Clever Thieves

Today, some car thieves showed some cleverness where I work. If someone had seen someone breaking into a person's car where I work, they would've raised the alarm immediately. The would be car thieves realized that. So, they brought a tow truck and had it look like someone was having car trouble. They summarily towed away the car they were stealing. The person's whose car it was got a shock when they walked out to the parking lot and found it missing. Luckily, the car hadn't been stolen long before it was noticed it was missing. Apparently, the police were tipped off soon enough to where they caught the clever car thieves. I find it scary that they would try to do this in brought daylight in a postal parking lot.

My Step-Mom's Birthday

Today is my belated step-mother's birthday. Her birthday was always 1 day before mine. Her death still saddens me. I wish she had started the cancer treatment sooner so she might've beat it again. I wonder if she was tired of fighting it. It was her third bout with it and fighting it that much had to take its toll. I miss her. She was a good woman and though we had our moments, we had some good times together too. I'll never forget doing the Lord of the Rings film festival with her. I wish she could've come along on the Egypt tour I did in March. We had talked about it. I think she would've enjoyed it. I wish I could've given her the things I bought for her on my September 2008 France tour. I had no idea she was in such a bad way. I am glad she isn't suffering anymore. I know fighting the cancer took its toll. The last time I spoke with her, she sounded really weak and, she wasn't up to a long chat like we usually did. I'm grateful to her for the annuity she left me. I had no idea she had planned that. I was glad just to be her son and to know her. So, Happy Birthday Mom. I'm sorry you are gone but, I know you're happy to be reunited in heaven with Grampa Hank and Grama Henry and others you loved. Know that you are missed and remembered.

Holidays at the Post Office

If there is one place you pay work wise for a holiday, it's at the post office. This past week, I got to enjoy Columbus Day. The extra day off proved really useful as I was able to pick up my new Yamaha TMAX. However, I knew I would pay for that extra day off when I went back to work and, I did. All categories of mail were heavier because of the extra day. I ended up with just over 8 trays of mail, 24 packages, 15 or so small parcels and 8 accountables (1 Express Mail and 7 Certifieds). Because of all that mail and the route I was on, I ended up working almost 12 and 1/2 hours. I tried to work fast as I knew I was in a race with the sun. I needed to finish delivering the mail before the sun went down as that would make it harder to see inside the boxes and make sure I was delivering each person's mail to the right person. The sun ended up winning the race but, I only had to deliver the mail in the dark to 1 multi-box. I managed to use the mail truck's internal lights to shine some light into the box so I could see the address numbers and names. As it gets darker earlier later in the year, I'll make sure I take my miner's light just in case I have to deliver mail in the dark to multi-boxes. The light enables me to see inside the boxes in the dark. You wear the light on your head which makes it easier to use vice trying to hold a flashlight and stick mail in the boxes at the same time. Unfortunately, I didn't realize I was going to be out as late as I was and so, I didn't bring it with me. Considering all things, the day went all right. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I don't have to do that particular route again today. I don't like it because of all the multi-boxes and, I'm still slow at sorting the mail on its mail case. We'll see what works out. Cheers all!

My New TMAX

Thanks to the Columbus Day holiday, I was able to pick up my new Yamaha TMAX scooter. It's hard to believe the bike is a scooter. It has sport bike looks, handling and speed. The speed really surprised me. I was riding on Maryland 198 enroute to home and gave it a little gas. The next thing I knew, I was doing over 60 mph. Later, I took it up to 80 mph and, it didn't have any trouble at all with that. I suspect it could've gone a lot faster but, I wasn't up to it as I wasn't use to such speeds.

I did find 2 things that I wasn't thrilled about with the bike. First, it's tricky trying to open the storage compartment on it. I had to work the key repeatedly to try to get the compartment to open. However, I did find the compartment roomy. You can fit a full face helmet in there and a few other items. Also, it has a light the comes on so in the dark you can see what's in there. I thought that was a nice touch. Second, the turn signal doesn't appear to have any kind of clicker on it. The reason that's important is it reminds you have it on and to turn it off once you've made your turn. With it being so quiet, it's easy to forget you used the turn signal.

