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What do you do, or did you do, for a living?

It would take me a long time, sure you are not talking to ur phone. :D


Let’s say a good deal of time passed.

Haven’t ever organized all that before. A day off where I’m not tired is optimal as that was work (my formal education was with a backbone of reading & writing).

To get from one place to another is classically:

Information, is only data.
Free-floating.

Knowledge, is the application of experience to integrate information to the whole.

Wisdom, is where love intuits what’s really needed (as He taught).

Emotions (feelings) are the rapids in this river. Where one founders.

As said, had I known in my twenties what I now know (information integrated), there’d have been little reason to continue. One can’t fix it.

Knowledge,
is still in coming to grips. Not shying away. That pain never far away. Of so very much missed.

Wisdom, I'd like to obtain. Righteousness, flowing as a river. Unimpeded.

A daughter-in-law I hope (pray) takes me as I am. She has the unnerving combination of beauty & brains. I never dated much less married other than the type . . . but this is his wife. There are pitfalls.

One is “all-in”, or the thing doesn’t coalesce. We are not yet well-acquainted.

I joked (partly) with my son, “Okay, now you’ve married her, assemble a huge key ring and inform her she’s coming along to meet “Dad”.

When she wonders aloud at the brusqueness (and keyring) tell her that one is for the road gate. The second, the garden gate. Another, the front door. Yet another to the basement. And the next to my room.

I’m more than presentable company. So it’s a way of saying that while I do my best, “visits” (like parties) are tiring to me, not energizing. Opposite of what I’d really like.

Getting to know me takes awhile, I’m told. It’s enough for me I no longer live in a state of constant hyper-vigilance. Others adjustment isn’t the same concern. I’ve lived long enough to have a wide range of prediction results tested.

— Can you tell the sex and race of another driver based on their behavior at the wheel, never seeing them?

— Can you come up with a quick; accurate summation of a person based solely on their shoes given a particular locale?

Can you win bets in this?

I’ve had no choice but to learn such zany stuff. Paid bar tabs, too.

Social Distance,
my friend, isn’t any new concept. I’ve lived it. It’s an evil.

Like others I have personas I can assume. Shaded variations of self.
I realize that some stay in one or another their whole lives.

Doesn’t work, does it?. Makes the chances we have in this life into a parody.

Problem is that I rarely filter what to say and not say (reason for keyring). After spending three years slowly dying two decades ago, I don’t much care any more. Most of it (someone else’s rules, I note) hadn’t anything to do with why any of us are alive.

That’s all that’s interesting.
What do they think it is?

Why are we here?

So, I’d like to be able someday to reach that point of comfort with the recent bride. Trust. That the intersections of our lives aren’t seen as unfortunate accident. Burden.

My being able to say “who I am”, is in making visible an invisible handicap. The lovely is an M.D. Assessment part of the toolkit for them.

These shoes fit, I’ve learned. Nothing else ever did so far as the missing piece was concerned.

But they’re not yet broken in. That’s not in my power.

So I’m working on how to shine ‘em up for her. That stitching flaws are obvious can’t be covered. Wouldn’t want it to be such.

Can shoes take a humble shine?

Kiwi, or Lincoln Stain Wax, boys?

.
 
I'm 60 plus . My leather shows the wear and use of four decades of use on the roads of three continents , six foreign countries and at last count twenty eight of these United States of America . I have continuously held a motorcycle endorsement since 1972 . I learned basic mechanical skills from my father , his father and a tolerant neighborhood filled with mechanics and machinists of widely varied disciplines . I have built most of my motorcycles with the exception of those I rebuilt . I have never owned a new off the showroom floor motorcycle .

