Learning to drive, Police and Roadblocks.

We had an “incident” the other night while Michael was driving. He of course is in the learning stage. No, I was not the one driving with him.

Apparently there is or was some confusion over what a Police road block looks like.

Based up on the incident the other night, I felt it necessary to create this visual aid.

Identifying road blocks:

PoliceDiagram

Oh, and let me add; Even if you don’t like how the officer is performing his or her road-block, you probably shouldn’t argue with them. 🙂

CGA Level 5 State Competition.

Ah the season finale took place yesterday in loverly Lima, Ohio.

The girls did well, and ended up with second place.  The judging was overly harsh at this competition for some reason, or so it seemed.

There is usually some variance in the scores from meet to meet, and certainly this one was no exception. 

We are so very proud of Molly.  This was the first meet that she wasn’t nervous.  She worked her butt off since the last meet and she was absolutely 100% ready.  We are so proud of her work ethic, and her attitude.  We know she gave a 100% at this meet.   She didn’t score real well, but that’s OK.  I think she got hosed on her floor and beam routing.  They were as good as I’ve seen her do, yet the scores weren’t there.  Molly wasn’t alone in this category.   A lot of girls simply didn’t get the scores they should have.  selavi

Photos that I took during the meet have been published in the Picasa Web Gallery.

They aren’t my ‘best work’, the lighting in that gym was probably the worst we’ve seen, and I had a setting on my camera enabled that shouldn’t have been.

-Enjoy 

From CGA Level 5 S…

I’ve ridden the white knuckle express.

If you were thinking about visiting Kings Island for the thrills, let me save you some money.

Michael got his temps yesterday.  🙂  If you want a thrill ride, just let me know and I’ll put you in a car with him 🙂  

Claudine let him maneuver the Excursion around a parking lot yesterday for a bit and he did O.K.   He’s driven or ridden other things.  He’s had dirt bikes and I even let him drive the 83 Ford Truck we had out in the field one day when he was 12 or something.

Tonight we made an ice cream run to Krogers, only a 5 mile trip both ways.  He did pretty good all in all.  🙂

I’m toying with an idea…

Here’s the scoop… I belong to a motorcycle forum. In fact it’s not only vendor specific, it’s make and model specific. These are not uncommon.

One of the things this forum has put together (or rather someone on the forum) is an ‘Assistance List’. Similar to the phone book of people you get if you join the BMW MOA.

The primary idea behind it is simply this: You break down in the middle of nowhere, you whip out your list (or BMW MOA Book), look for someone willing to help, in the middle of nowhere and you get back on the road. Or you’re riding home from a long trip and get hit with some really nasty weather. (I don’t know, maybe it snows or something), you whip out said list and perhaps you find someone willing to put you up.

While thankfully I have not needed to use my list, some folks have. I’m listed in the list as having a trailer, tent space, able to put up a bed for a night, have tools, etc.

The *problem* is simply this:

Keeping all this information up-to-date is a very manual process. People email one person who keeps this list in Excel or an access database or something. Every so often the list gets pushed out to the subscribers (manually I might add). You might get a copy and see that you dropped off the list, or that something’s wrong. The cycle repeats, but it’s all very manual.

But what if…

What if there was a website/service that managed this stuff. What if you wanted, or were able to be on more than one list? I currently have two bikes, neither of which are a BMW, but if someone needed help and had a BMW (or even a Harley for that matter) I wouldn’t turn them away.

What if all you had to do was sign up for your list one time, then add yourself to other lists as needed? The site/service took care of notifying members based upon their preferences. With each update, or once a month, or what have you?

Will people use this? Would they trust the entity to keep their info private? I’m not thinking about this as a business. I honestly don’t see a business here. This thing would not make money, and it would be work on top of that. But if we leveraged the technology available, it would be far less work on the long run than maintaining one list manually.

I’ve mocked up the site somewhat, here’s an example of the personal preferences:

MotoList

I would join the list of FJR brethren, and if there is a group of ZX/11 riders I’d probably put myself on that list too.

This could be used for multiple purposes. But before I put any blood/sweat or tears into it I’d want to know if it makes any sense. Currently being on the list I’m on doesn’t cause me much pain, other than I have to make sure I keep the latest copy around. If I were heading out on a trip I’d really like to be able to log in to a site and get the absolute latest list. But maybe that’s just me.

Thoughts?

New Addition to the family…

Meet Jake:

 

Jake is an 8 month old Parson’s Jack Russell, he’s easily 2 times the size of Monty. I personally preferred the short legged Jack Russell’s, but then Jake is a pretty cool dog.

So far these two seem to get along, at least until there’s something they disagree on like a bone.

We’ve had him for 4 days and so far he’s doing great. He was a rescue from a family that had to get rid of him because they weren’t supposed to have a dog in their apartment in the first place.

I think he’s a keeper.