Random Acts of Kindness

So on Friday I was leaving my office and heading for a meeting on my motorcycle. As I proceeded up Groat Rd. I noticed a fellow on the other side trudging northward with a jerry can in his hands and I realized that he was probably attached to the van I had seen sitting on the side of the road. I realized that this poor soul was heading for the gas station on 111th ave and that it would take him at least an hour to walk up there, get his gas, and walk back to his van.

So I headed up Groat, looped around at the top and came back down. As I got up beside the guy I reached through the guard rail and told him to hand me the jerry can so that I could go get him gas and save him some time. He was quite incredulous but handed me the jerry can and tried to give me some money, I was concerned about getting creamed by a car so I just grabbed the can and told him I'd meet him back at his van.

I went down Groat, looped around, went up and filled up his jerry can (took a whopping $10). Then I proceeded back to his van and gave him the gas. He tried to pay me for it but I wouldn't take the money, it's only $10 and if you're going to help someone out you might as well do it right.

I then took of and arrived about 30 minutes late for my meeting, when people asked my why I was late I told them.

I then put up with a good half hour of teasing for "being a superhero" and being asked where my tights and cape were. Half an hour I was harassed for doing a good deed, half an hour I put up with shit because I helped someone.

Then my boss asked me why I'm the one that these things always seem to happen to.

The answer is that they don't happen to me. Probably 500 people drove past this poor guy, at least half of those would have seen him and probably said "That sucks" out of all those people only one of us said "That sucks, and I can do something about it."

So I did.

Now I do this sort of stuff all the time, mostly because people have helped me every time I've needed it so the least I can do is tithe that favour back to the universe.

The fellow I rescued was absolutely incredulous that someone would do that for another person for no other reason than to help out. In exchange I simply told him to pay it forward and help someone else who needed it whenever that opportunity presented itself. . . and I think he will.

The part of this that made me really sad was in telling this story when people would say "But it's not random acts of kindness week. . ."

Why the hell does it have to be a designated week? When did we get to the point that helping another person simply because you can is no longer sufficient reason?

I for one will continue to help those that I can, I will continue to change flat tires, fill jerry cans, give people a ride, sit on the side of the highway with people who are a little afraid to be there alone, dial 911, perform first aid, perform CPR, put chains back on bikes, and anything else that I can do to help. I can't always stop, I can't always help, but when I can I will and I challenge you to do the same dear reader. I challenge you to look at someone who's found themselves in a rough patch and ask what you can do to improve it for them.

Till next we meet. . .

Riders on the Storm Part Deux

So I'm not sure what the best part of riding in a storm is. Is it the fact that you get to quote Tennyson's Charge of the Light Brigade at high volume. Or that you get to blast Wagner's Flight of the Valkyrie over your headphones at high volume. . .

I'm also not sure what the worst part of riding in a hail storm is. Is it the fact that you get smacked in the face by stinging chunks of ice at traveling 80 Kilometers per hour. Or that they turn into little icy ball bearings once they hit the ground. . .

Your choice.

Till next we meet. . .

Riders on the Storm

So today on my way home form work I got caught in a monsoon. Now of coures that wouldn't mean anything to most people but I was on my motorcycle. I was smart enough to put on my leather jacket and leather chaps before leaving work but of course I was still pretty wet when I got home, particularely with the open face helmet on.

I was rained on, hailed on (that hurts) and rode through water so deep I had to put my feet up on my highway pegs to avoid getting them wet. There was thunder and lightning and drivers with poor traction and visibility who seemed more anxious than ever to score themselves a motorbike.

And I loved every second of it.

I was singing, sometimes I just howled, laughed, smiled.

I don't know what it was, perhaps in the middle of so much misery it was that feeling of being alive, I don't know. What I do know is that all those people sitting in their cars looking miserable had no idea what they were missing. . . You can keep your cage, I prefer my world thank you.

Till next we meet. . .

All Good Things

It's going to be that time soon.

My mother has been fighting her battle with cancer for two years now and it's going to be over soon I fear. While I don't know when exactly, or how I have a feeling that it's going to be before the end of June.

