regret and on

I woke up thinking that to go up to a woman during the greeting portion of a church service and ask if she would like to go to coffee is akin to a bar pick-up. I felt really wrong for doing such a thing. After not thinking about it much during the day I must of dreamt about it cause that was what was in my waking thoughts. Was this inappropriate? If anyone ever read this blog I would ask them to take a poll and vote on it. Mind you, I never met or picked-up or even tried to pick any one up in a bar and I have never been the agressive kind but what did she percieve this to be? Was she aghast? Shocked? Repulsed?
I am leaving on Tuesday AM to got to KY for preparation of a customer visit there and then as soon as that is settled I need to go to JC, MO to help with a machine break down there. This forms an almost perfect triangle with legs of about 450 miles each. Crazy. The only good thing about this trip so far is that I got a company vehicle that had just been delivered; a 2008 Chevy Impala with 14 miles on the odometer. XM radio. Auxillary input. Plug in my GPS and that is all I need. Oh, and the money I saved getting my cell phone battery replaced on warranty I spent at Best Buy with a $5 coupon to get a BlueTooth hands-free.

thinking about it

I played both services today.
Carmen was at 1st.
I asked "Do you want to go for coffee sometime?"
Hesitation.
"Can I think about that?"
"Sure"
I go back to playing.
Is this glass half full or half empty? Is there anything in it at all?

I spent at least 4 hours putting together a historical blog documenting the story of the 1974 R75/6 BMW motorcycle project. http://L726-R75.blogspot.com/ It distracted me so that I would not attempt to analyze things and fall into a hole.

If I ever can stay in town long enough I need to get started on this project. I am really sorry that "or your embrace" blog is not full of personal relationships and that L726-R75 blog is going to get a whole lot more activity. sucks.
Good night and thanks for not reading this.

the place I need to go

In the secret of His presence, how my soul delights to hide!
Oh, how precious are the lessons, which I learn at Jesus’ side!
Earthly cares forever vex me; all my trials lay me low.
But when Satan comes to tempt me
To that secret place I go,
To that secret place I go.
words Ellen Goreh 1883, music Christopher Miner 1997, from the CD 'the Builder & the Architect' Sandra McCracken

Blessings:
I worried all week about how I was going to get the truck starter replaced. Shovel snow, move stuff out of garage, park motorcycles out in the snow, get Luke to help me push the truck into the garage and start the heater; that was the plan. I got as far as shovelling snow and then decided to try to start it just out of curiousity. It started! So, my theory about some moisture freezing the starter solid at sub-zero temperatures might have been true. It wasn't much over 0° but it had all week to dry out. thank you Lord.
In the same mailbox on the same day I got Derek Webb's "the Ringing Bell" cd and Sandra McCracken's " the Builder and the Architect" and "Gravity Love". I love it when husband and wife work together.
I pulled out some frozen chicken stock from the freezer when I got home yesterday and soaked some black beans. I brewed that all morning today and then figured it looked like it need rice. When that started coming together it looked like it might need corn bread. That should be done soon and then it is lunch. Lunch = blessing.

OK i'll add my own comments since I am the only one that reads this anyways. Did you know that if you brew your black beans in chicken stock from a roaster chassis that all of the meat becomes dark meat? It is like magic!
I also downloaded Andrew Osenga's Letters to the Editor vol. 1 and need yet to get over to order Over the Rhine's Trumpet Child to make life complete enough to start looking for something new.

how sad is that?

I spend my time blogging here and I blog to no one. No body ever reads this so am I technically just talking to myself? Am I really losing it?
With a new battery and all the truck would not start this morning; never mind that it was about -10°. Why a 2004 Ford Ranger wont start but a 1989 Jeep Commanche will, I don't know. I borrowed Luke's Commanche and got to church late for sound check, essentially just in time to start playing. I left between services to pick up Beth and try to start the truck again and got back in time to miss the 2nd service sound check entirely. Run Kevin run!
Carmen was helping out during 1st service and was in the congregation during the 2nd service. This was enough to verify to me that I am crushing on her. My playing and attitude and everything is different because I know that she is there. How immature is that?
Pastor Steve told me that somebody that knew me was looking for me after 1st service when I was running around getting Beth to church. Turns out that it was the Schommers!! Who woulda thought? Somebody that they know was checking into the house and they were there to visit. I missed them but just got off the phone to verify that it was them. I told them that they need to stay here next time instead of spending money on hotels and restaurants. That would be so cool.

