Morgan’s on her way

My stepdaughter Morgan is coming for a visit and arrives today. She’s flying from Tucson to Denver, Denver to Dallas, and Dallas to Little Rock.
Yeah, putting Denver into the mix adds about 500 miles. I have no idea why the airlines are routing her that way since we were able to fly directly from Tucson to Dallas in June. At least it earns her some extra frequent flyer miles.
My FlightTrack iPod app shows United Airlines Flight 6644 is about to land at Denver International Airport, down to 284 mph and 9,600 feet, scheduled to touch down there in about 3 minutes.

BMW Motorcycle Rally Pin of the Day

This is the pin from the 1997 BMW MOA rally in Fredericksburg, Texas.

It was the only mid-week ‘MOA national rally. I thought it was a stupid idea to have a national rally in July in Texas and didn’t much care for the mid-week concept either, so I stayed home.

Still wonky

My '03 BMW K1200GT's starter button continues to be wonky, despite $208 worth of shop time at Grass Roots BMW Motorcycles.

It's an intermittent problem that has thus far eluded the technicians, one of whom opined it could be caused by a problem in the sidestand or clutch switches that relate to starter operation. I pushed it 8 times without success this morning before I whipped out my camera and pushed it another 5 times before it finally started.

They’re everywhere

I don’t know if this is a regional thing or if it’s gaining in popularity everywhere, but I’ve only see the proliferation of “in loving memory” stickers here in Arkansas.

Driving around over the weekend, I must have seen a dozen of these things stuck on the back windows of cars, pickups and SUVs. The one in the photo above is among the largest I’ve seen, plastered right in the middle of the rear window of a Toyota. This one commemorated the life of a boy who died at the age of 16 or 17, depending on whether he’d had his birthday before he died in 1999.

The deceased are almost always boys or young men in their late teens or early 20s – the period when testosterone intoxication it most intense and kids feel like they’re invincible. These are the ones who got vinced.

On one hand, it would be easy to make fun of these stickers as a yahoo cultural artifact – note the Confederate flag and misused apostrophe in the photo – but they also represent real grief and loss. Who’s to say I wouldn’t stick something like that on the back window of my car if one of my kids died? I hope I never have to find out.

BMW Motorcycle Rally Pins of the Day

This is the pin from the 1991 BMW MOA rally in Flagstaff, Ariz. It’s one of my favorite pin designs from a really great rally destination.

I attended with my then-brand new pearl silver 1991 K100RS. I spent a week in Breckenridge with my Indianapolis BMW Club friends. Seven of us went on to the Top O’ the Rockies rally in Paonia, Colo., then rode down through Utah, hitting Bryce Canyon and Zion national parks before making a spur-of-the-moment run over to Las Vegas so two of our number could get new tires. Craig Caldwell and I left the other five to enjoy a night in Vegas while we rode east to Flagstaff. Craig had to get home to Indiana and I needed to ride down to Phoenix the next morning to meet my wife’s plane.

And here’s the pin from the Paonia rally, which was also the BMW RA national rally that year.

Bonus rally pin

This pin was created on the occasion of the 1986 BMW MOA rally at Laguna Seca Racetrack by the seven member dealers of the Norcal BMW Dealer Association. The dealer landscape has changed a bit since then.

Sutures out, Ruthie’s knee is healing nicely

I took Ruthie back to the vet this afternoon to have her checked out and to have the sutures removed from her right knee.

She’s started putting her right hind foot onto the ground lightly when she walks – started doing it yesterday. The vet watched her walk up and down the hall and opined that she’s progressing nicely – right on schedule.

She goes back for another checkup in two weeks.

Tree falls in woods. And we heard it.

We were watching TV about 11:30 Saturday night when we heard and felt what we took to be an explosion.

We went outside with a high-powered flashlight and scanned the neighborhood, but couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary. The next morning, however, we were having breakfast on the back porch when Maria noticed a big tree near our western wooded property line had fallen. It was about 45 feet tall and most of it is covered with poison ivy, which means it will be awhile before I’ll attack it with a chainsaw. I estimate it weighed at least a ton, which explains the explosion-like impact.

There was no wind at the time and it’s ironic that it withstood a huge thunderstorm with high winds just last Thursday evening, considering that its roots had such a tenuous grip on the sandy soil.

Time-warp lede or just gibberish?

The local TV station talking heads are introducing a flu shot story with, "In the wake of the impending flu season..."

Another example of the mindless stringing together of words that characterizes local TV news.

BMW Motorcycle Rally Pin of the Day

 

This is the pin from the 1995 BMW MOA rally at Durango, Colo. I was there on my ‘91 K100RS.

BMW Motorcycle Rally Pin of the Day

This pin is from the 1992 BMW MOA rally in DuQuoin, Ill.

