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it’s coming …

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Riding the already-crested wave of technology, I have been skyped. I am skype-aware. I am a skypegoat. You can skype me @ icebrrrg … if you know what I’m talking about, that is.

Man, Microsoft it finally taking some creative risks.

It’s national talk like a pirate day! Arrrr, it be time to buckle those swashes and get some mateys to swab your … deck. Avast!

Me, I’m *Iron Sam Read* — here’s the scuttle on my pirate name:

A pirate’s life isn’t easy; it takes a tough person. That’s okay with you, though, since you a tough person. Even through many pirates have a reputation for not being the brightest souls on earth, you defy the sterotypes. You’ve got taste and education. Arr!

Apparently it rained everywhere in the boroughs *except* at my place. The moto gods were smiling on us (well, except for that busted-off bolt!) for my first BBQ-slash-tech day at my new house (I’ve had others over for wrenching before, but never more than one at a time).

Abe, after washing his bike, tried to install some Galfer braided steel brake lines, but they were unfortunately a bit too short. Not sure if he worked on anything else, although I think he tried to check out a front end wobble by checking to see if his swingarm was straight. Abe was a big help to the others working on their bikes.

Dan B had a full day’s work ahead of him — new tires, tighten the preload on his steering head, remove the Givi rack for the upcoming track day, and more. He didn’t get the rack off due to a busted brake rotor bolt (which did get extracted after many runs to different houses to look for the kits), but he did spy a pair of old, stock fork springs I had been given by Steve-Rod. I wasn’t going to use them, so Danny Boy put them in — adding a little stiffness to the front end as they aren’t as sacked as his current ones. Eventually he got the rotor sorted and the bike buttoned up, but he didn’t leave until late. Good thing the bugs went to bed around 8pm!

Lorenzo came over in the afternoon to do an oil change, and eat some grill leftovers. It was awesome to look down the driveway and see four people changing the oil on an SV650. =D He’s a good chap, I’m only sorry I didn’t talk with him more.

We had spectators and assistants galore — MK (on his gixxer), Gina (sans pug and sans Evan), and Bobby (truck-bound) came out to enjoy some charred beef products, and lend helping hands to those of us wrenching. Man, MK, I love when you come around, all of our jokes are funny! Send me those pics (or post them) when you get a chance, okay?

What did I do? I puttered in the garage most of the day, organizing and putting things away to make proper room for motos. It really looks the business, now. I helped the others a little, plus I managed to burn a half dozen hot dogs, a like number of burgers, and I made some okay-looking turkey dogs. I also changed my brake pads (new EBC HH models all around), cleaned the brake pistons, put in my new2me uber-touring Givi “flip” windscreen for the upcoming cold months.

Bobby in particular was a big help, pitching in when I had an almost-stripped caliper pin lock cover screw, and eventually taking over on the pad replacement and piston cleaning. Thanks, man. Gina was helping Lorenzo, applying her mammoth technical SV know-how, and trying not to get my t-shirt dirty.

I hope everyone had as much fun as I did! I’m working on the house some more today, but I just may have to wash the bike this afternoon.

Some WDGAH pics are up … go check them out!

Just got back to Bklyn about a half hour ago, after a fun (and fast!) ride down from West Leb. It was great to see everyone again, and a special holla goes out to the Special WDGAH Edition of the SBONYC Hooligang. A fantastic day’s riding yesterday, great food, drinks and fun after, and a few too many waffles. The weather couldn’t be beat.

Saturday Ride

We were out on the road by 9 am (as we age we keep leaving later, eh?), on Route 5 (the “Triple 8s“). The day started off poorly, as route 5 was closed for construction and we spent a few too many miles on dirt/gravel roads. Much was the grumbling.

It got progressively better as the day wore on, though. Dan B led most of the time, and we had Vince, Johnny Rog, Marc S, Terry, Schultz, Todd H, Abe, and I was usually in the back ‘cos I’m so slow. We even managed to pick up Bill Jenks towards the end of the day (just in time for a few laps of Tracy Rd!).

