5 year plan underway

Not even 20 minutes ago, I sold my 2006 Triumph Speed Triple.
For the last few months I've hardly even glanced at her.
She spent most of the pregnancy in the Manderbuilt Estate on her jack stands and hooked up to the tender to stay warm through the cold months.
Ok, I'm not sure what else to say, I'm not sure all of this has set in for me. I feel like I need to be out at the bar, Drinking because I've lost a dear friend.
Maybe tomorrow
Slainte!

Big Day today

Big news today!

Stella did a few push-ups! & she has 2 teeth comming in, Oh and I think she is gonna be a Lefty, With red hair.

Did I mention, I'm a stay at home PoPPa? I go by PoPPa these days.

I work (massage) on fridays and mondays from 9-12 and all day saturday and sunday. Michelle goes in to work M-F from 1-6

So It's me and Stella M-F from 1-on.

SO, I'm looking in to those pull behind trailers these days. You know, the ones for kids. She needs to be 18 months for the long hauls. I still have some time to shop around. However, Chariot makes the one I want. It's so bad ass. You can dial in the suspension for streets OR trail. You can make it a stroller, jogger, and even add snow skis to it! Who knew I'd be stoked about a kids pull behind?

I was worried about my cycling and other ways of life coming to a halt when we decided to have Stella. She has only brought more joy in to my life. Now I have a little MiNi Me to play with and take out on the trails.

All for now,

Kev

DaDDy Day Care

So it has began. The Next chapter of being a PoPPa.

Michelle started back to work today. She took 9 weeks maternity leave to recover and adjust to the new addition in our lives. As planed, I got a massage job with some flexibility. It works like this. On Mondays and Fridays I work from 9-12. I know, just a few hours. Michelle goes in to work at 1pm M-F and works till 6pm. So as long as I'm home by 12:30 to make the

Switch-Ah-Roo, there is no need for day care. Being in the massage bizz, My Big Money Days are Saturday and Sunday. As for Tuesday - Thursday. I'll most likely be pulling a double with Stella. This will free up Michelle for a few hours before she goes in to work. Giving Michelle her "Me Time" to do her working out and socializing. On those evenings when Michelle gets home, I'll be working in my massage clientele at my office space. As for my "Me Time" I don't know, I'll squeeze it it there somewhere.

Side Note;

I think Michelle drank a lot of coffee this A.M. Stella will not go to sleep. Total fake out. She does the cute little yawn, I rock her to sleep, put her down for the count. Then 8 minutes later she pops back up like she has been asleep for 6 hours. OK so it's Decaff for Michelle tomorrow.

This just in.......

Michelle just called home from work and i told her about Stella's fake outs. She thinks Stella is starting to extend her awake time. Sweet! This means more play time for the two of us!

Primal Instincts

I love my city early in the A.M. Long before the corporate stampede arrives, There is a quietness here. No, a stillness that not many get to witness in this metro. My hour of ME TIME seems to drag along. Some mornings it feels like 2 hours. After the Blue Berry Ugly has seen its last moments of day light. I flush it on down with what is left of my coffee. Pedal over to the ATM to do some banking. Then head back to my bungalow where I trade shifts with my team mate. Tagging her out so that she too can have her " ME TIME"



Sleep.........
When you are running low on sleep you start to function on a primal level.
This past week I've been up around 4:30/5am almost every day. When i say up. I mean I've given up on trying to sleep anymore through the night. At this point the primal instincts set in.
Maybe i should call them primal needs. These needs are very basic and a Must Have at this time of day.
1. SEX
2. CYCLING
3. COFFEE
4. SWEET BREAKFAST FOODS
This is the reason you should choose a good team mate when you decide to start a family.
My wife understands these Primal Needs as i understand hers. So over the past few days it's been just like that.
1. Wake up! What time is it? 4am! The baby is hungry. Change her if needed and get her to a boob ASAP. Put the baby back to sleep. OK Now I can't sleep. Quality time with the misses.
2. Head out on the bike. Point it towards the up town. Hunter Gatherer mode sets in.
3. Stop in to a Non Bucket Head coffee shoppe for a cup of the high test
4. Oh how i love those Blue Berry Uglys with my coffee.
This is my ME TIME. The time I take for my self to decompress from it all.

