A short post about Spam, Gloves and Neil Peart

SPAM!  We all love it.  After all it recently deserved posts in the "Flies in your Teeth" blog as well as "Find Me On the Road" blog.  Seems like were all getting hit by the same marketer or marketing program.

As of late I've been willing to let a marketer go ahead and post something,  if I got the feeling that the low paid intern or who ever searched out my blog...actually read what I wrote (or so I hope).   So I let a few comments slide by even if the name was just "saddlebags" and the link was to a commercial page.  For example, recently someone commented on a post of mine where I mentioned my interest in urban gardening and included a picture.  They asked me if it was a tomato plant...that at least tells me a live person at least scanned my article.

Yes, that really is my car.

I own and run a small magazine and publication distribution company on the side which provides me with about 1/3 of my yearly income.  I'm to a point where I don't need to advertise my services, but at one time I twisted  every arm, shook every hand I could to promote that business.  Luckily their are only so many publishers and publications and once you reach a certain point your name is all you need.  Knocking on those doors was tough in the beginning...but you got your name out there.  So I can sympathize with these "spammers" although I don't particularly care for what they do.  But make an effort at least.

Recently I had a bad apple ruin it for all the low paid intern's out there, trying to get the product into the public's eye.  Sorry "John Smith" (really?  Could you not have found any name even close to original?)  your comment promoting a bike dealership was really not that interesting or in-depth AND not related to my topics at all.  Nor did the copy and paste impress me as your comment was left on a few of my blog entries.

Sorry....no more spam.  I moderate the comments I get now, and will no longer give anyone a free pass. Although I do not see the need to ask you to "prove your human"...yet.

Here in Florida we've been experiencing a cold snap.  People are bringing plants in, there is frost on the ground in some places late at night or early in the morning.  I've been wanting to get gauntlet style gloves for some time because I'm tired of the cold air and rain blowing up the arms of my jacket.  On Friday, I finally got my ugly butt a pair. The only issue I have with them is that they are slightly larger than my hands, I ended up getting the 2X where a simple X size may have worked.   But then again  they are nice and tight again my jacket above the wrist and that is exactly what I was looking for.

They are thinsulate filled and that creates a "less than sensitive"  feel than I am used to.  Considering how I used to wear thick orange hunting gloves on cold nights that protected my hands but did nothing about the wind, this is a improvement.  Those old things provided no sensitivity.

By "sensitivity" I mean the way I feel the throttle and brakes in my hands.  In my regular riding gloves my hands are light and that means I keep a light touch on the throttle and brakes.  Barely moving the throttle as I strive to maintain a consistent and safe speed.  With the thicker gloves, I have to apply more pressure for the same results.

Now I need to find a good, reasonably priced "summer" jacket.

Thanks to blog.motorcycle.com

Finally I started reading Neil Peart's "Ghost Rider".  I've just started chapter 6 and so far I'm enjoying it.  It's a mix somewhere between travel log and memoir although so far I feel like Peart is keeping a major part of himself hidden from the reader.   Considering Peart's loss of both his long time common law wife and their daughter within a year of each other you can't really blame the man.  I don't think many men would be able to recover...becoming just ghosts of themselves.  Peart's answer is to this is to run.  Run as far away as he can on a BMW 1100 Adventure into the wilds of America, Canada, Mexico and Belize.

Peart is probably best known as the drummer and lyricist for the rock band Rush.  Well I have always been a fan of the band, I sort of lost interest in their music sometimes in the 90's, this is the first time I've ever read any of his non-musical work.  It's a light and easy style that deals with a hell of a subject matter and frankly I keep expecting his style to turn dark.  In the early chapters at least he is still in shock and in a deep depression...I'm curious to see exactly where in his 55,000 mile journey he comes to terms with life, loss and returns to art...perhaps the only thing that makes life bearable for him.