Bling for my Trike!!

 My friend Phil has been teaching me how to make what I call 'aluminum pretties' or 'bling' for my trike.  He has made a lot of this kind of thing for his Harley Davidson motorcycle, out of aluminum and brass. I don't want to do brass for my trike as it is too hard to keep looking good, so will just be doing aluminum.  With the first piece, Phil did most of the work to show me how to do it, and with each piece made now he does less of it and I do more of it.  He's really good at this sort of thing.

Here, Phil is cutting out a feather from a sheet of aluminum.

Now he's showing me how to file the edges of the aluminum to take off the rough stuff left by the saw blade. 

You are now seeing Feather #1, all shiny... and Feather #2 which has been sanded though at this point still needs a lot more sanding with finer and finer grits of special sand paper.  It take hours and hours of work to make these.

In this photo, you can just see the engraved spine of Feather #1. Feather #2 has been sanded and polished. It is now ready to have its spine engraved onto it, and #1 needs to have the spine engraved again as it has been partially polished off at this point. 

Both feathers have been attached to my gas tank.

These took a lot of work but wow, they sure look good on here!! They will require a lot of work to keep them looking good too.  Phil's show bike doesn't get ridden as much as my trike does, so no problem for him.  Aluminum is a soft metal so it is able to be cut, sanded, polished and bent to fit like this, yet it also damages very easily.

I will Miss Dan

Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.
Albert Camus 

I will miss my long time friend, Dan. We met about 12 or more years ago and became good friends.  We agreed that we would never try to be any more than good friends because that would not work for us, but we have grown to love each other a lot.... just a close friends love. Over the years, Dan has helped me in many ways.  He is a professional dry wall installer with knowledge in many other areas. Some of the things Dan has helped me with:
- I bought a pellet burning stove which he helped me to install.
- he cut a doorway into the wall between the room the pellet stove is in and my bedroom so the warm air can come through.
- I bought laminate flooring and he installed it for me... living room, kitchen, hallway, bedroom and loom room.
- I brought home some old bathtubs to use as raised bed gardens and Dan helped me to set them up.
- Dan has helped me with other yard work too, has helped me to take trailer loads to the garbage dump.
- Since he has lots of knowledge of computers and loves working on them, he has been my pc mechanic.
- When I have wanted to rearrange my home he has helped me to move heavy furniture.
- Dan has set up my Audio/Video system.
- There are many other things to tha Dan has helped me with over the years.

Dan and I have not always seen eye-to-eye on everything and we have had some bad arguments,  but we have always gotten past all that in the end and stayed friends.  We will still remain friends and will talk regularly over the internet and I am happy and grateful for that..... though it won't be the same as actually seeing him, going for drives with him, and he won't be around to help me with all these things I can't do by myself.  This last scares me.  13 years ago I was used to doing things myself, now I have become used to having help.  13 years ago I had physical problems, especially Fibromyalgia, now I still have that and more (deteriorated discs, arthritis, diabetes to name a few). I will very much miss my friend Dan... and I will miss having someone to help with all those things I need help with.

A friend is one who knows you and loves you just the same.
Elbert Hubbard

 

Getting Some Better

I told you the other day that I have been quite ill lately. Today makes it 9 days now and finally I am starting to feel just a wee bit better. I was given 6 antibiotic pills to take, one each night before bed and I will be taking #5 of the 6 tonight. I am still coughing a fair bit, but not as much as I was and the phlegm I cough up is a healthier color now than the brownish mess with spots of blood in it that it was even yesterday. At first, I continued to live my life, out here and there on my trike, doing whatever I wanted/needed to do.  I was determined that I was not to be kept down. However, I was not getting any better and finally had to settle down, stay home and give my body the change to heal itself. 3 days in a row now I have been staying home and I don't mind telling you I really think it is time to get out of here for awhile. The weather forecast for this week looks pretty good for the most part, though the temperatures will be 10°C cooler than what we have had for some time now. I actually won't mind a bit cooler weather, though the evenings/nights are now rather cold for riding the trike, not as much fun as it has been.  However, that just means I will have to carry warm clothes with me so put on for the ride home. The other night, when I was in town and rode home at night, I sure was glad I had my hooded sweatshirt along. I put it on under my leather jacket and did up the hood before putting on my helmet. It really helped a lot as it was very cool, especially coming past the lake.  Tomorrow, if I am feeling up to it, I will ride to the small town where my mom lives, about 1/2 hour ride.  It is her 89th birthday and I do so much want to be there with her on this special day. There was a small family party for her this evening and I had to miss it. I want to visit her and take her out for dinner tomorrow.  I will be coming home early, right after dinner, so that I can be home before the temperatures drop too much.  For people who are walking or driving, it is still very warm, it's just if you are riding a motorcycle you are not protected from all the wind so it is a lot colder.

Beware of the ITIS family!!

When I was a kid I had an ongoing relationship with Tonsil Itis, missing school each time he came around, and that was fairly often as I remember it. My parents did everything they could to make Tonsil Itis go away, but he always sneaked back to me. I was 17 years old when they finally were able to take steps to have him cut out of my life permanently.