5 Year Plan

No room here for a car seat.

I'm a big kid. Playing in traffic on my 450 Lb. toy

Base camp @ Sun rise.

The Parkway early fall.

Out with the old & In with the new.

The 5 year plan has began.

Stella, the new love of my life leaves me little time to my self these days. No time to sleep, No time to eat and hardly time to take a shit, shower or even shave. That being said. We, Michelle (my wife) and I have noticed that the vehicles we have bought and paid for, no longer work so well for our latest addition to the family. I have a 10 year old 4X4 2 seater truck and a sweet ass motorcycle with a few more years left to pay it off. She has a 8 year old 2 door sedan. We have been tossing around the idea of up grading to another vehicle. One that will provide the family with enough room for Stella and her stuff = 85% and our stuff = 15 %.

We went on a road trip this weekend. Taking the sedan, we also brought along our 14 year old nephew. It was tight. A little too tight for a 3 hour car ride (1 way). Long story short. The motorcycle is the first to go. I've posted it to craigs list along with some sweet pix of the good times i've had on it. This just made sense and it is for the greater good of the family. I have no time to do the kind of motorcycle riding i use to do. With a new born, when will i get to take another 5 day trip on the BRP? No time soon. Thats for sure. It's a monthly payment I could be making on a vehicle that can get us in to the mountains for a family camping trip. Or a trip to Charleston,SC to visit other family for hollidays. Michelle and i have decided that in 5 years ER so we will both get new motorcycles and dog. I guess only time will tell.

All for now.

PoPPa

The Greenway in the Ballantoon.

My favorite.

I took this only 2 hours after she was born.

On May 15 2009 Stella Scott Thompson was born here in my home, in her room.

A healthy vegan baby. She was 8 lbs. 14 Oz. 20 1/2 inches long. My life has changed for the better in so many ways. I have never know a love like this. What do i know about babies? Nadda! But this life changing event is too big and too fun to worry with the minor details. Details like sleep. Sleep is a funny thing. The lack of sleep for weeks on end will do weird things to the psyche. For my wife, Stella's melt downs in public are huge and often the reason we don't get out as much as i'd like. However, we have been working on this over this past month and have learned the signs to look for in our little girl. Alot of it has to do with timing. Today we went out to a mid day movie. We have Stella on a sleeping schedual. At first it was 90 minutes awake and 90 minutes asleep or untill she wakes up. Now she sleeps in 4.5 to 5 hour blocks. I'd imagine that my blogger will become mostly about my wife and kid. The things I learn in raising a family and the things i come to enjoy most about being a PoPPa.

All for now

Werd to ya Mutha

It's funny how things in life work out. I bumped in to an old friend one day. I use to work with her ^. We spoke of meeting up for beers at a later date. Then that night, over beers, we got to catch up a little. The conversation was amazing that night. We are still having that same conversation.

Check out the BLING!

Giving the new nephew a beat down.

I'd do it all over again if I could . I wouldn't have changed a thing.

Words to the rest of the family from my mother in law.

