The forecast for today in Omaha is for partly to mostly cloudy and 35 degrees F for the high temp. I think maybe I better fire up my Moto Guzzi Stelvio, bundle up in my best winter gear and go for a ride.
Usually it starts out pretty well but over time my finger tips and toes start feeling numb, my nose gets to feelin' frozen and my body tells me it is time to get back to somewhere warm.....but it's always worth it, because I get to ride my Guzzi!
UPDATE:
I got out for a little ride and stopped over my friend Dennis' house. I saw his very nice HD Road King while I was there.
One of the very popular events in the Lenten season for Catholics (well prolly for all folks) is a good ol' fish fry.
The best one in Omaha is the Holy Name Catholic Church Fish Fry, every Friday night during Lent. Last night I went there with my brother Luke, friends Bret and Mike and Eric and Paula and some other friends to boot!
We started out at a local watering hole, the Homy Inn for a couple beers then headed to the fry.
The line is VERY long, winding out around buildings in the parking lot. We had about a 2 hour wait in line, but we had our trusty Boulevard Pilsner beer and good company to help get through it.
When we finally got to the grub it was very, very tasty! What a lot of fun it was!
Cold weather is moving back into the area tonight, with a low around 0 degrees F tonight and a high only in the mid teens tomorrow.
The bright side is there's a warming trend after that, with temps in the mid to upper 30's expected this weekend. I even saw one long range forecast that showed temps into the 50's by next week, but mos still show highs in the 30's maybe low 40s.
Today in the mail I got some new spark plug wires for my Guzzi. The ones I have in to now I mangled a bit last time I set the valves so I will replace them and keep the oldies as spares.
I started a new FaceBook group for Moto Guzzi riders in Nebraska.
Wednesday night I am really looking forward to meeting some of my good pals for a few pints and some tales at the Upstream Brewery.
Lately I have been doing really well putting in time on the treadmill my brother Luke lent to me. It's so much easier and nicer than having to bundle up and face the cold weather for some exercise. My lil workout room in the basement allows me to do the treadmill, work the weights a little and use my exercise mat for situps and such.
Maybe someday I will try to go to my brother Luke's pilates class....well, we'll see :-)
Life back here in Omaha has been a pretty big adjustment compared to Florida, but I am managing thus far. It's certainly been great to be able to see my good friends here on a regular basis.
I am liking the treadmill my brother Luke lent to me. This colder weather had been stifling my exercise and this treadmill is just the ticket.
My plan to is do the treadmill for 20-30 minutes in the a.m., then go home at lunch time on a daily basis and hit the treadmill for 30 minutes or so. Maybe 3 nights a week I will do an additional 30 minutes, leaving a couple nights open in case my pals want to have a beer.
I am also doing some light weight military presses to try to strengthen my shoulder as well as sit ups and some dumbbell curls.
In May I am planning to run a 10k with my brother Luke (who is planning to do a half marathon at the same event).
I am getting in the mood to start planning places I want to go on my motorcycle this year. I am sorta concerned at this point due to my shoulder being injured and how it would hold up on a long trip.
Anyway some places I would like to go are back to Florida to see my friends there, to the desert southwest to see my friends there and maybe to an area like Yellowstone Park or somewhere around there, with some really nice roads to ride.
Lotsa wishful thinking at this point. I am pretty good at that.
Del Shannon tunes are what keep me going on the treadmill lately. Here's another Del tune. Man, I am starting to think nobody wrote more songs about heartache and heartbreak. Another great rollickin' Del Shannon tune, circa 1982.
In the mid 1980's Del Shannon recorded a bunch of country songs for a never released album. This was one of them. He sure seems to be having a good time singing it. Just 5 short years later he took his own life. :(
Last night I went on a free tour of a new local brewery and distillery, Lucky Bucket Brewing Company. They currently offer three different beers and they also make a premium vodka.
Recently my friend Bruce brought in some of his famed MeatPan Pie. I call it that even though he calls it meatloaf. But instead of making it like a traditional meatlof he instead spreads the mixture of meat and other business into a cookie sheet with sides on it. This way it cooks in about 10 minutes instead of an hour or so on a normal meatloaf.
Bruce uses ground turkey, ground beef, oats along with shredded zucchini, yellow squash, carrot and onion in his MeatPan Pie.
After it bakes he tops it with a mixture of diced tomato, spinach and garlic that he sautees in a pan.
