Out of Reach Balloon

Today I received some information about Kylie and an incident involving a balloon from Tiffany. It turns out that Kylie was playing with a balloon in the living room when she accidentally let it go and it floated up to the ceiling out of her reach. She then walked over to the other side of the living room and walked to her chair, where she then said “get me high” and proceeded to carry her chair over to under the balloon, stood up on it and grabbed the balloon. She then climbed back down and carried her chair and the balloon back to the other side of the living room and put her chair back. This all happened around 4pm today and ever since she has been purposely letting go of her balloon and using the chair to retrieve it, at one point even commenting “too short” before standing on the chair to reach the balloon. She did all of this on her own without anything being said by Mommy or Aunt Sissy, who were both present to witness it. On one occasion the balloon had moved away from her while she was trying to reach it and Aunt Sissy made a comment to Kylie saying that it had moved, to which Kylie replied by promptly climbing down and re-positioning her chair under the balloon again. It is so fun to see her figure things out and solve issues. A child’s cognitive development is a truly marvelous thing to behold.

Goodbye Hayes

This morning at 10am was Hayes’ funeral, and it truly was all about Hayes. This celebration of life was unlike any I have ever attended. Upon entering the funeral home, where you would normally hear some quite perhaps spiritual music, the first song I remember hearing was Dio’s Holy Diver, and it made me laugh. Hayes was a big fan of heavy metal and heavy rock music and hearing this song immediately reminded me of my friend. The service itself purposely started about 10 minutes late to honor his tradition of always arriving to work about 10 minutes late. The people whom spoke about Hayes all spoke about a man who loved his family and friends and of his love for music. Hayes was an accomplished self taught drum and guitar player, and is in fact the reason that I purchased a guitar a number of years ago, I wish I had the chance to learn to play and jam with him. There were two songs that people specially selected to be played in honor of Hayes, one of them was A Tout Le Monde by Megadeath and was one of his favorite songs from years passed:

Don’t remember where I was
I realized life was a game
The more seriously I took things
The harder the rules became
I had no idea what it’d cost
My life passed before my eyes
I found out how little I accomplished
All my plans denied

So as you read this know my friends
I’d love to stay with you all
please smile when you think of me
My body’s gone that’s all

A tout le monde (To everybody)
A tout mes amis (To all my friends)
Je vous aime (I love you)
Je dois partir (I must leave)
These are the last words
I’ll ever speak
And they’ll set me free

If my heart was still alive
I know it would surely break
And my memories left with you
There’s nothing more to say

Moving on is a simple thing
What it leaves behind is hard
You know the sleeping feel no more pain
And the living all are scarred

A tout le monde (To everybody)
A tout mes amis (To all my friends)
Je vous aime (I love you)
Je dois partir (I must leave)
These are the last words
I’ll ever speak
And they’ll set me free

So as you read this know my friends
I’d love to stay with you all
Please smile, smile when you think about me
My body’s gone that’s all

A tout le monde (To everybody)
A tout mes amis (To all my friends)
Je vous aime (I love you)
Je dois partir (I must leave)
These are the last words
I’ll ever speak
And they’ll set me free

A tout le monde (To everybody)
A tout mes amis (To all my friends)
Je vous aime (I love you)
Je dois partir (I must leave)
These are the last words
I’ll ever speak
And they’ll set me free

Goodbye Hayes, I hope you are free now my friend.

More Information

At Hayes’ viewing tonight I found out a little more information, in all honesty probably all the information i will ever get, about my friends early passing. It turns out that for the past few weeks Hayes had been complaining about sporadic numbness in his arms and legs, and had been scheduled to go see a specialist in a few weeks to have a complete checkup performed. He obviously never made it, and I wonder if he had would things have been different? Hayes’ autopsy revealed that he had an enlarged heart, and that it is most likely that he did suffer a heart attack while at home. Those of us who knew him always knew that Hayes had a large heart, for he was one of the most kindest and gentlest people I have ever known. He was always there for his friends, whom he regarded as family and felt were very important to life. When he found out that two of his friends, or one of his friends and their friend were arguing, Hayes’ advice was often something along the lines of “What ever the problem is, just fix, that’s your friend your arguing with.” Hayes was a great friend, indeed a great man, and he will be missed. Until we meet again my friend…

Hayes

Rider Down

Well I guess that didn’t take too long. Tonight I had my first wipe out on my motorcycle, I wasn’t injured beyond a bruise on the inside of my left leg near my shin, and in fact I did not even go down. When all was said and done the bike went down under me and I ended up standing, straddling the bike.