In something of a chronological order I have owned ...
A CA72 Honda Dream , yes , the square fender , rubber band , leading link , beginning of the end for the British and American motorcycle industry .
A BSA 441 Victor . By the time I was done only I could start it . I vowed to never again own an Amal carburettor .
R5/RD-250/350/400 . I had so many spares just to keep them running I still find them every time I have to move .
TZ-250 . Other than the water cooling what the hell was I thinking ?
1969 XLCH . Rather than a simple what the hell was I thinking I really need to elaborate . This example was indiscriminately abused simultaneously from behind and from the front by the bumpers of inattentive drivers . I got it cheap . I got it cheaper than a Bonneville , CB750 , or any Italian bike I could pronounce . Then again I had to learn how to straighten frame ,forks and swing arm . The 1973 Kawasaki was a rumor at this time and it was a year before I actually heard one . In the mean time I did everything possible to defy the gods of speed and destroy the structural integrity of the Harley Davidson engine . I did finally find a way to increase the displacement , valve size , fuel consumption , noise and rear tire wear to the point where the transmission was the last weakest link in the chain . I got real good at replacing transmissions . The only thing I choose to remember was the dawn of the 1973 Kawasaki Z1 in the hands of inexperienced squids and the look on their faces as the Charley Horse drove right around them . Hours later I could be found in my parents garage replacing clutch plates , primary chain and yet another main and counter set . The following season saw a better crop of riders and aftermarket parts for the Z1 and even after resorting to Cox Motor Airplane Fuel (at least 20% Nitromethane in my day ) as a major fuel component it was trial by fire . I don't know if I was more thrilled by the now diminishing ability to demolish the egos of overly enthusiastic rice pilots or spectators were more stunned by the occasional spectacular catastrophic metallurgical destruction of the Harley Davidson .

Interlude consisting of long periods of boredom and brief moments of absolute terror . My demons are my own and only in this one area of my life will I say " You weren't there , you weren't me , what good would it do to explain ? " Non sibi sed patriae .


A return to the world at large brought me into the grips of visceral contact with the combustion process . I knew I couldn't beat them so I joined them .

R5/RD-250/350/400 .I still had all those parts remember
Triumph T140 Bonneville 750 . A British anachronism with deplorable brakes and miserable carburetors mixed with oddly stunning road manners great looks . I saw a restoration recently sell for near five times what I paid for my used 1973 . In inflation adjusted dollars a net loss .
The Z's . So many rice pilots had turned so many of the Z's into scrap in my absence that it was a kid in a candy store moment . The aftermarket had caught up with and in some cases passed Kawasaki's original offering by a large margin .
TX/XS650 Yamaha I still have this sickness to some degree . I was a failed motocrosser and amateur road racer (read here "not very good") but I seemed at home on the dirt . Keeping all the spinning bits in the Yamaha cases was a bit of deja vu . This experience on the dirt lead me back to the pavement as a much improved road racer and somewhat humbled competitor .
TZ250 Again . They had improved a bunch
Liter Bikes . They resembled the parent Kawasaki Z's like , well , you get the idea . Fully race prepped drag race from corner to corner true superbikes . Chassis development lagged far behind engine development for several years . Unless you lived through this it's difficult to explain bending handle bars getting the bike to turn in or straighten out .
750's . The AMA obsoletes my years of engine development in a stroke and relegates the class to 750cc . Again any resemblance to the parent KZ750 was incidental if not accidental .
GPZ/KZ550 Fun
Honda VF500 Different kind of fun .
Putting a license plate on the 750cc race bike and surviving several near misses on the street lead to the sale of all race equipment in the span of a single weekend . On pavement I was frustrated and reduced to racing with my own money . On the dirt I was being forced into an extremely large expenditure for an XR750 just for a chance to be competitive . I find it odd that the insurance premiums for motorcycle racing were significantly larger than deep sea diving , Lloyd's of London does not .
KZ1000 Police . I was without a motorcycle for all of three weeks . I was so deep in spares from these engines that I still have complete engines in boxes to this day. I was not going to quit riding and what sold me on the bike was the floorboards .
And there I stayed for twenty seven years .
ZN1300 . The Battlestar Galactica (or Gigantica depending on who...) A 120 RWHP behemoth with cross country legs .

I saved the best for last .
1973 Harley Davidson FLH . I originally built this for a friend and ended up with it on his death . I like the bike and know its failings well . I attempted to out think Harley Davidson at every opportunity and fairly succeeded on most points . Just a few of the modifications were a real carburetor , a complete rethink of the combustion chamber , dry clutch and belt primary , STD cases , real starter motor and hours of work in the front end .

This is a fairly complete history of my experience .

