Tonya and PQBON's WebLog
create your own visited states map
or write about it on the open travel guide
Unfortunately, most are in the mid-west. I normally don't count airports, but I have spent a lot of time in 2 Texas airports including a ridiculously long lay over where I did buy stuff.
I just got back from the Dr. Office for my leg. It seems I won't loose my leg. The bones have healed and I am now allowed to run, jump, ski, jog, and do anything else a person with two good legs can do.
However, I have one more check up to look at a tendon that runs along my fibula that seems to be slipping and sliding and stick. It seems that the plate and the scar tissue is disturbing a tendon pair that control aspects of my foot and ankle. In 3 months (a week after my accidents 1 year anniversary...) I'm going in for my final check up to see if the tendons are healing and behaving better. If not then they may take out the plate and screws or something of that nature. The hope is in 3 months my body will have adapted to the plate. Every once in a while the tendon will pop and I will have trouble walking. This is not all that dissimilar to the situation I have with my hand.
The ulnar plate in my had is causing problems with the tendons that run to my hand and wrist. on the out side of the bone. My wrist (on the ulnar side) is inflamed and tender. My hand is more of a problem then my leg which is more random and only occasionally severe. My arms it is more of a general irritation that never really gets much worse but also doesn't seem to get much better. This also is being evaluated for potential plate removal.
In other news: my girlfriend is moving to Mountain View. Why she wants to live with my I don't right know. I wouldn't live with me, but then I wouldn't date me either, nor would I be subscribed to my own mailing list.
I have a new job :-). And it only took 3 weeks and 40 or so resumes sent. I will be working as a Medical Receptionist for 4 doctors near Stanford. Most duties are normal for a medical receptionist, scheduling appointments, getting patients in and out of the office, ect. But the cool thing is that when they are busy or down a nurse they are going to have me do back office work. Taking the patients in, checking vitals, and interviewing them before the dr. comes it. Being that I was orginally a nursing major, I find this aspect of the job really cool. Plus I get a pay increase, also very cool. So I start at 10am on Monday, February 9. I normally will come in earlier but being that Mondays are busy and they have to start training me they want me to come in a little later. I'll be moving to Mountain View the weekend of February 7. Since I've been planning on moving in, there is already a bunch of my stuff at 1010 Golf, so my moving weekend shouldn't be too bad. And with PQBON's pretty new truck we can just rent a trailer and attach it to the hitch.
Yea for me!!!!
I often get asked what I did for my weekend., this weekend my answer was thus: I got my mom to buy a dirtbike. 
This bike to be exact. A 2004 TT-R225 from Capitol Powersports in Folsom Ca.
They are currently having an AMAZING sale on the 2004 TT-R225. Right now, you can get a TT-R225 for less the then the TT-R125LE. This sale lasts until the last day in January.
So, Tonya and I convinced my mom to buy a dirtbike and we drove all over town with my 2002 YZ250F, Tonya's TT-R125LE, and my mom's TT-R225 in the back of our 2004 Nissan Titan SE 4x4.
Sunday, we spent an hour or so at the Prairie CIty SVRA in Folsom. My mom was all smiles. Unfortunately, it was cold and muddy and we ran out of day time and had to leave. My mom and Tonya road around in circles for a while in the parking lot/riding paddock. While I did some short but fast sprints along the trails to scout it out. My mom had a BLAST. She was really happy she purchased her dirtbike. Tonya had a good time too. I had some fun and I got really muddy hitting puddles WFO (wide fucking open) in 3rd gear. I was really glad my bike had a Scotts steering dampener on it. The mud and rocks made the bike bounce and slide all over the place. The dampener made the bike handle a lot more sanely at speed.
Prairie City is different then Hollister Hills or Metcalf (the two SVRAs that I normally use). It is also different from Clear Creek but not as different then it is Hollister or Metcalf. The big difference between the OHV parks is the way the trails are run and made. At Hollister and Metcalf you have predefine trails with directions (all trails are one way with a FEW sections where two trails either cross or merge for two way traffic but are CLEARLY marked). I like have the trails formerly marked and named and routed. At Prairie City the trails seems ad-hoc and have no direction, this I'm not crazy about. It is OK for me, I am experienced enough to have enough control to pass or be passed in nasty crap but beginners seem to have it rough. It seems easy for a beginner to get in a place where they have to avoid traffic and deal with a challenging obstacle. This is similar to Clear Creek but at Clear Creek you can ride all day and not see anyone else but at Clear Creek the trails are formerly routed they just don't have direction. Prairie City is also very different is both trail composition (type of dirt/mud) and terrain features. Prairie City is clay and rocks with a mostly flat terrain, mostly flat because there are tons of small mounds from the old gold rush days when the entire area in California was dredged and mine debris was scattered all around (see Folsom Potato fields...). Metcalf and Hollister have an adobe clay base on their trails with very very few rocks. I prefer the adobe but will give Prairie City a few more tries before giving up. The end result is this, Prairie City seems very cool but the lack of organization and the large amount of rocks make it less then ideal for beginners.
