House Reno

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I just “GC’d a job” — meaning, I served as a general contractor to manage the renovation of a small house in the neighborhood near where I own several other houses that I rent to community heroes. I didn’t have the time to do all of the renovations myself, but I did do some of the required work myself, like replacing the house’s entire electrical system.

It has been fun (and tiring) for the past two months to turn a house that was rather beat-up, drab, and dull and turn it into a nice-looking, updated home. The house had “good bones” — no water or termite damage, cracks in the foundation, or other evidence of substantial problems. What it needed was tender loving care.
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Blew Up The Computer

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Darn it! My power supply to my main computer that I use for work and maintaining my website crapped out the other day. I bought a new one, and installed it. When I powered it on, I heard a crackle then smelled something burning. I quickly turned it off.

I tried various combinations of the connections, to no avail. “No Boot Disk Available.”

Who me? Booted Harleydude? What’s it saying — that I don’t have any boots on my disk? Ya gotta be kidding!

I brought the computer to a technician who calmly advised me, “sorry, you ‘toasted’ your hard drive. It’s gone and cannot be recovered.”

Shit.

And coming from me, that’s strong language!

I had to order a new computer. Fortunately, I kept a pretty current backup of my “old” computer so I certainly hope I’m back up and running soon. Meanwhile, I’m computing from my laptop, as I continue to be one of those guys with an “i-nothing for a no-berry.”

I see that about 30% of the visitors to this blog and my website are coming from smartphones, ipads, and other mobile devices. I think my fiance and I will be among the last to embrace mobile technology. I still prefer a traditional keyboard, wired mouse, and the full features of a “real” computer. I have no need to be mobile with it, and pay extra for data plans and the like (keeping rich companies richer. Not me.)

Life is short: don’t try to be your own technician.

Dynamic Boot Collection

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For a while this month, my boot collection had grown to over 200 pairs — 202 pairs to be precise. Yikes! Not even a boot aficionado like me could really wear 202 pairs of boots. I had been teetering above and below 200 pairs for almost the whole year. But now I’m down to 196 pairs, and that number will decrease in the months to come. What’s been going on?
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Winter Ride Through a Lightshow!

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A generous benefactor paid entry for my motorcycle club (and some other clubs, too) to ride through a light show set up in a state park in the northern part of the county where I live. It was a great display, and nice ride.

The temperature cooperated, but chilled quickly after dark, so I’m glad we had the privilege to have exclusive first entry. I enjoyed the ride, though I’m not that fond of riding in the dark. And, regretfully, some of the other motorcyclists on this ride do not know how to ride in a group. Overall, though, I’m happy — not that often I can say that I took a motorcycle ride in December!

Life is short: ride!

No Ads Here

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I’m sure many of you have been unable to avoid noticing ads on websites, blogs, or even web-based software programs that you use routinely. In my opinion, some of the worst of this advertising push is foisted on YouTube. Some of the videos require viewing at least 10 seconds of an advertisement before you can skip it. Also, Facebook presents a huge number of ads (to those who do not block them with browser extensions like Adblocker). There are hundreds of additional examples.

The purpose of ads, of course, is to generate sales that come from visits to the sponsor’s website. Website and blog owners who host ads receive a share of revenue for allowing the ads on their websites. The more sophisticated the web becomes, the more “directed” the ads will be. Ever notice, for example, that if you visit a website for a boot retailer, that the boot store’s boots show up in ads that stream on other sites you visit, such as blogs? Or suddenly boot ads show up on Facebook? That, to me, is kinda spooky, but not unexpected.

So what is my position on ads on my boots and leather website or this blog or videos on my my YouTube channel?
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Coming Out To My Mom

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As I was growing up, I was among the youngest in a large family. I saw my older brothers and sisters date and then marry a woman or a man, then start a family. I saw all of my cousins — all 179 of them — do that too. Yeah, as I said, I have a LARGE family. We occupy a small country to the east of … well, there I go again, digressing on yet another tangent 🙂

I grew up expecting that I was straight. I never wanted to be anything other than straight. I had no reason to expect that I wasn’t straight. My admiration of boys my age were of respect of those who were much more athletically inclined (like my twin brother) or their boots. Honestly, that was it. I took a liking to boots on guys a long, long time ago. But I had no idea — no fathom of a thought — that I could or would like men in the way that straight guys like women.

But I finally figured it out, and have explained that process on this blog in many posts over years. But the hardest part after coming out to myself was coming out to my mother. See this post from a year ago about how my Mom learned to accept and continue to love me, regardless of my sexual orientation. This post is about how I “came out” to her.
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The House Wins

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An expression in gambling is that “the house wins” when a bettor loses a bet. While my fiance and I do not gamble at casinos, or playing cards, slots, or betting on horses, sporting events, on-line, etc., we do have regular bets with two guys who ultimately always win. And their winnings go to our house.

Huh?
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Kiddie Pop Star Sets a Bad Example

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Here is a photo taken recently in a story about a kiddie pop star who took a spin on a sport bike in Beverly Hills, California. The name of this kid and the report of his ride is here. I choose not to write his name here as I do not want internet searches for his name to wind up here. This blog post is not about him; it’s about stupid choices made by someone who gets a lot of attention in the media.)

Come on, JB, what are those stupid things on your feet?
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