.:harleyghost:. deal with it

here comes the sun

Here comes the sun! While everyone else is doing the whole ... "year in review" bit ... I thought I would skip that and just look forward to 007. We spend way too much time looking back and not enough time looking forward ... or for that matter ... enjoying the moment. I'm looking forward to '07 for a lot of reasons. New adventures, new opportunities, more travel, and I hope to make more money. Hey, why not? Lori and I have struggled these last two years on building our company and we hope 07 will allow us to hire another employee to help us with the labor.

We both feel a lot healthier than we did two years ago. Emotionally we were pooped. We left an almost 10 year stint of pastoring a church ... only to face a few horizon of our lives ... taking care of ourselves. That may sound weird to some but, those of you in ministry know what I am talking about. We still love church and want to be used with purpose ... but, it's a little different now. Now we can do it without fear. That may be something else some of you can't wrap your mind around ... it's ok ... I don't have time to explain because I'm moving forward.

So on this day before the last day of 2006 ... I say, bring it on. I am ready.

HG --

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suck it up ... be a man

Love this shot from my son, Casey, from our trip to San Diego. I don't know if you can see it ... but there is a surfer with a yellow board coming out of the water to the right of the pic. It was cold.

I thought today I would just ramble a little bit. Catch some stray thoughts and pontificate. I got an email from Casey yesterday with a link to a "new deal" called GodMen. Seems it's causing a brew-haha amongst the religious. GodMen is a new organization doing conferences telling men it's okay to be a man. I understand why they are doing this ... but it just seems like another gimmick. I've read their stuff and I've read their critics. I like their premise ... but, really the only way to teach men about their masculinity is to model it. Even if they go to a "GodMen" conference ... they will still step back into churches that are unchanged. Pastor's will still go unchallenged to accountability and still held to a standard that leads to personal separation. "Good Try", I say ... but this type of manliness needs to be mentored and not just strike a match to explosive testosterone. It's the reason I never really got caught up in the Promise Keepers deal either. It's like going to summer camp ... getting pumped up ... coming home ... and then digressing back to the level of your home church. The short of it is this ... religion cripples ANY person ... if you don't know how to have a relationship ... you won't have one ... with Jesus or anyone else.

This Sunday is New Year's Eve ... and your's truly has been asked to preach at Genesis Metro. I'm kind of excited about this. It's been one month shy of two years since I spoke at a church. Doesn't seem that long. I hope to share a message from the heart that is concise and to the point ... lives might be changed, I hope.

I've been doing a lot of end of the year projects ... since I have a little time. Still trying to finish the backyard pool demolishing, putting up a garage door opener, selling pool equipment from the defunct pool, servicing machines, cars and motorcycles, building my closet website. That's the short of it. Sorry I didn't send you all Christmas cards or Christmas emails ... I send you stuff everyday ... so why sign a card, eh?

HG -- love and be loved.

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ramp it up

As the the new year approaches and nice weather should be right around the corner ... I turn my focus again to motorcycle ramps. Thinking that I will be able to "truck" my bike while pulling my travel trailer ... this is the goal. I would love to be able to pull down to the "hill country" set up camp and "day ride" and then have my own bed to sleep in at night. Is it too much to ask? Any way ... even though I would love one of those electric loaders ... they are rather pricy ... so I'm thinking that this ramp may fit the bill. The next problem I see is pulling the travel trailer with the tail gate down. These folks have every possible idea here for ramps. Great site.

Man, am I sluggish on getting back to tshirt printing. We printed a little bit yesterday and I have a few to print today. I have been putting in a lot of time on getting the "closet business" web site up and running. Should be this week! Then I expect all of my readers to get their closets re-modeled and let me sell you the greatest thing since sliced bread ... John Lois Home, all wood, closet system. How was that for a pitch?