I was pulling out of Nie Funeral home leaving Hayes’ wake and entering Carpenter Road when my back wheel spun out from under me and the bike went down on its right side and spun so it was horizontal in the road. I guess I should explain what happened.

When I left to go to the funeral home the weather was nice, and though I knew there was a chance of rain I saw no clouds and so opted to ride the motorcycle. After the viewing when I went outside I found that it had started to drizzle and the ground was now wet. I had actually made a comment to Tiffany that this was the worse time for me to be riding the bike, for multiple reasons. One reason is that I had never ridden in wet conditions before. Another is that I remember my instructor in the training class telling us that when it first starts to rain is a bad time to ride, this is because the initial rain just causes oils to be brought to the surface along with loose dirt causing slick conditions. With these things going through my mind and knowing it has only been raining for a few minutes I got ready to ride.

When I had pulled into the funeral home I noticed that the driveway entered the road at a fairly steep angle and that the blacktop of the driveway was of the shiny black slick type. Keeping all of this in mind, coupled with the wet surface, I proceeded very slowly and cautiously to the end of the driveway and waited until there was a very large gap between oncoming traffic for me to turn right into the road. Unfortunately all my precautions were not enough and my lack of experience won out.

When I attempted to turn right into the road my back tire was still on an incline coming out of the driveway, and when I started to make the turn it simply slid down the hill and spun out from under me, thus causing the fall. As I have previously mentioned I received very little damage, no more than a bruise. Thankfully the bike received little damage as well, nothing more than a small dent and some scraps on the tail pipe.

I was able to pick the bike back up on my own and then ride it home. I am hoping that this will be my last and only incident, and that I have learned this lesson well. I think this could have been avoided if I had simply held in the clutch and simply allowed the bike to roll into the road completely and then tried to make the turn, as I think I had plenty of time to do that. I guess we will see next time.

Very Sad News

I had some very sad news relayed to me earlier this morning, at around 11am. It turns out that an old friend of mine, in deed one of the first friends I made when I moved to Michigan, Hayes Wright, passed away on August 25 2007. At this time it is suspected that he had a heart attack while at home, where he was found by co-workers. Hayes had worked for Pizza Hut ever since before I have known him and he was loved by all who worked there. Hayes, you will be missed by all who knew you. Rest in peace my friend.

EDIT: Below image taken on 08/29/2007 after Hayes’ wake.

Hayes

TiVo Update

I have had my TiVo now for a little over a month, and I have to say I am really happy with it. I have not delved into some of the more advanced features or even used the online scheduling, but using the basic DVR features has been worth it. I have been able to see a number of shows that I otherwise would not have been able to watch due to the time the come on or me just simply forgetting about them. In addition it has found at least one new show that I now record on a season pass. Plus being able to fast forward through commercials is a blessing in itself because it cuts a thirty minute show in almost half. While I am not ready to make the claim that my TiVo “gets me” it certainly has made watching TV more interesting and worth while. I am happy that I picked it up, and I will be even happier when the rebates come in and I get my money back!

Share and Share a-like

That is what Kylie did with her flu, shared it with everyone. As of today the count is up to 6 people that got sick via Kylie. Today I became number six. I know when I got the exposure that made me sick too, last Friday. I was planning to work from home on Friday so I could watch Kylie because we could not put her in day care while she was sick, Tiffany was going to drop her off to me on her way to work in the morning, or at least that was the plan. However Friday morning Tiffany called me and asked if I could come and get Kylie, as Tiffany had gotten sick, so i decided to do one better and just work from her house and help take care of both of them for the day. Nice of me right? Yeah I thought so too, until very late Saturday night when I cam down with it as well. Yesterday was really bad and i spent the majority of the day sleeping. Today I am feeling a little better but opted to work from home just to make sure I didn’t get anyone at work sick. It seems like everyone who has gotten so far, except for Kylie, only has it for about 24 hours. However during those 24 hours you feel pretty miserable; vomiting, diarrhea, and a lot of muscle soreness seem to the general symptoms and afflictions. I have to admit I think it is humorous as to how many people have gotten sick; Tiffany, Aunt Courtney, Uncle Mike, Aunt Sissy, Papa, and me, I wonder if anyone else will be added to the list.