Only now can get to the heart of the matter . I ride . In most cases I ride very well . There have been glaring exceptions . I have owned or ridden a wide variety of motorcycles . I can't wait for the next ride . I find excuses to ride . I build kit to suit conditions and ride in bone dry near freezing temperatures because I can . I can't pass up a disabled motorcycle . I love to point out that my KZ1000 Police was built in Lincoln Nebraska . When asked what motorcycle I'm riding I am as likely to respond with "one with two wheels " as a simple "mine" . If in a group of media led leather clad lemmings I'm the one by myself in the corner laughing quietly but obviously enough that the enthusiast and compulsive obsessive people watcher can't miss me . Squids and the stereotypical credit card biker get ignored only as much as they ignore me . The squid need not be a Hyabussa owner any more than the credit card biker need be a Harley Davidson owner . They have one thing in common . They ride to be seen riding . They deserve and have earned nothing from me . I anticipate the next conversation with a rider wondering if it will be a humanoid or an over priced , self entitled mockery of motorcycling in general . Any reasonable question will be answered reasonably . I have brought many new riders into the community simply by listening . Gaining an understanding of your audience even and especially if it's a solitary hopeful motorcyclist requires the disciplined mind of the objective observer mixed with the experience of a lifetime of all things motorcycle . It's humbling indeed when you feel not just obliged but compelled to give not just the whole truth but the very best truth you can when asked something as innocent as "Why do you wear all the leather" by a 10 year old .

Sorry for the jumble of thought above but you get it as it is . I'll just end with ...

Some ride to be seen
Some ride because they want to
Some ride because they have to

~kop

I may have posted this before. It still is only what I've done. It does not define who I am.
 
for now, computer guy. Unix/Linux for over 20 years. Electronics for NASA and the Army before that.

Used to work on CB's for beer money when I was in high school. Repairs, sometimes mods. No test gear but a voltmeter. Probably shouldn't have done that, but I usually succeeded despite my best efforts.

Now I just buy unloved radios off the net and try to nurse them back to health. Or, rather, I will again once I get all these darn boxes unpacked and get a real bench built.
 
I work for my Dad @ Leviton Mfg . when I was 16 . :whistle: That wasn't panning out so " Semper Fi " , got out I worked @ Brown & Sharpe machinist/tool maker , we know how that worked out ( On Strike ) , Went to General Dynamics , Electric Boat Division , Machinist & worked my way to Engineering , I had an operation , Dr :censored: me up ! Out of work again ! Started working on a Local Dairy Farm & Loved it , Just Like " The Show Green Acres " :LOL: . Stopped that 2 years ago . Now I just play around on my small farm . Been a Harley Guy most of my life Except for a few 750 Honda's I raced , Drag Raced & Tractor pulled for years . What's Next ? Not much ! ;):) Stay Healthy & Safe ! 73 & God Bless ! Leo
 
At 15 started working for cash $ doing tires, oil changes, light mechanics. Was a convenience store clerk. Valet parking dude at a casino.. Worked in the rent-to-own industry for about 10 years.. went on to do collections and taxes in the finance industry before realizing how UNHAPPY I was with desk jobs and directly dealing with the public!! Few years ago decided on a radical switch.. best decision I ever made!! IBEW.
41VdtXGZXsL._AC_SY400_.jpg
 
Well lets see, after I got out of school, had a lot of deadend jobs, until I got my CDL's, worked here for awhile but wasn't making any more so I went out of state looking for work, 1st time ended up in Ga, where I drove a truck for Shaw Industries for a few years, then our son was born and sometime after he was born we moved back here.....

I went to work on a strip mining job where I drove a truck for a contractor who hauled coal up there, did this about 3 years, then got hired on at the strip mine and was still driving a truck, but a big off road rock truck which was a 992, big as a 2 story house, hauling dirt and rock, did this about 10 years, then got laid off, thats when it all went south for us, our home was paid off then, ended up selling all the cb gear I had just to make it....

So, as time went on we went to church and gave my life to the Lord, and as time went on drove a school bus for 5 years, alot of stuff had happened there, they ended up cutting the pay, but thats all in the past, I left there and now work for the Govenment where I still drive a truck but for a contractor, been doing this for the last 2.5 years, the Lord has really watched over us and he knows what you need before u ask for it...but anyways, have a better job and lot less stressful than any of the others I had n the past......this is my story ...
 
No, I’m not a physical labor type guy, plus cow poop stinks. I need an office job or something easy like that.

Sounds like you’re more suited to agriculture.

The rest of the world is stuck with 4 seasons, and you’ll have planting season, fertilizing season, spraying season, harvest season, wet season, dry season, maintenance season and a few more...
 

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    If you know you know. Anyone have Sam's current #? He hasn't been on since Oct 1st. Someone let him know I'm looking.
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