The Stickboy Chronicles

It's been about 9 months since I've "updated" anything on here and I felt like it was about time.
Where do I start really!? In the last 9 months:

In my ignorant bliss, I tripped over an exposed root in the unpaved dirt path that is life and found myself all mucked up with twitterpation. Many trips to southeastern Utah and a lot of phone time later I did what the majority of people that have been a part of my life thought I would never do and I got engaged. What should have suprised no one is that I spent just about eight thousand dollars on an engagement ring from Tiffany's and another three thousand on the band that matched it. (Side bar here - Marnee picked the ring out and thought it was just beautiful. When she asked me what I thought I just replied that she was beautiful and I didn't really care what the ring looked like.) One month and everything fell apart.

Last November I had my tail bone removed (it's called a coxygectomy). When people hear that they want to know if I had a tail. Sad to say I did not. Years ago I broke my tailbone snowboarding at Angel Fire, NM. It healed all funny like and I've had issues since but never thought anything could have been done about it. The addition of the BMW and the long road trips I was taking on it brought the tail bone issue to the forefront and I sought medical help in dealing with it. I was refered to a spine doctor who sent me to get an MRI done. When I met with the doctor again the first words out of his mouth were that he could understand why I had such a problem with it. He also said that if I weighed 100 more pounds I wouldn't have any problems. Once again, anyone who knows me gets that the only way that I am going to gain another 100 pounds is to wear a weight vest. I feel for the doctor and the staff that had to look at my hairy ass!

I moved from Casper to Minneapolis right before Thanksgiving (celebration of the suppression of the indigenous people). My partner that I worked with in Casper kept telling me that I wasn't going to do well sitting at a desk. I have worked at a desk before and I justified the move as getting me out of Wyoming and back to a place where I could return to school. I have high disdain for sitting at a desk for 8 hours a day when I could be outside for 8 hours instead. The worst day I have ever had working outside is by far better than the best day I have had at my new "desk" job.

This year has been extreemly difficult for me with everything compounding on top of everything. I'm on the fence about the "amount" that has happened. I can see why someone would say I have been through a lot but I can also see that not much has changed.
I am a Cancer. It isn't so much that I believe in the astrology thing as it is that I was told that a cloud looks like a dog so when I look at the cloud I see a dog. My friend Tori pointed something out about me that I didn't realize anyone saw and that is how sheilded I make myself. She called it "trust issues". Of course, she didn't really tell me this so much as write an email to my ex about how much of a bitch she was being too me and how it took a great deal for me to trust anyone. The email was not a good thing on anyones part but it did open my eyes to how people see me. There are things that looking back I can see now I should have done different but the past has happened and I can not undo what has been done. I've always looked at things that way. Once I've said/done something I can't really pretend that I didn't say/do it. Be mad about it and get over it or stew on it and let it eat you away. I wouldn't want to forget what I did which would cause no lesson to be learned.

I don't think this is the direction I intended for this blog but I'm going to leave it at that. If I figure out what I actually intended I may jot that down before another 9 months lapse.

Posted by at 12:03 AM | Permalink

The few that claim to know me should all agree that I am infrequent at best with keeping "in-touch" with anyone. If I have a question of someone I ask it, otherwise I don't see the need to talk. I can't seem to wrap my head around the whole "small-talk" thing. My lack of vision is probably why I can sit in a bar and not say a damn word which is in stark contrast to the world around me that can't seem to listen.
I spent the last few minutes going over a few peoples blogs that I know. I guess technically they are my siblings if you want to be a dick about it. I always start at Jack's site since he seems to keep links to the other siblings sites on his page and not because, like me, he ever updates his blog.
I can't look at James's Blog without thinking how much of a FUCKING DOLT he is. I just today saw that Jordan has a website but there isn't anything there which is contrary to his whole massive being.
John's site has always been amusing too me. His site is actually the reason I even went looking at blogs today. I happened to be driving an hour or so west of Casper to work on a couple circuits out in the middle of nowhere when I got to thinking that he should be getting married sometime soon. Turns out he got married Friday. I'm indifferent to the whole thing. I have been to one siblings wedding and that was simply because I didn't think I had a choice in the matter at the time. One in five weddings... I'm doing pretty good! Let me qualify that though. I was raised Mormon, shocking I know! Likewise my siblings were raise in the same manner. So in actuality, I have been to one reception out of five since a heathen like myself can't actually attend the wedding ceremony. What is the point of inviting someone to a reception after the fact? So, I have missed 5 out of 5 weddings and I couldn't be happier.
I'm sure I sound like a complete ass hole and I just can't seem to care about it. Biologically you can't choose your family, that is unless you adopt, but I like to think I can defy that. I have no relationship with any of my siblings save Jack. Memories growing up are marred by the family hostage situations where 10 people get stuffed into a van and go on "vacation". I believe all that togetherness time more than compensates for me never having anything to do with the majority of those people.
This brings me to where I think I was going... I'm happy for John and his now wife Erin. Happy in the same sense that I am happy for people I don't know getting married. I'm not about to miraculously change and try to develop a relationship so that I can get to know this new person that hasn't entered my life. As far as my siblings go, I am a figment of their collective imagination. Anyone who hasn't met me should plan on not meeting me.
Think that is all I had... I'm sure I'll come up with something else to post at some point but most likely nothing until then.

