The Headline says "Flogged".....

I don't believe what I am seeing on the Nine MSN front page this morning.

In America.. typical... some nosey neighbour videos a bloke who gives his step-kid two smacks on the arse. And even though we can't hear what is being said, the guy recording video claims it is because the kid dropped the ball, he also claims the "Cowardly" man "FLOGGED" the kid.

Since when has a smack or two on the arse ever been Flogging??

To get a flogging means you were punched around a lot, or severely lashed with whips or other weapons.

Never can anyone say two smacks on the arse with a belt is equal to a Flogging.

Seriously.. the namby-pamby bleeding hearts have screwed things up for everyone when they don't even understand the difference between a smack and copping a flogging. Dickheads.

On the road again, just can't wait to...

Took the good turn of weather as an opportunity to ride out and see friends and family over the past 5 days. Perfect weather all the time!

So the first stint would be the longest, 371k's to north west of Gympie. I'd been undecided about which of the three ways I could go, inland, coast, or cut across heading north east. The last one got the nod as I rode past the 12 mile turnoff to Brisvegas.

And what a good nod it was. Took the Pilton turn off from the Towoomba 'highway' and found that Ma Ma Creek road had been fixed up a lot since 7 weeks ago when it tried to turn me into a pretzel. So this time I could enjoy the ride instead of dreading the pain in each turn.

The road takes you into Gatton where I took the Esk road out and got sand blasted by a semi hauling landfill. Forgot what that was like, and now I remember it I still hate it. Even though the road marking told me I wasn't allowed to pass .. you know how it is. The rest of the ride to Esk was most enjoyable, as was my breaky and a ciggy in the park there. Saw a slightly older couple heading out from there on a big Beemer as I pulled in. 2 wheel Grey Nomading is fun, obviously.

With the body fuelled up it was time to decide whether to go via Somerset Dam, which would be the preferred route with plenty of time up my sleeve, or ride on from Esk to join up with D'Aguilar highway to Kilcoy. The last option got this nod. Before Woodford I turned off for the Kilcoy-Beerwah road as I knew this was a nice bit of road with some windies and lots of scenery to cruise through.

Fuelled up in Beerwah before hitting heavier traffic on "Crikey!! I'm dead Way" and even more traffic once on the Bruce Highway.. me no likey that road. Once I got to the 90km/h zone all the way to Gympie and beyond, boredom set in. I've seen that scenery more times than I can count and sitting behind a Hyundai, behind a Bus, behind a semi... etc, just wasn't sitting well with me. So I was naughty all the way and finally arrived at my first stopover.

Next day I took a ride to Tin Can Bay to see an old friend, and was still a bit naughty.. damn that highway!! Saw some "lose your licence and go to jail" speed once or twice. Yep, very naughty. But in my defence I was being sandblasted by semi's hauling dirt and others with logs.

Had a day out of the saddle doing other things and come Saturday morning I pulled my saddle bags out of my mate's shed, cleaned them up, and found I can carry a week's worth of stuff in them. Which is looking good for my 2 week NSW tour later in the year. Gives me more room now for small tent and bedroll, and food, and spare fuel.

Saturday arvo I headed to Yandina down the Bruce highway.. behaved myself a lot better this time. After a coffe and ciggy stop I continued on the higway.. which was getting boring by now .. until the Pumicestone road turnoff. I thought I would have a look at the old back road to Strathpine as it used to be  a nice cruise when I kicked around there. Ok that was last century, so things might have changed a bit.

They had. Lots. Apart from all the trees being taller, the housing, shops and signage had increased 1,000's of times more than I knew it in the mid to late 80's and with so much going on I had to get my focus on big time. It just got heavier from there, all the way through Caboolture, Petrie and Strathpine. Not going that way ever again... 'effin madness.

So I was glad to arrive at a mate's place nearby and hide behind his big gates away from the madding crowds. Kicked back overnight and this morning the bike got her wash, ready for the last stint through Brisvegas and out to Gumbieville via Cunningham's Gap. Was nice to get home. Checked the trip meter which read 967km's.

