End of the year milage post - Looking back on 2015

Later on today I'll fire Kimmy up, her "change oil" light will come on (it came on earlier this week), and I'll take her for a bit of a ride.  The last of 2015.

A friend of mine shared an animated GIF to his Facebook page (which for some reason I can not make work on Blogger - I tried) that shows his how his year went.  It started well, and as he progressed down the slide it got rockier, till at the very end (now shown as December) he rockets off the slide and face plants into the dirt.

Funny...but very accurate.

It's been another year of health concerns (not so much mine but Susan's), incidents, accidents and me complaining about the heat.  A gasket that literally had to come on a slow boat from Asia didn't help matter either. Nor did various battery/electrical issues.  All these things it seemed conspired to keep me off the bike.  Or at least made me feel like I didn't ride the way I have in the past.

Even though it's the last day of December the weather outside is gorgeous.  We're predicted to have a high of 84 degrees today (29 C) with only a 20% of rain, weather I know many of my fellow bloggers would die for.  I really don't feel like riding  We have had weather like that since the start of December, yet my Kimmie has sat, lonesome in her spot in my driveway.  This has had more to do with me not wanting to ride or being willing to ride than anything.

Earlier in the year I considered trading her in, thinking that starting a new relationship with a new bike would break me out of my malaise.  Or selling her altogether.  In the end though, I've formed a special little relationship with my Kimmie and letting her go would be like losing a part of who I am.

As I look back over the last year I know that I did a bit more than I thought I did.   I drove up to Brooksville and wanted to explore there a little more (another trip soon I think, this time on Kimmie).  I went exploring in Ybor, one of my favorite neighborhoods in Tampa.  I got to ride through the very heart of central Florida.  I even got to see a tiny house.  I even visited a legendary store in the Daytona area too.

Sadly however, not all these adventures were in the saddle.  Still though, they were adventures.

I'm looking forward to the arrival of Bobscoot and plan on showing him the sites, places that I've not made it to on my bike yet have visited in the past.  Places that I want to go but haven't yet.  So yes, I guess I'm looking forward to 2016.

Kimmie and I are not done yet, we still have roads to ride and sights to see, but I need to stop being the "whiny little bitch" that I've become over the last year.  There is great potential in the coming year...and I have to take advantage of that potential.

In a bit I'll ride for an hour, maybe two.   Another fifty miles or so will be added to her speedometer.  I don't see me putting any milage on that to her.  I'll come back in and duly edit to post, so I can have a record for the coming year.

Last year I started with 21736 miles (or 34,981 KM).  For the end of the year milage...it ended up being 26900.  Or only 5,164 miles for 2015.  About 1000 less than the year before.   Not good, not good at all.

Happy New Year then to all my friends and family.   Be safe, be well and be happy.

Getting small - I visit a Tiny House

I've had most of this week off from work, and lately the weather has been perfect for me to get out and do some exploring.  I like the odd, I like the unusual and earlier in the week I heard about a tiny house "open house" event.  Jessica is the owner of the cute 8 by 18 foot home (325 square feet of living space). I've seen some of the programs on TV but have never seen a "tiny home" up close and personal.  So you know damn well I was going to the open house.   You can view her Facebook page here.

I'll admit there is a bit of me that likes the idea.  Paring down to almost nothing, taking things to a simpler level (I have seven different pairs of dress shoes alone) and frankly finding a way to live with less.  As one of the woman I was talking to at the open house stated; "One of the things you need to do is determine what you can't live without, and build up from that."

One guy had a 55 inch HD TV in his slightly larger home.  I could live without the TV.  I would need my PC.  I suppose that would free up some wall space.  The home actually does look spacious and once you're inside three or four people could sit comfortably.   A light paint color and lots of windows helped with the illusion of space.

Thanks to Jessica's FB page.  

The kitchen sink doubled as the bathroom sink and the shower was tight, but something my 6 foot 220 pound frame could fit into.  Although the toilet looked....complex.  I really wanted to ask about that but didn't, maybe next time.

The home was fully equipped with at small but functional kitchen and a semi-full sized fridge.  "I can't give up my ice cream." Jessica told me.

Sadly I was not able to stay longer than a hour or so, and I did have questions about life in a tiny home.  While it's probably not for me, I can still admire anyone that lives life on their own terms.  I was speaking to a guy named Will about how I lived in a 500 square foot apartment years ago and felt the walls were closing in on me.  We laughed about how the walls sometimes closed in on him in 600 square feet (his "large" home).

There were people there that already owned a tiny home, others that were curious, family and friends.  I felt welcomed there.  I'm sure that if I would have stayed I would have asked more questions, found out some information that haunted me - "How much does this home weigh?" for example.  Or, "Why does the door swing in instead of out?  Would that not give you more space?"

No matter.  It was a good day out and about.  That's all that matters.

The loft

View from the loft.

That "complex toilet", notice the levers and such on the side