"The clock of life is wound but once, and no man has the power to tell when the hand will stop, at late or early hour. Now is the only time you own, love, love, work with a will. Place no faith in tomorrow; The clock may then be still."

Steven "Cygnus" Hempler

Rest in peace my friend......

11.04.10

November already. The time is flying. I need more of it.

uh, September...visited Grandma and went to the Rib Cook off in Sparks. Much better this year. I barely even remember anythign I did in September now so lets just move on! LOL

October was stupid busy. Mega Army time. Went out to Fort Sill for some training, then over to San Antonio for some more. Actually I'm still in Texas writing this.

A lot going on. So much I can't keep it straight.

Thunderhill in August...

Lemme just start with the two days prior to the track......

Saturday, run all my errands, end up rushing because of my mom's never ending bubble gut, then head up to Kev's. I got home just before he did, unloaded the car, then crashed on the bed with Cody. I had asked Kevin if we could go to a nice dinner, so he made us a reservation for 8pm. We got ready and headed out. Kevin took me to Ruth's Chris Steak House...way more nice than I was expecting. It was really nice. Of course everything we ate was amazing!! Too bad I didn't get a picture of us looking all snazzy.

After dinner we went home, rested for a minute, changed, and then went on a quick night ride around Roseville. The weather was perfect. I asked Kev to take me through Downtown. I was so happy to see real houses! Previous, all I had seen of Roseville was track housing and mini-malls. Now here was the heart of the city. I loved it.


The next morning, Sunday, we had decided to go for a 2-up ride to one of Kevin's favorite roads, Wentworth. First, we stopped for breakfast at Brookfields. The food was great and the service excellent. Now fully awake and tummies full, we headed out. I have to say, when we first got in the hills, I was a little nervous riding on back. But as we trekked along, I had total confidence in Kevin's riding abilities and got comfortable being on back so I could enjoy the ride and the beautiful scenery. We made a stop in Auburn for drinks and then Stumpy Meadow Lake for the gorgeous view before making it to Wentworth. I can see why Kev likes it so much. Very smooth. I was wearing a GoPro helmet cam the whole time, so we got some nice footage, and here's a little clip Kevin made from it:


After the ride we detoured in route so we could go across Foresthill Bridge, the tallest bridge in California, then to Foster's for an awesome chocolate cone! It was so hot by the time we got to Foster's...the ice cream was nice, but goal now was to get home, out of our gear and into the shower!! And that's exactly what happened. Later we got ready for the next day, I went to bed and Kev stayed up all night working on a video.


Finally, it was track time! We got to the track at around 0730-ish. It was a light showing for the day, so the format was changed to 2 group, 30 minute sessions. I was SO excited to get out on the track. After my last lap at T-Hill, where I learned that when you try with all you got, being on track gets a whole lot more awesome. So I was ready to go all out, all day.

First session is always sighting laps, but since we had 30 minute sessions, after 15 minutes we were cut loose to go hot. Some one crashed at the top of 5, so never really got up to speed during that session. Second session was great. My goal for the day was working on shifting and braking. I had previously cruised the track in 3rd gear, now I was going to be getting up in gears, up in RPM's which means way up in speed! Bestest feeling, making passes on the track. Who would have though the day would come when I would ever be faster than any one else, especially on the track??!! I even passed in a few turns! I didn't know it, but Lisa Kinberger was riding behind me the whole time. I had worked with her a little bit at the July track day, and she was pitted next to me this time out. She told me I was looking good, big improvement from the last track day, but that I was "hooking" some of my turns. Overall, she said that I was going through the natural progression of riding, which was really good to hear. Good to know my efforts are leading me in the right direction.

Alright......so now we are up to the 3rd session, 1130, last session before lunch break. I'm feeling good. Cody wants to do some laps with me, so out we go. I think I was in lead position to start, then next lap Cody came around front. He was showing me the right lines to be taking, and pointing out to me my "turn" markers. This is where that "hooking" comes in. When I can follow, I can hit the marks, apex the turn, and get good speed throughout the track. When I'm on my own, I get retarded and chop everything up. Practice, Practice, Practice, and one day I'll get it right, and then keep getting it right, until its just natural. Third lap or fourth lap, not sure, I'm back in front and feeling like a rock star cranking up my speed, making passes, zooming from turn to turn thinking, yeah baby, I got it. Then there was turn 8. I was approaching too fast, too hot, no confidence and blew that mother. I've yet to crash to date, and now here I was going 100+ off track, up the hill scared to death! Thank God the GoPro camera mounted on my tank couldn't pick up my in helmet audio. It was a wild ride. I got a clip of the excursion that Kevin edited:






I'm just gonna end the weekend there. Because everything up to that point was perfection.

Ever get the feeling some one is watching you?

A few from T-Hill in July

July 2010

See how lazy I'm getting??!! Can't even write on the specifics anymore, just gets lumped into a monthly summary.

July....was crazy. Completely broke me down, kicked me in the head and then pooped on my shoe lol. Right from the first day, should have just found a basement to hide in.

The 4th, bungee ups and downs. It was Little Man's first. Alan had blocked off the parking lot and the gun club, which put us about 100 yards away from the fireworks launch site. It was awesome having the fireworks blasting right over our heads, and so amazingly close you swear you're gonna get burned. Well Little Man loved it. I was surprised how well he did. Wasn't scared at all from the noise. He was even giggling at the end when they do the grand finally.

Skipping ahead to the middle of the month, headed up to Thunderhill on the 17th for Z2's trackday weekend. I didn't ride on Saturday, just schmoozed and help sell some raffle tickets. Sunday, it was track time. I love Thunderhill. LOVE! LOVE! LOVE! It was a bagillion degrees out, and I reached new levels of disgustingly sweaty and probably smelly, but I had a great time getting there. Kev had me hooked up with a GoPro for every session. Can't wait to see the footage and of course the bad ass video he makes for me.

A few days later I got my haircut, I've been needing it soooo badly. Felt great to have an actual style again. And form there everything went to pure shit. Probably some of the hardest times I've had in a real long time. Got some distraction spending the day at Miss Julia's 3rd birthday party on the 24th and then that evening having a garlic extravaganza since we missed the Garlic Festival.

The last week, bad, bad, bad. I think I slept maybe 4 hours in 3 days. Everything hurt.

The very last day of July, I ran some errands and then headed up to Infineon for the AFM races to meet up with Kevin. Felt like strangers. I don't know what changed in his head, but nothings changed in mine. I don't know if anything will ever be as it used to. Seems like the good times are getting buried under the bad. Day to day there are such extremes. I really am at a loss as to what to do. I see our future, not so sure that he does anymore. In a few months I'll be gone.

Its the morning of August 11th that I am typing this. The day I've been so excited for is about to come. I guess the reality of making that day happen was too much to deal with. Broke my heart in Fernley, and now I just try to not make it such a big deal, but it really was. Oh well now I guess. I thought next year would be a sure thing, but I can't even have that. Maybe that day will never be mine.

I'm grateful that July is over. I'm not sure I could have survived another day. August has been good to me so far. It's been crazy busy, but good. Coming up I may not be getting the weekend I wanted, but I expect it will still be a memorable weekend.