UPDATES - Pittsburgh and the Trucking school

As many of you know, I'm from Pittsburgh.   I did not know any of the people that were involved in the senseless murders.   I don't know anyone that was directly involved.

However it's always different when it's your home.   I know that are of Pittsburgh well, having eaten in the restaurants nearby, having friends that grew up in the area.   I remember dancing in a few local bars.

Squirrel Hill, and to a lesser extent; neighboring Shadyside, where always the Jewish part of town.   Hasidic Jews are very common on the streets, and recently I learned that Pittsburgh has one of the larger Jewish communities in the United States.  It's growing as well.

By now, many people have learned about how the local Muslim Community raised over one hundred thousand dollars for the families of the slain and injured.

Pittsburgh is a special place, everyone raves about their hometowns of course, but we "Yinzers" know something about our town.   Part of it was due to the history of our city, part of it was do to topography.

Pittsburgh is a city of immigrants,and the Jews started to move into the area in the early 1830's.  As was the custom at the time many of them congregated together in certain areas of the city,  Squirrel Hill became the Jewish neighborhood, and it's remained that way since.

Pittsburgh however is not a easy city to get around in, and you often crossed rivers and bridges (literally and figurative) to go from one part of the city to another.   This exposed Pittsburgher's to different cultures, languages and even religious beliefs on a daily basis. 

Since Pittsburgh was a "blue collar steel town", "The Polack, the Jew, the Negro, the Irishman" all worked side by side and provided the steel that forged a nation.  Various words unique to the area but I'm sure a linguist would be able to trace the roots of them back to various languages somehow formed so that everyone could somehow communicate.

What this has meant is that Pittsburgh and it's citizens have been very proud of their city, very open to outsiders and have developed an attitude of "live and let live" when it comes to your personal beliefs and opinions.

Generally speaking, Pittsburgh is a very progressive and forward looking city.  It is stronger than hate.

Now that we got the political part of the blog out of the way......

Let's talk about not succeeding.


I could never really master backing up the truck.   Straight line backing is exactly like it seems and I did OK with that.  Where my issues where is something called "Off Set Backing" and "Ally Backing." 

Off Set Backing is basically go from Lane A into parallel Lane B.  You pull up forward and then back the truck up into the parallel lane. 

While the attached video makes it look easy, it's actually not.   Set up is everything, although the ally docking is a bit easier than the off set.

Sadly I just could not seem to master it.  I had spent over 200 hours of working in class, on the pad (where we practiced these procedures) and actually driving on the road. 

I tried my best, I gave it my best shot.   Even though I mastered everything else, these two procedures I just could not figure out.

Long story short, I threw away a lot of money doing something I'm not sure of I would have liked doing in the first place.  I also find myself without a job at the moment.   I'm not even sure if I can collect unemployment since my former job and I parted ways on good terms, although I was told that I would be welcomed back by former managers.

It's okay no matter what happens.  Life is weird and wonderful and full of surprises.   In the meantime however...anyone got a job open?

The Buddha and me (and updates make 3)

**NOTE** At the end of my day the bike tire went BOOM!  You can read about that here.

When you’re traveling, it’s easier to let go of a beautiful moment because you know the adventure continues. No matter what rolls by outside your window, there will inevitably be more to appreciate when you get off the [bike]. - Ehren Prudhel from Tiny Buddha

When a friend of mine posted her photo's of a recent trip to a Buddhist Temple in nearby Palm River, Florida I knew I had to take the bike down.  I don't consider myself a religious person to any extent, but I've always had a affinity for Eastern Religious practices.  If anything I consider myself to be a lapsed philosophical Taoist.  Perhaps a Pastafarian Deist?

The chance to walk along the gardens and mediate, even for a few moments appealed to me.  I also enjoy Thai food which is a rarity for me, and they offered this for sale on Sunday mornings (sadly nothing offered peaked my interest).  

What attracts me to the Eastern Religions is the idea of wholeness.  At the risk of getting to philosophical, there is no separation between the mind and the body.  Diet and exercise (such as Yoga and Tai Chi)  are considered part of the everyday religious practice.  Sex is not viewed as a negative.  In fact, there seems to be very few negatives in the Eastern World view in my opinion.  Life may be full of pain and suffering, but it is just an illusion.  A wonderful, crazy, mind blowing illusion.

As I sit here and write this I can not help but think that is one of the reasons I enjoy riding so much.  The bike is not something I climb into and surround by, but rather something that I am part of.  A flick, a lean, a push or a pull and Kimmie obeys.  My scientific mind understands the control is just a illusion, physics will always win - I have faith that a cager will not cross the double yellow line or pull out in front of me.  There is a wholeness to riding.

I decided not to enter the temple proper due to the fact that I was in full riding gear, and I overhead a young man stating he wanted to say a few prayers for his deceased mother.  He did not need to have me walking about snapping pictures like a fool.

The grounds were rather small but there was a variety of exotic flowers and the riverfront was peaceful, I found myself wanting to come back during the weekday's and just sit and be quiet.  I also considered asking several monks to bless my bike.  Perhaps I should have.

The ride itself only took about 30 min and cover about as many miles on roads that I more or less understood and knew well.  I had been wanting to stretch Kimmie legs on roads I did not know, lately I've been feeling like all I ever do is ride to work.  While being a "scooter commuter" is all well and good it really does not challenge me as a rider.  Muscle memory tends to take over riding the same paths day in and day out.  While repetition may be good for Tai Chi, it is (in my humble opinion) not good for a motorcyclist.  While our attention will naturally fade on the back of a bike from time to time (just as it does in a car), I feel that our attention is sharpened on roads we don't know or ride often.  It's good to keep the mind active and awake when riding.  I'm glad my mind was active.  If you don't know what happened read here.

From Kymcoforums.com

The ride would also give me a chance to try out the new "My Tracks" app for the smart phone.  I have been wanting a way to track and then review my ride to parts unknown.  You never know when your going to find that special road or roads that need to be explored further.  Or in my case a neat little winery or milk shake place via pinpoints!  This ride can be imported to Google Earth and then shared, which hopefully I did correctly at the end of this entry.

While I've not adopted the idea shown in the photo, I think that is going to be the next project.  Lately I've been meaning to go further and I could use my GPS and speedometer applications on my phone with ease in this set up.  Part of me likes the idea of seeing where I've been, the other part does not want to look back.  The camera on my phone could also take video if I mounted it correctly.  While not a fan of ride videos (which I find boring) I could see it use in some cases.

I'm not sure if I like the slow but steady move I'm making to an all Google platform.  I enabled Google + comments once before and it seemed that although my blog reached a wider audience, I received little to no feedback.  I would rather have the feedback, so if your unable to leave a comment PLEASE contact me via my email.  It's important for me to hear from you to determine what path I take.

Here is the URL to the ride.