A reporter for Edmunds.com went undercover as a car salesman for 3 months. The result is a long story that will make you think more closely about what is happening when you buy a car.
It was interesting. It points out how hard the life of a car sales man is. It reminds me a lot of the things I have seen about the stock pushers at clearing house brokerage houses. The turnover is high, the pressure is higher, and the pay is based totally on what how much money you take from the customer.
For people interested in what and how I'm racing here are the two rule books book1 and book2. The two types of racing I will be doing are cross country and motocross. I will be racing the C class in both for now. In motocross races I will be running the both the 125 C class and the 25+ C class. This weekend Tonya and I are going to Prairie City SVRA probably on sunday. I will likely make my first foray onto the actual motocross track and try not to kill myself (I've ridden the TT track at Metcalf and the Vintage MX track at Hollister but never the full MX track), I'll also lead or follow Tonya on some trail riding and work on some skills for her (shifting and breaking).
And hey, anyone who wants to either be a sponsor or part of my pit crew let me know. At cross country races you need to have a pit crew to do gas and goggles for the rider. For potential sponsors: I can't guaranty results but I will be doing my best. ;-)
I was giving Tonya time to blog this herself but I have lost my patience (the little I have!). ;-)
This last weekend (Saturday), Tonya and I picked out, bought, and picked up her new 2004 TTR-125LE. This was our compromise to her learning to ride a motorcycle. She said she would learn but she wanted to do it off-road so we could go dirtbike riding together. This solution didn't greatly upset me. After bringing the bike home we went over the basics of operation and Tonya started riding a big loop in our cul-de-sac (yes, I know it is technically illegal!). She only had one sketchy moment when she was first getting used to the bike she nailed the gas and went shooting off towards a parked car. She saved it with great skill and then slowly toppled over (she used the front brake). At the end of the day she was set for the next day.
Sunday, we went to the Santa Clara Motorcycle Park on Metcalf road. We spent a while in the novice oval doing laps while dodging kids on bikes and quads. Then we went out on trail 2. Tonya did a great job with some rather technical riding by taking it slow and steady. Before completing trail 2 we spent some time on the TT track. This was the only problem we had all day. In some soft dirt the TTRs rear washed out and Tonya had her second crash on a motorcycle. She was fine and so was the bike. In flailing trying to get her leg out from under the bike she managed to burn (very very very minor, her Fox Racing pants have a kevlar patch the slightly melted but basically protected her leg) her free leg on a hot exhaust pipe. Then when waiting for me to help her with her bike, some ASSHAT hit her bike doing the only real damage to it (cracking the rear fender). Her pants were irritating the burn so she called it a day there but we plan on more riding maybe next weekend.
In the extended body you will find the skills/exercises we have worked on and the ones we are going to work on.
Done: (In the street by my house)Having bought more new vehicles then almost any other 26 year old (at least any 26yo I know...) (my current count is: 7, '99 Tacoma, '00 Z3, '02 F650, '03 R1100S BXR, '02 Daytona 955i, '04 TTR-125LE) I have some experience with vehicle dealers. I'm also a friend of the owner of a small motorcycle dealer. I'm always very interested when I find articles online about either maximizing your vehicle purchase or horror stories from dealers about things customers have done to them.
I don't begrudge dealers making money. I also understand that people are buying, what for many, is the largest purchase they will ever make. Balancing this can be tough. People don't mind paying 100% markup on a $10 shirt or a $0.25 can of soda or even a $15 meal. A $30,000 purchase is entirely different. There are ways to manage your car purchasing experience. However, I have to say that I disagree with the idea that you should try to pay invoice on a car. Unless you are talking about a hold over model that is costing the dealer to keep around why should they make $0 on selling you a car? MSRP is MSRP for a reason. It builds in a reasonable profit for everyone involved. If you look at MSRP compared to dealer invoice that gap normally isn't that huge and it shouldn't be. Now, conversely in California, where we consume the largest percentage of cars in the US, dealers have started marking up cars with a dealer markup. To them I say MSRP is MSRP for a reason. I don't buy cars in my own neighbor hood because the dealers around me tend to markup. I flat won't pay a dealer markup, but I also don't mind paying MSRP. I pay MSRP on my food, my clothing, my computers, my motorcycle gear, so why not my vehicles?