Posted by at 1:07 PM | Permalink

To preface all this, I could be a little inebriated... 3 St. Pauli's Girl could do that do a little guy like me that doesn't drink much!!!

It's Monday evening for at least another 40 minutes or so... I've been out riding with Paul the last 3 days... Saturday I was a little sunburned on my forehead. Sunday I just hurt on my face and my neck and shoulders are somewhat uncomfortable. Shock and surprise to anyone who knows me I decided to wear a helmet this evening to prevent any further pain from sun exposure on my face... I have enjoyed just getting out and riding. Tonight we decided to take the "old Glenrock Highway" to Wyoming Highway 94 and in turn to Wyoming Highway 93 into Douglas followed by Interstate 25 back to Casper. Just over 100 miles but a hell of a lot better than sitting around doing nothing. It's Highway 93 that brings the blog out in me tonight!
Let's start with the fact that it wasn't all that long ago when I thought it impossible for a vehicle to hit a bird while driving down the road. That changed one day when I was driving from Moab to Cortez and happened to hit a bird in a big-ass conversion van that I was driving at the time. Given the size of the vehicle and the amount of driving I can accept the probability of the van and a bird trying to occupy the same space at the same time. After all, life is just one probability after another, right?... Fast forward too this spring and me watching "Wild Hogs" (good movie if you want to watch it)... I'm pretty sure in the previews you see a couple characters all bug splattered followed by John Travolta's character running into a bird... I was still of the opinion that the probability just wasn't there for this to actually happen... You know movies doing things that don't really happen in life anyway...
We stopped at the junction of Highway 94 and Highway 93 for a few minutes to rest. Needing "rest" on a motorcycle is only going to make sense to someone who has done any amount of distance on a motorcycle. For some reason it really wears on you...I take the lead and head into Douglas on Highway 93. I wouldn't give myself more than 6 mile down the road when a bird swoops down in front of me and hits my helmet. Look back and see it hit the ground, presumably dead... OK... Back to odds... Eventually my helmet and a bird are going to try and occupy the same space at the same time... I accept that... Within 5 minutes another bird smacks into the front tire of the bike (what are the odds) and gets thrown to the ground behind me. At this point I'm pretty much freaked out that I have just tried occupying the same space as 2 birds over a period of 5 minutes. The odds really can't be that high for that scenario...
We get to Douglas and I have to stop to verify with Paul what really happened... We agree that one bird hit my helmet and that we weren't sure what happened to the second until inspection of the bike... Feathers all over the tire pretty much suggested that the second bird hit there... After admiring the BMW for a few minutes we decided to get back on the road and head back to Casper... We both agree that hitting 1 bird, let alone 2, was just really freaky!
About 10 miles out of Douglas Paul had taken the lead and was headed up a hill. At first I figured his bike was geared too high and so the loss of power up an insignificant hill didn't really mean anything, after all he is riding a Harley... Of course it is going to break! So there we were on the side of Interstate 25 fixing his air filter... Neither one of us heard the Highway patrol guy till he talked... Highway patrol agreed without actually saying that the only reason we were having a problem was the name on the bike... "Harley"... He checked to make sure we didn't need any help and waited in his cruiser till we were back on the road. kudos for WHP!!!
Paul and I continue down I-25 and get off at the first Glenrock exit to take the old Highway back to Casper from there... Having safely made it through Glenrock and down to about 14 miles to go back to Casper we have incident number 3 happen. I was once again in the lead and had a bird swoop down right in front of my helmet. I didn't hear a hit nor did I see the bird meet the ground behind me so I'm going to call that one a miss... Paul was for sure that it had flown into me...
There we have it... 2 confirmed kills and 1 near miss all contained in one 100 mile trip... I have over 3700 miles on the bike since March 22 of this year... Really now, what are the odds???

Posted by at 11:33 PM | Permalink

communication
Pronunciation: k&-"myü-n&-'kA-sh&n
3 a : a process by which information is exchanged between individuals through a common system of symbols, signs, or behavior <the function of pheromones in insect communication> also : exchange of information b : personal rapport <a lack of communication between old and young persons>

Anyone desperate enough to:
1) check back on here to see if I have actually added anything, and
2) have absolutely nothing better to do with their time...

