BLOGS FOR NOVEMBER 2007

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Week ending November 25th, 2007
How was your Thanksgiving? I've had a nice, lazy week myself! Had been invited to a few places to eat but decided instead to just chill out and get some "me time" (read: Lots of football). I've been off since Tuesday so I caught up with some sleep that I had been missing since taking the new job here in San Diego. The weather has been - meh. Ok. Cloudy and cool but the air is clean.

Mostly I've been vegging out. I was going to do some track days while I was off but just decided to take it easy. I'm not even sure I am going to race next year. Maybe a few races but the desire to go bust my hump out there every month with no support whatsoever is waining. Not because I don't like it -- I do. In fact, I LOVE riding. It's just extremely expensive and not having any sponsorship or support doesn't make sense. Track days would be more fun. No registration fees on top of everything else you have to pay for. Also there's no pressure to win so I can just go back to riding and having a good time at the track. That's what I always wanted to do. Racing for me was a "so I can say I did it" challenge. I find when there is a challenge in life and I meet that challenge, it loses a lot of it's luster so I go and find another challenge elsewhere.

I was supposed to go to concert on Tuesday night but wouldn't you know it, our star performer was sick so it's been rescheduled for next Sunday. That's cool, as long as the tickets are still good that is all that matters.

Saturday. Haha. Saturday. Well I got a speeding ticket back during the summer when I was commuting from OC to San Diego. Since I haven't been to traffic school in a long time I decided to sign up for "Comedy" traffic school. I was expecting there to be some kind of stand up comic who would make the class funny. Granted, the instructor had a good sense of humor but there was no "stand up" and we spent most of the time listening to one student who talked and talked and talked. Needless to say I was glad to finally get out of there at the end of the day and "do my time" so to speak. haha.

I was going to head to Florida in Dec because I have 2 full weeks off starting the weekend before Christmas until the weekend after New Years. However, I think I'll wait until next Thanksgiving to go. My sister wants to spread my mom's ashes at her favorite vacation spot. Instead I think I'll be spending a week up at Mammoth just enjoying the snow and having a good time.

By the way, I finished up the New Testament again and have started on the OT. This would be my second time through the bible and I am already amazed at what I have forgotten. What I remember are the stories that have the most direct impact on my life. Especially "Job".

That's about it for this week. Christmas is coming and I'm wondering if you've done your shopping yet. I've got a lot of people to buy for and many people to be thankful for in my life. If you're reading this, you all know who you are :) Thanks for everything you do and just for being YOU. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Until next week --- see ya!

Week ending November 18th, 2007
Sometimes I am either very lucky or very blessed. This week at work they had layoffs. I pretty much resigned myself to the fact that since I was the last one to join the team I would be the first to go. But I think God had other plans for me. A few people from our team resigned and one other was let go so I made the cut. As I said before, this is one of the most fun/interesting jobs I've ever had and I guess it shows in my work and my attitude (I'm always the first to volunteer for new projects).

I still have a lot to learn. That I definitely understand. I am striving to learn as much as I can in as short a period as I can. We have a good, solid group of people on our team and them being busy has often forced me to learn on my own. And I guess that's where I excel. Give me a server and an assignment and I'll make it happen.

This weekend was great. The weather overall was perfect. I'm getting my snowboard ready. Still need to pick up some new boots and bindings. I had such a great time the last time I went snowboarding so I am really looking forward to doing face plants in the snow, haha. Interesting timing on my truck tires, by the way. They're ready to be changed so now would be a good time to pick up some snow tires.

Church on Saturday was awesome. We had a great guest speaker. The thing he left me with that stuck in my mind is the "Manual" for living. "This world" lives by their own understanding, but God wrote the bible to teach us everything we need to know about how to live our lives. Worship, marriage, raising children, etc. The guest speaker is a Christian Psychologist and he really made a lot of sense with what he had to say.

I am excited! This is a short work week as I have Weds-Fri off. I am heading to a concert on Tuesday night and I am planning on taking the CR250 out for a short run on Weds or Thurs. I haven't really ridden the bike much since I rebuilt the motor. I still have to replace the main jet on the carb but otherwise it should be good to go.

As for Thanksgiving, I'm not headed home this year. I think I'd rather go during Christmas. This year I will spend it with friends and watch football. I have a lot of things to be thankful for this year, that's for sure.

