True your spokes.

Is this the ending of another era?  Not until, I come home.  Not until I take flight, and everyone finds me alive on the west coast.  The east coast has been interesting to say the least.  Most of it trying, and most of it bullshit, and most of it I can't wait to just turn my back on and leave, knowing and hoping that I learned the lessons I was meant to have learned.  Never be that person who gets out of one relationship and doesn't bother to reflect on their experience, to grow, nor change, nor better themselves.  That person is only out to do more harm to themselves and the relationships that they end up destroying as a result of passing along a damaged soul to the innocent folks just looking for love and honesty.  Because if one can't be honest with themselves, how can one be honest with others?  Taking emotional damage and baggage into a new relationship, is like putting a new tire on a fucked up rim.  But if you are wise, then you take the time and due diligence to true the spokes before you put the new tire on, that way you are getting the most mileage out of the new tire and doing yourself the good of a decent go at a new run.  Without bothering to true the kinks and wobbles and hops out of that old damaged rim, then you haven't learned the lessons you were meant to learn.  And you're going to have a shitty run at a new opportunity for a clean start, and a nice fresh ride.  True your spokes.  True your soul.  Listen to your soul.  Your soul needs food, it needs honesty, and it needs time.  Time to heal and reflect.  You owe it to yourself, and to others, to give everyone your best self.  True your spokes.

The gun

Do not be afraid of guns. Most folks who I know are deathly afraid of guns, just don't know how to use one, operate one, handle one, have never seen one in person, and that makes them incapable of wrapping their brain fully around the issue. And I've seen some very skilled, responsible, and disciplined folks handle guns so safely and proficiently, that you'd be proud to go shooting with them any day. So as anything powerful requires skill and discipline, and restraint, so to must we exercise the same diligence of mind with anything that we utilize in society with such wielding strength. For instance, there are some really bad drivers on our streets. Cars are extremely dangerous, and all it takes is a small written test, and a small dinky and slowly demonstrated driving test, and badda bing badda boom, they're behind the wheel on their own, of a large thousand pound vehicle driving as fast as they want. Yet we trust these folks. It comes down to "respect" for the thing which you know possesses unrestrained power. You become the restraint. And "skill" when you must wield and build on the fundamental skills that you started with, in order to become a proficient driver. And the rest of us have "trust" to get out there on the roadways with all these drivers that we have no idea what kind of driver they are, but we get in our lanes, and use our signals, and learn how to co-habitate on the roadways, through prescribed guidelines. Now how hard was that? Do not fear the gun.

Dice Party Friday night Brooklyn Invitational

So a remarkable thing happened:  I went out tonight in Brooklyn for the Dice Party, and I ended up having a remarkably good time.  I ran into guys and gals that I had no idea I was gonna see.  We had beers, shared smiles and laughs and company. I shook my shoulders and fingers to the music.  And got in a very small mosh pit. I also got to re-meet a very special icon, someone I met when I was a dorky little college student in SF.  George had a small motorcycle shop two blocks away from my house.  And I was shy and so wishing I had a bike.  And he was so nice and cool.  Anyway.  Got to share that memory with him tonight.  Fun times, night one, Brooklyn Invitational. Tomorrow is gonna be the main daytime gathering and show so stay tuned.  Going to bed with a little beer on the breath and a warm heart.

Tandy Leather

Today I rode 130 miles north to Tandy Leather in Connecticut.  Now 130 miles on the east coast/New York wise, is about 4 hours.  The entire thing is road work, and traffic jams, narrow lanes, and well, yeah 4 hours.  I arrived at the supposed location of the Tandy Leather store at approximately 3pm, after some detours through towns and makeshift routes.  Google Maps chimed in "destination is on your left."  Guess what I saw, to my chagrin...an empty store.  Famished, sunburnt, and thinking "of course it's not there"  I pulled over to cool my jets and call the number of the store, cause I figured they'd just re-located somewhere in town.  Someone answers I put the phone up to my helmet to try to get an ear on their location.   They moved to a place called Berlin, 15 miles south, down another highway, but still on the way home.   And what's 15 miles when you've just come 130.  I was Stoked it wasn't a complete waste of an overshot.  Although I could have done without all that 84 road work/traffic.

So there I was, hungry, and keeping their doors open, drooling all over the tools and rolling in the beds of fine leather.  The gal helping me find all the things I need was a real help, she gave me all sorts of advice and showed me all sorts of tools that I'd need after explaining in amateur depth what my projects were to consist of.  So, after trolling the aisles and throwing everything in my basket, I'd racked up a good pile of goods/necessities up at the register.  Basically I was like, "ring it all up, and I'll take the stuff off that I really don't need according to how affordable it all is and how much I can strap to the bike.   The first tally was up in the 190's, so I took a couple things off, talking briefly about each item, to each item, about how I really didn't need it.  Then we were down to 170's, then 160's then 150's and then when it got down to the 140's and I couldn't really do without anything I definitely needed, I was like, "let's do it."