Overall, the bike is impressive. It has very good suspension which gives it a very smooth ride. It rides over 5 inches off the ground making it easy to pass over objects on the road as well as take tight turns. It has an excellent control panel with speedometer, trip meter, gas gauge, battery gauge and clock. It also offers a tachometer with the speedometer which is useless in my opinion since you don't have to physically change gears on this bike. Interestingly, you don't have to worry about when to get oil changes and other maintenance done. The bike is set up to where it flash various warnings when it's time to get things done like an oil change. That'll be a help. I haven't forgotten that I overlooked the oil change I was supposed to do on my Vino Classic scooter.

Anyone who is interested in a TMAX should see about getting the 2009 model. The 2010 will cost nearly $500 more and from what I've seen, there isn't any noticable difference between the 2 models barring the color offered. The 2009 comes in Dark Blue or Cadmium Yellow (for an extra $100) whereas the 2010 comes in Gray only.

Resume French Lessons

In late February, I stopped my French lessons with my French teacher Nadya. In less than a week, I was going to take a 12 day tour of Egypt. I didn't realize it but, those would be my last lessons for over 7 MONTHS. Due to work, travels and my teacher's trip back to Europe, we wouldn't resume them until today. While I did get a little bit of practice speaking French in Quebec City, Canada, I was still VERY rusty. Also, I ran into my ages old problem of vocabulary. I still don't know enough words in French. I could think of something to say in English and then, I struggled to figure out how I would say it in French. Thankfully, I brought a French-English dictionary to class with me as well as a French verb book that covers over 500 French verbs.

Overall, the lesson went well enough considering I haven't studied in 7 MONTHS. My teacher wouldn't be my teacher unless she assigned me homework (les devoir). I plan to slog away at that tomorrow. Luckily, it wasn't that much though it'll still be a slog doing it. We'll see how bad she tears up my sentences. She can be a tough teacher. Salut!

Map Updates

Last week, I used my Garmin Nuvi 750 GPS to get to the Elkridge Harley Davidson dealership for my motorcycle safety course. The unit was invaluable in finding the place and showing me the quickest route. Interestingly, when I arrived at the dealership, I entered no man's land as there weren't any accurate maps on the unit showing the street that runs parallel to the dealership. That reminded me about getting the latest map update for the unit.

Garmin offers 2 ways you can get map updates. You can download them or you can get a single DVD with the update. The cheapest option is to download them. Garmin offers lifetime map updates for just under $120. That's a great deal especially when compared to spending nearly $70 a piece for each update on DVD. However, there is a downside to it. I have a decent internet connection and, it takes me routinely something like 7 HOURS to download each update. They are that BIG. The last update was over 2 gigabytes in size. Because of this, I would prefer to get the DVD as it would be easier to install each update. However, as I previously mentioned, each update costs just under $70 on DVD. Considering Garmin releases up to 4 updates a year, you can end up spending more on updates than what your GPS unit cost you! I suspect Garmin is scamming people on those $70 DVD updates. I can't believe they cost that much to produce. Because of the high cost of the DVDs, I bite the bullet and download the updates. Barring this serious nuisance, I've been very pleased with my Garmin unit and would recommend it to others. Cheers all.

3rd Day of Class

It was our last day of class. We'd lost 1 member of our class as she didn't do well enough during the 2nd day to continue. She would come back for the next class and try again. Another person did the same thing she would do and joined our class. This time, he would pass the practical.

The instruction began with the hardest of the various exercises we had to do. We had to do a figure 8 inside a box in 1st gear and not take the bike outside any of the box's lines. In order to do this, we had to ride the clutch and throttle. We couldn't go too fast otherwise, we'd go outside the box's lines. If we went too slow, we wouldn't have enough inertia to keep the bike up and, it would drop. I did that on the 2nd day. I would nearly do that a number of times on this exercise. I think everyone in our class had problems with this except the guy who was back for his 2nd try.

After that, we moved on to more fun exercises like swerving. We would leave an assigned point, quickly get the bike into 2nd gear and come up to another gate where a barrier of cones would be. The instructor would tell us which way to swerve. Later, she would throw in another challenge in that would signal with her arms at the last moment which way to swerve or to brake.

