We move into our new house tomorrow. I updated my social networking sites with the news, but figured I would put something up on my home page to commemorate the occasion.

Barts luck eh? Last minute the VA came through for us. We closed on the house late last week, which is awesome. The sellers are most likely putting the big screen up in their new house in preparation of the superbowl. It’s always about them it seems.

My big question now is how long can I postpone tearing down nancy for the move? I can disassemble the rats nest of wires and networking gear today, but nancy holds so much my services now. Not just this page, but my email and the home phone line as well. To make matters a little bit worse we found out that because the sellers took so damn long to call Verizon about disconnecting the DSL line in the house, we wont be able to get online in the new place for at least a week. Kind of them wasn’t it?

Packing has been largely handled by the wonderful wife. We have gotten our sleep schedule a bit mixed up this weekend. I took a “nap” earlier tonight, and now is her turn. We never seem to be sleeping at the same time this weekend. Makes things a bit interesting because we have had to be quiet packing the house for fear of waking the other. Oh well.

I have torn apart my studio, and taken down all the pictures on the wall. This place feels even less like home then before. So empty and lacking in things that make it ours. This place was awesome for a while. Our neighbors were awesome, kept to them selfs and were quiet. Not no more though! The ones on our north wall are fucking obnoxious. Loud doesn’t seem to do justice to these people. Disruptive and inconsiderate. It is mostly the female inhabitant though. She seems to define the term “crazy bitch.” A woman that could have used some discipline, a few more hugs from her father, and better education, not to mention a few more years of experience in the real world to temper her attitude.

To change subjects a bit, I took a ride on friday. I picked up some textile riding pants and it was a perfect day to test them out. High 40s, low 50s, with a few clouds that opened small showers on me. The pants kept me dry and warm the entire time. Delightful experience after almost literally freezing my balls off in jeans previously. The gloves I picked up didn’t fare as well. The area behind the knuckle protection didn’t feel bad when I tried them out in the store, but after an hour just felt like sand paper against my skin.

Grace of course performed fantastic. The road construction on my way north to create a series of back-to-back round abouts left a little bit of loose gravel on the road that made the front end take a tiny step to the side while I was leaned over. Nothing to outstanding, but yet again I am thankful I learned how to operate a two wheel vehicle on dirt. Not even a skipped beat of rhythm, but something that looking back could have been an easy low side.

Perhaps all the times I wrecked on the dirt has given me a more easy going attitude about falling off a bike in general? It isn’t that big of a deal to me. I am not saying I go screaming down the freeway with my testicles on fire thinking I am invincible, but I don’t get nervous around town either.

I am still getting used to the very different way you need to ride a super sport. Grace is compact, nimble, and aggressive like a firecracker when you crack open the can of bees with your right wrist. Everything I ever road before had wide and tall bars, a tall seat, no fairings, made 30hp at most, and didn’t mind being tossed on its side in the front lawn. Dirt and Adventure bikes you ride just about the opposite way as a super sport. You lean the bike away from your body on the dirt, so you can “carve” the trail under you with the bike. You stand on the pegs and let your arms and legs work the bike under you. Your focal distance is very often just a yard or two in front of your tire. Racing lines don’t matter a lick, but where you put your tires in the next second could mean the difference between an awesome turn and picking your bike out of a creek. Grace likes a wholly different approach. You lean your upper body off and pull her down with you into the turn. You hunker down and lock into the tank with your knees. You look all the way through the turn and trace a line with your eyes the whole way of where you want your tires to go. Not “where is my tire going to be in two feet,” but “where do I want my tires to be 100 feet or more.?” It is just so different. To ride a Huskvarna fast, the bike needs to “trust” the rider to put it where it needs to go through muscle, experience, and in a lot of cases luck. In contrast, the rider trusts the Daytona to go where they need though smooth control inputs, rider weight distribution, and decisiveness in line choice.

The dirt rider says: “I am going up that mountain, and you are going to help me get there” to his bike. The conversation is different with a Super Sport. The Daytona says: “You can take me around that corner as fast as you want, all you gotta do is ask nice and trust me when I tell you you’re doing it wrong.”