I was there on my 1991 K100RS. I had the dubious distinction of being called to the stage during the closing ceremonies to pick up my credit card, which I had inadvertently left with one of the rally vendors.

Angels

I was still doing freelance work for my former newspaper back in November, 2003 when I wrote this. It seems appropriate to share it here today, being the 9th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attack. Note the reference in the story to that event:

As soft as a whisper amid the din of traffic and commercial signs, a pair of unique billboards appeared along Indianapolis-area interstate highways this year, imparting an angelic message of comfort and hope.
And, like angelic apparitions, they vanish after a time only to reappear somewhere else.
The billboards feature images of angels by artist Nancy Noel with the simple message, "God bless Humanity" and "Bless Humanity." They display no Web site, no phone number, no address -- just the attribution, "N.A. Noel."
They first popped up last summer along I-465 on Indianapolis' Eastside and along I-65 at Lebanon. More recently, they've been reported on either side of I-465 on Indianapolis' Westside.
"I pass by one of them on my way to work by the airport," said Amy Sanford Reynolds, who works in information technology for Eli Lilly and Co.
She was moved to send Noel an e-mail saying, "Each day as I drive to work, I am blessed with the joy of your work! I am fortunate to pass a billboard covered with one of your angel prints and the words 'Bless Humanity.'
"It is a much needed reminder of the beauty and worth in life. I hope that everyone else in their early morning rush takes the time to see your art and be reminded of the important things in life."
Added Reynolds: "She's doing a service to everybody just by reminding us that, even though there is all the war and aggression going on, there is something peaceful and positive that we can do for ourselves."
Eric Brotheridge, a former banker now studying for the ministry at Christian Theological Seminary, wrote to Noel on July 24 to say:
"This morning on the southeast corner of the I-465 loop, I noticed the 'God Bless Humanity' billboard. Thank you for a wonderful breath of fresh air!
"It is good to see that the colors of God's creation are more numerous and subtle than red, white, and blue; and to see that God's blessing is invoked for all of creation rather than for one particular country or cause."
Brotheridge emphasizes he is not anti-American.
"I love the blessings this country bestows on me as a citizen, but it's nice that a prophetic voice can be mounted on a billboard aside the interstate. Unfortunately, the call to universality is not one that is heard much in today's culture."
Noel lives and works on her Llandfair Farm southwest of Zionsville, where she also raises horses and llamas.
She characterizes her work as American contemporary realism and has won a wide following with her evocative paintings of animals and children.
A highly successful series of paintings of Amish children helped her become a prosperous artist, publishing more than 100 limited and open edition prints in the past 15 years. Her portraits command prices in the $20,000 range, and new subjects go on a two-year waiting list.
She began painting angels about five years ago, about the time she began to think more deeply about life and spiritual issues.
"I did angels because I decided to stop doing Amish for a while, and I'd wanted to work with kids.
"I really didn't understand what I was doing, and then I started getting all these letters from people who said I'd really inspired them and changed their lives and people saying they were going to commit suicide, and they saw one of my paintings and changed their minds," she said.
"I get thousands of letters like that.
"I got an e-mail just recently from a gal who was in (the World Trade Center on) 9/11. She apparently purchased some of my work and was writing me to tell me how inspirational my angels were to her and how they helped her in her recovery after 9/11.
"She said she got out with some bruises and cuts, and when she got outside, the only memory she had of the inside was all the angels who were swooping down around her and the people who were jumping out of the windows and so forth.
"Once she kind of got herself together and started talking to other people who had gotten out by the skin of their teeth, other people started to say to her, 'This is what I saw -- I saw all these angels in there flying around.' "
The response to the angel paintings led Noel to collaborate with writer Amy Nolfo-Wheeler in 1996 on "All God's Creatures go to Heaven," the illustrated story of Jacob, a child angel.
"One woman came up to me at (the) Penrod (Art Fair) right after I did my book, and she just grabbed my arm. I looked at her and I knew that she had seen an angel. I said, 'You've seen an angel, haven't you?' and she said, 'Yes!' "
Noel, who was raised in the Catholic Church, said her images aren't based on anything she's ever seen but rather what she feels. She's continually surprised that people who claim to have seen an angel tell her she got it right.
So in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, Noel found herself wanting to send out a message of comfort.
She'd had some conversations with officials at Lamar Outdoor Advertising about commercial billboard advertising, and one day last spring called Jane Mills, marketing manager for Lamar's Indiana region.
"The war in Iraq had just broken out, and she called and said she wanted to do a couple of billboards," Mills recalled.
She said Noel paid for the vinyl billboard artwork, and Lamar agreed to donate billboards on a space-available basis.
"We've never done anything like this before," Mills said, "But we've had a lot of positive feedback. People just think they're absolutely beautiful. One person said, 'Oh, it just gave me chills.' "
According to Indiana Department of Transportation traffic counts, the drivers and passengers of as many as 70,000 vehicles get a look at the two Westside billboard sites in an average day.
The image on the "Bless Humanity" billboard is a painting aptly titled "Whisper," and it has a special resonance for Kelli Griego, a 27-year-old mother in Troy, Ohio.
Her daughter, Alicia, was stillborn at 32 weeks in June 2002.
Some time after, she opened a catalog of Noel's work to the page that included "Whisper."
"I said, 'Oh, my God! That's my baby.' Even though I lost my baby in infancy, that's exactly how I had pictured she would look when she was older," Griego said.
Griego, who has a 5-year-old and is expecting another child in March, said, "It was a very difficult time for me, but when I looked at that painting, I was reassured. I was sure that my baby was OK. It's like the image was sent from above."
Griego said she and her husband plan to drive the 125 miles from Troy to Indianapolis one of these weekends to see the billboard image that means so much to them.
While Noel may be somewhat mystified at the response her paintings evoke, Amy Reynolds firmly believes it's all happening for a reason.
"I believe a divine muse has touched her for a specific reason for each painting, because each painting evokes an emotion," she said.
"We see what we need to see in them, whether they are comforting, make us smile or give us a remembrance of one we lost."