There were lots of bikes on the road come Friday arvo, and more over the weekend. Well it was perfect riding weather. 

Not a bad 5 days I reckon. And great praccy for my jaunt south through Mexico around the time of this year's Bazza Memorial Ride.

Got the shytes...

On an Aussie bike riders forum I saw a thread where people were asked.. "If a fortune teller told you that you would definately die riding motorcycles, would you still ride or give it up?"

All was good for a little bit then I noticed more and more replies saying things like, "fortune tellers are a load of crap", and, "They need their head punched in." I wondered why so many were so hostile about people like Me.

So after a day or two thinking about it I wrote a new thread starter called, "More things in heaven and earth than in your...", where I asked why people thought those things, and then told them two things about me that my friend's know about me. I did this to see how they would respond to a member owning up to being a 'fortune teller' and seeing/working with the deadies.

Well.. as expected the heavily opposed to this stuff jumped in boots and all. Once again I read posts demanding scientific proof before anyone would stop saying, "Load of crap" and start thinking, "Might be possible, I don't know." And it went on like that day after day while I tried to answer all questions openly and honestly as best I could.

But instead of asking questions about how it works for me, or how I experience these things, they supplied info from a variety of scientific studies to 'prove' none of what I was saying could possibly be real. And thus I was a looney... or as one responder wrote.. "Oldie's f_cken loop fruit!!" Others weren't that nice. One in particular attacked me heavily, as he did in a previous thread when he took exception to what I said about something. This one even quoted from that other non-related thread to pursue it in the new thread.

I of course played as nicely as possible. I held my tongue when pushed, but still these few maintained their pushing to the point that one day was spent typing replies, and then typing more for the new responses that arrived in between. All bloody Day!! What a waste.

I was a bit shytey about it, so decided it was time for some get out of Gumbieville time.. which the next post covers. Hoped to get some clarity on how to approach it when I got back.

I think this post has answered it for me.

What's going on?

Not much it seems.

I keep finding excuses to get on the bike and ride for an hour or two... rain or shine, it doesn't bother me. Managed to slow down the washing and polishing to just once a week so I don't buff it away to nothing.

In other news, I am learning now about how strong the cultural conditioning is in our society. Always knew it was strong, but what I'm seeing now has tended to drag my hope for humanity backwards a fair bit.

Seriously.

I thought by now many more would have moved away from the outright ignorant perception that "spiritual stuff" is a load of crap, anyone behaving like a spiritually-motivated person is to be treated like an idiot and ignored, and that doing so is performed with a simple statement like... "What a load of crap", or, "That's all bullshit", etc.

I noticed this week in a conversation amongst motorcyclists that "fortune tellers" .. the term chosen for the discussion... are likewise a load of crap and are apparently deserving of a beating for doing what they do.

Yes, nice sentiments there for sure.

So me being me, I typed a small (for me) line or two about psychics and what my impression is of the Industry after having worked in it for a few years.

Got ignored completely.

Am I surprised?

Hell yes.

Did it stop the "load of crap" style comments?

No it didn't.

What's that tell me?

I was born 100 years too damn early.

Reasoning:- The opposition to what I have to offer is so much more ingrained and stronger than I had so far recognised.

I have seen it from the New Age Industry.. from those already in respected positions.. or wanting to be, and I was aware that mainstream everyday Aussies are still very much what I call "Meat and 3 Veg" type people. You know.. Traditional, Experiencing the inside of a very safe box of perception and Belief.

But how strong the anti-spiritual side of things is, really got to me today. Doesn't matter what anyone who Knows has got to say, most people are going to jump straight in and say, "Load of crap."

That means the things I've known about and participated in since my early childhood are even to this day Believed to be a "load of crap" by the vast majority of "normal" Australians. The very people who have not had experience of anything non-physical, and so do not Know, and yet they cannot think, "Maybe it's possible". No, they go straight to, "It's a load of crap."

