Thoughts on Motorcycling

I spent a little time at U- Tube the other night enjoying Harley Davidson commercials and rider stories. Apparently we who ride (yes even newbies get to call themselves riders) have reasons for doing so. From what I gathered we do it to express individuality, to escape oppression, to stick it to the man (whatever that means?!). We straddle our iron steeds and seek out the open road for spiritual reasons, for political reasons and for the sake of charities. We're all about brotherhood and good times even if we have to be bad to enjoy ourselves. WELL... all that sounds pretty complicated to me, and much like the 60's era hippies these individuals who are all about being nonconforming look and sound quite alike! Yet there is no doubt that you must have some compelling reason to go out and play in traffic on one of these things. I pondered this question at length while out riding the other day and I came up with a little bit simpler idea of why I ride...try on FUN for size. Fits in one syllable, does not require tattoos or a rap sheet, can be had legally in all fifty states at any age. Will not cause divorce if your wife finds out and can be had while she's along no less! Yes sir I believe that is the hidden dark side of me that requires a motorcycle to be expressed. A little boy who just never could get enough of playing with machines. I can play with this one without a clearing and grading permit, I don't have to haul it to an ORV park, it fits in a spare corner of the garage and you can have fun getting groceries (with in reason of course). When I was blasting through sweepers on hwy 9 in the bright morning sun or grinding the paint off the bottom of my forward controls at dusk in the back corner of the ROSS parking lot trying to perfect 18 foot U turns there was little doubt that I was experiencing FUN. Yeah you can blame riding one of these things on all that other stuff but I for one am happy to admit that really there is just that one principal motivator.
Oh and why a Harley Davidson?...
Well I could say because they hold their value, I prefer buying American, or come up with some other logical sounding reasons but while I'm being honest;
Has atleast twice the horsepower it needs
Is really loud
Gets truly awful gas mileage (for a motorcycle that is)
Made out metal (most of it chromed)
Not that any of that stuff is a reflection on me...

Hope

I know I'm way behind. March then April came and went with no posts but between the weather and the political climate I doubt anybody wanted to hear from me anyway!
I saw a sticker in the window of a car the other day which has prompted a lot of thought on my part. An artsy portrait of one Barack Hussein Obama with the bold letters HOPE below. Once I got back in my lane and called for an ambulance (I'm not heartless you know!) I began to consider if Barack Obama might mean HOPE to me to. I was surprised to find that in fact I could enter in to this popular movement. For instance, I hope Barack can produce a birth certificate at some point. It would be nice to know that he had atleast one qualification to be President! I hope the paperwork I filled out when I legally purchased my firearms has been lost. I hope Democrats particularly those in politics learn how to pay taxes because those of us who still do are really feeling the extra weight. I hope terrorists decide Barack's on their side and leave us alone. I hope Al Gore gets hit by a truck (actually that is just one name on a very long list). I hope Nancy Pelosi gets to go on trial right beside the people she's condemning over water boarding (after all she was sitting beside them at the briefing it's only fair right?!) I hope Alan Specter gets slaughtered in the next election even if the candidate is a democrat. In fact I hope that the American people wake up to what our constitution really says about the REPUBLIC (democracies are famous for their suicidal tendencies) that we live in and recall the original penalties for what's being done to us. I hope people figure out that this leftist movement is an elitist movement and it is about oppression of opposing ideas and ideals not about freedom. I hope everybody pauses when they hear about "change" and consider if it really is for the better. I hope the people in Europe were temporarily deaf when our own President had his little anti American tirade. I hope we don't need to defend this country against foreign super powers in the next decade because the damage this administration is already doing to our military (the only thing we really needed a Federal government for in the first place) will take at least that long to fix. I hope we can all learn to live on a lot less as the bill for the financial bailouts is going to be a whole lot more expensive than the crisis ever dreamed of being. I hope Americans will have removed their heads from the sand by the time these four years are up. I hope that in twenty years when people look back and say "What were we thinking?!", that we can all still do it as Americans with our freedoms in tact. I hope that people realize that hope never did a single solitary thing but there has been great forward strides made by those who got off their dead rear and did something! I hope that I never get sick because when the government gets done fixing health care sick is not going to be a good option. I could go on all night but to the person in the car with the sticker, I hope your doctor can adjust that medication and get your head squared away!