My brother Luke stopped by today with his old treadmill in tow. He has very graciously allowed me to use it. These cold winter days are making it very difficult to get out for my daily walks, something I had no issue with whilst living in Florida.
Below is a little pic of my makeshift exercise room. Please take note of the massive amount of weight on the bar, which is the amount I have to work out with until my messed up right shoulder gets better(which it slowly seems to be doing).
Also below is a pic of Morhardt Brewing/Galardi Fine Ales n Such latest creation, our first ever lager, Shuriken Lager. It's not too bad at all. This pic was taken in the basement bar of my friend Bruce "the Spruce Goose" Krause.
Earlier in the week I spied the forecast for Saturday. High of 33F and cloudy with light snow coming later in the day. All week I hoped it would hold up and I could squeeze in a ride on my Moto Guzzi Stelvio.
This morning it looked like I had a window of about 3-4 hours where I could get out for a ride. I saw the snow on the radar but figured I could get out to the winter Open House in Marne, Iowa (75 miles away) and back before the snow started flying.
So I bundled up in my Moto Guzzi winter gear, hopped aboard the Stelvio and headed east. It was cold, yes, at 31F for most of the ride, but bearable.
Baxter Cycle was PACKED with cars and trucks but alas only two other bikes, an OLD BMW flat-twin and a late 90's Triumph Sprint.
I stopped for a few pics, including one of a very cool massive windmill farm along the interstate and also a few pics from a scenic overlook tower. Just as I got to the top of the tower, snow flakes started falling, and I was still prolly 20-25 miles from home. By the time I got home a good light snow was falling upon the Stelvio. Talk about good timing!
Here are some pics below but click the link below to see all 31 pics on Photbucket!
Grand Funk Railroad tune AND my younger brother Luke cuttin' the rug to it! Watch for him to appear about 30 seconds in...then he takes over the dance floor!
I had some time and favorable weather to head out for a walk at Lake Wehrspann this a.m. The newly fallen 4 or so inches of snow made for some nice scenery and with temps around 30F the roads were just wet and easily passable.
Here are another couple tunes from Del Shannon, the rock n roll legend. Lost in a Memory is from his last album, released in 1991 after his death. TO Love Someone is from his Tom Petty produced album "Drop Down and Get Me", released in 1982. What a great, unique voice he had. February 8th is the 20th anniversary of his passing. Rock On Del....
Today was the day for finally getting my Guzzi Stelvio inspected, titled and registered in Nebraska. So I took a long lunch and geared up and rode the bike over to Sarpy County's DMV offices.
Strage how I got a lot of looks from people in cars. I mean it was 29F and cloudy and a bit breezy, but I found it to be fairly comfortable weather for a short ride. The folks at DMV were no different as I could feel their stares as I walked around with my helmet in my hand.
Well after a snafu caused by the state of Florida originally titling my bike as an Aprilia (Moto Guzzi parent company for a short while in recent years) instead of a Moto Guzzi, it finally all got worked out, a new title was created, I paid my fees and got a new Nebraska license plate. I am legal and so is the Mandello Eagle!
In early 1959, Rock n Roll star Buddy Holly was readying to go on a three-week tour across the Midwest, opening on January 23, 1959, with other great performers such as Dion and the Belmonts, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson. He assembled a backing band consisting of Tommy Allsup (guitar), Waylon Jennings (bass) and Carl Bunch (drums) and known as The Crickets.
The tour turned out to be a miserable ordeal for the performers, who were subjected to long overnight travel in a bus plagued with a faulty heating system in -25°F (-32°C) temperatures.
The bus also broke down several times between stops. Following a performance at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa on February 2, 1959, Holly chartered a small airplane to take him to the next stop on the tour.
He, Valens, Richardson, and the pilot were killed en route to Moorhead, Minnesota, when their plane crashed soon after taking off from nearby Mason City in the early morning hours of February 3.
Don McLean referred to it as "The Day the Music Died" in his song "American Pie".
The lager which the Enforcer and I have been brewing was put into the party pigs recently. Today I decided to draw a bit from each pig to give a quick check for color, clarity, carbonation and flavor.
I am very encouraged by what I saw. Though the head and carbonation have a way to go (to be expected since we just "pigged" it last week), the color is a beautiful gold, the clarity is already excellent and the taste, even at this young age, is very good!