When buying a car doing research is good. It allows you and the dealer to cut the bullshit. However, I lookup my new truck on cars.com. It seemed way off (the options valued at over $3000 only added $1,500 the the MSRP and the invoice. However, I ran it a second time and it seems to be more on the money. MSRP for my truck is about (I have a few accessories that weren't on the list) $31,550, and dealer invoice is $28,457. I paid MSRP. Now, this means that the dealer only made ~$3000 on my truck. Some would say that was a lot. Now, keep in mind, there were 3 people involved for 4 hours in selling this car. The sales manager, the sales guy, and the finance manager. In effect the dealer really isn't making that much money on the truck. Several dealerships I've talked to (I won't name names or anything like that because I never told them I would ever quote them in public) said that their sales department operates at either a slim profit or a loss. To stay in business they have to charge more for parts and service which is really how they support their dealership.
Take away from this what you will. I've never worked for a dealer, I don't own a dealer, and I never plan on it. I do buy a lot of vehicles and have had the occasion to talk to a lot of dealers. Just remember, get value for your dollar, but make sure you dealer will be there for you when you need him. My motorcycle dealer has gone above and beyond the call of duty for my several times. Because of this I am a loyal customer. I have had less good experiences at some car dealerships and will never go back to some. I have yet to find a car dealership that has ever treated me as well as my motorcycle dealer. In the extended entry body is info about my truck from cars. com and a list of dealers I like and don't like and why.
How I shop for a car: I almost always bring my significant other. I value her opinion and I like to see how she is treated by the sales people. I also tend to go with my parents. I value their opinions and I tend to be slightly less impulsive around them. I watch to see how they treat my father and my self and how they treat my mom and girlfriend. I will comment on all of these.
| Dealership | Location | Opinion |
| Folsom Lake Toyota | Folsom, Ca. | The service wasn't bad. The sales staff, like at many places tends to ignore women. I bought my first truck here. They weren't stealer and didn't go the extra mile to form a stong bond, but they made buying the truck a positive experiance. |
| Folsom Lake Ford | Folsom, Ca. | I have yet to actually buy from them, but they haven't been eliminated from my list. They do tend to ignore women, until you make it clear that the women's opinion is important. |
| Folsom Lake Nissan | Folsom, Ca. | I won't buy a car from them. They were pushy and agressive. I went there to look at cars when shopping around and after the test drive they wouldn't take a polite no for an answer. The jeep side was better (the dealer does multiple brands) but they still weren't happy with an answer of just shopping around. |
| Folsom Lake Dodge | Folsom, Ca. | The sales guy I had there was very nice. He accepted that I was just looking at trucks and wasn't ready to make a decision. He had no problem with the fact that I was shopping around. He answered all questions when on the test drive and when we said thank you, he gave us his card and went back inside. |
| Future Nissan | Roseville, Ca. | When I deferred to my girlfriend they start to take her more seriously but every new person who we dealt with had to go through that for them to engage with more then just me. I bought my truck here and would likely do it again. It seemed to take a very long time to do it compared to other purchases I have made. |
| Roseville BMW | Roseville, Ca. | My parents bought their M3 from them, I went with my father to buy the Z3 (that I later bought from my father) there and I tried to buy an MCoupe from them. The M3 and the Z3 went great. I was in the process of picking the options to order my M Coupe over the phone (I received the fax of available options and colors and was waiting for a call) that I never got. Apparently, during this time the sales guy I was working with left and the dealership changed hands. I might buy from them, or I might go to Alison BMW in Mountain View where I get my work done, or order directly through Dinan for a more custom BMW. The first two experiences were very very good. The second left my a little cold. In truth I could have called them back more then once for status. But to be honest when ordering a $40,000 car I don't expect to have to. |
| California BMW Triumph | Mountain View, Ca. | I have never had a bad experience with Cal BMW. I have a very personal relationship with most of the staff (when I walk in some times I feel like Norm or Cliff on Cheers). I have bought most of my motorcycles from them. (The only exception being the dirtbikes because they just don't sell dirtbikes.) I have brought Tonya along on some pre-buying/shopping expeditions and they have always been sure to include her in any discussion where they can. They have also been very good with merchandise and the like with either of us. |
