Busy, busy, busy and it all has to do with motorcycles.

On Sunday, I rode my trike to East Brunswick, NJ for the 11th ride on the Polar Bear Grand Tour. It was 20 degrees and I had to ride a total of 44 miles. Fortunately, the sun was out, the wind was nonexistent, and the roads were clear. I thought I was OK since I had my electric vest and gloves hooked up. But, as the ride progressed, I didn't feel much heat and I slowly realized that my battery connection was not working. Same thing happened last week to my wife and I found out that when the battery had been replaced in the spring, the mechanic had not reconnected the leads to the electrics. I was now waiting for a warmer time to strip off the seat and take a close look at the leads on my own trike. I left early after I took the pictures for the day and hurried home to make a 1:30 p.m. staff meeting of my GWRRA Chapter NJ-F. After that, we all went out to dinner together.

When I returned home, I got a burst of energy and decided to trace down the electrical problem with my electrics. It didn't take long to see that the connections to the battery were all OK. Then I noticed that the cap on the fuse in the line had popped off and the fuse was a bit loose. I repositioned the wiring and fuse holder and snapped it back into place. Then, I got heat through my vest when I tried it out. Guess that was the problem.

Last night I was busy working on the Motorcycle Views site when I heard a strong humming, crackling noise from outside and then everything went black. I mean the entire development of 500 homes went out in an instant. I had to feel my way through the house to get my flashlight. After about 30 minutes in the dark, I decided to take the old car out and look for the problem. I drove through my development and found no lights until I got to the very end of it and saw the shopping center in blazing light. I turned down the main highway and headed back toward home. I could see a truck working on the lines about a block ahead of where I finally turned off. About an hour later, the lights were back on. Tonight the New York TV channel 7 had a helicopter report taken last night over the next major intersection where the lights were out and the cops were directing traffic. Anyway, that incident really put a kink in my work schedule last night.

Today, I decided that I wanted to create a newsletter for the site and spent about six hours getting it setup. Now my site has a newsletter subscription box and the software behind it to handle the complete newsletter job. I was able to find a company on the Internet that could do the whole job for a reasonable price. If you intend to stick around with me as I continue to build the Motorcycle Views Web site, please subscribe to the newsletter. I plan to use it to point you to the new stuff as it's created and to hot forum discussions. Some people have told me that they miss my newsletters on the old site because they gave them a reminder to take a look at the site and forums. My new newsletter will continue this reminder service.

So, please look at the Motorcycle Views site. It's changing and growing daily. I've just added a Tattoo Gallery based on the best tats from my old gallery. Got a tat of your own? Send me a picture. Take a look at the Tattoo Gallery. And, don't forget to sign up for the Motorcycle Views Newsletter.

Also, if you have a big site, consider linking to me. Right now I'm competing with my old links on Google and they were very numerous and extensive. It's hard for me, the little guy on a new site, to compete with me, the big guy on the old site. The day is coming when the old site will be taken down and all my links will be gone. It's sad to see so much work go down the tubes but that's life I guess.