Another Rider Killed!!!

I have my TV on and the News is currently on. There was just a story about a PT Cruiser hitting a motorcycle and killing the driver of the motorcycle. I find this kind of thing most upsetting and unsettling!! Why? Because not only am I the owner and driver/rider of a motorcycle, but I too have been hit by a car. I am one of the very very lucky ones.... I lived to tell the story!! I lived to ride another day!! My trike (3 wheeled motorcycle) was totally destroyed and I received some very serious injuries that will forever plague my life. Yet I am alive and still functioning nearly as normal.

I asked the police and the insurance company, but neither one will tell me if the woman who was driving the car that hit me was charged with anything!! This woman nearly killed me and no one will tell me if she even got in any trouble for it!! Oh, I know the 'fault' of the crash was 'found in my favor', so my insurance premiums don't go up and hers do, but big deal, so she has to pay a little bit more for her insurance, just as she would have to if she damaged another car... which she did. Yes, after hitting me and my trike, she went on to hit a Honda car before she finally got around to stopping about 1/3 of a block further down the street.

Yes, I was one of the lucky ones!! The rider who was killed by the PT Cruiser was not so lucky! Statistics show that 85% of crashes involving motorcycles are cars hitting the motorcycles, and in most cases the car turns left into the lane of the motorcycle. When a car hits a motorcycle, it is never a good outcome!! I would really like to ask a question of some of these 'cage' drivers (cage = car, truck or van). I would like to ask "How does it feel to kill an innocent person? How does it feel to end the life of a man/woman, a father/mother, a son/daughter, a husband/wife?" Oh, I know that these people don't get up in the morning and say to themselves "I think I'll go out and kill a motorcyclist today"... and yet they do due to ignorance, due to being in too big a hurry, due to talking on their cell phone, due to just not paying attention to what they are doing!! Then they say "I didn't see it!" THEN LOOK!!!! My trike and I were not easy to 'not see'. I was wearing a salmon colored, highly visible vest over top of my black leather jacket, the trike is as wide as a car, and I was flying the Canadian Flag on it!! If she couldn't see me than I guess she wouldn't see a bicyclist or a pedestrian either. She nearly killed me... I hope she at least learned something from the experience. I sometimes wonder if she's ever even given a second thought to the woman she hit that day!!!

Human Challenges

Today I was at a Baby Shower that I was invited to about a month or so ago. I found it most boring though am happy I went as many others canceled or just didn't show up. The young mother to be is the younger daughter of a friend of mine, both special people. Another friend of mine is always talking about how 'old' his is and has already been giving out many verbal birthday party invitations, for when he turns 60 in April 2012. While one boy is soon to be born, another one is more or less planning the end of his life when he could be planning many years yet to come. So much of humanity doesn't make much sense to me, I must admit. My mother is now 88 years of age and seems to still have more plans for her life than the friend who is going to turn 60 in just over 6 months. I wish I could better understand sometimes... and yet maybe it's not for me to understand. I just wish I could find a way to help my friend plan for more life and actually look forward to it.

My New Truck

Currently, I drive a 1992 Ford Ranger XLT 4x4... and I love it. I have been trying to remember just what year I bought this truck who I named Vaquero (Spanish for Cowboy), and I don't recall though it could be as much as 10 years ago now. When I got him, he looked great and he has always been a super dependable truck. Now, with over 320,000 kilometers on him, he is rusty so doesn't look so good anymore, yet still he is super dependable and still is a pleasure to drive. I took Vaquero off the road in June, switching the insurance over to my trike. All summer Vaquero sat in my yard waiting while I rode Phoenix. On October 1, I decided it was time... it was cold and rainy, not the type of weather I wanted to ride the trike in, so I changed insurance from Phoenix back to Vaquero (from trike back to truck). I went out and put the key into Vaquero's ignition, turned it and VROOOM, he fired right up, happy to be alive and running again!!! I totally love this truck!!!

As much as I love Vaquero, the time has come to replace him, so taking into consideration how much I've enjoyed our years together and how dependable he has been and still is, I decided to go with another Ford Ranger 4x4. This time it will be a 2008 XLT with power windows and the 4 door extended cab. He has all the features that I wanted... and already he has a name!! I was telling my friends on Facebook about my new truck and posted a photo of this Grabber Orange truck. (Grabber Orange is a rare color... only 618 of them were put out in 2008 and fewer in 2009). My friend Brooks referred to this truck as Orange Julius... so I've named him Julius!!

You may have noticed a theme here... I always have male vehicles, not female, and yes, I name them too.

And here he is.... Julius!!

This is the photo my brother took of Julius when he, Terry, went to test drive the truck for me. You see, I found it on Craigslist and it's in Vancouver. Terry lives in the lower mainland so was able to go check this out for me (a wonderful big brother, don't you think), and said I'm getting a really great truck. Tomorrow I will drive to my bank about 1/2 hour north of here in the small town where I once lived and my Mom still lives. I will get a bank draft to pay for the truck and have a short visit with Mom, if there's time. Then back home where friend Ray will pick me up and give me a ride to the Greyhound Bus depot where I will begin my 9 hour bus ride. Terry will pick me up at the Vancouver bus depot and we'll drive about 45 - 60 minutes to his & Alana's home where I'll spend the night. On Wednesday I will meet with Vic, "the seller" and get all the paper work done, the truck paid for and all that stuff... then off to insure the truck. I will then begin the drive back home. The trip home will take quite a bit less time than the bus ride down will take. Well, unless I stop along the way to visit some of my triker friends, lol.

