What a way to spend a Holiday!

This is how my throat has felt for the last 3 weeks!

Well I left home 1 month ago!  It was cold enough to (maybe) freeze hell over, which didn't do my dispostion much good nor my burgeoning Cold any harm.  It survived the trip and prospered!  One month, and I am still friggin' sick!  Gone thru all the stages like Moses and the 10 commandments, now into coughing my lungs out/stage.  Doesn't lend itself well to having personal conversations or sleep. 

Glad that I was able to make it thru the neices trip, they are back to reality, theirs... not mine.  Brenda and Anna arrived on time, safe n' sound.  Their visit hasn't been without glitches but for the most part, this miserable cold notwithstanding, we've done well.  It is still hard for me to get used to having an Anna around.  She is kind of like typical children her age, wants to explore, gets fixated on certain things, likes cats (more on that later), has her insecurities like bees, wasps and pretty much anything with wings or teeth... yet given her adhd and other assorted challenges, she can be "quite the handful"  Demanding, stubborn as a billy goat (that'd be moi) and ultra focused. 

Case in point.  After several attempts, we finally made it to the Glendale Library.  Now I don't know about you guys, but I love libraries.  Apart from the obvious, this one offers a no cost membership because I am a community resident, but also passes to local attractions and events.  Right now we are trying to line up the Zoo for next week!

Anyway, I digress... we sign out the maximum 10 dvds the other day, and after enduring yet another Harry Potter which nearly caused me to step off a tall bridge over a deep canyon (and you know AZ has the deepest one of all!)  we returned several, but Anna wanted some replacements.  Now I don't have a TV here, well I do have a TV just nothing to watch on it except for movies.  My card would not accept any more withdrawals because... as far as the Library computer system was concerned... we were still at our max allotment.  For most kids, an explanation of this would suffice.  Not Anna.  She went from person to person explaining her wishes (demands?!) and finally was able to have some staff member 'check in' the returns so she could get her new movies out!

Gotta hand it to the kid... she can be totally dedicated to getting what she wants.

As for those Harry Potters... Yes, I know they are a revered institution, and good for JKR becoming rich and famous writing it, however it has to be the most convoluted, dense and senseless story since that other useless SFX 'thriller?' I also thought was a waste of time and money... The Lord of the inane trilogy.  Now there was a series of movies about... well nothing, relying on special effects for it's lackluster plots and long drawn out fairy tale backdrops.  Gimme Bruce Willis or Denzel Washington or Kate Hudson, any day!

I don't care, get mad at me if you wish!  After all I must have been the only person in the entire World that saw the video and book titled the "Secret" for what it was... a money grabbing useless piece of slick marketing.  Even Harley's offer more substance.  Thank God Newsweek came out finally and labelled that piece o poo, "The Worst Self Help Book of the Decade/Century"

December 7th came and went.  I thought there would be more coverage of the Pearl Harbor events of 1941.  After all, it was the USS Arizona that remained capsized and memorialized.  Are we really becoming so sedateand complacent that we forget History?

I have done no riding.  That's right, Zero!  My DR is sick as it's owner (but easier fixed) but I have neither the tools, nor energy nor time to fix her.  Apart from the battery dying of neglect, had the thing on tender but without power for nearly a year, fat lot of good that was.  Now the carb is obviously plugged with some waxed fuel. 

I had several bikes lined up to see locally, but given the rigours of visitation and this miserable Cold that has knocked me flat on my tush, I have only gone to see one.  On the flip side, it is pretty much what I have been looking for.  A 98 XT 350 with few miles (not kilometers, miles.  This is the US of A) 

Those bikes were very advanced when they were imported.  The first XT's were simple rugged bikes with decent if limited suspension and kick start equipped SOHC 2V engines.  Yamaha shocked everyone when they introduced the DOHC 4 valve, shim over buckets, YDIS (Yamaha dual induction system) with dual carbs linked to a common float bowl 250 in 1984.  The following year, they dropped the quarter litre engine in favor of the 350.  This bike had decent supsension, then latest MonoCross linkage and a killer motor.  It is reasonably light and has a good mix of road capability like my 600, yet is versatile enough for the off road exploration I do with my 225.  6 speed tranny, cleated pegs, folding controls and a tiny 3 amp battery with a leg to start the engine.  Why would I opt for a kick starter?  Given the occasional use the bike would get, a kicker makes pretty good sense.  Even with a dead battery, the bike can be ridden. 

Now here is the kicker?!   The current owner is a real life Tom Cruise.  I don't mean an actor (can TC really act?!) but a jet pilot.  He flies F 16's from Luke AF base.  To top it off he's an avid dirt biker, with a DRZ and KTM 200 in his garage!  Yayyyyy for strokers!!!

So... it's nearly 8 am December 23, 2 days before Christmas.  Brenda is asleep, and can that girl sleep!  Anna is outside after a long night of rain with 'Albert' short for Albert Einstein.  A very cute perhaps 6 month old stray kitten that she says... "followed her home one day."  Sure, like I'm gonna believe that.  Remember that fixation/determination thing I mentioned earlier...

Me... I've been hacking pretty much all night, again.  Been up since 5 ish, hard to sleep in any case when every few seconds it feels like you've sucked in lungfulls of mustard gas...