A Day in the Life...

So I've had a fairly productive day in the sense that I got a few things done without being stressed out. You also have to discount the fact that I didn't really get anything accomplished until after about 10:30am. I am on vacation, after all!!

But I got some air in my tires and made it up to the mall. Even for a Wed. after noon it was quite a scene. MILFs were abundant with strollers and little kiddies everywhere (don't these people work?). Some of the kiddies were on leashes, and it looks like they needed to be. Come to think of it....My folks said they put ME on a leash.

The strollers, though, were hard to navigate around. These things have gotten huge! Some of them had more cargo space than my truck and that was for just ONE kid. I'm not kidding, I saw some of them that were easily three feet long with sleeping quarters. The double-strollers were also quite massive and it was entertaining watching the women try to man-handle these things while simultaneously juggling shopping bags and the happy meal from sonic.

At one point, I was walking through the food court and got trapped / surrounded by several of the behemoths. Oddly enough, it was well choreographed and I had faint memories of watching a water ballet on the Olympics.

But I made it through the food court only to be called out to by a cute young girl at a kiosk selling iPod accessories.
her: "Hi! Do you have an iPod?"

me: "yes, I do."

her: "which one?"

me: "ummm....the 30-gig classic." At this point I got the deer in the headlights look. This model is only a year old, but I could tell she had no clue what I was talking about.

her: "so, huh, have you seen these converters that let you listen to them in your car?"

me: "yeah, but I don't listen to my iPod in the car very much" Mind you, I am standing there in full riding gear holding a motorcycle helmet. I am still getting the deer in the headlights look and I almost thought to ask her "Which one is bigger, an elephant....or the moon?"

fortunately, she let me out of this one with only a warning....
her: "ummm....ok, have a nice day."

At which point I made a bee-line to the gift giving tree. This is similar to the Angel tree, but it's sponsored by Big Brothers and Big Sisters. It's interesting that over the years it has changed from:
basketballs, skates, and remote controlled cars

to:

games for my [insert game system here]
MP3 player
CD player
etc.

Still, though, the ones that really get to me are the ones where the kids are just asking for clothes. If a 14-year-old boy is asking for clothes that's really sad.

So I loaded up on gift cards to clothing stores and an AMC movie pass good for a few rounds at the movies and dropped it all off. That made me feel a little bit better, but there is still the Toys for Tots Run coming up. As usual, I'm having problems finding which one is the right Toys for Tots Run.

But then it was off to find a tank protector only to find out another motorcycle dealer has moved or gone out of business. You would think that with the increasing popularity of motorcycles it would be easier to find dealers, not harder. But here in S. Arlington you are pretty much fooked unless you want to go to D&S Kawasaki, and I hate those guys.

So I took the bike and flogged it down 157 through the twisties. I think, for once, I really didn't speed too much.....as long as you don't count doubling the posted warnings for the corners, but I don't think that is actually speeding. Only once did I look down and realize I was exiting a corner at over 70mph and the posted speed limit for that stretch was somewhere around 50mph.

Aside from the wind, the weather was great. One layer of thermals on my legs, a long sleeve shirt and my jacket (no winter liner). It was cool, but never cold and for some reason it was just very peaceful to be on the bike letting the miles click off on the odometer.