For a change it felt like I had a somewhat productive weekend. I managed to get a site I’d been working on for awhile up and running. The people I was building it for seemed happy, so that’s cool. Went to a winery on Saturday night and watched Third Stream Giants, a funky band from Fredericksburg. Gail and her mom (who has been visiting since Tuesday) sampled the wine and declared it ‘crappy’, but we had fun regardless.

Sunday they decided to take the kids to an all-you-can-eat ice-cream festival. Figuring I didn’t need to be party to such debauchery (as I would probably partake to a degree that would leave the sponsors of the event wondering what they were thinking in having an all-you-can-eat event), I hopped on the Harley and went down through the countryside towards Culpepper. Ended up putting about 125 miles on the odometer. It was a great day for a ride and I enjoyed the heck out of it. I have the ‘biker’s tan’ now: white hands (from the gloves), burnt forearm, and white biceps. Gonna look like a barber pole at the end of the summer.

With the one website out of the way, I’m going to try and keep the momentum going and finish my writing critique site. My friend Treva said she’d help, as she has more experience with Drupal than I, so here’s to hoping we can actually accomplish something. I don’t have a layout, but I want to get the back end working properly and site flow to make sense before throwing it into a layout. That’s probably doing it ass-backwards, but I’ve never been accused of making sense to begin with.

It will be during the dog days of summer that I’ll recall mornings like today’s with fondness. As I sit there on my motorcycle, stuck in traffic with all that metal of the cars reflecting the hot, overbearing sun onto me from all directions, the heat rising from the asphalt, the engine idling between my legs cooking my jeans. As I struggle through traffic to try and get some speed up to create a breeze to cool my sweat-beaded brow, as I feel the sweat drip down along my spine to the small of my back. That’s when I’ll recall wistfully of the rides taken in March, when I was snug in my leathers, my head encased in my full-face helmet and the temperature brisk. Mornings where you felt happy to be alive.

But this morning, as I traveled down the road and the fog grew increasingly thicker, I was being anything but wistful about the ride. The weather reports were promising a beautiful afternoon with highs near 70, blue skies and a slight breeze. Completely perfect riding weather. As it’s been a nearly two months since I had been out on the bike, I figured it’d be a great day to ride to work. It was a great day to ride HOME from work, but certainly not to.

When I got on the 6-lane that I take to work, the already thick fog grew even thicker, and I couldn’t see twenty yards in front of my bike. Combine that with the condensation that was collecting rapidly on my face shield and the traffic coming up quickly behind me and probably not seeing my puny tail light, I decided it was time to get off the road. I pulled off at the next exit, and found a Chik-fil-a for some breakfast. I couldn’t even see the buildings across the parking lot, so I figured I’d stay until I could. Luckily I had a book of short stories in my saddle bag, so I had quite the pleasant morning sitting and reading.

I do love foggy mornings. Just not so much when I’m riding in them.

I’ve been meaning to write about our most recent trip back to Arizona for my grandmother’s funeral service, but work, along with other miscellaneous things, kept getting in the way. As usual.

The service was very nice. My Uncle Eddie got up and talked about my grandmother’s life, and much of it I’d never even heard. How she eloped with my grandfather. How she wasn’t allowed to be married while in Nursing School, and when word reached the administration that she was married, how she was expelled. It was like discovering a whole different side of my grandmother.

My cousin Kim, being the oldest of the grandchildren, was next to speak. She took all of our memories of summers spent at Nana’s and recounted them to the people at the service. It was wonderful and emotional and I miss her even more after listening to everything I’d forgotten. If I can get Kim to send me what she wrote, I’ll post it here.

Aside from the services, it was really a nice time. It was great seeing all my family together again, and I had a good time catching up with everyone. My in-laws were coming through town on the day of the service, so they brought the kids (who have been staying with my in-laws since the end of June) and Gail and I got to visit a bit.

I also got to drive my Aunt Nadine’s Mercedes SL 500. Ooooh my. Talk about a damn cool car. It’s a hardtop convertible, and when the top is down, it’s just sweet.

Gail and I also made it to Chandler Harley-Davidson, where we got to see some of the new models. She also sat on a Duece again, and is now looking at accessories for one like she was getting it. Just the fact that she’s thinking of getting one makes me all a-tingle. First thing’s first: the Motorcycle Safety Foundation class!!!

Looking back on this weekend it seemed I had a lot of stuff going, but it didn’t seem that busy.

Saturday morning I spent at Great Falls Park with the rest of the students from my Photography class. I have a nice camera, and I finally decided I should really learn how to use it, so I took some of the tax money this year and enrolled in a no-credit class. I’ve only had one class and one field trip, but I’ve learned a lot about my camera. We spent the time out at Great Falls taking different pictures of whatever we felt like; we just had to use the select aperture settings and shutter speed assigned by the teacher. I pick up my slides tonight. I’m rather excited to see how they turned out.

The rest of the day was spent getting the top of my poor old bald head fried while waiting to get Sarah’s soccer pictures taken (I thought it was in the gym like last year, but nooooo....), and then Gail and the kids went to the Rainforest Cafe for a birthday party that evening. I hung out with Jeff playing Playstation. Gail and the kids came back later, and more people showed up at Jeff and Marcia’s. The evening progressed into a couple of beer runs, a run to get some food, and me feeling like I’d be better off at home. So I collected the kids, left Gail to chat awhile, and I went home to bed.

Sunday was a nice day so Jeff and I decided to go for a ride on the bikes. Kerry Ann saw us heading out and asked if she could come. She hopped on the back of Jeff’s Vulcan and off we went to West Virginia.

Talk about a beautiful ride. The day was cloudy, and for awhile I thought we might get some rain, but for the most part it held off. The road we took out to West Virginia was a two-lane twister through the Blue Ridge Mountains that was just perfect for a bike. We got to the town of Ranson, WV, and decided to grab a drink and sit for a bit.

Now, here’s where the day became a bit surreal.

You've seen the the people I'm talking about; the idiots who feel the need to drive while talking animatedly on the phone, or who are trying to eat. Women who put on makeup, men who shave. I've seen both in the last week. Nothing irritates me more than idiots in the driver's seat.

Yesterday, however, I was the idiot.