There were too many great roads to go through them all, but I stole a few glances down at the GPS so I could recall some highlights. Mill Brook Rd, Black Brook Rd, and of course, the perfect Tracy Rd … if you haven’t ridden that one, get on it now. One of my personal faves. It’s a great road to wick it up, on-camber turns abound, and there are one or two places where you can pass (I should know, I got passed twice!). Tight sweepers, perfect blacktop, you can see through every turn – heaven.

Other highlights:

… lunch in Port Henry at a Mexican joint (Vicky’s), which caused quite a few exhaust fumes later in the day …

… picking up Bill, who as an MSF instructor added to the safety factor immensely (just ask him, we never entered triple digits, right?) …

… pulling out of an emergency pit stop (mechanical issues on Todd’s Kawi, nothing serious), all 10 of us at once, and merging smoothly in an inverse-fan formation to a perfect staggered formation, really gorgeous to watch and be part of …

… a relaxing, $4 ferry ride @ Ticonderoga …

… sightseeing with Vince once we had gotten separated from the group on the run back to the hotel …

… and somewhere in the afternoon, along Tracy Rd, I got a bit of my groove back. I just haven’t ridden enough this season, and wasn’t really 100% comfortable on the bike after last year’s getoff, but yesterday truly brought me back into why I do this thing. Man, it was a good day.

Thanks to all who organized and came — I’m already looking forward to next year! And it was awesome to have to many SBONYC members join the VFR gang. Sa-weet.

Some good friends of mine are involved with Capital Animal Care. Capital Animal Care runs a mobile spay/neuter clinic that provides no cost and low cost spay-neuter surgeries, vaccinations, and health screenings to medically underserved pets in the District of Columbia and Northern Virginia. They are also trained first-responders for veterinary issues in the event of disaster in the Nation’s Capital.

As such, CAC has been asked by Noah’s Wish and Best Friends Animal Society to send their mobile veterinary clinic to Louisiana to provide veterinary care to the animal victims of Hurricane Katrina. The 26 foot state-of-the-art mobile clinic features an on-board generator, hot and cold running water, heat and air conditioning, a refrigerator, autoclave, blood analyzer, and a surgical suite with two fully equipped operating tables with independent anesthesia. From their latest discussion with those on the scene, they will be handling emergency cases and surgeries related to traumatic injury and illness. Many of the animals that were left behind by evacuees are sick and dying from starvation, injury or infections from the toxic water. CAC volunteers are driving the clinic down to New Orleans today.

While I don’t normally like to solicit donations, I know that there are probably many other animal lovers out there who are saddened by the reports of families being forced to leave their pets behind. I know I feel helpless as I watch those poor dogs waiting on roof tops for rescue. If you are looking for a small way to help some of those animals, please consider a small donation to Capital Animal Care. They desperately need money for medical supplies, drugs, and particularly gasoline to and from Louisiana. I promise you that the money is going 100% to this relief effort and will be greatly appreciated!

If you would like to donate, checks can be mailed to P.O. Box 41112, Arlington, VA 22204 or you can donate via paypal to: info@capitalanimalcare.org (as they need money as soon as possible, paypal is the preferred method of donation right now!). They will be posting pictures and updates on our website when they return: http://www.capitalanimalcare.org.

Please feel free to forward this note on to any other animal lovers you may know.

Well, we got ‘em hitched. I’m shocked at how easy it was to keep Birdman (the groom) in line for this weekend’s wedding; it’s like he wanted to get married or something! Kitkat was gorgeous, in a killer dress, and we all braved the harsh sunlight for a beautiful outdoor wedding. The parties before and after were superb. People even seemed to like my toast!

The highlight of the weekend for me (besides the wedding, of course), was spending 4 days with Miss Esquire. Man, it was good to see her. Plus, she was extra cute as this wedding made her really goofy/girly. Gotta love that. Now, if I can only get her back from Cali …

Pics coming soon!