Feb. 2009 Notes and Details Sheet

So what am I down to here anyway? Just days hours and minutes until a New Years resolution bit the dust. O ye scoffers!!! Maybe it'll happen next month...
I begin this year of hope and change a little... well confused. If reckless spending and living above our means put all of us in this economic mess then why does our government feel that them doing it will get us out? When Chinese leaders and Putin of Russia are in no uncertain terms warning our new President that Socialism is flawed and will destroy our nation why are our leaders seemingly embracing it? When even the liberal news outlets are calling this new deal the ultimate pork barrel why does our federal government hail it as salvation through deficit spending? Why is the federal government getting into the auto business, the mortgage business the construction business? Do we really want these people in charge of this stuff? They can't procure a toilet seat at a reasonable price why should they be allowed to manage anything? A federal government, any government is a necessary evil brought on because people just can't seem to behave properly on their own. But this!! The only thing that should frighten us more than the idea that this administrations plan won't work is the outside chance that it will. America will on that day end as we know it. History tells us that no free society has ever remained free past the point where the citizens realized they could vote themselves in a meal ticket. We have already beat the odds by remaining as long as we have a free, capitalist society. Thankfully it will most likely fail and good old American drive and ingenuity will prevail after an adjustment period that could well bring conditions that those living today can scarcely imagine. I know I can't and am just going to do the best I can. Now it would easily consume a person to try and wrap ones head around all this but there is this one thought which occurs to me over and over again. For those that view this life as a pilgrimage, when it drives us to our knees as the future may well do, be thankful. I for one need all the help I can get in arriving there.
On an entirely different note I did something right this month. I added to the guitar collection a fair student level classical guitar. This was the right thing to do as I have played little except classical music on my guitar for several years. May I from my newly enlightened position say you cannot play classical guitar without one. Seems obvious I know but having tried... well it's true. That being true I am about three levels below beginner but have begun again at the basics and have at last seen how I may some day make gratifying progress. This means of course doing a few things I have found uncomfortable. For instance the nails of the right index, middle, and ring finger as well as thumb must be properly shaped to play the finger style guitar. Having nails that protrude beyond the end of the finger may well lead to the belief that I could potentially be comfortable on either side of home plate but beware! I ride a Harley Davidson and own assault rifles! I can weather the occasional loss of man points. So while my time in a concert orchestra is probably over for good I find it very gratifying to be again studying the finest music ever played on a string instrument.
So that about does it for February the month of my least favorite commercial holiday, I intended to blatantly rip off one of Shaun's ideas and post up a counter with the current miles ridden in '09 but I'm to tired and I need to get to bed.

A New Years Resolution

The middle brother had the Boss and I over for a birthday dinner yesterday (YUMMY, thanks guys!). Also in attendance where Shaun Durkee, who shall now be known for all time as Red Beard the Road Retard (ask him), and Emily who is properly introduced at Red Beard's blog. The point of all this is that Shaun's well put together page was (is) my inspiration for trying to publish something of a blog. When last I visited Shaun's blog I noted that there is in '08 an entry or more every month. Thus the reolution I make to try and keep up a little better! So happy New Year everybody and I promise to try and find SOMETHING news worthy in my mundane existence monthly. If not maybe I'll just post pictures of cool motorcycles or whatever!
A brief synopsis of what has transpired since the August post just to return everybody to the present;
WORK:
The first week of September the company started a big job Bremerton which incidentally is a two and a half to three hour commute each way from home.
Any questions?
OTHER:
Not much to talk about (see above) just did some riding whenever possible and tried to keep the lawn mowed until it got covered in eighteen inches of snow for three weeks where upon I sat at home reading WEB Griffen by the box load and playing guitar till my fingers went numb.
HOLIDAYS:
The Boss and I went to the Sun Mountain Lodge for three nights starting on Xmas night and enjoyed a relaxing time.
NEW YEAR PLAN:
Not much to report here as of yet. No classes scheduled although I expect to get in a few at FAS and would like to take the motor officers riding course this summer. The Penninsula property really needs my attention but I've been saying that since the late 90's...
The boss would like to fly back east and tour the coast on an Electra GLide but nothing is really firming up on that front either at the moment. (Can you believe I blamed the motorcycle part of that on her?! I'm so bad...)
Other than that we'll just have to be surprised (me first obviously and then you but only if I stick to my resolution).
In the mean time how's about a cool motorcycle picture to sign off with?
PS Motorcycle is cool picture is actually lame but I didn't take it so OH WELL

FAS Instructor Development Review

Class: Instructor Development
Lead Instructor: Marty Hayes, Firearms Academy of Seattle; Director
Assistant Instructor: Nick Bolton, Firearms Academy of Seattle; Senior Staff Instructor

