Tuesday 12-15

 

 

 My friend A is a hard core biker.  One Harley sits in the shop, disassembled and the other, newer one is whole, but sitting unridden because of this endless rain.

A and his (ex) wife a few years ago:

(1958 HardTail frame with a Shovelhead motor added)

A is an Independant – he’s not a club member.  He has friends in the Gypsy Jokers and Hells Angels, but as an independant biker, he comes and goes as he pleases.  He’s had the bike above all the time I’ve known him (and it’s run less time than that, a joke he doesn’t appreciate so much), but just before sumer he called me up – "Cat!  You’ve gotta give me a ride to …. There’s a bike for sale I wanna look at!"

It was a ’93 Fat Boy Harley, like the one Arnold rode in "Terminator 2", and he bought it at His floor price – the other guy took the first offer, and A got a fine bike, with 8600 miles on it to ride.

A couple of weeks ago, he bought this 1970 Dodge Dart GT for his son – who has gone back east, so A has the car he says he’s fixing up for his son.  His son was implicated in a bank robberry and may not been seen in these parts for several more years. (I’ve known that kid more than half his life – fell in with a bad crowd, he did).  He’s back east somewhere now.

A has had things replaced on the Dart – you see how it’s sitting in the pic above?  Darts are infamous for their rear springs losing their temper and letting the back sit lower.  A lot of people I’ve seen have just put longer spring shackles on the back – which raises it back up… but the springs are still soft.  A did it right and had the whole pair of springs replaced, and the car now looks and rides like it was supposed to – headlights aimed at the road in front instead of at Mars.

A works at a pipe bending and metal works company as a finisher – grinding welds and cleaning up assemblies.  If you ever go to the Portland airport, look up – the airport terminal’s overhead was made by A’s company.  As a refinisher, he uses grinders and other power tools, and despite the safety goggles he wears, a couple of pieces of metalic grit got in his eye yesterday.  I drove over last night to give him something from the weekend, and he was in the process of deciding whether or not to go to Urgent Care and get ’em taken out.

A is ten years older than I am.  We grew up in the same part of the LA basin, the San Fernando Valley, and are good friends.  A and his wife (they divorced last year – what a mess) were good friends to me after the car wreck in ’98, and they had me over for family Thanksgivings and Christmases for years afterwards.  If I ever had had an older brother, he’d be like A – it’s good to get advice and perspective from an older guy.

(This year, I had TG with MY FAMILY – a cousin "found" me in June and I have re-connected with my dad’s side of the family, so I have my own Christmas stocking over my cousin and his wife’s fireplace – somewhere to go for Christmas this year.  Last year, another cousin found me and I drove down to SoCal for New Years to see her. I can’t do that this year – no job = little cash and my cat needs his insulin shots twice a day… but I can drive across town to spend some time with the cousin and his wife who found me this year)

Well, A is ten years older – 57, and he works in a dangerous environment.  In the past couple of months, I’ve taken him to the hospital or Urgent Care more than a few times (and for that pesky prostrate problem he’s had too, you know).  In fact, we spent hours there last night.  Work and age have combined to let him know he’s not invincible, and I’ve come to know the Kaiser parking lots pretty well.

(I think of it as piling up Good Karma… or payback for the friendship)

A recently got a 40" Sony widescreen TV – Bluray movies look AWESOME on it.  I plugged in my camera to show off my Gorge pics from last week – o.m.g. they looked FINE 40 inches wide.  (I want a higher resolution Nikon – mines a "2meg "equivalent" camera" – I want a 10 Mg camera…. but my Nikon Coolpix 2200 works fine now… but the pictures look jagged 40 inches wide)

I’ve been busy the last few days.  There’s another set or two of the pics I took in The Gorge last week, and photos from Shasta Lake to post…. and Christmas cards to write.

 

*****