Date: Monday, November 17, 2008, 9:48 AM>
I survived the weekend and the prep leading to the weekend. It rained like hell on Friday and we started putting a Plan B into place in case Saturday's nuptials had to be inside. Couldn't complete the yard work; ergo, we let it go. Cindy came 1st thing Saturday morning and did flowers she ordered from the Farmer's Market. Who knew she had a flower talent, but she does. The flowers were plentiful and she arranged them better than I could. I garlanded the banisters since it figured into Plan B. The groom's mother and granny came an hour early since they were bringing food and the same went for Steve and Marie. They were quickly followed by Michelle, then Cindy, Mike and Micah. This was the first meeting between Kevin's family and Michelle's. The forecast rain did NOT happen and the temperature was mild. Hooray.
Kevin and his pals came with the white folding chairs and put them on the patio. Michelle was cool as ever. She had broken a strap of her busy, color-patterned dress and needed a needle and thread to repair it. She tried to pin me down as to what I thought of the appropriateness of the dress." Was it too Hoochie-Mamma?" I was vaguely supportive that it was fine and she replied that I wasn't helping. Bob said he was not going to offer an opinion because it was a no win question. When it came to light that she had a second dress with her and it didn't need needle work, I suggested she change into her backup choice. The backup dress was dark blue and ,having no go-with flats, the bride went shoeless in the wet grass: besides the ground was soaked and heels would have been a handicap. The minister, Linda Boozer, is a friend of Michelle's. She spoke of Kevin's pick-up line to Michelle when they met and their first date: a moonlight hike with flashlights. The minister acknowledged baby Stella as there to witness the marriage of her parents. The couple wrote their own vows. They spoke softly and said they accepted the other for who he/she is now and promised to accept the other for who he/she becomes. An airplane flew over during Michelle's vows. She paused briefly but continued, fearing the guest would think she'd forgotten her lines. Kevin promised to always let Michelle have the first bite of his waffle. The tee-hees threw him. He recovered. A fire truck, which I tuned out, his heightened senses picked up, as it passed in the distance. My neighbor loaned us 2 big purple potted something-or- others for my front porch. Michelle brought all sorts of potted plants and flowers and a black wrought iron table and chairs for the patio and porches. Cindy's friend loaned potted plants for the back retaining wall. All of these will disappear at the stroke of midnight and my house will again be in tatters and I will sit by the cinders and hope to be rescued by the prince and my fairy godmother. As this isn't a fairy tale, that won't happen. Dinner was a kitchen buffet line of lasagna, salad: both green and pasta, bean soup, dill carrots,and brussel sprouts. Before the ceremony we had appetizers of boiled shrimp, shrimp paste on crackers, brie with fruit and crackers, tapanade and crackers, humus and vegetarian chips. About the house we had dark chocolate covered pecans and salted peanuts. Dessert was a two tiered vegan cake. The top layer was yellow lemon and bottom was chocolate raspberry. In all there were about 20 in attendance in our home for the wedding. Bob and I opted out of the continuing festivities in Belmont that night. I believe some did frolic. Lydia and I did, however, join Steve and Marie, Cindy, Mike and Micah for a smorgasbord Sunday brunch at Upstream on Sunday. Steve Mack treated us all. Bob and Joe tailgated for the Panther's game and enthuasticly wore> the Panther toboggans Lydia had knitted to the Panther's vs. the Lions football game. As the Panthers won, the toboggans are now deemed The LUCKY Hats. As if we had an ounce of party left in us, on Sunday evening we headed to Gastonia to Kate's Roller Skating> Rink for the big wedding reception for friends and relatives of the couple. I missed the memo stating to come in costume from the 70's and was surprised to see guests in Afro wigs, prom dresses, jumpsuits, plaid pants and newsboy caps. Christina wore a kilt that barely covered her black bloomers and she pushed her baby round and round the oval rink in a stroller. I'd see the wee pink toes and baby fingers wiz past as I sat safely un-rollered in a booth eating pepperoni pizza and sipping Pepsi Cola. Bob ate a hot dog and a cup cake from the cup cake tree. At the far end of the rink 2 dudes in helmets battled it out in a blow up boxing ring. Their weapons were air filled boop 'em sticks with big hammers on each end. Kevin's mom made his favorite cake- German Chocolate- and eventually, we had some of that goodie. Kevin's Granny was hanging in there with the pop music and bestowed on Michelle 2 lockets, each with Kevin's baby picture. The skating rink dude challenged revelers into races and a game of musical paper plates. The bride, who wore a white baseball type hat with a toole white veil, declined to race proclaiming to be with child as her excuse. Cindy raced and came in third. She was bested by the attractive redhead in a strapless black cocktail dress. The lovely prom queen in the aqua formal was handicapped by the length of fabric jailing her long legs. This material, she attempted to gather up into one hand and thereby liberate her gaily knee highed, striped socked legs. For those unfamiliar with Musical Plates it is played just musical chairs but instead of chairs on the rink, the rink master keeps removing one paper plate. Meredith's youngest daughter won this but I suspect the young adult males let her win for fear of hurting her in a> mad dash to plop their bottoms on the remaining plate. Bob and I left the reception before it concluded but not before the slicing of Tina's moist German Chocolate cake. We took 2 slices home. I went to bed around 9:30 last night and awoke around 5:00AM. Life goes on. Bob is at work and so are the bride and groom. Cindy starts a new nanny job today and Joe and Lydia are back in Asheville but leaving today for the long drive to San Miguel. It has been the most ambitious summer into fall that I can remember. We get by with a little help from our friends.
If I knew how to forward photos, I would. We'll see. I am not giving younger minds a chance to edit this telling before I mail it. That means it could contain flaws. What the hey. I'm a story teller not an historian. File it or not. The mother of the bride has spoken.
-Nette