Shopping as a first-person shooter video game

We went to Walmart this morning, I to refill a couple of prescriptions at the pharmacy and Maria to buy some groceries.

Since it took 30 minutes to fill the prescriptions, I walked over to the supermarket side of the store and shopped with Maria.

Maybe it was my mood, or maybe it was just the People of Walmart (see peopleofwalmart.com), but it occurred to me that you could design a splendid video game around the Walmart shopping experience, especially in the grocery department:

You start with a shopping list and can compete either against another player on split-screen or against the clock. Maybe the list is generic and you earn points for finding the least expensive example of each item on your list.

But just to make it interesting, let’s turn it into a first-person shooter game where you earn additional points for shooting people who get in your way or annoy you. But you have to shoot them in places there their bodies won’t block aisles. If they do, you take penalty points for having to call for “cleanup on aisle 4.” You get X points for a slow person in a powered shopping scooter, Y points for a misbehaving child, Z points for the kid’s parents. Or, maybe bonus points for taking kids away from publicly abusive parents and giving them to parents who know how to handle themselves and their children in public.

Extra points for people who are pushing bascarts but looking to the right or left instead of where they’re going. You can’t shoot Walmart employees unless they’re on their break. And you have to go to the sporting goods department to buy ammo when you run out, paying for it with some of your accumulated points.

The game should be structured such that at higher levels of play the other shoppers run when they see you coming. Maybe one in 10 at that level also has a gun and will try to shoot you in self-defense.

These are just the basic details. Anyone have other features to add?

I think we have a winner here. Since the target (heh heh) audience for a game like this is adults, I suggest making it an arcade game to put in places like Chuck-E-Cheese’s to give the grownups something to do.

Disclaimer: No, I am not advocating shooting people at Walmart or anywhere else. We’re talking video games here.

BMW Motorcycle Rally Pin of the Day

This is the rally pin from the 1979 BMW MOA rally in Brainerd, Minn.

That was two years before I bought my first BMW motorcycle and joined the BMW MOA so, of course, I wasn’t there.

Knotty pine! Ooooooooo!

Remember knotty pine cabinets? I found this classic kitchen photo at Box of Slides. Go see what else you can find there.

BMW Motorcycle Rally Pin of the Day

This is the rally pin from the 1982 BMW MOA rally at Shreve, Ohio.

I didn’t attend, although I think I was a member by then. I had bought my first BMW – a 1971 R50/5 – the previous year.

My 2¢ worth

Yes, I get the appeal of burning copies of the Quran, but considering that the Muslim world is full of dangerous, irrational, emotional, crazies, I can’t see any reason to stir them up more than we have already.

On the other side of the coin, Gen. Patraeus warns that it “could endanger troops and it could endanger the overall effort in Afghanistan.”

I think the safety of our troops far outweighs the momentary satisfaction of insulting people who want to drag us all back into the dark ages.

T-shirt philosophy

 

I’ll concede at the outset that I’m probably over-thinking this. And, like most things, the images and words you wear on your clothing are a matter of personal taste, which is a non-debatable issue.

Having said that, let’s talk about t-shirts, shall we?

I was cruising the men’s department at Dillard’s on Saturday because they had a big-ass Labor Day weekend sale with 50 percent off all of their already-discounted men’s clothing. It was almost like having Dillard’s Discount Store back in business here. The prices were great, but I couldn’t really justify buying anything, having a closet still jammed with the enormous wardrobe I bought three years ago when the discount store was blowing out Dillard’s merchandise for 10 cents on the dollar. Maria finally prevailed upon me to buy a shirt.

But I digress.

