Just Riding

I started today by taking a scenic ride through beautiful Blount county. The weather was perfect and traffic was light. The old Harleys rumble was better than any tune you can find on todays radio stations. This morning was what riding is all about.

I stopped in at Jacks in Blountsville for a bite to eat and met another rider. His name was Jerry Briscoe. After speaking with him for a few minutes I found out he was involved in what is known as the “teddy bear ride.” If you have never heard of this, this is where bikers collect money and or teddy bears to give to the children at Childrens Hospital. He even gave me a teddy bear stick pen for my riding vest. Just having met and talked with Jerry for only a few minutes left me with such a good feeling inside. I hope my own club the Swamp Ratz will also see the teddy bear ride as a must do from this year forward. This ride is held every year in September. I’ll get more info out on this when it gets passed on to me.



After leaving Jerry and Jacks behind I rode through the little town of Cleveland. You would almost expect to see Barney with his one bullet walking his beat through the small town. Little towns like this are what makes America so beautiful, they are the reason I probably ride to begin with. I hope to one day have stopped in or passed through everyone there is. My next stop was over in Oneonta. A little bigger town, but not much. I like going to their courthouse because it’s small and simple. I am in and out in no time at all. A few minutes later I once again had my knees in the breeze.



On my way home I took 160 over to county rd. 9. These are two more great bike roads with plenty of long sweeping curves. I waved at quite a few bikers traveling on 160, I was not alone enjoying such a fine day. This route is one I would recommend to anyone. I ride it often when I just get the urge to ride a little but don’t have all day to be gone. I guess it’s kinda a good thing my riding time is somewhat limited. Usually, when there’s no time restriction on me, I end up in another state. Have a great day.

Written very late last night

Today, was one of those days that makes me wonder if I just wasted an entire day of my life. Got up a little later than usual, so naturally I started the day feeling rushed and behind. Matter of fact, I have felt like that all week. It seems that every time I have had my crew working and on track something has happened to completely screw it all up.

I guess my week started out so rough because my counterpart on the other shift had a really bad previous week himself. This is a normal thing for us. Fortunately, we have walked in each others shoes and don’t spend too much time playing the blame game. Playing that game almost always solves nothing and only helps us succeed in wasting time that we don’t really have to waste.

　

I guess as I ramble on about my sorry day, I need to look a little deeper and find a bright spot that I can focus on. Well, I guess the brightest thing about today would be that the crew hung in there and left the workplace better than they found it. This will hopefully in turn act as sort of a pay it forward kinda deal. It will make the next shifts work easier which I hope will benefit our shift next week. Sometimes, the best thing for a bad work week is to just get through it the best you can. Hold your head high, press forward till the job is done, then take time off to recharge yourself. Chin up to all of you still working this week…it’ll be over soon.