Where Have You Been?

Well, it appears that the knock I took on the head during the snowstorm in early February did more damage than I initially thought as I am now exhibiting symptoms consistent with a bulging disc at the C5/C6 vertebrae.  Long story short, I was shoveling snow out in the blizzard and had only opened the garage door to about five feet to keep the snow from blowing in.  Finished up the driveway, pulled my hood down tight and sprinted to get in the garage with my eyes down and....  Well, you can imagine the rest.  Hit myself square in the top of the head, perpendicular to my spine, and almost knocked myself out cold.  Neck hurt for a week or so but didn't seem to bother me after that until about three weeks ago at which time I started exhibiting real pain in the upper left quadrant of my back, radiating up the left side of my neck and down my left arm.  Two trips to the Doc, one to the Chiro and now Physical Therapy with no real relief yet.  Really hate that I haven't been posting more as there has been quite a bit of WRC news I would like to share but to let you know just how much it hurts to sit in front of my computer, I haven't done any gaming for almost 2 weeks!  If my condition doesn't improve quite a bit in the next few weeks, the Rally may be questionable.  Updates as I receive them.

Crysis 2 = Awkward!

Started playing Crysis 2 over the weekend and ran across this beauty in a savage fire fight on the docks.  That truly is planting someone headfirst, no?

FINALLY!

Ordered the clutch cable a week ago tomorrow and I suppose I wasn't really thinking when I expected it to be here before last weekend but Saturday came and went with no clutch cable and a beautiful day of riding missed.  Coming home from work today, I saw the package on the porch and knew I was in luck.  Quick dinner and then out to the garage to get the bike running for the nice days we are going to have this week before a weekend full of rain.  As you fairinged guys know, 80% of the battle with a job like this is removing the plastics and although mine is nowhere near as bad as a full-fairinged bike, to clean up the sides of the motor, they pile everything on top and it was quite a chore snaking the clutch cable through the spaghetti.  Cable in, adjusted and a quick ride showed that my cable pull had been degrading much longer than I noticed.  With the shorter bars, it had put the initial metal elbow off the lever perch in a bind as it snaked through the cable loom bolted to the top triple so upon re-installation, I routed it outside the loom with no binding.  Clutch pull is much, much smoother and no clank on getting it into first gear!  Really wish I would have thought to buy an air filter as mine really needed changing but I wanted to ride tomorrow so I bolted her back up.  Now for some tires and the Fizzy is ready to roll.  As for the ZRX, well that's a different story entirely...

Monster Truck Backflip

Even if you don't like monster trucks, this is flat out badass! Although not the first backflip done in competition, I believe it is the first someone drove away from.

Bike Night Barbecue

Had the guys over Saturday to enjoy the evening and eat some barbecue.  We also welcomed a new rider, Steve Young, to our group and look forward to getting him out to Arkansas sometimes soon.  Steve is a new employee at Scott&Goble architects and rides the black and copper Kawasaki Vulcan.

Good looking group

Gazing lovingly over our machines

Dave's Triumph Daytona

Deekster's Kawasaki ZRX

Phil's BMW F800S

Brett's Honda Shadow

Steve's Kawasaki Vulcan

Just getting started

About 4 hours later

Serving it up

Brett's "get that out of my face" look

Phil's "please take my picture" look

Steve seems genuinely excited to be here

Enjoying the fellowship