Any Motorcycle is a Touring Bike if you want it to be…

Posted: November 10, 2020 in Life and Memories, Motorcycles, My view of the world
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In the mid 1990s, I rode my motorcycle into a Hardee’s for coffee in East Tennessee and, as cyclists tend to group together, I parked next to a sportbike I had spotted as I pulled into the parking lot. After I got off my bike, I stared in wonder and amazement at this bike that carried a California license plate, it had a seat that seemed about 3 microns thick and saddlebags that appeared to be attached by divine intervention to this grimy, road-worn cafe style racer. In the 1990s, you didn’t see that many motorcycles with out-of-state plates…and you certainly didn’t see uncomfortable (in my opinion) sportbikes traveling from out of state unless they were traveling in the back of a truck.

At the time, I was in my early forties and I had traveled quite a bit by motorcycle myself and I couldn’t believe anyone could have been riding that misery machine across the country and still be ambulatory enough to walk into the restaurant. I went inside looking for the rider and spotted the kid, which was easy, as he was the only other person in the place that was wearing motorcycle gear. I walked over, introduced myself and struck up a conversation with him. It seems he was headed to DC from Cali and he told me he had been averaging 600 to 700 miles per day (which was amazing in itself). I asked if he felt stiff or cramped after riding all day in a position akin to being stuffed into a pringles can (I probably didn’t mention the pringles can, but that was the image I was seeing) and he said no, not at all and looked at me a little oddly as if this were one of the sillier questions he had heard. We spoke for a couple of more minutes and I bade him safe travels as I strode to the counter to grab a coffee.

For decades I have thoroughly enjoy traveling on cross-country camping trips and at the time of this story, I did my cross-country traveling astride a pearl BMW K100RS and at the end of the day, after a few hundred miles in the saddle, I would often feel mind-numbing stiffness and pain from my neck to my hips, as I wished for the sudden invention of a portable traction machines I could carry along with me that I could use to uncrumple my aching joints. As I watched him don his armored jacket and helmet and then hop on his bike and roar off on his journey, I shook my head while thinking that this kid (he might have been in his early twenties) must have been one of those rare humans born without any pain receptors at all. I of course, was simply jealous that he could ride crouched and hunched over all day while my middle-aged abused body griped and complained incessantly when I told it to bend into a position that only slightly assumed the yoga-like posture this kid seemingly enjoyed being in for hours at a time as he rode the highways and byways of America.

Jim

Disrespecting the country

Posted: October 23, 2020 in Christian
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A few years ago, Michelle Obama stated how she was ashamed of our country (while serving as First Lady) and she and President Obama went on to prove their disrespect by their actions, such as refusing to either stand for the pledge, or refusing to place their hands over their hearts, showing disrespect and disregard for the Marines attached to the White House, etc.

That wave of disrespect toward our country grew even more vitriolic and vicious after Trump was elected president. It seemed as if it were a competition to see who could show the most disrespect toward the 45th President of these United States between the media and the celebrities and even members of the electorate from both parties.

Michelle Obama said she was ashamed of her country…I am ashamed of those that openly chose to disrespect the office of the presidency, regardless who happens to be in the White House. I am ashamed of those that mock, and laugh at and openly disparage my country by disparaging the leadership of my country.

I didn’t like President Obama because I thought his policies hurt America, but I refused to disparage him because I respect the office of the President of the United States. If Biden is elected, I feel it would end up as a disaster for our country, economically as well as constitutionally…but if he is elected, he will be my president, because I chose to respect this great republic of ours and its leadership.

The book of Jude teaches that we are not to disrespect dignities and those in positions of power…but hey, they are trying to erase all semblances of Christianity from this country anyway, so what does it matter what God thinks about it, right?

Patchwork America

Posted: July 12, 2020 in My view of the world
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The great world experiment called the United States of America is like an immense Patchwork quilt made up of multitudes of different ethnicities, races, religions and experiences, sewn together to create a mighty woven web of strength. However it seems the media only desires to look for problems in the fabric and they do manage to find small areas of loose stitching within the fabric. When they do discover those areas, they happily zoom in on the defects to attempt to prove just how terribly worn and frayed the fabric is that holds this great country together, often without merit.

If they actually allowed the viewers to see the larger picture, it would demonstrate that these small areas of problem threads do not really affect the the cohesiveness of all the fabric surrounding it as well as the strength of the whole quilt, but they do not want their viewers to concentrate on the strength of the cohesiveness of America, only its weaknesses.

