First Snow of 2010

January Snow
Originally uploaded by gshower7

Started as rain yesterday, leaving New Hampshire. Changed to snow around the Wells exit on 95, and hasn't stopped since. We've got about 8-12" of the fluffy white stuff on the ground, and it's still coming down... Don't have to go anywhere tonight, though. Can stay home and putter/sew/relax.

Some good things; the office wasn't plowed out right away this morning, so I got a little bit of extra sleep. It's still snowing, so the guys are out plowing, and I get the office to myself. No boss to bug me. And I have new jeans that fit me perfectly. Hooray for Tractor Supply Company in NH, boo that they only had one pair. I'll try the one up here sometime.

Lego Rock Band is also made of Awesome. So cute. Good music, and silly silly challenges that give alternating band members a rest and chance to see what's going on in the background animations.

The search for good sizing for gold leaf continues. alexsaintpierre was having issues with what we'd thought we'd found for a good replacement, which I had found and used and got to work, but not well last night. Frustrating. This looks like a promising substitute, assuming it's usable on paper. Gah, gold leaf sticks to everything except what we want it to, and the sizing we have, everything sticks to, including the tissue paper backing on the gold leaf. Causes issues when I want to put gold on that spot... We'll figure it out, hopefully before the last of the good stuff has been used up.

20 Commandments of Motorcycle Wisdom

Shamelessly stolen off another LJ, stolen off another forum. 'cuz I'm bored, and it's still snowing, and kurlon decided to inform me that Ducati is doing 0% stupidly low 2.99% financing at the moment... meep... argh.


The 20 commandments of motorcycle wisdom

1. Every ride is optional. Every parking job is mandatory.

2. If you push the bars left, the bike goes left. If you push the bars right, the bike goes right. That is, unless you continue pushing the bars all the way, then the bike will go down.

3. Riding isn't dangerous. Crashing is dangerous.

4. It's always better to be on the sidelines wishing you were on the track than on the track wishing you were on the sidelines.

5. The only time you have too much fuel is when you're on fire.

6. The rear wheel is just a big fan on back of the bike used to keep the rider cool and his/her butt relaxed. If going into a corner too fast, slamming on the rear brake causes the "fan" to abruptly stop. When this happens you can actually see the rider start sweating and his/her butt become tense.

7. When in doubt, slow down. No one has ever hit something too slow.

8. A 'good' ride is one from which you can walk away. A 'great' ride is one after which you can use the bike again.

9. Learn from the mistakes of others. You won't live long enough to make all of them yourself.

10. You know you've left the sidestand down when all left turn are Bat-turns. You know you've left the Centerstand down when your in 1st gear at 4000 rpm going nowhere.

11. Never let a motorcycle take you somewhere your brain didn't get to three seconds earlier.

12. Always try to keep the number of times you put your sidestand down equal to the number of times you put the sidestand up.

13. There are two simple rules for riding smoothly and fast in snow and on ice. Unfortunately no one knows what they are.

14. You start with a bag full of luck and an empty bag of experience. The trick is to fill the bag of experience before you empty the bag of luck.

15. If all you can see in your mirrors is sparks and all you can hear is screaming from your passenger, things may not be as they should be.

16. In the ongoing battle between objects made of metal, rubber and fiberglass going 100+ miles per hour and the ground going zero miles per hour, the ground has yet to lose. Same holds for cars, large trucks, and animals taller than you. Draws don't count.

17. Good judgment comes from experience. Unfortunately, the experience usually comes from bad judgment.

18. Keep looking around. There's always something you've missed.

19. Remember, gravity and centrifugal force are not just a good ideas. They're laws and are not subject to appeal.

20. The two most useless things to a rider are the braking distance behind you and nine-tenth of a second ago.