This Old Blog in the Month of Movember

I think the pleasure of completed work is what makes blogging so popular. You have to believe most bloggers have few if any actual readers. The writers are in it for other reasons. Blogging is like work, but without coworkers thwarting you at every turn. All you get is the pleasure of a completed task.
- Scott Adams -

My contribution to the blogging world (As iAge) is Three Years Old this week. I published my first post in early November, 2009. It was called H1N1 Flu, and I observed that the upside to the flu pandemic were the jokes about Swine Flu and Miss Piggy.

No one read this post at the time, which wasn’t a surprise because I didn’t tell anyone that I had a blog until one year later. With 12 months of my online scrapbook/photo journal completed, I announced my blog to family and friends with a link to it and the post Small Time Blog in a Big Time World.

Reader views increased slowly – very slowly. (I’ve never won the ‘Freshly Pressed’ Lottery - that’s my excuse.) But that’s okay, because I’ve made some wonderful blogging friends and those connections are worth far more than any other statistics.

This post is my 370th.  Simple math will tell you that I don’t write a post every day. I write when I feel like it and when I have time – and that is about twice a week. Let’s be honest here – you don’t have time to read my blog if I post every day – and I don’t have time to read your blog if you post every day either. For me, the fastest path to Blogging Burn-out would be a Daily Post. Have you ever written an entire post about how you have nothing to say? If so, and you want your blog to have a lifespan that is  longer than the life cycle of a fruit fly, you might consider writing less frequently.

“But I don’t want an Old Blog – I want a Fruit Fly blog”. You go, girl! I wish I had your energy.

Movember (November if you prefer to spell it that way) is special for two reasons – it is my Blog’s birthday, and it is the Month of Moustaches.  Hop on over to Bloggers for Movember to follow the Movember stories that will be posted there all this month. You will also want to read The Car Guy’s story – Movember – the Month of Moustaches. It will explain all about the Movember Prostrate Cancer fund raising campaign. We’ll be sending our donation to this Team Harley-Davidson.

Movember allows us to do all the things we, as a company, love to do: have fun and support a worthwhile cause. I’m so pleased to see WestJetters, our Mo Bros and Mo Sistas, from across our network joining in on the Movember fun. You know what they say, the Mo’ the merrier.
- Gregg Saretsky, WestJet President and CEO -

Remembering Harley

Never trade the thrills of living for the security of existence.
- Unknown-

2011 Harley Davidson Electra Glide Ultra Classic CVO – October 21, 2010  to October 19, 2012

Harley Before the Accident

It is with great sadness that we announce the demise of an inhabitant of The Car Guys garage, Harley Davidson.

Harley went for a short ride on the morning of Friday, July 13, 2012. Apparently neither the rider nor bike thought about the consequences of venturing out on such an unlucky day. A Perfect Storm of events resulted in both of them being in the ditch.

Harley had many broken and bent bits and it was eventually decided by the Insurance Doctor that Harley was not a candidate for restorative surgery. This was because the cost to repair Harley was likely going to be more than it was worth on the resale market.  Harley will, however become an ‘organ’ donor, and it is our hope that many of Harley’s parts will breath new life into bikes that are in need of a transplant.

The Car Guy was more fortunate. He had many broken and bent bits too, but the People Doctors don’t consult a resale blue book before they decide if a patient is worth saving. The Car Guy has passed his 3 month post accident check-ups with flying colours, and he is well on the way to being just like before. Well, not exactly like before because the brain injury has altered his personality a bit, but in a good way.

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Corvette after Restoration

I get attached to our vehicles. They each seem to have a personality. This is the story of a car called Wendy. It is a story about breast cancer too: 1980 Corvette

What is Your Risk Tolerance?

The length of this document defends it well against the risk of its being read.
- Winston Churchill -

I’ll keep this story short, then, with a few photos -not risqué, just risky.

Risk Tolerance and Comfort Zone – two concepts to think about now and then. At our house, The Car Guy is working hard to get back into his Comfort Zone, which for him is freedom from pain, and getting his neck brace off. (See A Perfect Storm.) Once that is achieved, he can start to think again about what his Risk Tolerance will be when the motorcycle is repaired!

And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
- Anais Nin -

We live in an area of the country called Hail Alley.  These white lilies have been in my garden for ten years or more, and without fail they get hit by hail either just before they bloom, or just after.  That doesn’t stop them from blooming as best they can, though. Plucky little flowers.

The concept of reducing risk is not new. People have been managing risks in some form since human beings first decided to keep their hands out of the cookfire.
- Risk Management – BC Fire Academy -

Summer bonfires (with marshmallows) at the cabin.  The grandchildren are old enough now to whittle sticks with sharp knives and use said weapons for tasks that bother timid adults. (This is the best I can do for a bonfire photo – I was never at the cabin on the evenings the extended family had a bonfire. It was just that kind of a summer.)

Adventure without risk is Disneyland.
- Doug Coupland -

My nephews little boy has a bike now and while he can’t keep up with the big kids on their bikes, he can sure park it where they do. He wears a helmet, of course, but the pot holes in the roads at the cabin have unseated him on more than one occasion, and he can show you the bruises to prove it.

I’m stepping out of my Comfort Zone today – I’m going to the dentist. Yes, I am a risk taker! How about you?

Weekly Photo Challenge: Wrong

The Car Guy was still in the hospital after his Motorcycle Accident when our daughter, The Nurse, gave her dad this Lego Surgeon. If you look very carefully at the x-ray in the Surgeon’s hand, you might see what is wrong with the patient.

We decided the x-ray showed a rib fracture, though if you turn the x-ray upside down, it might be a break in the clavicle. Since The Car Guy had both – rib fractures and a broken clavicle – the x-ray was fairly accurate!

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For more ‘Wrong’ Photos, head over to the Weekly Photo Challenge: Wrong