HG --

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give me a shiner - not the beer

Ta Da!!! Here is a product that any biker CAN NOT afford to be without. I have tried so many products to keep my bike clean and shiny ... and now it's reduced to this one can. This is Honda's Pro Spray Cleaner and Polish. You can use it anywhere ... face shield, wind shields, paint, chrome, plastic, leather ... whatever. I came across this product while looking for a wind shield cleaner at my local bike shop. The parts guy came over and we started to talk ... I had an arm load of products I was about to buy when he said ... all you need is this. I took it home and wham-o ... it cleaned the Valk windshield great and the rest of the bike as well. I would suggest getting a soft micro towel for the bike and a soft windshield towel as well. Our local Alco sells a windshield towel that a little tighter mesh than the micro towel ... it helps in getting bugs off. Pictured is the 14 oz. can ... they have a smaller 4 oz. travel size for an "on the road" clean up.

The product should run you about $5 - $6 on the web .... and about $7 - $8  at the Honda Dealer. I'm also going to try it on my autos ... I'll let you know about that.

HG --

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san diego sky line

san diego sky line
Originally uploaded by harleyghost.

As you see to the left I have added a flickr to this blog and this is a blog attachment from flickr that I am checking out. This is a photo that I took from our balcony while in San Diego on Evergreen St.

taco loco ... tijuana

Being true to my blog ... here is a self pic of me with a restaurant sign. These became world famous on my trip to Austin, back in the summer. I was blogging on another site back then. My faithful readers will remember these.

We are back from San Diego. We were greeted with rain, cold, and un-godly winds when we returned home. The trip was a success. Everyone had a great time. The pic above was taken in Tijuana on Friday. We took the San Diego trolley from Old Town to the border. I will post pics later. After we got across we had lunch at this little restaurant. To feed 10 people ... it was only $35! A few of us had the special ... 3 tacos for a buck. They were great ... and no one got sick. The streets of Tijuana were clean and there were lots of families there. We also fell in love with churros ... mexican donuts. Caleb and Julia loved them!

We also took in Balboa Park, the modern art museum, Old Town, The big open air mall in San Diego, (sorry I forgot the name of it), The tall ships, and Seaside Village. (I think that was the name of it). The flight home was good. We stopped off in Dallas and had Christmas with the in laws and then back to my bed. Christmas Day ... Neenie and I pretty much laid around and rested. It was nice.

Patrick ... I didn't forget you. We did go to In and Out while in SD .. and I did get your shirt. There were way too many memories to recount in this blog. The only disappointment of the Holidays were the Cowboys losing to Jeff Garcia and the Eagles. Our defense really made Garcia look great. I'm thinking of following the Chargers. SD is crazy about their Chargers! And yes, of course I got a Harley T-Shirt while I was in San Diego. Do you think I'm nuts? Don't answer that.

Back to work today ... boooo! Some of you are back as well .... boooo!

HG --

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christmas 06 - san diego

Well, we're here. Sunset in San Diego. It's been a long day of travel. The place we are staying is awesome. The surfers were out tonight. Brave guys. The temp was in the 60's. We are really making memories. I'll keep you updated.

HG -- Christmas 06

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jafrum helmet review part 2

I purchased two helmets from Jafrum on Dec. 8, 2006. The one pictured is the HCI model 70. First off let me say that the purchase of this helmet via the website was great. The site is easy to navigate and post purchase tools are very nice. You can look up your order and keep track of all your purchases. The helmets arrived on schedule. Jafrum sent me a tracking number, which is very nice and if it were not for those guys from UPS ... I would have had it early enough on the delivery date to ride on that day ... but they didn't show up until 8:30 p.m. ... nice, since I paid 2nd day air.

The review of the HCI 70.

Paying only $47.95 plus shipping for this helmet immediately made me think that the helmet would be cheaply constructed or sloppy craftsmanship. I was wrong. The HCI 70 is a well thought out helmet and put together extremely well. The "free" helmet bag was a disappointment ... but I rarely use the things anyway. The mechanisms in the shield are very solid. When the shield is closed ... it is closed. Even though I had my head measured several times and the chart says I should wear a XL ... I opted for the 2X and I am glad that I did. At first I thought it was going to be too snug ... but once I got it over my giant ears ... it was ok.