This past week was the two year anniversary of my mom passing away. There's not a day that goes by that I don't think about her. I think I mentioned before, about a year before she died I had a dream that she would pass away soon and it happened pretty much the way my dream went. The only difference is I had dreamed she was living alone in a trailer. I even dreamed the dogs were there with her (and they were). No matter what happens, I know that God is taking good care of her and I will see her again one day. I am who I am because of the examples and direction my mom set for my life. Thanks mom, I love you.

Well, dinner is done so I am going to pig out. Have a great Thanksgiving and I'll check in with you all next Sunday.

Keep 'er shiny side up! Cheers!

Week ending November 11th, 2007
So this week has been interesting to say the least. Can't really say what is going on exactly but I can say that it's never a good thing. The best thing I can do is continue to keep my nose to the grindstone, learn as much as I can and continue to be a team player. I can say I really enjoy where I work and that it provides the kind of challenge I have been looking for.

I haven't decided what I am going to do for Christmas. I know I am not flying home for Thanksgiving but I may fly for Christmas. I was just home in June and had to take a week off so I am not sure how much vacation time I have.

Everything else is going great! No complaints for sure. I have spent a lot of time basically working out (as normal), vegging a bit, etc. But tomorrow is a Holiday for us and I am going to play golf with friends from work. Then next week I am going to a concert and then it's Thanksgiving. I will definitely check out serving in the Church. I've also been invited to feed the homeless on Thanksgiving as well so I am looking forward to that.

As as I watching the news there is a kid who looks like my Nephew, CJ. Spitting image, I am not kidding. LOL. I promised him I will teach him how to ride a motorcycle and I will definitely do that. Who knows, maybe he will turn out to be the next Nicky Hayden? Though I am well past my "racing" prime, it's still fun to ride and share the enjoyment with others. Especially my family. If I am lucky, one day I'll have a son (or two) and be able to share riding with them as well.

Hope you are having a great week and I'll check back in with you next week.

(Thank God for the rain, BTW. We really needed it!)

Week ending November 4th, 2007
Before I say anything I want to congratulate my brother Joe and his wife, Valle on the birth of their daughter! Congrats "little bro", I'm proud of you.

This has been an interesting week at work. We had a couple of team mates turn in their resignation. At first you'd think this was a bad thing but it's a win/win. They get nice pay increases and those of us who are left get to take on more projects and learn more. Where I work is a good proving ground. If you can succeed here you can succeed anywhere. It's going to take me a good couple of years to really learn everything I can. Hopefully by then there will be more opportunity. If not I can always go somewhere else and see what happens.

I am definitely learning a lot though and that's really important to me. This week I've been really digging into the storage systems and starting to understand exactly how they work. Next week I am going to do some complicated divvying up of "LUNS" which is going to teach me a handful. The books that I ordered still aren't here yet (Amazon usually has them in stock but when they don't it takes forever).

On a personal front I was supposed to help do some cleanup yesterday from the fires but they had too many volunteers and only a few houses to clean up. So I'll be on standby with the Church for next week to see if they need me. I have everything I need (gloves, mask, shovel, etc). The new Church that I attend is a lot different than Saddleback. It's much, much smaller but it's completely a "bible study" Church. Bring a bible or they give you one :) But what I like the most is we do study and read the scripture and learn to apply it to daily life. Not knocking Saddleback but we just didn't read from the word enough. Verses, yes, but not really scripture.

Everything else is going great. Making plans for Thanksgiving and also looking forward to doing some snow boarding soon. Mammoth opens this weekend though I haven't checked to see if they have had much (or any) snow so far.

As for racing, I think I am going to cool it off for the rest of the year. I still haven't signed up for any track days but that may come in December. I haven't been to Pahrump in a while so it would be good to go there or even Buttonwillow. I'm really bored with Willow Springs and was even considering racing with WERA because they run several different tracks. Best of all we don't have to deal with the uber strong winds at Willow which seems to wreak havoc with my lines.

Speaking of racing, the MotoGP season finished today and well, Nicky won't be running the #1 plate next year. I really think he was jinxed this year. haha. One thing I know about Nicky is he is determined to do better. Hopefully Honda will get things sorted out with the RC212V next year and he'll be able to win a few races and stay competitive.

Life is good and I have no complaints. The personal part of my life is going great and I really do appreciate all the good friends that I have. You can easily determine who is a friend simply by the ones who call you just to say "Hey." So you guys (and gals) know who you are and here I am saying THANKS!

That's it for now. Stay safe, watch your mirrors and twist the throttle. :)