I'll start by saying it's good to be home! A week away is about all this old home body (not to be mistaken for home boy) has in him any more. For those of you who missed hearing where I disappeared to after the PM meeting at Oly II I was attending the week long Instructor Development class at the Firearms Academy Seattle. The purpose of the class we defined in our first class room session by breaking down the problems our students face. For civilian or law enforcement the problems really are no different the only disparity is the rules of engagement. The civilian is obligated to flee a gun battle when ever possible and the LEO is duty bound to prevent the criminal ( and lets face it if you shoot someone other than a current or about to be criminal there are serious problems in the way you live your life civilian or LEO). We as a class found the problem to be two fold further described as proactive and reactive. An alarm call for the LEO is proactive. They must search that building to find the cause of that alarm, similar for the civ. who has a choice to remain barricaded (reactive) and wait for help or if they have children etc. who are not in their direct control to gather them which would then transition the problem to being proactive. An LEO being attacked at a traffic stop is strictly reactive like the civ. caught in an armed robbery. We examined the problems in detail and then defined the skills necessary to solve them. For instance a 1.4 second draw stroke and the ability to get well centered hits while rapidly moving off the line of attack is a very useful skill for the LEO who expects to get license and registration and instead is faced with a meth heads stolen revolver. Likewise the civ. who finds themselves face to face with an offender willing to carve their heart out just to prevent an ID after a car jacking. Let's face it people you don't gun fight to save your car so you are most likely not going to being ahead of the curve. Your going to quietly hand over your keys and start to leave. So when he/ she suddenly realises you know what they look like and grabs that big, ugly knife and says "now you gonna get cut foo" your going to need to turn up the afterburners. 1.4 secs. is going to feel like a decade in that situation. How about the unlucky LEO who is on scene when an active shooter situation breaks out. Picture a crowded mall or school hallway with a madman and a gun. Yes training doctrine probably says to wait for the cavalry. They don't have SWAT just because they look good in black, however not many people LEO or otherwise could stand by and wait. Looking at the problem what skills might the responder need? How about the ability to make precision hits to the cranial ocular cavity (eye box) to sever the body, brain connection and shut down the threat? In these situations a miss is unacceptable as the result will most assuredly be the loss of innocent lives. So these shots might have to be taken from outside the standard 21 feet that most gunfights occur in. Hostage situation? Same concerns. What else do we know about gunfights? They occur in low light involve multiple assailants and everybody will be on the move. Skills needed to deal with this? Shooting while moving, engaging multiple threats, engaging moving threats, and doing it all at times with out the benefit of seeing your sights and at times with out seeing your weapon at at all.
Having spent the time to examine the problem we moved to the range to first ascertain that we had the skills to deal with these problems and then to see how we had learned them so we could teach them to those in need.
First we examined the foundations of combat marksmanship;
1) A good strong fighting stance (think fist fight then insert gun)
2) A solid real world grip on the gun (not a puny bulls eye grip folks)
3) A clear precise sight picture
4) A smooth steady trigger pull with good follow through
This was inculcated by the use of one shot drills intended to produce very tight groups at distances out to 25 yds. To teach these skills we learned about default stance, blending the Weaver and the Isosceles stances and the thumbs forward or thumbs locked down grips to match the gun to the shooter in such a way that even without sights the results would be acceptable within the recognized gun fight parameters.
Next we focused on the draw stroke which needed to be smooth, have very economical motion and put the gun into a firing position as quickly as possible.
People run out of bullets in gunfights. Fact. They get a huge adrenalin dump, they squeeze the trigger until the it quits going BANG and they don't know what to do. We learned to reload a gun. FAST. A thorough examination of the techniques necessary to change magazines in our auto pistols or to purge empty brass and stoke a double action revolver ensued until we all learned the pitfalls of these skills and how to correct them in the student.
A trip to the dark house followed to verify what we learned about the "default stance".
Backing up briefly, the "Default stance" came from the saying that "under extreme stress you will not rise to the occasion but rather default to your training." To understand this we watched a video of a shooter in competition who had just had three days training in the use of the strict Weaver stance. At the end of the three days she entered a man on man (you get the point) shoot off and under the stress of competition went right back to the near Isosceles stance she had used previously.
This lesson being fresh in our minds we tested the default stance we had worked out in daylight in the dark. Very educational. For some there was a lot of work to be done to the "default stance" once the lights went out, for others it was very gratifying to find that our accuracy was not hindered when we could only vaguely see the targets and couldn't see our sights at all.
To me this is the essential skill of the combat marksman. Quickly put the weapon in play and with a hard focus on the threats engage successfully without the use of sighted fire. Prefacing all that with the disclaimer that we should rely on this primarily inside the 21 feet in which most gunfights occur.
For the core of the class we dealt with these basic skills using ourselves as students diagnosing and fixing problems in our own execution with tips and techniques handed down from Marty and Nick when we got stuck. We turned in to new shooters or less experienced shooters by learning all the skills with our revolvers, by learning them left handed and by learning them with different guns.
Finally on the last day we had a chance to validate our own skills under pressure with a man on man competition. With a blast of gunfire and the lovely sound of ringing steel a double elimination tournament kicked off. Round after round the matrix progressed until one shooter took possession of the coveted Silver Bullet Trophy! What's this in my pocket?! Why it's a SILVER BULLET! Yes folks that's right and I will say that this one I'm proud of. Only myself and one other individual in the class had not garnered the Master rating as hand gunners so I feel like I received some validation of my skills against such a diverse and capable group of shooters.
The end game was a quick rendition of the Masters test which ended up being a diagnostic for me to show which skills yet lacked. I missed my Master rating this time by only the slightest margin through deficiencies in the execution of my strong hand only stance, by being less then perfect in my high speed default stance. The opportunity was given to clean up these tests and garner the rating but I feel at this time like I want to work on those skills so I own the test not just pass it.
In summation,
Marty Hayes is one of the greatest instructors I have ever met. His passion and skill are evident and the honest look he is willing to take at both FAS doctrine and outside ideas is unmatched in this industry of balloon heads.
Nick Bolton is a superb English gentleman and his effort to bestow every shred of knowledge he can conjure on his students is absolute.
No opportunity to train with these artisans of the trade should be missed.
To my friends who shared the firing line this week should any of you happen across this page, I wish you all the best in your personal endeavours, be safe, be vigilant, and don't forget to take the tape off your guns!!