New Stuff

I have been having some fun spending money this last while. I have bought a newer truck as well as my very first mattress!! Oh, I've had and owned and slept on mattresses before of course, but what I mean is I've never actually purchased a mattress before. Many many years ago I bought myself a queen sized water bed that of course came with a water bag which is a type of mattress, yet that is totally different from what I mean. My parents gave me an antique bed and the mattress that they had on it. They had used this bed for many years themselves and no longer had a use for it so gave it to me along with the matching vanity, stool and highboy dresser. I don't remember for sure when this bedroom suite came to me, but know it was before I had the renovations done to my home and that was in 1997, so you get the picture, it's an old mattress. So now I've actually shopped for and purchased a brand new Obusform, pillow top mattress that is going to be so comfortable and good support for my back!! It is on order and I am so looking forward to when it arrives and I get to sleep my first night on it. The Brick has a special deal on just now where if you buy this particular bed you get a free 51" Samsung Plasma TV!! Oh ya, I know I paid more for the mattress to get the 'free' TV than I would have had to otherwise, but that's okay. I figure I still got a good deal... I figure I paid about $450 for the TV this way, so I'm good with that. I wonder now, though, if all the cords and such come with it for hooking this TV up... things like the dvi to hdmi cables and all that type of thing. I hope all I need is included, and if it's not I guess I'll just have to go buy whatever is needed.

Inspirational

The following is copied from The Divine Awakening on Facebook. I read it and it really touched my life. I have re-read it multiple times, then decided to share it with you. It may touch your life too.

It is human and natural to feel alone at times; to forget that there are people who love us and are thinking of us even when we're far from them or haven't seen them in a long time.

It's vital to also know that there are Spiritual Beings of Light who are always around us, loving and supporting us. These beings give us little reminders every day of how much we are loved, through poignant song lyrics, or a well placed sign on the side of the road; Spirit is always giving us signs if we only have the eyes to see and ears to hear them.

It is not just Spiritual Beings who come into our lives to love us on an energetic level, but also people. It may be difficult for you to completely understand this; but every single person you encounter is sent to you from Heaven. You have never once met a person in your life who wasn't sent especially for you, at exactly the right moment. As Neale Donald Walsh said in one of his Conversations with God, "I have only sent you Angels".

We are all made of the same essence - God - Love - Universal Life. And we all play important roles in each others lives whether we are aware of it or not. Someone may come into your life and give you nothing but pain, and on a conscious level perhaps they choose to hurt you, and yet on a Spiritual level their soul knows that your own soul has asked them to play this role in your life, so that you can learn a valuable lesson, and remember a vital truth about Love.

So the next time someone hurts you, or angers you, or causes you unpleasantness in your life, take a moment to remember that they are as sacred and as Loved as you are - for they are made of the same Essential God-Energy as you. Give thanks for the lesson they've come to teach you, and then get over your feelings of victimization - realize the lesson - and move through it.

You are never alone, you just forget that sometimes. But right now, as you sit there reading these words, your guides and Angels surround you, reaching out to you in energetic warmth and Love. You are the most special being in the Universe to them. And even the lowliest or tyrannical of human beings in the world are loved by their own guides and Angels.

Because again - God has sent us nothing but Angels ♥

Distraction

Have you ever gotten distracted and lost all track of time? Unfortunately it's something that happens to me and even more since I received a brain injury about a year ago. This evening I was going tell you about Pastry/Baker Chef Jobs, then stopped to think what exactly I was going to say.

I ended up going to the kitchen to get a cup of tea, seeing all the plums sitting there waiting for me to make them into jam and a sink full of dishes waiting to be washed. I washed the dishes while the water heated for tea and once the dishes were washed I poured the boiled water over the tea bag in my cup and washed the plums. Since they were washed and in the pot, I turned on the stove and cooked them, put them into a colander and squeezed the fruit through, removing the pits. You see, these are Damson Plums, about the size of a cherry, so the pit is not easily cut out of the plum like it is with larger fruit. I added honey to the cooked fruit and returned it to the heat to cook it down into jam. This is the first time I've made jam using honey instead of the sugar and wanted to give it a try. It seems to have worked very well, though it is much more costly than using sugar. This was the 3rd batch of jam I've made in the last few days, going to my yard to pick more plums as needed. I plan to give jam as gifts this Christmas and have a good stock for my own use. I made the 1st batch 'plain' using just the plums and sugar. The 2nd batch I added some cinnamon to the mix, the first time I did this and it turned out very nice. This, the 3rd batch, I substituted the honey for the sugar. Now I plan to make a batch using brown sugar instead of the white, just to see what it tastes like, and a batch using apples & cinnamon with the plums. I'm not fond of Damson Plums as an eating plum, though I know people who do like them for just munching on. However, when it comes to cooking and jam making I think there is nothing better than the Damson Plum and they are well worth the extra work involved with using the smaller fruit.

Oh ya, I drank cold tea and am now too tired to tell you about anything else. Off I go to bed. Good night.