This came to me via the intarweb, and is unverified … but it’s quite likely to be true. My sister, who is an RN, sent it to me. Read on.

Aug. 31, 2005

This is a dispatch from New Orleans from Dr. Greg Henderson, a pathologist who recently moved from Wilmington:

Thanks to all of you who have sent your notes of concern and your prayers. I am writing this note on Tuesday at 2 p.m.. I wanted to update all of you as to the situation here. I don’t know how much information you are getting but I am certain it is more than we are getting. Be advised that almost everything I am telling you is from direct observation or rumor from reasonable sources. They are allowing limited internet access, so I hope to send this dispatch today.

Personally, my family and I are fine. My family is safe in Jackson, Miss., and I am now a temporary resident of the Ritz Carleton Hotel in New Orleans. I figured if it was my time to go, I wanted to go in a place with a good wine list. In addition, this hotel is in a very old building on Canal Street that could and did sustain little damage. Many of the other hotels sustained significant loss of windows, and we expect that many of the guests may be evacuated here.

Things were obviously bad yesterday, but they are much worse today.

Overnight the water arrived. Now Canal Street (true to its origins) is indeed a canal. The first floor of all downtown buildings is underwater. I have heard that Charity Hospital and Tulane are limited in their ability to care for patients because of water. Ochsner is the only hospital that remains fully functional. However, I spoke with them today and they too are on generator and losing food and water fast.

The city now has no clean water, no sewerage system, no electricity, and no real communications. Bodies are still being recovered floating in the floods. We are worried about a cholera epidemic. Even the police are without effective communications. We have a group of armed police here with us at the hotel that is admirably trying to exert some local law enforcement. This is tough because looting is now rampant. Most of it is not malicious looting. These are poor and desperate people with no housing and no medical care and no food or water trying to take care of themselves and their families. Unfortunately, the people are armed and dangerous. We hear gunshots frequently. Most of Canal street is occupied by armed looters who have a low threshold for discharging their weapons. We hear gunshots frequently. The looters are using makeshift boats made of pieces of styrofoam to access. We are still waiting for a significant national guard presence.

The health care situation here has dramatically worsened overnight. Many people in the hotel are elderly and small children. Many other guests have unusual diseases. … There are (Infectious Disease) physicians in at this hotel attending an HIV confection. We have commandered the world famous French Quarter Bar to turn into an makeshift clinic. There is a team of about seven doctors and PAs and pharmacists. We anticipate that this will be the major medical facility in the central business district and French Quarter.

Our biggest adventure today was raiding the Walgreens on Canal under police escort. The pharmacy was dark and full of water. We basically scooped the entire drug sets into garbage bags and removed them. All under police excort. The looters had to be held back at gunpoint. After a dose of prophylactic Cipro I hope to be fine.

In all we are faring well. We have set up a hospital in the the French Qarter bar in the hotel, and will start admitting patients today. Many will be from the hotel, but many will not. We are anticipating dealing with multiple medical problems, medications and and acute injuries. Infection and perhaps even cholera are anticipated major problems. Food and water shortages are imminent.

The biggest question to all of us is where is the National Guard. We hear jet fignters and helicopters, but no real armed presence, and hence the rampant looting. There is no Red Cross and no Salvation Army.

In a sort of cliché way, this is an edifying experience. One is rapidly focused away from the transient and material to the bare necessities of life. It has been challenging to me to learn how to be a primary care phyisican. We are under martial law so return to our homes is impossible. I don’t know how long it will be and this is my greatest fear. Despite it all, this is a soul-edifying experience. The greatest pain is to think about the loss. And how long the rebuid will take. And the horror of so many dead people .

PLEASE SEND THIS DISPATCH TO ALL YOU THING MAY BE INTERSTED IN A DISPATCH from the front. I will send more according to your interest. Hopefully their collective prayers will be answered. By the way, suture packs, sterile gloves and stethoscopes will be needed as the Ritz turns into a MASH.

Greg Henderson