Null season approaches

It was bound to happen. The wakeboarding and trackday season is at an end. The next few months will consist mostly of going to the gym, riding my motorcycle with layers of warm/waterproof clothing, and hiking the local mountains. Last weekend Amanda, Dan B. and I hiked Little Si. It was a quick warmup to some of the longer hikes I want to do this Fall.
Every morning Amanda is up by 6am to drive down to Federal Way for school. I've ordered a little Scion XA to get her to school as it has 37mpg and comes with 30 options standard. We should get it sometime in the next month as I'm having side-airbags installed. In the meanwhile she drives my bimmer and I'm on the bike. Luckily it hasn't rained much recently.
One interesting thing about the end of summer is that Kirkland is restored to its natural state. The frat-boys and sorrority girls which invade K-town every summer have returned to Pullman, OSU, or WWU. It's entertaining to watch them invade every May, stumbling around in flip-flops/high-heels and khaki-shorts/short-skirts with fake tans, driving their parents Lexus or Escalade towing a wake-boat. But, they're usually too spoiled to have an intelligent thought in their brain. The cops get more and more annoyed at squidly sportbike riders. Eventually anyone who looks under 25 is a target. But, it's all in good fun and for the next 8 months Kirkland will regain some of its culture and class.
So, I guess Null season won't be so bad. Phil gets back tomorrow from 3 weeks in Italy and foozeball will be back in effect every weeknight. We'll also play lots of Settlers of Catan and hit the hot-tub whenever we have a chance. I'll also be holding nightly vigils to sacrifice to the snow-goddess for a good year on the hills! Let me know if you're around.

Oil sands of Alberta

Now that oil prices are at an all time high the world has been looking for alternative oil reserves to supply an ever increasing demand. Alberta is the location of possibly the largest oil reserve in the world. There are lots of issues however. The environmental consequences and energy/water consumption rates of open-pit mines or steam-injection to extract the oil from the Earth are dire. The US will be trying to secure all the oil for itself while China knocks on our door. And the oil companies will not want politics to stand in the way of income.

Macleans has posted an article named "Alberta is about to get wildly rich and powerful". It does a great job of summing up the issues. Enjoy the read.

Another close call

Last week Tom and I attended the 2Fast trackday at Pacific Raceways. Here are some pictures I took with his camera that day. It was the most successful day yet as neither Tom nor I crashed, we were well prepared and had the use of Greg's Chevy Yukon and trailer. I was rusty and a little nervous since my crash but it was the first time I was able to consistently get my knee down on turn 4 and 9. I'm still hoping to dedicate the R6 to be a track bike once I can afford having another bike for the streets. We'll see.

Thursday was another exciting day. Cam and I drove up to Canada to pickup Amanda and almost got into a major accident on the way. We unexpectedly ran into some traffic on the Pacific Truck Crossing offramp (north from I5). While waiting for it to clear Cam and I hear tires screaming and turn around as a shitty 1990ish hatchback comes carreening towards us. The driver was doing over 100mph and didn't expect the traffic late at night on a weekday. He skidded towards us and at the last minute I moved my car onto the shoulder. The hatchback spun 180 as it screeched to a halt just feet away to our right. I caught a glimpse of the passenger who appeared to be laughing! We were so pissed off that he almost killed us that we called state-patrol. The driver, avoiding an encounter with dozens of angry motorists, drove backwards down the offramp and took off up the highway never to be seen again. You never know I guess...

After narrowly avoiding death we picked up Amanda from the ferry and drove back to the border (stopping at Tim Hortons on the way... yeah Timmies!). Immigration was a pain as usual. Amanda's school advisor had not notified her of a $100 fee to be paid online. As the border guard put it "I have good news and bad news: you get to stay in Canada a bit longer, but can't come into the country until you pay your fees." Luckily, Phil helped us pay it over the phone and Amanda was admitted to the country while the border guards continued to make fun of Cam and I with statements like "Don't they have ANY Americans working at Microsoft?". And "What's wrong with US girls?". Cam and I had no choice but to wait patiently for the satisfying CLUNK of the approval stamp on Amanda's student-visa.

Friday we had a sweet party for Amanda's return and the start of her 2 year Dental Hygeine program. I got her the best 'welcome back' bouquet ever and everyone signed a card for her. We partied at my house, Trinity night club, and then finally ate breakfast at Minis. I spent most of the weekend making room for Amanda's stuff and getting my snowboard equipment ready for the season. I can't wait until it snows! Finally, Sunday the guys went for an awesome ride out to Snoqualmie.

MotoGP back in session

After a 4 week summer break the MotoGP is finally back in session. Not much has changed with Rossi still far, faaar in the lead. The race in Brno, CZ was still a great race though. Hayden and Edwards didn't do as well as I'd have liked but it was an exciting race with no crashes. The only incident was at the end when Gibernau ran out of gas. He's had no luck this season but is still pushing Rossi to the limits. As I predicted, Edwards is doing pretty well! He's currently 4th, ahead of Gibernau, with Melandri, then Biaggi ahead and Rossi at the top. It's a close race and should be a good season with only 17 points seperating the 2nd-7th place racers. As always the one stop shop for MotoGP news is www.motogp.com.

While on the topic, pictures of the 2006 motorcycle product lines are starting to surface. The new R6 looks amazing with a redesigned front-end, easy to remove rear fender, increased horsepower, slipper clutch, higher seat height, and first of it's kind stubby muffler. Checkout the pics in this article. It's going to redline at an amazing 17,5K RPM and the only downside I can see is it doesn't come in red.