I boxed and double bagged, and then shook that woman's hand.  Then I proceeded to cleverly strap everything: large roll of leather to the back of the sissy bar, standing out proudly far above my head, much the way a flag pole would. The pack of holster patters went delicately in a backpack, and the 'how to carve leather' book and box of tools, rode right behind me strapped to the passenger seat.  Then I went next door for Chinese food, at the kind of place that just had bare tables, and no service.  Not the way I expected Chinese in Connecticut to be.  But I was hungry, and the guys at the table next to me, owned the white SUV outside with the stenciled letters that read loudly across the back window "White Knight."

I made it out of there safely.  And me and my new trade tools, rode home a new route through the ups and downs of what Connecticut probably calls mountains.  It was the 15 south.  Decent separated two lanes up, two lanes down.  And the flow of traffic was delightful.  I knew I was making good time.  I left at 6:30 and I got home at 10. So I'd say I made better time for sure getting home.  Navigating the city is always going to be a labor of time/traffic/and wondering why people/I, deal with this shit.

Ok, It's late, I've got a ripping headache, and neighborhood kids are underaged drinking outside.  I'm going to bed.  Stay tuned for photos of my leather goods, and videos of my trip back from Connecticut.  I took one video. haha

Do the Hokey Pokey.

This is the European report on preventing violence and knife crime.  In the U.S.  this title would read "U.S. report on preventing violence and gun crime."  So basically that's what Im saying.  It doesn't matter really what tool you take away,  there will be a transfer of attention onto another means as soon as you do.

Same shit, different weapon.  Same shit, different island.  Same shit, different shitty people.   Basically, people will find lots of ways to kill and injure each other.  We are a demented people.  Take guns away, we'll use knives.  Take knives away, we'll use forks.  Take forks away, we'll use our hands...hey, hands are used to wield all of these things.  Hands are the real enemy.  Outlaw hands!  Wait that's ridiculous, hands can't be to blame.  What controls the hands?  The messages that the brain sends it...Outlaw Brains!  Or better yet, how about we raise healthy and responsible brains, that will use their hands for good rather than harm.  Well that's impossible to do these days because we've already become such a shit race of violent humans.  Everyday we are surrounded by bad examples of humanity, and bad influences.  It takes quadruple the effort to reverse the years of damaging humanity.  It takes calling people out on their shit when you see it.  Holding folks accountable, when nobody probably ever held them accountable for anything in their entire life.  When nobody probably bothered to teach them to challenge and hold themselves to a higher standard in the face of adversity, and bad peer advisory.   Those of us who hold ethical high ground, are usually passive or quiet, going about our day peacefully, trying to be and worry about ourselves only, being model citizens.  But we need to be the voices that the bad peers need to hear.  It takes vigilance.  But like bad habits are born out of repetition, good habits must be as repetitive and demanding if we are ever going to change.  Telling some one to pick up their litter and throw it away.. Telling someone at the grocery to push their cart to the cart holder.  Not just leave it in the empty parking stall.  Calling people out on their shit!  These kind of folks never developed that heightened state of awareness and cognitive ability, so now they're shitty adults lacking the discipline and leadership abilities, that a little positive peering and encouragement and the correct amount of discipline in their formative youths could have instilled.

New necklaces up for sale.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/243756303/letther-necklace-letters-leather

These are leather letters that I stamp and cut and then make whatever name you want made put on a really great stock of flattened cable chain.

Strange Days 2015

Guess who went to Strange Days this year!!!!  Me!  As a first timer, I had no idea what to expect other than the flier said it was a hippie biker thing.  I was all down with the description.  I thought, hell, even thought David Alan Coe is playing at Lowbrow Getdown, I'd still kinda promised my lady that we would do some biker shit that weekend, and by the time Friday was rolling around, I knew we wouldn't make the Friday night show all the way out in Ohio for Davids set, also my lady on the back of my shady splitting tire for 400 miles?  I didn't think so.  So instead I figured we'd shoot for a close campout.  It worked out perfectly because Friday night my lady and I attended her friends birthday party, and then Saturday morning we had a nice easy take off for the Strange Days thing.  Now I'm not used to the East Coast New Yorker/New Jersey crowd yet, but it was sure a lot of fun, and the folks were really nice.  We rode about 60+ miles from Brooklyn to the property in Vernon NJ.  We had excellent weather.  Sunny, and just perfect.  I really love the countryside rides around these northern eastern woods:  Peaceful, green, isolation.  With my lady on the back we sunk into the center of each New Jersey country curve winding up to the property.   We passed a couple small towns on the way in, stopped for gas, a handle of whiskey for the night, and to use a bathroom.  Then there it was.  Off to the right, and approaching I could see the gathering of cars, campers, and bikes atop this open hilltop.  Then up the gravely broken half-dirt half paved road.  We pulled right up to the booth, where when they saw me they came out with wrist bands, and said "20$ for you and Bitches on the back, are free."  I love that!!!  I was like "Bitches on the back!  hahaha"    So yea that ruled.  Then we rolled in and around the fire pit, and found a nice spot on the lawn about 50 yards from the stage.  A ripping band was jamming some psychedelic rock, and it was such the vibe I thought it was gonna have.