Tone Parsons

I sold my motorcycle yesterday.

We reduced the price and it was immediately snatched up by a guy who had been looking for that exact motorcycle (a Yamaha Royal Star Boulevard).  He took me to his bank and they gave me a certified check on the spot.

When he showed up around 4:15 to pick it up, I walked him through all the things he needs to know (how to check the oil, where the choke was, etc.).  I warned him that the bike is VERY heavy and to watch it on the corners until he got used to the mass.  Of course, he stalled it when he went to leave, and looked very shaky on it as he went down the street.  I hope he didn’t drop it on the way home (as there’s no way you can pick it back up by yourself!!).

It about broke my heart to see it go…. I loved that damn thing, but I can’t ride it anymore and there was no reason to keep it.

After he left, my neighbor came over to congratulate me on selling it.  We started talking about this and that and I told him that I was having someone remove the hedges in my front yard.  The guy who was doing it was in the other neighbors yard doing the same thing for them and was doing an excellent job.  I walked my neighbor over to show him and that’s when we found the landscaper face down in the dirt.

We ran over to him… he didn’t appear to be breathing and I couldn’t find a pulse.  My neighbor helped me roll him over and we started slapping him and yelling at him.  Suddenly, the guy took a deep gasping breath and opened his eyes.  I called 911 while my neighbor helped him sit up.

The guy was shaking and complaining about pain in his arm (oh shit!!).  He also begged me not to call for an ambulance because he didn’t have health insurance.  When the fire department and ambulance showed up, they checked him out and said that he’d live.  He had been working on the neighbors yard since 6:30 am and hadn’t eaten or drank anything since (it was pretty warm out yesterday).  His blood sugar was stupidly low, so my neighbor got him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and I forced him to drink a bunch of water.

Of course, when my wife came home around 4:40…. she saw the fire truck and ambulance in front of our house and about freaked (she thought they were there for me).

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything. Sorry about that, but I’ve been kind of busy (which is nice for a change!!)

Last Friday, my old boss and his boss (aka: Mike and Paul) took me out for dinner. We went to the Bluz at the Bend here in Spokane for prime rib and beer. The prime was amazing… over an inch thick and tender as hell, and they serve good beer there (I had Crystal Bitters… nummy!!). After that, Paul came back to my place for a beer and we sat and talked for a couple of hours.

On Saturday, we went to go see the Spokane Shock kick the Boise Burn’s butt at the arena. I had an extra ticket so I invited Paul along (he’d never been to an arena football game before). Good times were had, and once again, Paul came over to my place for beers after the game. He also told me that he wanted me to go out to work for one last lunch on Tuesday… so I did.

What I didn’t know is that they had booked a conference room for lunch and had it catered. They called in all the people I had worked with when I was the Senior Web Developer there to give me a send off.

*sniff*

I feel loved! 🙂

I did talk to HR while I was there, and they said the same thing that Paul and Mike had already told me: if I’m ever able to come back to work, they’ll take me in a heartbeat.

I’ve been concerned about that, as I wasn’t exactly able to give much notice when I went out on disability. Of course, it wasn’t like it was a surprise to anyone. I’d been fighting it for years, and they had watched me slowly fall to the side. It’s good to know that they still like me.

Other things: On Monday, May 5th, my wife and I celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary. We decided to go in together and just buy one gift for both of us… and it’s a thing of beauty: a Samsung LN46A750 LCD TV.

OMG…. I love this thing!!! It runs at 120Hz and has a 4ms refresh rate! Sadly, it’s native resolution is higher than Comcast provides, but it still looks amazing! It has 4 HDMI 1.3, a ton of RCA inputs, and even an ethernet port, so I can hook it to the network and pull images and MP3’s off of my pc and play them.

Just wow!

It was regularly $3,199.99 but BestBuy (aka: Those Fuckers) had it on sale for $2,799.99. Of course, I found it for cheaper on the web at OneCall.com for $2,299.99, and made BestBuy match the price (they soooo didn’t want to!). They tried to get me to buy an extended warranty or at least some HDMI cables from them, but I politely said no (I never buy extended warranties, and they wanted $70 for the same HDMI cable I can get for $12.99 online).

I guess the moral of the story on that is: do your research BEFORE you go to the store.

That’s it for now… perhaps next time I’ll do a video blog again.

Just in case anyone is interested, I’ve got a couple of motorcycles for sale:

2004 Suzuki Intruder 1400cc VS1400GLP: 849 miles (yes… that’s all), windshield, highway lights, floor boards, hard mount saddle bags, luggage rack. $7,00 (on craigs list)

2000 Yamaha Royal Star Boulevard 1300cc XVZ1300A: 5,890 miles, windshield, highway lights, floor boards, yoke mount bags, custom grips with stiletto tips, after market pipes (for that rumble that you love), after market high performance jet kit. $8,500 (on craigs list)

And yes… this is breaking my heart, but they gotta go.

Since the first one was fun to do… I thought I’d try again.

Have patience with the quality, as I’m using microsoft movie maker (and it’s crap!).  I’ll look for a better program for video capture.