My 'spiritual job'.. if we can say that.. is to help people by showing them how to find their own answers easily, how to directly experience the 'spiritual soul' that they really are.. easily, and so assist people with waking up to the reality all around them just outside that neat little box of Beliefs they are strongly attached to.

This being the case, my job is as I see it now, nearly impossible when the majority of the population are not even ready to consider anything other than what they know and Believe to be "Right." Most won't or can't see how we are brainwashed or indoctrinated from the moment of our birth to be nice little replicants in a conformed society.. Homogenised like milk!!

When I talk about the Indoctrination into our Culture, most tell me I'm wrong.. speaking a load of crap, etc. So I can't even begin to do anything with them until they can move on their own to a point of perception where they might be able to CONSIDER something outside their Box existing. If they can't, then I am wasting my time and efforts.

But, not only wasting my time and efforts with these people, but for the majority of my life so far. Makes me think I shold give up and simply float through life without a care about anything and just have a good time while it lasts... never thinking about what others are experiencing or how they can be helped.

Hmmm???

Good thing this motorcycle blows those cobwebs out of my mind when I ride her. Puts me in a place of just floating along without a care in the world.

Think she's teaching me something?

Good question huh?

Back in the saddle part 2

Yesterday dawned cool and cloudy.. and since it was my "get the hell out of Gumbieville day" I had to stuff the Dri Rider winter liner + new gauntlets and sodium "Chopper" glasses to test in the dark on the way home in to a small backpack before hitting the road to see a mate 90k's away. I put an order in for some rain along the way to test how weatherproof everything was.

So a nice day was had visiting and I left at sunset, as the clouds promised some good rain for testing.

Open face lid was no issue when the rain came 10 k's down the road as my left hand esily covered my nose and cheeks with the gauntlets on.. all good so far.

As it got darker I found the riding glasses to be bloody good.. no glare from oncoming cars and trucks and even as the rain got heavier I could still see the line markings. As it got even darker to full night I could see with no problems at all... well worth the $9.98 investment from Ebay.

Very impressed too with the tyres on the bike in various levels of rain and road wetness.. I felt very confident and mostly dry.. I did only wear jeans after all so I was wet from the knees down.. nothing surprising there.

As I buttoned off for the 80km/h zone into Gumbieville I noted a small pool had built up at the bottom of the jacket where it was bunching up and the easing of wind pressure allowed the pool to drain through to my crotch.. oh well, that's been wet before too. Nothing a decent pair of wet weather duds won't fix.

The worst affected part of the jacket was the top outside pocket.. it was a bit wet inside.. so I won't be putting anything of importance in there.

So, being very happy with the outcome of apparel testing I decided to take a ride today since it was raining around the foothills.. bloody brilliant with hardly any traffic at all.

This time I had the liner out of the jacket and wore my fingerless gloves.. they got a little damp in the light rain and a bit more in the heavier rain. I pulled up at Yangan to check to see if the cool feeling on the front of me was just wind cool or wet cool.. turned out to be slightly damp cool.. so the liner will have to stay in it for future rides if rain is a possibility.

The smells you get on a ride out in the country when it rains are simply awesome.. couldn't smell road kills at all today, fortunately.

All up, I have to say I'm loving being back in the saddle again.

Back in the saddle after a long time; my experience so far.

I've been out of the bike scene for many years and have finally reached the point in life where I'm empty nesting with no wifey to try and manipulate me.. happy times indeed.

The last bike went when I was told in all seriousness by the pregnant wifey that I had responsibilities now, etc. And soon after I was pensioned off due to old injuries from my maniac riding days of last century.. so no bike, no bike magazines, etc, as other things had $$ priority once the wifey left me with the girly and took everything else.

So this post is about my re-learning phase to safely get out in the wind again.

After six months of seeing what you could buy for your money these days I settled on an older (2001) Vstar 1100 classic.. piccies of which I have posted up already in other threads. This fit my small budget of $6,500 and was advertised privately for that amount with no RWC or Rego.

So I rang the owner and we gently haggled it down to $5,500 cash since he needed some urgently for his bank account... and I had to sort RWC, Rego and Transfer fees with what I had left after purchase.