| Redwood City Yamaha | Redwood City, Ca. | Tonya and I bought her TTR-125LE there. The experience was good. They seem a little lightly staffed (I have gone in there for parts for my YZ250F and also seen this). But all in all I can't complain. They were low pressure and didn't seem to ignore her. However, most of the questions went to me due to my experience in motorcycles. The experiance didn't seem quite as personal as the experience and Cal BMW but it was pretty good. |
| Peninsila Honda Ducati | Sunnyvale, Ca. | I live right across the street from them. I haven't been thrilled. They seem to be uninterested if your not really ready to buy that minute. They also don't allow test rides on sport bikes (they do at Cal BMW). I can't put my finger on where my unease comes from. I try to buy from them for things that Cal BMW doesn't have or do but it is hard and I can't quite put my finger on why. |
| MSRP | Invoice | |
| Base Price | $27,500 | $24,859 |
| Destination | $650 | $650 |
| Selected Options | $3,400 | $2,948 |
| Total Price | $31,550 | $28,457 |
I just finished reading the second of my literary holiday gifts. (The first being Microserfs by Douglas Coupland 
NFL won't allow live showing of game
Here is a summary: Little girl gets a make a wish wish. Her amazing wish is that all the other Terminally ill kids in her area get their wishes instead. Everyone is incredible moved by this and decide to throw a huge city wide bash, including the showing of a live NFL game. NFL asserts their "rights" and says the city can't do that... "...the NFL has a strict policy against showing live broadcasts to create a public event." Now, the NFL could have decided that this one case is OK, because it was for the make a wish foundation, or they could have decided that the state, whose own team was playing, had some latitude, because this is after all for charity. No, instead the respond with broken logic:
"All the professional sports leagues and the NCAA are very protective of their TV rights, and as more entities were wanting to show (the Panthers game) in a public forum, (the NFL) started to recognize that if they give one exception, they would have to give everyone an exception," McCrory said.
Which simply isn't true. As the holder of a copyright or patent or another intellectual property you have the right to do what you want with it. The NFL could decide that only certain bars, bars whose name starts with the same letter as one of the teams playing could show a game in a public setting. They could do that. They could choose to let the make a wish foundation and the city of Charlotte have an exception with out granting ANY other exceptions ever. That is their right as the copyright holder of the NFL games (watch a foot ball game on TV, the NFL maintains control of TV viewing of games by copyrighting them).
So now the city is changing the plans and is having a pre-game party/rally. I would guess this will be much less effective then the original plans, much less money will be raised and the make a wish kids are the ones that get screwed.
God bless the NFL, get bless them in their stupid asses. (Apologies to Kevin Smith for stealing and modifying a line from his great movie Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back which should read, "...fuck them, fuck them in their stupid asses...")
I got this from Sierra magazines January/February 2004 issue.
Apparently, Bush is changing environmental laws to suit his needs without any concern for the environment. To dispose of 90 million gallons of liquid nuclear waste it should be shipped to a deep-burial repository. Instead, the Bush administration wants to change its classification so that it can be left in concrete covered tanks ....which by the way are already leaking....and store them at old weapons facilities in Idaho, South Carolina, and Washington. State officals are warning that the waste could end up in nearby ground water and aquifers. In Idaho, a judge ruled that Bush's plan violated the Nuclear Waste Policy Act. So what does Bush do? Had the energy secretary Spencer Abraham ask congress to rewrite the law.
Rewriting laws isn't a new concept to Bush. Apparently, he's getting pretty good at it. To protect companies that dump mining waste into streams, he had the Clean Water Act rewritten to classify the waste as "fill." When a court blocked new oil drilling off the California coast , the commerce dept. proposed revising rules for the Coastal Zone Management Act that would weaken state's authority over off shore drilling.
I guess when you have the ability to change the rules you don't have to follow the ones you don't like.
I was reading an article from Sierra magazine while I was working. I've been training which basically entails me sitting with our new people and answering any questions that they have. So when they don't have questions, I have nothing to do. Luckily, another trainer left a couple magazines. Anyway I was reading this article titled "Why Bush's Sex-Ed Policy Doesn't Work." Nothing I read was really a surprise to me....I was basically aware of everything they discussed but the republican ass in charge of the abstinence program had a couple ridiculous quotes in the article so I thought I would share.
