You just never know when...

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Originally uploaded by mechanicaldan1

...you might almost get into a car accident. I've been over in Norway for almost a week now on business, and was riding with a co-worker on the way to dinner to meet some customers, when we almost got hit by a car. It was close. We were in the middle of a rounabout, when this black VW Golf enters the roundabout and just about slams into the passenger side of the car. I was on the passenger side and got to see the entire surreal thing. It was almost...like one of those Volkswagen commercials where the people are talking inside the VW, and then WAM!!! Luckily, my co-worker was watching the car and expected it, and slammed on the brakes just in time to avoid a collision. Unlukcily, the girl driving the VW swerved, ran over a center median after leaving the roundabout, and overcorrected and crashed into a ditch and drove over a sign. The two girls were OK, just very shaken.

You just never know when "it" might happen to you. So, give your significant other a hug, enjoy a sunny day, stay in touch with friends and family, stop to smell the roses, and overall try to enjoy life to the fullest.

Things to do around Aberdeen and Scotland

I thought I would try to make it a little more enticing for people to come and visit by adding a section that has hyperlinks to things to do around Aberdeen and Scotland. Dena and I will hopefully be able to get out and see more of Scotland as our house gets settled. We've been spending most of our weekends organizing the house, doing housework, or doing yardwork. I want to get out and see things and have fun! I missed the Great Britian Beer Festival , but I did find out with a little more surfing that there is one coming up in Aberdeen! The Aberdeen & North East Beer Festival will be be at Pittodrie Stadium November 22-24, which unfortunately is Thanksgiving Day for most of you back home. I'll try to get events posted to my Google Calendar, so you can see what's coming up, and so Dena and I have fun things to do.

It's Wonderful Wednesday!!!

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Originally uploaded by mechanicaldan1

What a great day it's been! It's just one of those days where the karma planets are aligned and everything goes your way. Today was simulateously one of those days for both Dena and I. My day started with a great ride to work on my motorcycle. There was an issue at work, but things all worked out by noon. Our collosal plle of cardboard was picked up by the moving company. The care package from Dena's godmother arrived with a bunch of goodies from the states.
Our US based HSBC bank account information arrived, so I can finally transfer money a LOT easier from US dollars to British Pounds. We finally heard back from the real estate agent that the owners of our house have agreed to pay to fix the hole in the wall in our master bedroom, and we get to paint it any color we want and won't have to repaint it before we leave. AND, the best news is that we picked up our BMW!!!


I've uploaded the first pictures of our shiny, white BMW 120d. It was really fun picking it up from John Clark BMW. Chris, our salesman, has been super friendly and helpful the entire way. I especially enjoyed having him show Dena and I all the little features of our car, and was just dumb-founded when he told me that the car does not have a dipstick to check the oil. No dipstick? Really, no dipstick! There are sensors that feed back to the computer to tell the level of the oil and the oil pressure. I'm kind of doubting if I'll ever have to open the hood while we're here. There isn't really a key to speak of, more of just the keychain remote. Our BMW is equiped with the comfort access, so the remote can just stay in our pocket. I just have to push the button on the dash to start the car. It really is a nice little car. It has LOTS of torque, and just had to do a little burnout since it was raining. The traction control light on the dash came on and fused at me.

I've also uploaded some pictures of some of the rooms in our house. As I've said, we're still unpacking boxes, but have a look around. I plan to add pictures as we make progress in each of the rooms, so that we can watch the progress. I snapped a picture of our house keys and remote on the kitchen counter. I thought the picture instantly points out that it wasn't taken in the states. The outlets are huge, and they all have their own on/off switch. The electric kettle for heating water for tea, and if you look close enough, you might find a reflection of me. There is also our house keys which have some skeleton keys on the keychain.

Not quite Edward Scissorhands and other random rants from Aug 11-12

On Friday, I brought my rear rim from my Kawasaki in and had a brand new Pirelli Dragon Corsa III rear tire installed. The III is for the three different compounds of rubber. The center is a harder compound than the edges, so I should get longer mileage, and still have really sticky edges when I'm leaned over. The weather has definately gotten better, and it's sunny more often, but still very cool. Most days don't get any higher than 70°F. It's like eternal Spring. I love it!