Another exercise we concerned cornering. In this exercise, we had to go through one turn then shift into 2nd gear and reach a speed of 20 mph. We would come up on a set of cones which was the starting point of the corner. At this point, we were supposed to adjust our speed, look through the turn, lean into it, increase power and come out of the turn.

The last exercise we practiced was stopping in a turn. This was to simulate doing a turn and finding something unexpected that forced us to come to a stop. The difficulty in this was you don't have the traction in a turn that you have going straight. You lose some of it as the bike is going it to go through the turn. In order to stop properly, you have to bring the bike upright and then, you hit the brakes. It was actually pretty simple.

Once we finished all the last exercise we had to do, our teacher had us do a review. We practiced a number of exercises we would have to do for the practical test. Then, without a break, we took the test. Initially, I did well only losing 3 points for breaking the line on the figure 8 box once. Then, on the very last exercise, things went really wrong. I came out of the first turn and, I had difficulty getting the bike into 2nd gear. At last, I got up to 20 mph just as I hit the corner. I was so concerned about my speed, I forgot to look through the turn, minus 3 points. I was afraid I was going too fast now so, I braked inside the corner. That's another no no and another minus 3 points. I succeeded so well in braking that I lost another 3 points for going too slow through the corner. I tried to get more speed to pull myself out of the corner and encountered problems with the clutch. I found myself wondering if I'd blown the practical on the very last exercise. I found out I just barely passed that exercise. You can't have more than 10 points on any exercise and no more than 15 on the entire test. I had 9 on the cornering and 12 overall. I was relieved though I was annoyed with myself for nearly choking at the last test.

After we put all the cones away, our class headed to the classroom for pizza and soda. We were relieved. All of us had passed. We would fill out a feedback sheet on the class and get the sheets that said how many points we got. Then, the General Manager for the dealership came in and started talking to us about Harleys. He would show us various bikes and explain various highlights concerning them. One had a liquid cooled engine, the only one Harley makes. Another was featured in a show called Sons of Anarchy. The dealership also sells used very good used bikes. With one of those, you don't suffer as much depreciation though the manager pointed out that Harleys do a good job of holding their value.

He kindly took our class picture which our instructor would send to us later, Then, our tour of the dealership continued, we got to see the parts department and garage where they work on the bikes. We found out the dealership also offers winter storage. They have big shelves they can put the bikes on.

Lastly, we received our course cards and certificates. We would present the certificate and score sheet to the folks at MVA to get our motorcycle license. Then, we went our separate ways. That part saddened me. I knew I would see my instructor again. Out of gratitude, I promised I'd buy some more gear from the dealership. There were some things I would need like a rain suit and reflective gear so I can be seen at night. As for my classmates, I doubt I'll ever see them again. They were nice blokes. I wish I could show them the TMAX I'll be getting. I know 1 of them wasn't impressed with scooters. I think he might've thought a little differently if he had seen my future bike.

So, the class is over and sometime next week, I'll pick up my new faster bike. I can't wait to see how it rides and how much of an improvement it is. Ironically, I'm keeping an eye on its replacement. Yamaha allegedly has a 750cc TMAX in the works. That would cause me to trade in my 499cc bike. Stay tuned for more bike adventures. Cheers all!

2nd Day of Class

The 2nd day of class was the one where we really learned how to ride a motorcycle. We started with the most basic tasks and gradually built on those. One of the first tasks we did was a power walk. A power walk is where you engage the clutch and throttle slightly causing the bike to move at a very slow speed i.e. a walk. This taught us how to engage the clutch in 1st gear. Once we got the hang of doing that, we started riding the bike in 1st gear. Then, we progressed to shifting the bike into 2nd gear. Also, we practiced braking. On a motorcycle, you have a lever on the right handlebar for the front brake and a pedal on the right side of the bike for the rear brake. You need to use these in unison without overdoing it otherwise, you'll lock up the tires. If you do that at high speed, it can cause a crash.

In normal riding, you won't be using the clutch tons. In our training, we used it constantly. After a while, my left hand felt like it wanted to fall off. In normal riding, when you come to a stop, you shift the bike down into 1st gear and pull in the clutch lever until you're ready to start moving again. The alternative is to find neutral on the bike so you can let the clutch lever out. I found finding neutral on the bike to be very tricky. It was a half click with the clutch pedal and, it was easy to over step it. Still, it beat holding in the clutch lever all the time.

