Feeling Down

I had the realization a few days ago that I only ever feel the urge to post when I'm feeling depressed. No wonder nobody reads this blog! I wouldn't read this blog! :-p


I am feeling down now, thus the post. I thought I had friends who would be there for me, and I've recently discovered that they're not. It's not a pleasant feeling to find that you're not needed or missed. I'm feeling awfully isolated right now.


Adam and I had the chance to go to the temple with my parents last week, and we even decided to drag along his mom, which was nice. It was SO nice to FINALLY go. I don't know when we would have gotten to go this year, if it hadn't been for them. I was a little let down when I didn't get any specific direction for some problems on my mind. It feels like I've been placed on a spiritual hold. I guess that just means I'll have to go back again :)

And in exciting news, my parents loaned me their Wii for the next several months. My mom is hoping it will help me lose some weight, which was why I asked for it in the first place :) I'm also trying Slimfast. I figure it's worth a shot, and it will be beyond exciting to say that I've lost weight (any weight at all). A pound a week is the surest way to keep weight off, so that gives me until our 4th anniversary to lose a large chunk of the weight I've always wanted to lose. If Slimfast doesn't get me all the way there, maybe it will get me started on the path.

Also in the exciting news section is the completion of Financial Peace University. It is by far the best $100 we have ever invested. We paid off a little under $7500 during the 13 week course. My only complaint is that there isn't another class starting for quite some time. I had dreamed of being able to turn right back around and stay in a class, to keep the motivation and group accountability. We've tossed around the idea of starting our own class at our ward, but I don't know if anyone would attend. I mentioned it to the bishop, but only in passing. So, we shall see. With Adam's overtime (finally) going away, we're contemplating the multiple jobs route. The original goal was to have Frances paid off for Christmas, but we've adjusted that a bit with the acquisition of Daisy May. This time next year though, we should have nothing but Daisy May's payment and the student loans. At the end of next year, the student loans will be nearly gone. That thought is what keeps me going. It often seems impossible to fathom and other times it's so real I can taste it.

I hope this post hasn't been a complete downer, but maybe this blog should be repurposed to be an outlet for sad feelings. Maybe I'll get a new one, who knows. But, now you know why I haven't been posting as much.

Daisy May

I'm pretty sure Jax has already mentioned that we are calling the TU250X "Daisy May" instead of referring to it as "The TU" or "The Bike." She is fond of naming our vehicles as it sort of gives them a bit of personality above and beyond their engineered traits. Daisy has been pretty good to us so far. In the two weeks we've had her I have gone through four (4) full tanks of gas and one oil change.

On the very first full tank of gas, which we spent probably a third of the gas bimbling around our neighborhood (lots of hills) two-up (never good for gas mileage, especially when starting off on hills) we got 70 miles per gallon of gas. On the next one I got 75 miles per gallon of refined dead dinosaur. The third tank yielded 77 miles per gallon of black gold. The third tank also included the first oil change. It just so happens that I have a few liters (~quarts) of Repsol fully synthetic four-stroke racing oil left over from the R6, so I went ahead and put some of the best motorbike oil in the world into Daisy May. While it seemed a bit silly at first, it really smoothed out the shifting a lot more than I expected, due to the fact that most motorbikes use the motor oil to lubricate the transmission and clutch as well as the motor. I hesitate to refer to the shifting prior to the oil change as "clunky" or "agricultural," but it is smooth as butter now.

Anyway, on to the most recent tank of gas! This one is a little misleading since at least one of the miles on the odometer was accumulated by me pushing Daisy May. Yeah. I ran out of gas. Again. You might think I would start paying attention to the shiny, yellow light on the dash that indicates the fact that I am nearly out of gas. In my defense, it came on during the day, and it is very hard to see in direct sunlight, so I didn't know when it came on. At night I can barely read the trip odometer because it is so bright, but during the day the light just looks like a bit more glare unless you are looking at it specifically to check it. On the plus side, Daisy May is a lot easier to push along the road than the R6 ever could be. On the even bigger plus side, pushing Daisy May up a hill really isn't that hard since she weighs something like 100 pounds less than the R6. On the minus side, a lot of the gas stations in Little Rock close before midnight. I counted 6 closed gas stations before I found one that was still open.

Eventually Daisy May restarted and I was able to ride the last couple of miles to the open station, but it was still not much fun. And to top it all off, I only got 71 miles per gallon again, which I attribute to me leaving late and having to take the interstate a few times on this tank. Daisy can get up to interstate speeds, but it's pretty close to her absolute top speed. If I don't have someone to follow/draft behind then Daisy has to be her own wind-break, which doesn't work terribly well at 70 miles per hour. I guess I'll just have to get out of bed on time from now on... Dang it!