Can we make it?

Paddled 18.62 miles and fading fast. Trying to decide to try for Riverside Park or call it quits. approx 8 miles more... should we?

Grand River Expedition mile 9.17. Started in Lowell, hopefully make it to Grand Rapids without swimming.

The Adventures of Joerg Finn & Paul Sawyer

Out enjoying mother nature. Mile 3.81

Ride!

Out with the boyz for a ride. Hit the beach for a beer and some views then a ride to BW's for wings.

Got Grip?

Attended another track day at Grattan Raceway. Best way to learn to trust your tires and wear them edge to edge. Absolutely nothing like leaning into the 1st corner at 100 mph! FUN!

Stained Glass Saturday III

The past week I spent a couple nights down in my workshop working on my next stained glass project. I designed a candle holder in Autocad and decided that I would make the panels during the week so I could bring them to the class this week and get help and tips on how to make a three dimensional project. I didn't want to just make any old candle holder, I wanted to use my imagination and make a unique one. Well, my design proved to be a little tricky for a beginner so its not quite as high quality that I was hoping for. Instead of keeping it simple, with maybe just four sides, I went with the six sided hex. I cut all the pieces, foiled and soldered them before packing them up to bring to class. Once there I got a piece of mirror for the bottom and prepped it for soldering. This is when the fun started. I think I managed to use about a 1/2 pound of solder before getting the hang of it and all the tricks needed to pull this off successfully. In the end it looks very good, just don't get too close and examine the solder, it's a little messy. I brought it home and added a candle and wallah! works like a charm.

Phone-Call Friday

Okay, rewind to Friday afternoon. I am trying to survive the last couple of hours in the office before heading out to enjoy what is suppose to be a great weekend. I have made plans to ride on Sunday with Joerg and not sure if I am going to make it that long. Then out of the blue my phone rings, "excuse me, did I just hear you correctly?" "you have twenty something new motorcycles that need to be ridden." "Hell yeah I will be there!" The smile instantly forms across my face... I have to get up and move around, then bounce around... I have to go out side and let out a huge "Hell Yeah!!" Then come back in and try to focus on my work. It was also difficult to sleep Friday night, I just don't know why.

Saturday morning I was up early, showered, and loaded the jeep with my riding gear. The sun was up and shining, it was forty-something degrees when I left the house. I pulled into the shop lot and they already had most of the bikes I was to ride lined up. Hmm, decisions, decisions... Oh, it wasn't that hard, my first choice was the new K1300S loaded up with all the goodies, then came the K1300GT, followed by a F650 GS, then the HP2 Sport, back to a R1200GS and one final F650 GS before I had to head to my stained glass class. The weather was perfect for the first ride of 2009 and the selection of bikes was to die for. I brought my camera but then got so excited and never stopped to take any pictures.

And that was my Saturday morning.

OMG! I am Alive!

YaHooo!!! What a weekend! I am refreshed, blood pumping, no more winter blues. I am not going to spill my beans now, but I am working on three posts for you with pictures and all. Please stay tuned. I will be back later.

Missing, No! not me

Whoa! Where did the past two weeks go. Once again I apologize for not blogging. Its been on my mind alot but then it becomes so late and I crash before typing something entertaining for you all.

I have to say that winter is screaming by and I haven't really suffered from "SIDS" yet. Gwedo and I have been attending our stained glass classes on Saturdays and I am really enjoying it, so much that I have been working at night building myself a little workshop next to Betina's art studio. I invested in some tools and have been making stained glass projects each night. Yes, yes, I realize that you are still waiting for an update on my first real project. The Orchid project for Betina went very well, I suffered thru some real tough cuts and lots of grinding but in the end it all fell into place and soldered together perfectly. See the photo below (just waiting to get some chain for hanging).

Here is my little workshop I built to do my glass projects at home.

Mainly I have been a cellar dweller since my last post, but I should be out riding this weekend and I will be sure to document the first ride of the year. I have a feeling that I will have a partner in crime with me too... I am not sure who is chompin' the bit harder, Joerg or I.

Take care and check back soon.

Winter Projects

Welcome, Welcome, my loyal stalkers and ocasional visitors I am here today to give your second blog this week, yes you heard me right, second. To be honest I figured if I am going to attract anymore followers I better get my behind in gear and blog more so each night I thought of blogging but ran out of time. So before the week runs out and it begins to look like every other week on this blog I figured what the heck, folks just want to see what I am up to so I will give you that.

This week I have been keeping my winter blues at bay by taking on a couple projects to keep me busy at night and let me tell ya, they have been keeping me busy.

Project #1: We are slowly converting the shop to be RoHS compliant and lead free. To help in the transition I made two distinctively different portable solder stations so that there will be no cross contamination. This project mostly was made up of painting but also included some woodworking and gluing. Below you will see a photo of the stations.



Project #2: At the BMW shop we picked up some floor display signs from a local store going out of business. I made custom inserts out of frame matting's for the inside so we can just insert a standard 8.5 x 11" sheet of paper. I haven't taken pictures yet but will tonite and get it added here.

Project #3: Also at the BMW shop we are looking into getting new carpeting for the showroom. I have been working on making a drawing in AutoCad of the floor area and the carpet squares so we can color them in and decide the pattern to put on the floor. Once we get it all hammered out I will post a pic of that too.

So there you have it, another winter week here in Michigan.