You may or may not poses the knowledge that I work for a communications company. At some point in my pathetic "college" days I took a communications course (it was one of those pesky general requirements.) As hard as I try to avoid it, I communicate on a daily basis. With all this, I'd qualify myself as "knowledgeable" on things that are communication.
From the aforementioned college class I seem to recall that the number one problem in communication is that what is said is not necessarily what is heard. That didn't take long to wrap my head around at the time and it still doesn't... If you need an example of that than here we go:

      Imagine a red wooden box

What you imagined is in no way what I meant... I'm sitting here thinking of a box that is about 6 inches wide, 4 inches tall and 9 inches long. (Trig rule states that all squares are rectangles but not all rectangles are squares.) I also imagine it with an open top (only 5 sides) and made of pine... The point of all this is that if I wanted you to know exactly what I was thinking I should explain it in detail if I actually expect you to be on the same page. However, as with the majority of any conversation we give an abbreviated description and hope for the best without giving it any other thought. On to what this relates to...

I had longish hair to start out my day today... I'm lazy, long hair facilitates me doing nothing with my hair. I will deny no ones opinion that I look better with short hair as I totally agree with that assessment. The long hair also happened to be doing this mullet kind of jig on my head so I went to see about getting that situation remedied... I sit in the chair, grab the hair at my neck and tell the stylist that I need that much hair cut off. Previous encounters with this stylist have gone along the lines of, "you only have long hair when you come to see me. When are you going to cut it short?" Well, maybe I mentioned that I'm lazy... So she agrees that she needs to cut about 2 inches off. I trust the stylist that I'm going too, otherwise I wouldn't go... Don't tell a cook how to cook... blah blah blah... She goes ahead and sprays water on my head I assume to make the hair slightly more manageable. What she does next is grab the hair dead center on top of my head and cuts 2 inches off the top.
I'm not patient. My laziness facilitates the long hair as long as there is a way to keep it out of my way on a daily basis. As I've come into the summer months, I don't particularly like wearing a hat while working as it makes me hot. What I had been doing for the last month is pulling my hair back to a semi ponytail. That is to say that most people think I look like a samurai for some reason or another as it is only the hair on the top of my head that I pull back and the pony tail is at the top and back side of my head. 2 inches less length would eliminate my ability to perform this little trick and I may have mentioned that wearing hats in the summer tend to make me hot.
Having watched 2 inches of length vanish I watched her proceed to cut another section down by 2 inches. It was at this point that I instructed her that I was going to have short hair today and that she should just go ahead and cut it the same length as jack's hair. Hair stylists have always thought I am joking when I tell them this... My usual approach to getting rid of my long hair is just to go bald. Some might think that no hair is even less work than long hair but they would be horribly mistaken and they probably have no idea what a cowlick is...
I started the day off with long hair...

Posted by at 10:36 PM | Permalink

I'm not talking that Canadian crap either... As it would at present seem, I am in the "reconstruction" phase of things and so the need to add back to the project instead of subtracting from it...
Here is the "boxing" that has been done on the right rear wheel well:
becomes
...then there is the red-headed-step-child pictures of the rear box...
becomes
Of course, this is where the gas has been depleated from the welder... I'll have to do something about that I think...

Posted by at 11:11 PM | Permalink

Alas, another day... another few dollars spent doing something to occupy my overabundant time in purgatory (aka Casper)...
After the ease of the right side tubb, I figured the left side tubb would be no problem-o and take a couple hours tops... there I go thinking again. Things started looking fishy when my cardboard template had a concave curve that the right side template didn't exude...
The first attempt would have left me filling in a 1 inch gap at the rear of the rear well...
Second attempt started looking a lot like the first attempt even though I verified the shape and the fit of the template... So I stopped... waited for Vern to take pitty on me and disassembled the second attempt in order to salvage the sheetmetal...
Third attempt involved the use of a shrinker, lots of hammering and then these miraculous little clamps that Vern found hidden somewhere that do a magnificent job of holding two pieces of sheet metal together so that a single individual can weld said sheet metal without going through a 3-ringed-circus set of acrobatic moves of trying to hold the sheet metal and weld it at the same time all alone....
And behold:

Please pay very little attention to the asymetric aspects of the two tubbs...

Posted by at 10:56 PM | Permalink

Give a Midget more power... it has to be able to do something with it...
The theory here is that it is going to spin substantially larger "meats" as compared to the tractor tires that were on the thing to begin with...

Right side tubb is tacked in place...

Left side is now underway...

Posted by at 9:47 PM | Permalink