Next day I left the car in the shed and bussed it up to Gympie to test the bike. I found the owner to be a genuinely nice guy, pretty honest, and desperate for dollars in the bank to keep paying his new HD off with.

On my test ride I met an older Viet Nam Veterans MC rider who told me the bike was well loved by the owner so I had better take care of it, etc. That was the confirmation I needed after finding it rode well, didn't seem to have any issues and needed nothing more than a headlight bulb for RWC. I spent some time over coffee looking through the service booklet to see it was all in order and made a mental note of the new tyres and always garaged condition, etc. And I was impressed with the low 52,200 km on the clock in those 11 years of it's life.

I became the new owner of a Cruiser that day, after 18 years with no bike. And I was excited, thrilled to bits to have the chance to enjoy riding out again. To be honest I struggled a bit with some elation making it harder to focus clearly... some called it the start of a honeymoon phase.

Day one I had about 400 or so k's to get her home after paying for the insurance and paperwork to ride it. The first thing I noticed was how content I was to sit around 80 to 90km/h on the country roads, but also found 100km/h on the highway was a bit uncomfortable due to not having the same neck or upper body strength as I had in my youth... something I can remedy though.

The second thing was my tailbone started to get a bit sore after an hour, so I changed my plans and had a few stops at friends and family to let me walk it out a bit before continuing... and suck down a ciggie or two with coffee. Ahh addictions!

The last stint was at night.. an open face lid and lots of bugs, dark sunnies didn't really help matters at all and going up the Range made me remember about the cold air going through the wrong sort of clothing.

Next morning I dropped the new baby into the local bike mechanics for a service and RWC while I started looking around for jacket, gloves, night riding glasses, etc. All of those came from Ebay at bloody good prices.

Now I had the bike, the gear, and was ready to ride. But I knew I had to get my bike-legs back before tackling anything long distance/interstate.

So I began taking regular small rides, under 200km, and a lot of around town stuff to get a feel for being in traffic again. I made sure I did a couple of test stops so I knew how the bike would react to emergency braking, I made sure to get some wet weather riding in so I could feel how the tyres worked in various conditions, and did some dirt roads while I was at it since they were the things I hated most on a road bike.

Something I noted was that with more time in the saddle I could ride further before needing to walk out the sore tailbone. A little handlebar adjustment and some leg stretching to the end of the running boards made a difference.

In the month that's passed since I bought the girl home, I've had two instances where car drivers forced me to take evasive action, both times I kept her upright and stayed calm. Not like when I was in my youth at all.

With 2,200 k's under the belt now I am very aware that my survival depends completely on my approach to riding.

And I am a little surprised with being able to see car drivers 'radiate' their intentions with small clues like head positioning, small steering wheels direction changes.. all the things I didn't really notice in my younger man days. Which is probably why I had a few prangs in those days.

I was very happy to find I hadn't turned into a sunshine rider in my older age, so rain still doesn't bother me. But, the cold does now.. maybe that's just a sign of age.

I'm looking forward to what the next couple of years brings as I have plans for a 10 day jaunt through NSW later this year to see old friends and see what has changed since my young days of interstate rides, and later I want to see Darwin, the one place I have never been in Oz yet.

My daughter asked me if I will come back home after Darwin. I thought about how silly it would be just to turn around and ride home when the road west continues and will eventually bring me home again anyway.. 3, 6, or 12 months later.

But, one day at a time.. which is how I have to take life anyway.

Over a month since the last blog.. wonder why??

The Bike... that's the answer.

My first ever blog post said I was going to get a bike.. and six months later.. witrh the help of a very good friend.. I got it and have been re-learning about how to ride safely in this overpopulated road system.

Loving it.. is another term that comes easily to my mind about the bike.. the wind in my face.. a little bit of sunburn every ride.. a bit of needling pain when it rains.. the smells on the breeze.. are all instant reminders that I am IN the environment and not caged off from it.

I love it.

Thank you my good friend for your help.