In my later 20s or early 30s, without my permission, Arthur Itis moved in with me. He's lived here for quite some years now and I don't seem to be able to move him out, apparently once he's moved in you can not make him leave, though I keep trying. I admit I have learned to live with Arthur for the most part, and though he can some days be a 'real pain', we have managed to co-exist.

Several months back now, Arthur moved one of his cousins in too... without even asking me!!! I got right on it and managed to evict Bronch Itis fairly quickly. I thought all would be well and all but forgot the incident.

One week ago today I felt something untoward was afoot around here. It turned out that another Itis had moved in! This time it was Laryng Itis, another of Arthur's cousins. When I went to the authorities about this, I was assured that Larnyg was only here on vacation and would be gone again in 2-3 days. Thank God for that... or so thought I. He is still popping in and out of my life, trying his best to keep hanging around and interrupting my conversations.

I hadn't thought at all about Bronch Itis until earlier this week when he moved right back in again, the sneaky bugger!! As if that isn't enough, Bronch brought his twin brother Sinus Itis and their 2 buddies Nasty Phlegm and Lotsa Snot! I am currently taking stops to evict them all. Though it feels today like they will never leave me alone, I must have faith and know that they indeed will soon be out of my life. They are a nasty gang of ruffians and I want them gone!!

So, as you can see, I have had nothing but problems with members of the infamous Itis family!! I have heard that Arthur has 2 girl cousins that are also very nasty and in fact, can be quite dangerous and even life threatening, so please watch out for Appendas Itis and Pancreat Itis. Lock your doors and do NOT allow them entry!!

Sincerely;
Alice "Trinity" Price

Just Sayin'

Now that I am soon to be feeling better after all the nastiness with my health, I will soon be catching up on some posts. I've been having a really great summer I want to tell you about.  So.... come on  back in a few days and see what I'm talking about!!

New Places

Have you ever been to, or heard of a place called Granite Houston?  Neither have I and to tell the truth here, I've never even heard of such a place!! So, why do I mention it?  Well, last night I was talking to a really great lady I met at a friend's home, and we were talking about places we had been and some I have been to she has never heard of before and didn't have a clue that these places even existed! And some she talked about having been to I had never heard of either.  So, by being open to listening we have each discovered new places that we may someday get to explore.

I've been sick!!

I have been rather ill the last while, which is not actually normal for me. First one evening I was on my way home from visiting a friend and I noticed my throat was quite sore.  I thought I better drink more water, am maybe getting a little dehydrated as I know I haven't been drinking enough, it has been very hot, and I ride a motorcycle which tends to make one drier. 

The next morning I was to go on a long day's ride with friends from one of the motorcycle riding groups I am part of. I had really been looking forward to this ride as well as riding with the BC Lone Wolves again. They are such a great group of people!  Unfortunately, I had to change my plans and stay home as my throat was even more painful and I didn't want to be sick on a long ride like that. After texting to let Buzz know I would not be able to go along, I went back to sleep and when I woke up I found that my voice was barely working.  Hmmmm.  It has been many many years now since I have gotten a flu or cold, yet obviously something was going on in my body that I did not like.  That afternoon I went to a walk-in clinic to see a doctor and was told that I had 'viral laryngitis' and that it would go away on it's own in a 2-3 days.

A few days later sees me stuffed up in my head, sneezing and blowing lot of 'phlegm' out of my nose.  I also was coughing and hacking up phlegm from my lungs!  But hey, the sore throat was gone! I decided to go back to the walk-in clinic because I have had lung problems before, including bronchitis and pneumonia and know better than to mess around with that!! So, back I go and see another doctor who listens to my chest a bit and informs me that I do not need any antibiotics as there is nothing at all in my lungs.  I have sinusitis and the phlegm is running down my throat into my lungs and that is what I am coughing up. He says to get a Nedi Pot and rinse out my sinuses and all will be good.  A friend lent me his big syringe that his doctor had given him awhile back for flushing out the sinuses, and all I had to do was wash it before using it.  Hey, I can do that and save $20.00!! Flushing the sinuses was a bit tricky, something I'd never done before, yet do it I did and yes, it did seem to help some.  Still, I had the nasty cough and lots of phlegm coming to light.

Yesterday, I talked to 2 friends on the phone, both heard my cough and both told me what I had already been thinking. It was good to hear the support!!  They both said "Go to another doctor. Get a second opinion!! This guy is wrong!! That is a very nasty cough!!" or things of that nature.  I called my own family doctor to see if I could get in, ya like that would happen the same day!!  Well, it did!! Usually it takes several days to a week to get in, but they fit me in about an hour after I called.  Guess I sounded sick!! haha.  Well, he agreed that I have sinusitis, though he also feels I have either bronchitis or pneumonia.  He gave me a requisition for chest x-rays and a prescription for antibiotics and off I went.

Today I had the x-rays done so will find out next week which it is, bronchitis or pneumonia, and in the meantime I will be working at getting back to my usual healthy self!

I am so grateful that I have friends who care about me, both here in town and even on Facebook!! I so cherish these people in my life!!