Some things JUST AREN'T MEANT TO BE

Why am I at my computer? Shouldn't I be in DC, touring around and seeing stuff I've never seen before? Yep, that was the plan. You know the saying, "plan to work and work the plan?"

Well the part of my plan that included buying a departing plane ticket for the trip wasn't discovered until too late. Post 9-11 security changes mean you can not buy and fly the same day anymore. A 24 hour minimum is required between purchase and flight. So if you're only gonna be gone for 3 days that kinda makes the trip impossible.

Darn. I'll have a good weekend none-the-less and my return flight was credited to me so I'm only out it for the hotel fee.

Somethings just aren't meant to be!

I own the night.

Unedited, original pictures from driving around last night.

One reason not to ride a small motorcycle

I like small motorcycles. I find them easier to touch the ground, easier to ride fast, cheaper to insure, less cost to run and just generally more fun. The dictum, "I'd rather ride a slow bike fast than a fast bike slow" is often proven correct to me when ridding "small" motorcycles.

Well today I learned why sometimes I need a faster motorcycle. And as faster and bigger are often synonymous when talking about speed of a vehicle, I needed a bigger motorcycle today. Coming home from work I did my normal, legal, lane sharing move up to the front of the line at a light leading onto the 8.

As I'm sitting there the BMW X5 suv to my left edges forward and towards me. I look over then the middle aged white guy is gesticulating wildly at me. In a threatening way. When the light turns green I figure I need to move out quick as this road rager is not happy.

And I was right, as the light turns green he goes all Mario Andretti on me and tries running me down. I've got my little 300cc motorcycle pinned, wide open and he is right on my tail. And not happy still. As quick as I can get to 80mph here is still right there, bearing down on my and giving me angry looks and hand gestures.

Basically I couldn't go fast enough to get away. He kept lane changing when I did and I had to start thinking about what to do so this guy doesn't follow me home and try to kill me. Over reacting you say? I've had a gun pulled on me in a road rage incident, so NO, I'm not over reacting.

In tactical terms, I needed to get "off the X" and I was unable to. Which was kinda frightening as I've never had that happen before. I love small motorcycles but this time I was wishin' for more.

Where have I been?!?!?!

OH man, where have I been?!?!? It's been over a week with no entry, how have any of you awesome readers survived??

Well basically I was in Tulsa Oklahoma competing in the national championships for the shooting things I do, International Defensive Pistol Association. (IDPA) I competed as an Expert in the Stock Service Pistol division and finished 10th. Yeah, tenth best in the US of A!!! wow.......

One of my great shooting friends here in San Diego was actually first in our class/division! Keep your friends close and your competitors even closer.... hahahaha.

Spend 5 minutes of your life watching it here,

Looking at the results, well first things first. Often people say, and I'm very guilty of it as well saying "Oh, I could have done better," and so on. Well actually, if I could have done better I would have. So stop making excuses. Again, looking at the results I had stages where I was one of the top 3 shooters and others where I was like 20th.... (cringe)

So I really need to work on reducing my standard deviation. Big time!!

I've also had school, body surfing, motocross riding. This week I work two days at a cardiology clinic, missing a school day sadly. Then I need to practice for the California State IDPA Championships that is in two weeks up in Sacramento. AAAAnd I'm spending the weekend in Washington DC as a quickie tourist.

Phrasing. Meaning I am only visiting for the weekend so I need to be quick about the touristy things I do. I'm hoping for Spy Museum, National Air and Space, Constitution and the Capital. Anything else will be gravy for such a short trip.

Oh, btw, American Airlines sucks. The end.

Thank you, masked reader

Whoever you are, Mr/Mrs/Ms Anonymous, thank you for your comments. Having a little bit of interaction is what helps motivate me to continue to write and post. Thanks!

Blood on the macadam.

On the way to school yesterday was the closest I've ever come to being killed by another car on my motorcycle. Now I've made my own mistakes and almost paid dearly for it, but in all my years of street riding this was as close to the biggie as I had ever come before.

Large busy intersection at Friar's Road, heading west right before getting on the 163 north. 850am, I'm in front and as the light turns green I do a quick scan left and right and take off quickly. If I'm going to lane split my way to the front, which is legal mind you, then I like to get away quickly. Doing my part to reduce congestion and waiting. No cars have to wait for me and I don't have to wait for them.

A question, what is the number one cause of accidents for street motorcycles? Too much corner entry speed. Not an issue here. What is the number one type of accident where a car hits a motorcycle? The car turning left and doesn't see the motorcycle going straight across the intersection. So now back to the action at hand.

I do my scan left and right and take off. Only to see a girl in a truck very similar to mine, run the red light at a pretty quick speed into the intersection and make a wide left turn, tires squealing. By the time the visual recognizing is done on both our parts and the rapid brake applications are over we are 10" apart.

Since I'm in a math class right now, let's make this a story problem. If a 4,000 pound truck traveling 45mph hits Rowdy completely broadside on a motorcycle (combined weight of 440 pounds) while he is traveling 20mph what are the chances he will be air lifted from the scene of the accident? The answer is 90%. The other 10% is I will be just left there with a sheet over me until taken to the coroner's office.

But it didn't happen. To both our credit we did see each other in the nick of time and did stop and avoid hitting each other. But it was inches and tenths of a second from going in a very different direction.

I'm not ready to die. But I've been close before and just barely missed it.

- At age 9 I fell off the second story roof of our house pretending I was Spiderman and hit my head on a wooden fence on the way down. If I'd hit my neck on the large fence post or landed head first..... Instead I was just unconscious for hours on the couch at home with the first of my many concussions.

- Medical illness has taken me to the brink of death from dehydration more than once. And surgical complications once.

- My car was shot while I was in Iraq through the rear window. I was driving. And when the rocket blew up by me. And when my helicopter got a RPG shot at it, which I caught on film. And so on.

- Making a mistake early on in my rock climbing I had to untie and downclimb a route as the only way to self rescue. Fall, die. Don't fall, live.

2013 Christmas Card??

Gojira just needs a Santa hat and I think I got this years Christmas card!