I noticed some racks of t-shirts with generic or fantasy product advertising on them. Like the “Support Your Local Motorcycle Shop -  Daytona Beach, Fla.” shirt with a generic motorcycle image.

Assuming that a person wears a decorated t-shirt to say something to the world, what does this shirt tell the observer?

It tells me that the wearer wants the coolness cachet of motorcycling, but doesn’t know shit about bikes. A real motorcycle fan/rider would wear something more specific, referencing a particular brand, motorcycle shop/dealership or maybe a motorcycle event like a rally or a race. The shirt at Dillard’s comes off as something to be worn by the superficial and lame to impress the superficial and lame.

Ditto, the one advertising Big Koals Stogies. I suppose the wearer might hope people would think he’s a macho cigar smoker, but mostly – since there is no such brand - he would come off as a poser and a dope.

Maybe it’s just the idea of wearing something with what you think is a cool concept associated with it. It calls to mind the t-shirt an American spotted in Tokyo proclaiming “Surfing My Life!”

My preference is to wear only stuff that I (here’s that personal taste thing) feel has gravitas – substance, meaning, worth, importance, or else conveys a sense of irony or whimsy.

For instance, my t-shirt wardrobe is 99 percent BMW motorcycle-related, shirts from dealers across the country, rallies I’ve attended, or just stuff bearing the BMW logo. That’s because I love BMW motorcycles, to the tune of more than 300,000 BMW miles. I have a couple of Nikon shirts because I like and use Nikon cameras. I have a Breitling cap because I love my Breitling Chrono Avenger wristwatch. I’ll wear North Face and Columbia-marked clothing because I like the brands and think they have quality.

But I wouldn’t be caught dead wearing anything with the Old Navy name because I think their stuff is overpriced crap. Abercrombie and Hollister fall into the same category.

I guess it comes down to not wanting to advertise something I don’t like or believe in. And I reflexively expect everyone else to make that kind of conscious decision about the messages they send with their clothing choices. Silly me.

My friend Art Harris turned me onto Willis & Geiger clothing a few months before the brand went extinct. He bought a windproof sweater that had a nifty W&G patch on the left sleeve. He paid a seamstress to remove it because he refuses to wear anything that could be construed as advertising. I bought two of those sweaters – one for Maria and one for myself – and left the patch on both of them.

Sorry if you like Old Navy or Abercrombie or Hollister. Those t-shirts at Dillard’s just got me stirred up and pissed off.

BMW Motorcycle Rally Pin of the Day

This is the pin from the 1998 BMW MOA rally in Missoula, Mont. It was the second such rally in Missoula, the first being in 1984. There have been two other repeat venues for the ‘MOA rally – Oshkosh, Wis. (1976, 1993) and Redmond, Ore. (2001, 2010).

That was the year Montana decided to drop its interstate speed limit in favor of “reasonable and prudent” speeds. Consequently, I spent several hours cruising at 100 mph and above on I-90, but still got passed by several other BMW riders en route to the rally.

I rode on to Portland to visit my son Sean after the rally, picking up a speeding ticket in the Palouse region of eastern Washington.

Paul Bachorz’s obituary from the Saratoga Springs (NY) Saratogian

Paul M. Bachorz
BALLSTON SPA — Paul M. Bachorz, 68, died Thursday, Sept. 2, 2010, at Saratoga Hospital.
He was born in Hoosick Falls.
Paul served for 20 years in the U.S. Navy. He was in the Seabees and actively served in Desert Storm. He retired as senior chief.
He was a member of the Peace Corps and the New York State Militia. He was also a ham radio operator and member of Saratoga Amateur Radio Association.
Paul was a social studies teacher for 34 years and a golf coach for more than 30 years at Niskayuna High School, retiring in 2001. He was also a past president of the Ballston Spa Board of Education and was on the Saratoga/Washington County BOCES board.
Paul was a member of the Ballston Spa Elks Lodge and served on the board of directors at the Ballston Spa Country Club. He was a member of the BMW Owners of America and the BMW Motorcycle Owners of Vermont. (And he was a trustee of the BMW Riders Association.)
He was predeceased by his father, Francis Bachorz; and brother, Walter Bachorz.
Survivors include his wife of 41 years, Judith M. Bachorz; his daughters, Patricia (Nick) Bachorz of Montclair, N.J., and Pam (Jason) Bachorz of Washington, D.C.; his mother, Carolyn Garbacz Bachorz; his brother, James (Barbara) Bachorz of Niskayuna; his grandson, Noah; and many nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles and cousins.
A memorial celebration will be Sunday, Sept. 26, 2-5 p.m. Town of Milton Community Center, 310 Northline Road, Ballston Spa.

The family suggests memorial contributions be made to Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation, 302 Ridgefield Court, Asheville, NC 28806-2243.
To light a candle, go to www.mevecfuneralhome.com.