Friends Gone

When I was living in Brookfield I began to ride with a motorcycle riding club that called themselves The Jerseypine Cruisers.  I really don't know the particulars of how this came to pass because they rode out of Des Plaines which was not on my normal travel routine.  Regardless, they let me join up with them and I made a lot of friends riding and cavorting with some very good motorcycle riders who happened to be very nice people.  When I left the area for Connecticut I continued -- and still do -- to keep up with them by reading the monthly newsletter and communicating to this day with a couple of them.  In June I was startled to read that 2 of the members that I knew had died... Al Large and Bill Theodorf.  Neither of them were kids, Al was 75 and Bill was 79, but it still startled me when I read of their passing.  A few days ago I chatted with another one of the members, one of my favorite riding friends Steve, and found out that both of them had died while on their motorcycles, within 10 days of each other.  This news really got to me.  Al was riding home on the highway/tollway from a Cruiser event with a fellow rider when the car in front of them hit some thrown truck tire tread, sending it into the air and into Al, killing him and causing his  bike to crash into his fellow rider who went down but, thankfully, was not critically injured.  Bill was killed when an 18 year old driver made an oncoming left turn into him. 

I never got to know Al real well but he was always a gentleman who was always friendly and helpful towards me and everyone else I saw him interact with.  He was a very long time Cruiser and had developed many deep friendships with the group.  Bill I got to know pretty well and, as it turned out, Bill and I often roomed together on overnight trips and together he and I made several long-distance trips, the most memorable for me being a trip just he and I took to West Virginia and another one down to Arkansas.  Bill was also one of a small group that took a trip over to Connecticut to spend a few days with me when I lived there.  There are people that you just like to ride with and along with my friend Steve, Bill was high on the list along with a few others.  From the time I left the Chicago area I have missed riding with these good people and now I miss them even more.

This photo is from September of 2004 and likely taken while we were out on one of the wonderful 'Sunday Rides' after a Cruiser breakfast ride.  I think this is the earliest photo I have of us together.

A photo of my friends doing what all Cruisers just love to do when out on a ride... eat icecream!  Bill on the left, my friends Steve in the middle and another Bill, 'The Cook', on the right.

Steve must have taken this one as I'm in this one and Steve isn't.  Same trip I'm pretty sure... the annual Cruiser event up in Door County.

Someone must have said something funny.  A shot of Steve and Bill as we wait for the ferry on our way down to Arkansas.

After a few days the others in the group had to head back to the Chicago area but Bill and I stayed down in Arkansas for about 5 more days, driving around and checking out the sights, and the music of the locals.  It was a very, very nice time.  Bill was the person who really got me to appreciate that it's the journey that counts, not the destination.  I can't even imagine the number of times we just stopped along the road to smell the flowers... literally.  The photo above is just one of those many times.

Bill once mentioned that he enjoyed 'following' me on trips because I was always able to find the places that needed to be found and enjoyed.  This time, a waterfall on our WV trip.  By now you must have noticed that this guy always looked the same!  Same smile... same positive bearing.

Again in WV.  Over Bill's shoulder is the largest radio telescope in the world, at least it was in 2005, located right there in WV.  Bill mentioned to me that he really enjoyed these 'things' that I took us to.  So did I :)

Like I said, the guy always looked the same!  This is at a rest stop on the way back from WV.  I look like I'm ready to pass out and Bill, the old fart, looks like he just stepped out of the shower.  Go figure.

And this one I save for last :)  That's a real butterfly that just decided to land smack on Bill's nose.  The butterfly knew he was picking a good spot to hang out for a while as it took me a bit to grab the camera and all.  I liked hanging out with Bill as well.

Bottle Lamp

Some months ago a pretty bottle was found at Goodwill.  The intention was to someday put some little lights in it and fill it with glass beads and make a nice nightlight type of thing out of it.  Well, today was that day.  I'd never drilled a hole in glass before so with a bit of looking around on the internet and a run to get the drill bits for doing so I managed to cut my first hole in a very thick bottle without shattering the thing.  The hole let me feed a string of lights into it from near the bottom so the cord/plug would be down there.  I surrounded the lights with colored glass stones and voila!  I think it turned out rather well.

The new lamp sitting on the mantle next to the Christmas lights that we never put away.

A closer look... better focus this time.  $2.50 less 25% for the senior discount, plus the costs of the lights.  We won't count the $10 for the drill bits as I'll use those again, I'm sure.

File This

For those of you not familiar with or aware of my most intimate secrets, I love file cabinets.  I find them the most useful storage pieces for everything and I've made a point of picking them up when I come across them at a good price.  I only want the best... office-grade, ball-bearing suspension tracks.  I brought home a 'cheaper' one a long time ago and while I've still got it and use it for storing sandpaper, glues, putty and the like, if I can find a replacement 2-drawer model, I'd get it.  Anyway, these suckers are expensive as you know and I'm quite frugal.  I think I've gotten all of mine at Goodwill except for the aforementioned crummy one that I got out of the alley.  I picked up a great 5-drawer cabinet last summer I think it was but have struck out since then... until yesterday :)  It was priced right, $8.98 and was in pretty good shape.  BUT... it was 'senior day' which meant the 25% discount took it down to $7.20 and although I was hoping for something in the $6.00 range, I decided to splurge.  It was filthy and covered in tobacco smoke residue but a bit of grease remover and soap and water and this puppy was clean.  It was kind of an ugly grey so I decided to give it a couple coats of black paint.  I also discovered that someone had painted over the solid brass drawer pulls!  Well, a few minutes with a bit of paint stripper and those suckers were shining.  Just this morning moved it upstairs to its new home.  I'm happy :)

Eat your heart out, Samantha!  You'll get it someday but that's a long way off :)

Happiness is...

... an unexpected and unplanned trip up to see family!  I just got back from a very quickly organized drive up to Mom's house to visit with her, David, Samantha, Hannah and Riley.  An extra bonus was seeing Sue and Lori and Lori's new little one as well.  It was a good visit with lots of laughs, lots of serious discussion, sights seen, Chicago pizza and hotdogs, a very fun round of golf with David, some great Scrabble games, and one of Mom's home-cooked meals.  I was apprehensive about making the drive alone but I kind of surprised myself and made the trip both ways without stopping for the night and continuing the next day.  The drive up was very bad because it rained for the first 600+ miles.  Coming back it was sunshine all the way... until it got dark.

Amongst the many happy events was seeing Riley demonstrate the progress she's making working with the physical therapist.  It really was exciting and heart-warming to see her standing up, kind of crawling, and just venturing out a bit.  Although she's only just begun working with it, she's now got a walker to work with as part of the program.  I figured that I just had to have a picture of Riley with her walker, and great-grandma with hers.  So, as out of focus as they are, some happy shots:

There is an awful lot of good in this picture!  First, grandma doesn't really use hers much, so that's good.  Second, Riley is wearing her brand new shoes which the therapist thinks will help her.  The fact that Riley is standing is icing on the cake.  Of course she just had to look around and, now that I think of it, she may never have seen her great-grandma with a walker before.  Cool!

And now that Riley looks straight ahead, grandma isn't!  Of course no one wants Riley to need this thing but it is the cutest little walker.  David got it adjusted pretty well for her and the handles are no more than shin high, even compared to grandma's shins :)

And it's very appropriate to have Hannah in this 'therapy' shot because Hannah goes to all of Riley's sessions and takes such good care of her little sister at all times.  Way to go Hannah !!