A new beginning?

Some changes coming, aside from the background on here. It has been a while since I've logged in here and posted an update. Hopefully I can find time to do it more often. School is keeping me rather busy. :D Off to study I go... I think...

Sprocket fun!

So the other night I was out on my bike for a while since it was a friend of mine's birthday. Headed out to the baseball game to hang out for a bit and have a beer. The ride out was uneventful, as was the game. The Roadrunners (I think that is what our local team is) actually did rather well and almost came back from a 7-0 deficit, but no dice.
After words my friend JJ wanted to go sing karaoke, I told him I'd join him but I don't do karaoke cuz I can't carry a tune in a bucket, much less in public. Haha!
So... where are you going with this Marcos, you may be asking. Well, it turns out that as I was doing a u-turn and got into some gravel and the back end came out from under me. I was about to lose it and drop the bike, but my right hand turned the throttle and it spun the back tire until it caught and it popped me over the tank and I saved it. I got very lucky and I'm certain I looked like a retard as I was almost falling off of my bike, but I was happy.
Went inside and had some beers and watched JJ do his thing. I had to work the next day and was going to meet a friend at Taco Palenque for some unhealthy food and I had to leave. As I got on the bike and got going down the road, I felt like the bike was sputtering and stalling on me and I couldn't figure out what it was. I stopped at a light and got off and checked. Couldn't see anything and that may have something to do with not having my glasses on. When I got to Taco Palenque I finally started feeling around and for some reason I put my hand on the sprocket and the teeth were all ground down. WTF!? Yeah, I was riding around with a sprocket that had no teeth.

Anyway, I got home and put the bike away. I'm without a functioning bike and really want my damned bikes working. I have to order parts now and wait for my other bike to be ready, hopefully it will be ready today. I will post pictures as soon as I get it out of the shop. It's been almost 2 years. Here's hoping.
Here are some pictures of the sprocket.

So today I decided I was going to go out for a ride and get away for a bit. I have been off since Wednesday without a damn thing to do but it had been way too hot to do anything. I finally had enough and decided to get up early and go for a ride. Not much of a ride as we don't have much as far as scenery goes around here, but it was good nonetheless to get out and go riding. Took off about 9am riding north. Got as far as Premont and stopped for breakfast. Quick bite and back on the road. Went up as far as Alice to get my check and then waited in the scorching heat to cash it as I couldn't go inside because it was closed, drive thru only. Dayum was it hot. Got to riding back and was already running out of fuel when we hit Premont again. Got some fuel, got some water, stuck the helmet in the freezer for a little while (this feels so good when the helmet goes back on and it's as hot as it was today). There was a woman in front of me at the gas pump that was riding a huge cruiser, she asked the regular questions... where you coming from? Where ya headed? Seemed nice enough. Took the picture I posted and sent it in to facebook, because as we were sitting in the store, drinking water, I was checking facebook and one of my friends posted on his status that he wishes he had a motorcycle on days like today so he could go out and ride. I got to thinking, I'm very very lucky to live and lead the life that I do. Sometimes it gets stale, and I find myself in a rut, but when I look at the big picture of life... I haven't got a thing to complain about.

Work... or should I say, place of employment...

So at times I think I make it seem, to whomever is listening to me ramble on or reading what I write (Thank you for the 2 that actually read all this ;) ), that I'm not very appreciative of my job and the fact that I actually have one, not to mention TWO jobs. The thing is this, I work in a field in which most people are not very knowledgeable, unless of course you're in this field, and even then its sometimes a toss up ;) hahaha I have to stress the fact that I'm VERY thankful for my jobs as they not only pay for my bills, but they also provide the extra cash I need to enjoy some of the things I do. Like what you may ask? Hmmm, like motorcycles and the expenses that go with them. Like guitars ( and no, I cannot play yet, but I have found an awesome website to learn from and am getting better by the day ) and all the stuff that goes with them... like the cases, straps, pics, amp, cables, pedals and now my Tele is going to be out of service when I take it completely apart to paint it an awesome color. I enjoy also, buying movies, as I'm a movie freak. And only God knows why I can remember lines from movies after only hearing them once... Rick says I shoulda done that with school hahahaha!!

But I digress. . . the reason I was thinking about work, or what I call my "place of employment" is because I really could not have it better than I do right now in EMS. Granted, I drive about an hour and a half to work on the weekend (Fri/Sat) but lets think about what I really do at work. Yesterday for instance I showed up at work and since I'm the 9am crew, everyone was already there. We took off to breakfast and hung out there messing around for about an hour or so. After that we went and cashed our checks. After that I went downtown to look for some guitar picks. Went to WalMart to get some .45 caliber shells because yes, you guessed it, we were going to the shooting range. Off we go to shoot and spend an hour or so out there going through some drills I remember from when I used to shoot competively (another expense). Did rather well and Elsa (co-worker) posted a pic on facebook and I got to thinking... pssshhh!! Complain!? About WHAT!!!??? I'm here, at WORK!!!! and yes, getting paid for all of this and I haven't done shit!! My boss is aware of all of this, and he is ok with it as long as we work and get the job done when the calls come in, and we do, without fail. The only downside to this is being away from McAllen where my kids are, but they understand ( I hope), at least I know Tash does, even if she doesn't like it.

So what else did I do yesterday while at "work"? Ah yes, I sat and played on the Tele for an hour if not a bit more... I know I know, not long enough, but since I haven't played for extended periods of times, my fingers started to hurt and I woke up today with my forearm and fingers very sore.

So, doing a 48 hour shift, we get our first call about 7pm and then again at 5 am. it is now 2pm and I'm sitting here, in shorts, watchig Tv, surfing the net, bloggin, facebooking, practicing 2 songs I'm working on and going over and over scales on the guitar and am truly grateful for my job.

I'm off to play more guitar ;)

Been a while...

So what to talk about? Hmmm, not much going on over here. What's new? My sister got surgery but she's better now, home and relaxing and luckily my mom is there with her, so she'll be fine. My brother was in town for a day and luckily he got to see Gavin as he hadn't seen him since the day he was born. He is back in SF for now. TXIH is coming up quickly and should be fun.

I need to get all of my motorcycles back on the road. I'm very close to having my Supersport back on the road and then it's getting sold. Hopefully when that one goes, I can look in to getting the Triumph Tiger 1050. I'm anxious to ride that bike and see how it would feel on longer hauls. My Monster needs a new battery, and it should be ready this next week. My dirt bike is getting sold and I'm in the process of maybe getting a new (to me) dirt so I can actually enjoy riding for a while. Have some plans but I'm keeping those to myself for now so I don't jinx em.

Next up is the BMW, that goes in to the shop as soon as the supersport is done. Bryan says he has some ideas and I'm anxious to get started on it. All it needs to actually run right now are the carbs that have already been cleaned and redone and are just waiting to get put back on. The tank is also just waiting to go back on. Bike will need engine oil, fuel and new tires and will be back on the road. I can't wait to get her back out, it's been a good long while since I've ridden that bike, and having decided that if i'm just gonna have 4 bikes sitting in my garage as paper weights, I'm just gonna sell em all instead. So they are either going to be running and getting rotated around to be used, or I'm selling everything and just keeping what I use. The only one I will not sell is the Monster. That is not going anywhere.

Anyway, that is all that is new right now... Not much else that I can think of right now other than the fact that I'm kinda getting hungry again... go figure.