordable Care Act and plans for my family with decent coverage where also in the 2k a month range, plus I would also be required to sacrifice my self respect by getting health insurance through a socialist government program. Instead, we have just been paying for health care out of pocket, and we will also experience a special federal tax for the privilege of not having health insurance. It both amazes and disappoints me that any free people would allow their government to tax them for not buying a government mandated health insurance policy.

I mention all of this on a motorcycle forum only because the federal government and the Affordable Care Act have had a profoundly negative impact on my motorcycle riding. If I had been able to purchase private insurance to cover catastrophic events, like a hospitalization resulting from a motorcycle crash, then I would have been out riding more often, but such policies do not comply with the Affordable Care Act and are no longer available.

Despite these concerns and the elevated financial risks of riding naked with respect to health insurance, I still rode a BBG on Wednesday. I did, however, plan a very easy ride, as if any ride of more than 1500 miles in a day can be considered easy, but this was a very basic and minimal effort BBG. Normally, every ride is not only done for the fun or challenge of the ride, but also I have specific personal goals in mind. These goals are intended to help me become a more proficient and safe long distance endurance riding and they help me explore my personal performance envelope as an endurance rider. This was to be my 11th IBA ride and my 6th BBG, but it was also my first ride where my primary goal was simply to take it easy and ride a safe and easy plan instead of using the ride as a tool to learn more about LD riding.

Why did I ride at all? If I did not ride, then I would have needed to start the Four Seasons ride over again as I would not have completed all Four of the required rides contiguously. The logistics for these rides are rather difficult as you must ride on specific days without regard to the weather or your work schedule. I am starting a contract job in early October, and will have no paid vacation days or payed holidays for the duration of the contract. Moreover, I have no idea when I will next have such benefits so if I failed to complete the sequence of the four rides by not riding this Autumnal Equinox, then it might be a long time before I could start over on this project, likely years. So I made the decision to ride despite my concerns, and my Dear Susi's concerns over the health insurance issue.

Despite having no specific learning goals, I did learn.

First, I improved my understanding of fatigue management. The most important goal of every IBA ride is to make it home safely. This is the IBA prime directive and all other aspects of LD riding are subordinate to the basic need to develop core values as a rider centered around safety. Each rider must know himself or herself with respect to their own personal set of limits and ride within those limits. There are some amazing people in the IBA who can safely for a very long period of time, far longer than I can ride. A man must know his limitations and there is nothing at all wrong with having a smaller performance envelope than another rider.

On this ride, I had more trouble than usual getting good sleep before I started the ride and I was having a hard time in the early morning before sunrise. It was obvious to me that I was not riding safely with respect to fatigue so it was time to get some rest. In the Iron Butt Association, grabbing a quick nap on the side of the road, perhaps in a rest area, or behind a darkened church, or even a quite grave yard, is called checking into the Iron Butt Motel. I normally have no problems staying awake for a day, even on limited sleep, but I was having trouble this morning and I also knew that my ride plan had quite a bit of extra time available to complete the ride, so I decided to check into the Iron Butt Motel.

I pulled into a very nice rest stop on I-20 just east of Pacos, I unloaded my bike, tank bag, GPS, Spot Gen III tracker and such, and went into the main building. I took care of biological needs and then drank a small cup of vending machine coffee. There is a technique called the coffee nap that I was going to utilize. I then told the attended that I was going to take a quick nap and he told me that was find but suggested that I use the family bathroom as it had a door that could be locked. I did exactly that. I locked the door, turned off the light and set my alarm for 25 minutes.

I like to take naps, and most of the time my naps are both very refreshing and brief, 20 minutes is the norm, and when I woke up from this nap there was still 5 minutes left on the alarm. I felt so much better than I had before and I got rite back on the road. The entire stop had cost me 40 minutes, a bit more than I had expected, and I will need to work on improving my nap efficiency in the future, but this short coffee nap made an enormous difference and I still had enough spare time on the clock to do this two more times if needed.

When I can add luggage to my motorcycle, I plan on doing multi day rides, and I think I will have opportunities to improve my napping skills.

What else did I learn on this ride?

Somehow, every time I do an Iron Butt Ride, I get a strange craving for an Arby's roast beef sandwich, but I am very careful about what I eat on an IBA ride as I have diabetes and if I eat the wrong thing my blood sugars spike and I get very fatigued. Mostly I just eat nuts, sparingly, during the day. Fats and proteins are a good choice for sustaining energy with a well controlled blood sugar level. This does not stop me from eating something good whenever I get home. Now, you would think that I would be smart enough to go out and get some Arby's sandwiches before leaving, I like them cold, but I am a particularly stupid man and never seam to be able to accomplish this before a ride.

So... when I was almost home, only about 350 miles left to ride, I started thinking about that roast beef sandwich. I was actually checking exit service sines for an Arby's restaurant and thought I would just stuff a couple sandwiches in the tank bag for when I got home. My ETA was about 11PM and I started thinking about just how late the local Arby's might be open. I was mentally kicking myself for having once again failed to just buy those sandwiches for the refrigerator before the start of the ride.

When I got home, my oldest son, John who is 17, was still awake and he helped me unload the bike. I got right on the computer to see if I could find an open Arby's and John dropped an Arby's bag in my lap. It seams that my dear wife, God keep her safe, had been to Arby's earlier in the day. She is not only a lot smarter than I will ever be, but Susi loves me despite all my horrific flaws. It must be understood that she was rather angry that I even did this ride, and yet she knew, from past conversations, that I would be craving those roast beef sandwiches. I sat in my living room, exhausted, but extraordinarily happy in the certain knowledge that my dear wife should love me so.

I am a very lucky man.

Safe Travels,
Richard
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blues2cruise
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Re: I am a leaf on the wind!

#129 Unread post by blues2cruise »

WOW! Your wife sure knows you....and obviously cares. Very nice of her to get that sandwich for you.

Sounds like a great ride....even the napping part. :)
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Re: I am a leaf on the wind!

#130 Unread post by Jamers! »

Richard, glad to hear that you got a contract gig going and are not enduring the pain of total unemployment any longer. While not having the same stressers a family and mortgage add i have been there non the less and it is no fun. So congratulation. I hope it went or is going well!!

Glad to see you were able to get your bike repaied and back out on the highway. Maybe I missed it but was this the 4th ride in the solstice challenge? I have been looking at the IBA national park challenge and reading up on what i need to get to do some long distance riding. I am thrilled you were able to get out and continue this passion you have for long distance endurance riding.

Mrs. Hanson sounds like a great woman, nothing better to come home to than someone who knows you so well.


Cheers!
-Fletch
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