Jim 7-12-20

…I met the man who had no feet…

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My father used to quote the phrase “I cried because I had no shoes until I met the man who had no feet” to me to help teach me to appreciate what I have, while at the same time desiring to work for more. It worked for I have always tended to never lose sight that there are always those that have less than me and I thank the Lord daily for what He has blessed me with, and continues to do so.

There are so many people today that seem to endlessly complain about everything without stopping to realize how blessed they actually are, and this started me thinking about my parent’s generation. I began thinking about life in the early part of the twentieth century, as opposed to life since I have been circling the sun.

Think about this, if you were born in 1900, for the first 50-55 years of your life, if you lived in rural America, you had minimal, or no healthcare, no electricity or running water, the prospect of finding a job outside of a large city was poor and there was no social security fund for the aged to fall back on…life as we know it, really only became commonplace after 1955. These facts can be a little sobering, if we allow them to sink in, and we need to make sure we appreciate every day we live upon this earth, instead of whining about what we don’t have.

Jim 5-22-20

Image  —  Posted: May 22, 2020 in Life and Memories, My view of the world, Parents
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I Blame China for this

Posted: May 14, 2020 in Life and Memories, My view of the world
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Alternate title OK, So Maybe I am a Racist (but I’m proud of it!)

I grew up in the 1960s and I remember reading and seeing heaps of things growing up about Nazi Germany and the Gestapo and the tactics they used to control people. The Totalitarian German Government throughout the 30s and 40s completely controlled its subjects and a few of the tactics they employed were things such as controlling the travel of the populace and enforced curfews as well as lock downs and generating programs in which they encouraged people to “snitch” on their neighbors for illegal activities…there was much more they did to control the people unfortunate to be within the realm of their control, but you get the picture and it sounds terribly familiar to what has been going on across America in the last couple of months.

The 1st amendment to the United States Constitution addresses the protection of free speech, but the formerly free media and militant liberals (those guys that espouse tolerance) proves daily that they have no toleration for anyone that doesn’t see things their way and is doing their best to erode that individual liberty by attacking anyone says something they don’t like. For example, today I saw a news story where the liberals and their minions (the media) were absolutely up in arms, accusing a family run business in Texas that has been struggling because of the Corona virus (that started in China, the same country that pressured the WHO to not report the virus in January and subsequently started preventing export of masks and respirators to the West) of racism because they placed a sign on their marquee that said “Don’t buy Chinese, buy American”…so what? The owner has a right to post whatever he wants on HIS sign and he wanted to get the word out that America’s dependence on China hurts all Americans…and I wholeheartedly agree with him. The dependency of America and many of the world’s nations, on cheap Chinese products has severely hurt local community manufacturers and many small, local economies around the nation, as well as the world to the point that many small communities around this nation are starting to look like ghost towns with all their boarded up buildings where local small manufacturers used to employ local citizens. This country has an opportunity to turn that around.

When it comes to the virus, I truly believe that China weaponized this virus to hurt and destabilize western economies, for the purpose of strengthening their own economy and I believe that it has had an opposite effect (to strengthen my argument this was intentional, China has almost no cases of this virus in their larger and most populous cities such as Beijing and Shanghai). They have hurt economies across the globe, but many of the western governments are actively blaming China for this as well and are seeing China’s response such as refusal to allow Westerners access to their areas infected, threatening to withhold medicines and the raw elements required to make effective antibiotic and anti-viral medicines to the west, as we learned that 90% of all medicines and raw elements to make the medicines are now manufactured in China (the last penicillin manufacturer in the US stopped making it in 2002).

We have an opportunity to lessen our dependence on the Communistic and Totalitarian regime that runs China by a huge amount and bring manufacturing back to this Country, subsequently helping those that are struggling in many of the small communities to make ends meet. Lets help America become a manufacturing giant again by weaning ourselves of the communist teat that currently controls us.

America was based upon freedom of speech without fear of government intervention and freedom of religion where folks can worship without fear of reprisal or government repression. It appears those guaranteed rights and freedoms are under severe attack, for today if someone voices their opinion that offends someone somewhere they are immediately excoriated and labeled either a racist or an (xxx)phobe and these labels are swiftly shot across the major media outlets like a raging wildfire, with the intent of destroying the offenders reputation. I have no reputation to damage, and even if I did, I don’t believe I would cowtow to the readily offended. According to those that appear to control the media in this Country now, and because of the current mentality I am a racist for saying “screw China…buy American”…and I am tremendously proud to wear that label!

 

 

Jim 5-14-20

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