You knew this would happen...

When I armed myself with a public forum you had to know is was just a matter of time until something irritated me while I was near a keyboard and the famous Dan'l rant lit off. SO if your easily offended better sign off right NOW!!

Personal responsibility in America is near death if not already rotting in the ditch. Run down by lazy, dishonest people who lack the moral and intestinal fortitude to face the consequences of their own actions. Oh I know your going to call me out for that but pack your lunch buddy 'cuz I'm well able to put up. For instance our current housing crisis. According to major news outlets and the talking head democrats it is due entirely to the "predatory" lending practices of the mortgage companies. They apparently went out and tracked down destitute folks and forced them to sign loans they couldn't afford probably at gun point. Do you really believe this garbage? There are two kinds of people and yes I am over simplifying, who are in trouble through this. One is the speculator who grabbed every cent he could sign for and tried to double his borrowed money. The other is the dreamer who talked himself into believing that despite what the calculator says he can afford a payment that in a year or two will be three quarters of the highest monthly income in his entire earning history. No no you say it was that evil mortgage broker who talked him into it told him he could refi in a year and use the equity for his down and get a fixed rate. That of course is because his house will be worth half again what it is now so the rest of that lovely equity will be a perfect place to borrow some money for a cruise, a new ski boat and a $60,000 truck to pull it with. Did the mortgage broker do the right thing? No of course he didn't but since when do we get our education from people who are trying to sell us stuff! When was the last time you strolled into one of those used car tent sales and sidled up to a car only to have the salesman come up and say... Hey there BUB you really shouldn't buy any of these wholesale wrecks of questionable background rather you should bump off down the road to those other fellows where you'll get a ride what has not been soaked in a hurricane but actually is offered with fair profit and in good order. Mortgage broker is just trying to sell you money and most likely not at a wholesale rate no different than a car salesman. So YOU must be the educated wary consumer who knows what he can afford and is basically out to find out who can take care of him the best and at a profit he finds acceptable.

What about the speculator? Simple if he got his rear handed to him over a craps table we say he had a gambling problem and send him to a state run program funded by tax dollars to help him recover from his addiction. The correct answer of course is for him to stand in front of the mirror every morning and say "Today I will not play craps, craps is bad!" and then stay out of the casino! OR stand in front of the mirror and say "I will not take out a second mortgage on my primary residence and buy another because that would be dumb." That way our tax dollars get spent fixing the road, paying for schools and all the other things we for some reason think we need government to do for us. That's another subject by the way and one we simply do not have time for this evening.

So I have exhausted this example now for a couple of shorties...

How about those nice folks near who after moving next to an airport find the airplane noise unacceptable, or their buddies who can't handle the smell of the dairy next door? It was built in the early 1900's but now that they've moved there those awful dairymen need to fix the smell!

Spill hot coffee on yourself pulling away from the MCD's because you where on the phone eating breakfast while navigating a left turn over a double yellow into heavy traffic? Clearly those vicious restaurateurs owe you millions of dollars!

Now at this point your probably asking WOW what this brought this one on?!

Well I'll tell you. Instead of being off work burning a tire track in a back road, getting my work out with my .45 at the range or simply enjoying dinner with my wife at home, I'm parked on a job babysitting wet concrete so the kid that damaged half the stuff our sub poured yesterday doesn't get the stuff they poured today. WHEW! (Few people can match me in a run on sentence contest!) Later.

Dyna Bagger

Ronald this ones for you...
Just a few quick pics for those who care about the truly important things in life like motorcycle upgrades. The Dyna got bags last week and while it looks a little more mundane I think the detraction from appearance is more than offset by the utility of the situation. Must justify... must justify... must justify...

P.S. They come off in two seconds flat and give it back that sleek hot rod appearance. Yummm cake.. OH and I get to eat it too!

HA HA HA HA HA HAHHHHHH