As I stated, I bought two helmets. One for me ... one for my wife. She was hesitant about a full face. I literally had to beg her to go with the full face. She gets a little antsy in closed in spaces ... so she was not a willing candidate. We both donned our helmets on a very nice afternoon and off we went. The first thing we both noticed is an immediate noise reduction from the wind. Making our ride much, much better. My wife rides with the shield open one notch ... because of the whole claustrophobia deal ... and she loves it.

The HCI 70 comes with these little air vents which I thought were just going to be "rattle" points of the helmet ... but not so much. Even though, at this point, I really can not tell much difference in the ports being open or closed ... at least they don't sit there and rattle. I was also noticeably impressed that the helmets did not "whistle" in the wind. Traveling at 75 was not a problem with wind noise at all.

I have to tell you ... I tried on a lot of helmets ... from the Shoei's to the HJC's ... this helmet is comfortable. On cold mornings the neck configuration keeps out cold air from going up the back of my neck. The only place it can seep in is around the chin area ... but a neck gaiter will knock that out. All in all ... I give this helmet a big thumbs up. Frankly, I could not tell the difference from this and a $500 helmet. It's DOT approved and from everything I have read safety wise ... it's a safe helmet ... even though I did not slam my head down on a concrete curb to check that out. I hope I never have to find out.

I am not a Jafrum employee or I am not getting paid for this review ... I'm just a normal every day bike rider.

HG -- that's my review.

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cleaning motorcycle windshields

Nothing can be more frustrating than getting your windshield spotless. I found a couple of really great articles on ways to get this deed done without making your shield look like center ice at a Stars game. Now, if you are like me, I have done a lot of the things that they say NOT to do ... thus the research. Motorcyclecruiser.com is where I borrowed this pic and read their article. Fortunately my shield has never looked like this. Another really great article is found on the Tulsa windshield website. 

My Shadow finally closed on ebay last night with my asking price. It's going to a couple in McKinney, TX. They came out and looked at it on Sunday. I'm glad they got it.

Don't worry about my helmet review ... it's coming. I wanted to ride in the helmet a few days to give it a real test. So far ... in a few words ... I love it.

HG -- Keep it clean.

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my heart hurts

Well, it seems that 'we' the church have failed others yet again. Two pastors in Denton, Texas hit the headlines of the Denton Record Chronicle yesterday concerning lawsuits against them for sexual misconduct. I know one of these men personally and it pains me to see him go through this. But, it pains me even more for the victims of the abuse. There are already firestorms in blogdom with parishioners and victims rights folks. More hurt. The reason I am even writing this today is to look at a different slant ... not taking the Pastor's side or the victim's side ... but viewing it as responsibility of an unconnected body of Christ. Should these pastor's pay for their wrong doing? Yes, absolutely. Should they be allowed to continue to pastor even though these incidents occurred 20+ years ago ... I personally think not. There are reasons why pastors get "off-track" ... and I believe that there were signs along the way ... but we don't want to see weakness in "men of the cloth" ... so we skirt around issues and do not hold them accountable. We can hold them accountable in their stewardship, their attendance, their work ethic, but not their sexual tendencies. Why? Because it's a hard question? The blushing two by four needs to be taken out of our eye so that we can see that we live in a world of hurting people ... pastors included. I've always picked up on this line with people ... "Hurt People ... hurt people.

The responsibility here lies with the church to "help the hurting" even it is their pastor. Even more so ... the victims of their pastor's blatant sin. To the DentonRC ... it's just another splashy headline and boom ... they are on to the next day. The media does not care about the results. They are a business and their business is to report the news. I don't blame them. I return again to how the church has become a business and not a relational place of help and healing of all. All the people in these incidents have taken huge emotional, spiritual, and physical hit. We will spend our days "wagging fingers" at each other and miss the big picture of fixing the "Church".

We have made church something it was never meant to be ... a program of religious education void of genuine relationships centered around Christ. Instead it is about the "bigness" of the church. Prestige and position ... that's my slant. We have to get back to the basics of "helping" and not "hollering". My heart hurts today for Larry and his family. My heart hurts today for these two ladies who have battled with so much hurt over the years. My heart hurts today for the church.

HG --

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