EDIT: 08/21/07
Mimi (Bev) got sick today as well, bringing the total number of Kylie’s victims to seven.

EDIT: 08/23/07
Melissa got sick today as well, we are now up to eight victims. On the plus side however Kylie has been feeling much better and has even returned to day care. 🙂

Flu Time

Kylie got sick today, in Tiffany’s truck. They were on the way to Tiffany’s Dad’s house when Kylie got sick. I was at work but luckily was able to come home so they could stop at my place and clean up Kylie, Kylie’s car seat, and Tiffany’s truck, and Tiffany was also able to take my car seat. We knew Kylie was not feeling well as she got sick in her crib during the night, but Tiffany had thought that it was something she had ate the previous night. Even this occurrence in her truck Tiffany thought might have been due to something not agreeing with Kylie that she ate. However, Kylie got sick again tonight at Dan’s house and there is just no denying it, Kylie has the flu. We suspect that Kylie picked this up at day care as we don’t know of where else she might have had exposure, I guess now we just have to wait it out. I wish there was something we could give her to help her, but she is still to young for the normal medicine. It is odd though, if you did not know she was sick you wouldn’t really suspect it as she is still her happy self.

100 Miles Down

Tonight while riding home from work I broke the 100 mile mark on my motorcycle. It took me a little over a week to do, which isn’t that bad considering I haven’t been able to ride as much as I want to. I did get out this past Sunday (my birthday) and ride for about an hour, that ride put the majority of the miles on the bike. I was hoping to be able to ride more, but as of yet I really don’t have a way to carry my laptop with me for work, so when I am on call I can’t ride to work. I am hoping to save up for some saddle bags, but that may not be until next season as they are really expensive. I might be going on a ride next month with some guys from work, we are currently trying to work out the details, I hope that works out as it should be a long fun ride. The planning is currently for a weekend trip, possibly out to the other side of the state, up north and back. we will have to see how that pans out.

Happy Early Birthday to Me!

Tonight I bought myself an early birthday present, a 2006 Kawasaki Vulcan 900. Here are the specifications:

  • Engine Type: 4-Stroke, Liquid-Cooled, SOHC, 4-Valve Cylinder Head, V-Twin
  • Displacement: 903 cc
  • Bore and Stroke: 88 x 74.2 mm
  • Maximum Torque: 60.8 lb.-ft. @ 3,700 rpm
  • Compression Ratio: 9.5:1
  • Fuel Injection: EFI with 34mm Keihin Throttle Bodies (2)
  • Ignition: TCBI with Electronic Advance
  • Transmission: 5-Speed
  • Final Drive: Belt
  • Rake/Trail: 32°/6.3 in.
  • Front Wheel Travel: 5.9 in.
  • Rear Wheel Travel: 4.1 in.
  • Front Tire Size: 130/90-16
  • Rear Tire Size: 180/70-15
  • Wheelbase: 64.8 in.
  • Front Suspension: 41mm Hydraulic Telescopic Fork
  • Rear Suspension: Uni-Track swingarm
  • Front Brake Type: Single 272mm Disc with 2-Piston Caliper
  • Rear Brake Type: Single 242mm Disc
  • Fuel Tank Capacity: 5.3 gal.
  • Seat Height: 26.8 in.
  • Overall Length: 97.0 in.
  • Overall Width: 39.6 in.
  • Overall Height: 41.9 in.
  • Dry Weight: 557.9 lbs.
  • Color: Candy Fire Red

Here is a picture I took shortly after I had it delivered to my apartment (I did not want to ride it home on the highway for my first ride). That is my truck behind it and I took the picture with my phone so it is not the best, I will eventually have better pictures, but until then:

And here is a stock photo for better quality:

You can click on the images for a larger view.

In addition to the motorcycle I also got a Snell approved helmet, this Joe Rocket jacket (in black/red), and a cover for the bike.

All in all everything came to a little more money than I was hoping for, but the guys over at Nicholson’s treated me really well (i.e. all the above mentioned accessories were free) and keep my monthly payments to what I told them I wanted, which is under $100 a month. I also have a 3 year warranty on the bike from them and Gap coverage at no extra cost. I would highly recommend these guys as, like I said, they treated me real well.