We ended up riding something like 4 and 1/2 hours which is the most I've ever riden. I found muscles sore that I didn't know I had. After our riding was over for the day, we went back to the classroom for our last classroom lesson before the written test. The lesson covered drugs and alcohol. Surprisingly, there is a problem with alcohol especially beer. Apparently, a number of motorcyclists forget that a 12 ounce beer has just as much alcohol as a 5 ounce glass of wine or a 1 and 1/2 ounce drink of hard liquor. If you think driving a car drunk is bad, it isn't close to riding a motorcycle drunk. Motorcycling is a lot of fun BUT, it requires far greater concentration and awareness. Both of those are significantly degraded when drinking. The result is enormously increased odds of a crash and fatalities. You would think motorcyclists would know better considering they know how tricky it can be to ride a motorcycle.

After the lesson, we reviewed, had the test explained to us and finally, we took the 50 question multiple choice test. To my delight, I aced the test. I'd studied for it and, I think it paid off. The last day of the course, we'd learn more skills on riding a motorcycle and take the practical. Stay tuned for my post on day 3 of the course.

1st Day of Class

Yesterday, I began my long await motorcycle safety course. The first day was was virtually all classroom work. To keep our attention, our instructor had each of us (there were 4 of us) go to the board repeatedly and write key points we needed to remember. When we hit the part where we had to identify the various important parts of the motorcycle ex. front brake lever, our instructor showed us the bike we'll riding for the practical part of the test. The bike is the Buell Blast. After learning about some of its features, I wasn't impressed. Most alarming in my opinion was the fact the bike doesn't have a fuel gauge! You have to guess how much fuel you have left. Also, I was surprised the bike only had a 3 gallon tank. I expected a bike of its size would've had a larger one. Still, the bike should work for the practical part. I just hope I have minimum problems getting it out of 1st gear. Like standard transmission cars, that's the one you'll be most likely to stall in.

The classroom part of the course went fine though I found myself very nervous. I haven't taken any kind of instruction like this since I took driving lessons with EZ Method Driving School over 20 years ago. Plus, I know from learning how to drive a car with a clutch how tricky it can be to get such a vehicle out of 1st gear. On a rare occasion, I still stall my car. In the case of this course, I'll have just a day to get the hang of riding a bike with a clutch (half a day today and half a day tomorrow). Lastly, there are a few serious differences with controls on a motorcycle vice a scooter. The left handle lever controls the clutch on a motorcycle whereas on a scooter it controls the rear brake. You have a foot pedal on the ride side for the rear brake on a motorcycle. The blast has a fuel control valve you have to remember to turn on and off whereas my scooter doesn't. Lastly, you have to put the motorcycle in 1st gear at the beginning. Every time you stop, you have to make sure you put it back in 1st gear and hold the clutch lever in. With a scooter, you don't have to mess with any of this. This makes me appreciate the hassles free of a scooter that much more.

Our second day of class will have us riding the bike and taking the written exam. The exam is 50 questions multiple choice. Our instructor assured us it will be the easiest multiple choice test we've ever taken. We'll see. I've been studying just in case. I'm determined to get my license if I can. Stay tuned for more updates.

Finished Up at Small Post Office

Yesterday, I finished up on a route at a small post office where I've worked the last 4 days. The regular carrier will be back to work Monday to do the route. I've really enjoyed working at that post office. There hasn't been any drama. No wondering who is going to call out just because they don't feel like going into work or they're hungover. Also, there hasn't been any bs like I can't do a bump because I have a prior commitment but, they won't tell you what the alleged commitment is. Instead, I've been able to concentrate on doing the route and enjoying chatting with the Postmaster and other carrier as I cased my mail. I found the customers on the route nice. One lady at a business was so pleased with me making sure she got her package, she called the Postmaster and gave me a compliment. The Postmaster was really pleased.

Today, I get to work at my regular post office. It should go well barring me having to take a bump off another route. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that won't happen. If it does, I'll remind myself I have my motorcycle safety course next week to look forward to. It looks like the course will definitely go. I can't wait. Cheers all!