cold

When I awoke it was below 0° and, sure enough, the truck would not start. I have company visiting and I can't get to the store to get breakfast groceries. The wind chill is to fierce to walk, I can't find Luke's spare keys for his truck, so I saddle Gilera up again. I was dressed right except for just blue jeans and the wind went right through that. At 30 mph for 1 mile; that was about enough but I did it.
We spent the day with Jaime and now he is off visiting friends before heading back to CA. I have a new battery in the truck.
hmm... further conversation with sleepy hollow debbie. Nice change.

home jaime cold sleepyhollow debbie

I am home from Kentucky on a Friday.
My brother Jaime is visiting from California on the coldest weekend of the year. Come on in!
Yeah, it's cold. So cold that I could not start the truck to go to the store. So I started up Gilera and took her. There is just a light powder on the ground and some slushy salt (sorry Gilera, I will wash that off as soon as I can!). My neighbor saw me coming home down the alley and told me that now I am certifiable. Did I need proof?
I am starting a conversation with sleepy hollow debbie. You never know. I just thought that I would say something other than motorcycle. This blog is entitled "or your embrace" but that is the one thing that I avoid talking about the most. What if I actually went there? What if I chopped up some onion and smashed some garlic and roasted that and then put that under some cheese on a corn tortilla quesadilla? That would be supper.
brilliant.

snug

I was putting things away this evening when I remembered that I had put that Laminar Lip on Sharona's windshield lasterday. Hmm, I should test it! I rode out of town in the dark and did not go very far but did get up to speed enough to get an impression. I was skeptical but it proved to work better than I thought it would. With the shield down the way I like the most it lifted the current from the bottom of my helmet to about my forehead. That current was not so turbulent as before. When I raised the shield all the way up where it used to cause the most buffeting it lifted the current a little higher and left some gentler buffeting. Then I realized that I had a pretty strong headwind. Nice. not perfect.

No, really

No, really, I really like my garage. I did just as proposed in the previous post and went to work out there mid-morning after dealing with some bills and stuff. I put Gilera (my 1980 R100) up on the stand and replaced the alternator that I ordered so long ago and replace the brushes. I am glad that Motorad Elektric gave me some leniency in returning the core right away, I think that I ordered the rebuilt armature about 2 months ago. It got cold, I got sent to Kentucky, some thing about Chistmas ... well, it is done now! That was so easy without frostbite! So, then I cranked up the thermostat to 70° so that I could attach the Laminar Lip to Sharona's (1988 R100RT) windshield. The installation instructions require 70° to stick the 3-M velcro tape to the windshield. I have to let that sit for at least 24 hours so I wont get to test that right away.
It was 34° in the heat of the afternoon at about 3:30 so I hopped on the newly rigged Gilera to take a winter spin. Yea, I like bike! I just rode randomly out of town and then started to wonder about why there was so much traffic out here where no one normally drives. Oh, that's it ... they all come out here to gawk at the tornado damage .... JUst gO away!! poo on yoo. I enjoyed my ride anyway after I figured that out and got away from those. I did not get one single ride in during December because of #%$^^^$%## abadmonth. Well, I got at least one January ride in relatively early in the month so I can prove to be a good old rounder still.

And he said yes I think it can be easily done, Just take everything down to Highway 51

OK that is a misquote of Dylan but he didn't write no Bible either.
did you know that I was wondering around in my vw bug once when I was like 17 and I was daydreaming about how cool it would be to go to the start of US 51 and drive all the way down the complete length of the highway to Louisiana? Did you know that I still keep thinking about doing that someday? Did you know that there is a freekin website about that now? HoW wEiRd Is ThAt?

http://explorehwy51.com/

I finished installing the garage heater last weekend when it was kinda warm (40s) and then left for Kentucky again. I'm back and it is pleasantly cold so I hope to try it out tomorrow morning. A high of 35° is predicted for tomorrow so this should be a fair test. Imagine the luxury of getting up in the morning and letting Shelby out in the backyard and turning up the thermostat in the garage, coming back in to make coffee in my new french press (I found a good one that I can afford!), having some breakfast, pay some bills and then wander back out to the garage to start working on motorcycles in the winter!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOW.
I like my garage. This house is 103 years old but I don't think that the garage was built then (when did they invent cinder block?) but it is kinda old. It is prolly a Model A garage. A single car garage built into the side of the hill. It is prolly weak point in the value of this house but it works so well for me. There are 3 BMW motorcycles comfortably in there right now and when Paul was here there where as many as 5. So that is all that I need. A little garage built into the hill with new insulation in the ceiling should be pretty efficient to heat. Let's try it out!
I want to start a seperate blog to track the progress of the rebuild of the 1974 R75/6 that I got last summer and started to tear apart.