Disher Family Fodder
as reported by my dad or “Grandpa”
While driving the girls from my house to your house, Maria asked me to ask Jane to get her some shoes with wheels.
I dialed the cell phone, handed it to Maria, and told her to tell Grandma Herself.
She talked to Jane and described what she was looking for, finished the call and gave me the phone back.
Maggie said, “I wish I knew how they make cell phones???
Maria said, “I wish I knew how they make cows!???
When it’s plastic that’s when.
OK so it starts like this:
I buy and sell things on ebay from time to time. Yes, it’s true, you can get decent deals on some things on ebay. But you have to know what you’re looking for and be patient. There is a lot of ‘crap’ on ebay.
I do some pretty routine searches for things like, FJR1300 for things for my motorcycle. Occasionally I’ll look for other motorcycle gear too. I ended up getting a great deal on a used Joe Rocket Jacket. A $250 jacket for $65 bucks plus shipping was $80 and it was like new.
So once in a while I’ll search for something like “Yamaha Leather” or “Yamaha Leathers” or what not.
Well, one day this turned up:
Now, I need another jacket like I need a hole in the head. But this is a Valentino Rossi replica GO!!!!!!!!!! ‘Leather’ jacket with CE armor (good stuff) and I could use it on a track day with appropriate pants. Two piece zip-together.
It was advertised as:
Go ! Team Yamaha Moto GP leather Jacket in Size L & XL
and it was cheap, $115.00 US buy it now.
What in the world? So now if something is too good to be true it usually is. I have bought a couple XL things from over seas and their XL people are not the same size as our XL people. So I was a little concerned about that. But no, the fine print says an XL should fit me.
Hrm…
I kept looking. Now if this was a single item from an individual I wouldn’t be so skeptical but it isn’t, there are a few of these things.
Then I find it. In the fine print:
Features: AAA synthetic leather.
Just what is Triple-A synthetic leather anyway? Sounds like plastic to me.
So I asked the seller: Hum, You say leather in the title, but synthetic in the fine print, that’s a little miss leading don’t you think?
The response? “There are lots of different type of leathers. The one we are selling is synthetic PU leather which provides better breatheability and advantages over other leathers such as : Easy to clean with a sponge and water. Impervious to absorption (sweat won’t cause rotting). Highly flexible in cold weather.”
Yeah, that’s plastic. While that’s fine, it’s not good to crash in, which is what this jacket is supposed to be for, to keep you from getting road rash. It’s made from PVC and is very dangerous stuff for motorcycling. This stuff will more than likely melt to your skin in the event of a crash. No good.
Leather is animal hide, like from a cow or better yet a kangaroo if you’re going to drag across the asphalt.
Thanks but no thanks.
Saturday C and I took our first all day ride on the FJR. A little late in the season but there was an organized ride over in Indiana to “Beat the Gawkers” on a great route through Brown County. The plan was to enjoy the day riding and check out the beautiful scenery before the leaves turned fully and the roads were clogged up with old folks gawking at the trees.
The biggest issue was the temperature. It was a lovely 37 degrees when we left at 6 am. The day before I tried to prepare Claudine for just how cold that was going to be and gave her an out but she wouldn’t take it. It was supposed to be a couple’s ride, but a number of the wives opted out because of the temperatures. The cold doesn’t bother me because I have heated gear.
She said she would just layer up. OK.
I lost count of how many shirts and layers she put on but she did have two jackets. One of the biggest issues was gloves. But we worked it out.
The other excitement was installing a new intercom on the motorcycle which would allow us to be able to have conversations as well as allow us to listen to music. This didn’t work out as well as planned as we didn’t have enough time for testing and tuning.
We met a friend at 6:30am about 10 minutes down the road at McDonalds. At that point Claudine said it’s not that cold. I told her you haven’t spend 15 minutes at 65 or 70 miles an hour yet, hang tight.
We left there to meet up with other folks in Columbus Indiana. It took us about an hour and a half to get there. We hit some fog, which only made it chillier. But it was pretty sweet riding through the sunrise with a full moon in sight.
We hooked up at the Columbus, IN Denny’s and had to thaw out. Neither Claudine nor Kyle had heated gear and with a low of 37 on the way, perhaps lower at times, that’s down right cold.
At Denny’s we met up with others from the FJR Forum including the ride organizers and had breakfast.
From there we took some pretty tasty roads around Brown County and ended up in Nashville, Indiana where we had Pizza and some stuffed breadsticks at a pretty decent Italian restaurant.
After lunch we all split up and wandered our way home. 12 hours and 350 miles later we were whipped. 350 miles isn’t very many for only 12 hours but we ran a nice pace and enjoyed the surroundings. It was a long day but well worth it.
We have 2 horses now.
Photos are located above in the Google/Picasa Photo Album
We picked up Blaze who’s name will change though, today in Indiana. He’s a 15ish year old Missouri Fox Trotter just like Cisco.
He’s sound and healthy. We brought him home and turned him loose. Cisco was very happy to have a pal to share his new digs with. They did what horses do and felt each other out. It looks like Cisco will remain the top dog or horse for now but Blaze is a very nosey, curious horse.
We had to make a few modifications to the barn. we put up additional railing and a 6 foot gate so that both can come and go as they please in and out of the their stalls and into the dry lot.
Day one went very well. He seems eager to learn and already got a little upset when I took Cisco away from him for a short ride when Claudine was working with him.
Things will be a little more exciting with him around.
Perhaps the Thurman and Henry issues on the team are bigger than anyone would like to think.
The look on Chad Johnsons’s face says it all:
It was horrible. The Bengals _stole_ a win in Pittsburgh last week and I think they took that for granted. Again the offense sputtered. Both initial drives should have resulted in 14 points and only ended up as 6. It was down hill from there.
The D? What D? The improved run stopping D that gave up 200+ yards on the ground? Man did it look bad. They need a real safety, and Big Nate, didn’t seem to help much today. They ran right by him like short bus passes the regular kids.
I must say I wasn’t fully expecting a win today. But I didn’t expect the Bengals to get blown out. Nope. I thought Chad would have a big day or if he didn’t Kelly Washington would because nobody can cover all 3 of our receivers.
I don’t know if Brooks played today other than special teams, but now that Thurman is out for the year and unlikely to be back as a Bengal that monster needs to see some play time.
Tory James got burned yet again, he is really starting to remind me of Rod ‘Toast’ Jones. I think that might be 3 weeks in a road he’s been beat bad for touchdowns.
C’mon Marvin get control down there. What happened to “Do Your Job?’
Teams that are doing their job don’t get blown out like that.