So the federal governement has given over half a billion dollars for abstinence-only sex education since 1996. Abstinence-only sex ed is absurd....but anyway. The schools are required to promote abstinence until marriage, contraceptives are only discussed in terms of failure rates, and instructors are not allowed to tell students how to reduce the risk of disease and pregnancy if they are sexually active. The part that pisses me off is that they integrate god and morality into the programs. Public schools are supposed to provide an education based on science not a religious education. If parents want their children to receive sex ed from a religious standpoint they should send them to a religious school or take them to church.
ok.....absurd quotes from ass named Dan Richey....Louisiana director for abstinence. "Bottom-line: When you're dealing with teenagers, the more sex information you give, the more sex you get." "Abstinence-only sex ed is less about health and more about a "cultural battle" in which promiscuity and reproductive freedom (which Richey calls "code for abortion") are pitted against patriotism, a determination to re-criminalize abortion, and fear of god." Quote from a video showed in a federally funded program "god covers us like an umbrella when it rains, but sex before marriage puts us outside the umbrella where god can't help us." I almost wish I had a child in a school in Louisana so I could sue.
Bright side......California is the only state not to accept money for abstinence-only sex ed programs. Why is it that Ca is the only intelligent state in the U.S.?
Meta gave me my present last night. Cash Unearthed, a great collection of rare Johnny Cash songs. All of it is stuff from his American label. It doesn't really have ANY of his old more famous stuff but it has some great covers and it has a some cool guest appearances.
My grandmother died over night. She was an amazing woman. I know everyone says that about everyone but she really was amazing. She was the one that took care of everyone, her husband, her family, her sister, then her grandchildren. She taught me how to do many things: shoot a bow and arrow, swim, make whipped cream without making butter, how to really make a bed, how to dive, how to shower with NO hot water, that bananas make most cereal better... My grandmother believed in getting the most out of everything. My grandfather got a new Cadilac sedan de Ville every 2 years. My grandmother had 3 cars the whole time I've been alive an early 70s Chevy Nova, an eighties Dodge K car, and my parents convinced her to buy a 90s Saturn sedan. She kept everything. When I was kid before my grandfather moved her to Florida, she had a room that was at one point one of her children's bedroom that was called the junk room. In it she had everything. She would go to garage sales and buy stuff and put it in there for people and she would go into the room when ever anyone was over to visit to find things to give them. She also read everything. She read more periodicals regularly than anyone else I know. She would cut out articles for everyone she knew if the article might at all interest them. I don't know if there was ever a moment in her day where she wasn't thinking about how to make what ever she was doing benefit someone in her life. Scratch that, every morning that she had a pool to swim in she would take a bar of ivory soap to the pool and swim and bath. That was her morning "bath" and I think that was probably the closest thing to selfish she ever did. Now I do have to say that my perspective is skewed, I was her first grandson and her oldest biological... (I have an older step cousin who came into the picture after I was born.) However, my mom called her saint Margaret, and I never felt that she meant it ironically. I'm going to miss her, and I'm very sad that she won't ever get to see any of her great grandchildren. I think she would have loved to be a great grandmother.
This weekend, my girlfriend and I picked out a new truck.
It is a 2004 Nissan Titan SE 4x4 with a king cab. Its silver with a grey interior. It has the offroad and the tow package along with an upgraded interior (nicer stereo, nicer driver seat, and an auto dimming rear view mirror).
I'm not getting rid of my Z3 if you are wondering. She is going to drive the Z3 and I'm going to drive the truck but mostly ride my motorcycles.
Here is a sample picture:
Saturday night Tonya and I watched the Pace FMX show at Arco Arena in Sacramento (It was part of my birthday present). It was a lot of fun. 3 guys on the tour could throw the back flip which amazed me. I didn't think anyone at the Sac round but Beau Bamburg could do it. They don't seem to have pictures from Sacramento up yet but if you poke around the site you can see what it was like. Our seats were great we were like 10 rows or so from the floor. The best part was the backflip super kicker ramp was RIGHT in front of us. We could watch every backflip right in front of us.
One of the things I liked a lot was no one crashed, at least not by accident. One or two guys were fooling around sliding their bikes into the tough blocks during the noise wheelie and whip competition.