It's been a long and hard fought battle and she's fought it with her upper lip as stiff as her British accent would lead us to expect it would be. Throughout it all she's fought with strength, grace, and determination but shortly it's to end.

My mother took a turn for the worse a few weeks ago and has been getting weaker and more confused on daily basis now and I really do think that she won't live to see another July.

Please if you're reading this don't rush over to the phone to call or the car to visit. We're frankly swamped and while we appreciate your well-wishes we don't have a lot of time or energy to dedicate to you at this stage. Feel free to call myself or Craig on our Cell phones if you need to get a hold of someone and we'll help you out as best we can.

I did want to take this chance to thank everyone for your help and support over the last two years. Those of you who have really been there for us know who you are and have made a tremendous difference, please realize that we appreciate it. We might not always have said it but we really do.

I also want to thank everyone who's going to help us in this upcoming time, I doubt I'll remember to thank you at the time but please know that even if I don't say it out loud you have my gratitude.

Till next we meet. . .

Lifelong Learning

So I just got out of another day in a course that I'm taking through work. The course is a 28 hour course in Project Management 101 and it's amazingly intense. While people may think they understand how to run a project (I thought so) I have to say that if you've never taken a course like this you have no idea regardless of how much experience you have.

On that note I think that project management might be something that I'd like to get into in the future so I'm going to start working toward my credentials. I need to have 35 hours of classroom time (This course gives me 28) then I need to spend 4,500 hours managing various aspects of projects. I figure that since I'm doing projects all the time at work all I'll really need to do is start tracking them and possibly volunteering for some bigger ones and I'll be laughing. In another year or two I should be ready to write the exam and then we can see where things go.

While it may not be the career that I'm after it's fairly lucrative and since I'm going to be doing the work anyway I might as well figure out how to double dip.

Till next we meet. . .

That was close

So yesterday someone tried to kill me. I don't think he intended to but that wouldn't have made me any less dead had he succeeded. I was riding on my motorcycle when a moron cut into my lane doing about 30 less than the traffic and hit his brakes, fortunately I managed to not stuff myself up his tailpipe but it was a close thing.

I've always wondered when people talk about situations like that and say "My life flashed before my eyes" because in all the times I've nearly died I've never had that happen. Rather I find that I'm too focused on fighting my hardest to worry about little things like the rest of my life. If anything I find the rest of time and space vanishes, leaving just this little pocket of here and now which is all that matters.

It makes me wonder how many people find themselves going into that long night when they could otherwise have avoided it. How many people see the grim reaper coming and find themselves frozen with fear, unable to do anything but await what they feel is the inevitable?

It also makes me wonder how many of us out there see the grim reaper coming and find ourselves appearing frozen with fear, so as to trick him into a false sense of security so we can kick him in the balls and run like hell?

Till next we meet. . .

And Miles To Go Before I Sleep. . .

It's been a busy week.

Wednesday I was bouncing, some idiot made me throw him out. It probably wouldn't have been that bad for him since I usually try and talk people out the door but he got violent, first with another customer, then with me. The long and the short of it is that I threw him out by his head. . . fortunately he wasn't hurt as that's never my intention.

Friday I did the Labyrinth walk at the Centre and then went and watched a movie with A. We rented Man of the Year and it was really quite enjoyable.

Saturday was riding on the bike, ended up randomly at South Cooking Lake. Saw a couple of other VTX's on the way and on Whyte.

Today A., my brother and I headed out to Red Deer after church. Basically we rode down, had some food, rode back. It was a great chance to highway test a bunch of the new equipment on my bike.

Seat = Needs more breakin time but it's still head and shoulders above the stock seat. The driver's backrest is a Godsend.

Kuryakyn Iso grips = Great, really cut down on the vibration and increase comfort overall. The throttleboss is a great piece of equipment to add to your Kury grips.

Highway Pegs = useful but I need to buy the relocators to move them forward a couple of inches. I'm too compacted with them where they are.

Throttle Lock = this is possibly the best invention in the history of motorcycling. It prevents my right wrist from locking up and makes riding far more enjoyable.

Well that's it for now folks.

Till next we meet. . .