Angela Law

Today was pretty busy for a Sunday. Before I get into that, I need to start with last weekend. Brian and I were going to go for a ride last Saturday when my bike stalled and wouldn’t start again. This has been happening since I got it, so we decided to take the carburetor apart to see if there were any problems with it. I’ll bet you didn’t know we were mechanics! Well, we weren’t until we bought this bike…Anyway, there was some gunk in it, but everything inside seemed to be in working order. So, we cleaned it up and put it back together. We had to order a new gasket for it so we couldn’t put it back on the bike until this weekend. Brian did that yesterday, but we didn’t have time to finish the job because we had to go to John’s house for supper. So, we set our alarms for early this morning and got it put back together. Surprisingly, the bike still runs! Time will tell if there are still issues with it, though. It did seem to be running better for Brian when he tried it out.

The reason we got up early today is that Brian went to a motorcycle rally in Morgantown, WV this morning. One of the other cub scout dads is a “biker” and invited Brian to go with him and his family today. He invited Jake and I as well, but we had other plans so we were unable to go. Brian had a great time. The only downside was hitting a thunderstorm on the way home this evening.

While Brian was at the motorcycle event, Jake and I went to visit my parents. They were away much of last month on a trip out west and we hadn’t seen them in about a month so we went over there for a visit today. My mom made a yummy lunch and we hung out for a bit. Then we went to see my cousin Chris’s new house. Her husband pretty much built it himself over the course of the past year. It was very nice. And very big.

On our way home from my parent’s, we had to pick up some groceries. Once we got home and got everything situated, I kicked back on the couch for 30 minutes and took a little snooze. After that, I started working on my “homework” for my motorcycle safety class. In the midst of that, Brian got home. After talking to him, I finished my homework and we met downstairs to work out. Our neighbors are having a fire this evening and we’re all invited, so it’s time for me to head over there as I will be the last one from our household to arrive.

I completed my 2nd riding class this evening. That’s it for the week. We practiced the dreaded figure 8 tonight. Some people totally couldn’t do it, others did well. I managed to do one properly. I’m sure that’ll be the first and last time for that. It’ll be on the test next Thursday, so hopefully I won’t screw it up too much then. I’m glad to be half done with the class. I’ll be even happier next week when I’m totally done with it.

I started my motorcycle safety course last night. The class runs for two weeks. On Monday nights, there is a classroom class from 6-8:45 and on Tuesdays and Thursdays, the class is taught on motorcycles, from 6-8:30. Last night’s class wasn’t particularly illuminating–I think this is because I’ve been reading about motorcycle safety ever since Brian started riding a few years ago. This is not a bad thing, though. And since I’ve been riding since last month, this evening’s course was a little slow (the course assumes you’ve never ridden a motorcycle before). By the end of the evening, we did make it into 2nd gear, though. Once tonight’s class was over, I realized I was exhausted–it makes me glad I didn’t sign up for the weekend riding course. While there are only 2 riding classes for that, they are 5 hours a piece!

Anyway, there are definitely some things I need to keep in mind while I’m riding so that I don’t develop any bad habits. The riding portion of the class will help me with that. I’m looking forward to having an evening off tomorrow, if only to rest. I even took a half day off work today so that I wouldn’t get stressed out about my lack of “evening time” this week. I guess I should have spent some of those hours taking a nap.