The hedges in our backyard have been looking a bit "bushy", so on Saturday I busted out the hedge trimmer. I had momentary grand visions of Edward Scissorhands, but anyone that has groomed hedges knows that they take years of grooming to fill out to a specific shape. I just eyeballed as straight of an edge on the top and sides as I could. Good enough for rental property. My forearms took a bit of a beating, and look like I was playing rough with an angry kitten.

We unpacked some more boxes, and are getting pretty close to being done. The pile of broken down cardboard boxes is over half way to the ceiling in our Dining Room. Dena's couch and chair that she had recovered for the reading room should be delivered this week, and the TV console and end tables for the living room should come in also. Funny thing is that we don't have a TV yet, which is another interesting topic, as I've just started to become aware that analog TV will be going away over the next 5 years. This is happening globally, as all the countries are switching to digital TV. So, if we buy a TV, we need to make sure that the digital signal works both in the UK and US, and the power cord can be plugged in both the UK and US.

The best news came just a couple of hours ago. Our Salesman, Chris at BMW called, and said we can pick up our car on Wednesday! I'm so excited!!!

Kawasaki pictures

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Originally uploaded by mechanicaldan1

I finally took the time to take a few pictures of my Kawasaki. I've always liked the blue. Overall the bike is pretty decent. The rims lips are polished, there is an undertail cover and a painted rear fender. I have a blue windshield to install and an anodized blue slip-on exhaust as soon as I can get the broken bolt out of the hole. I also snapped a picture of my garage and of the tires after a ride home after work tonight. It's really sweet to be able to scuff the tires just on the way home. The swingarm must be at a slightly different angle than my old 900RR. I've been able to really pin the throttle a few times on the Kawasaki, and it's fast, but it doesn't come up and wheelie as easily as my Honda would. That's actually a pretty good thing.

Motivational bike pics

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Originally uploaded by mechanicaldan1

I was sent a link to these photos from a co-workers. I've saved the Adventure on as my current background. There's just something about seeing a brand new GSX-R in a foot of water. Most of the pictures came from http://www.mac-pac.org/temp/motivation.html Have a laugh as you read through all 24 pictures. Enjoy.

Awesome ride to work, house progress

Wow, what a fantastic ride to work this morning. It was raining, a bit cool, and traffic was backed up for miles. Normally, in the states, this would not have been a good ride, but here, in Scotland, where I can legally lane split and ride in between cars and trucks made it a AWESOME ride. I had a grin on my face from ear to ear. Oh, and it gets better. Many times, cars will actually move over and give you more room! I'm pretty sure I've arrived in biker heaven. Want more proof? On just a normal ride to or from work, when I arrive, my tires are plenty warm, and the rubber on the edge of my tires is all scuffed. It's just wonderful how much lean angle I get riding to and from work. I'll take a picture sometime this week. On Friday, I'm getting a new sticky Pirelli Dragon Corsa rear tire. Wo Ho!

Dena and I got a lot accomplished on the house over the weekend. I cleaned the garage, so I can actually work on the bikes. I did manage to bleed the brakes on my Ninja, and they are better, but still not great. Our new bed came in during the middle of last week, so we're actually sleeping on a bed, instead of on the floor. It shouldn't make that much of a difference, but I'm sleeping a lot better. We managed to unpack a few more boxes. I've found that all our lamps can be easily converted with just a 240V bulb and some new plugs. On Sunday, Dena and I did some yard work, and started the process of grooming the back yard hedges into a somewhat defined shape. We also painted her upstairs Art Room a very bright green. It literally dried to Kawasaki lime green!

Saturday night, I played with my phone a little more. The HTC S710 is really brilliant. I've been a little bummed that my company SIM card has the internet deactivated, but the phone does have Wi-Fi, so I play with it at hotspots around town, and at home on our wireless network. I was trying to send MMS messages, but I stumbled on to setting up email accounts. I was able to have email from my Yahoo, Gmail, and my work email all pushed to my phone. I wasn't on Internet Explorer, my email was being pushed directly to my phone. Maybe this isn't too big of a deal, as the phone can do all this, but it was really easy to set up. What makes email and texting really nice is the slide out keyboard. I can also edit Word, Excel, Power Point, and read PDF files. I'm just impressed with how much can be done on mobile phones, in some fashion, that laptops could 10 years ago.

Let's take a poll

Blogger added a new poll feature, so I'm going to try it out. I wanted to know how often people check my blog. I probably need to write more for you to read more. I'll work on that.
I've been putting a lot of hours in at work, which probably isn't surprising, considering I was brought over here to help increase business.