I could not have said it better

An Old Blog from a few years back

Thursday, February 22, 2007
Motorcycle Diary

I am gonna just start out by saying that this journal is all me. its about who i am and what i am. i wont hold back on my feelings and my gramer/spelling is not one of an english major. if i strike a nerve, piss you off, make you laugh, cry or make you want to tell me to go fuck myself, slap my face or even take a swing at me. then ok, you get it. well... not all of it. but enough that i moved you. this diary will be an on going story of my every day life as i live it. i'll try to keep up with daily entrys and i'll try to make it as clear and as understandable as possible. most of my stories will be about my motorcycle adventures. feel free to comment as often as ya want. i work better in front of a large audience.
2-23-07 (Granny's Birthday) i woke up tired this AM to the sound of my dog russeling around. she is 14 now and has a hard time holding her bladder. so i jump outta bed to save myself from having to clean up piss or worse, not see it and step in it sock footed. i get on the bike well after noon with no real plan. just gonna ride towards the mountains. maybe morganton, maybe asheville. i hate that its a 2 hour ride to get to any good twistys. Colorado cant come soon enough. so i am west bound 485 from charlotte to 85 south. i love that 1 sweeper at the 485/85 change over. i pulled 97mph. through it today passing a grayhound bus on the outside. i dont always ride like that. sometimes ya just wanna scare your self a bit. so its 85 south for ever till i hit 321 outta gastonia. then another long haul towards lincolnton. i get to lincolnton. now things start to pick up. its highway 27 for 2 miles tops. then on to 182. this is a dimond in the rough. (thanks mark) it winds and twist all through the NC foot fills. not telling ya any details. ya just gotta ride it. i take it all the way to 18 then to old18 i think, maybe its the other way around. anyhow....ya end up in morganton. time to gas up and shake it all off. about 100 miles sofar. now on to 181, roughly 30 miles more to the top where we turn around or keep going for an over nighter. (i miss those tuesday nighters) today on 181 it was different. i didnt have mark w/me. i had a new guy. an old man i had walked passed in the gas station. he ended up behind me all the way up the mountain. at first i thought he was fucking w/me. i pulled away, he would catch me, i would pass on a double. he would too. i even did 90mph on the straights. i was starting to think he might be working w/the cops to try and bust me. but no, turns out he is just a cool old dude with HIS NEW TOY. a new jeep cherokee with a super huge hemi v8 "THE BIGGEST ONE THEY MAKE" he says with a grin from ear to ear. he gets out at the top and comes over to meet me. he is like 80 years old and still plays like a teenager. "i just wanted to tell you that i had fun driving up here behind you just now." we shot the shit for a few and i headed home.not cause i wanted to but, cause i had to. i have to work tomorrow. the wind was crazy and hammered me all the way to the top. the temp had droped from 78 at home to around 45 at the top. so i was tired and headed back the same way i went up. mark missed a good ride today. END
3-16-07 (I am still there)
well in my head i am still there. i rode what is known as The Dragon on tuesday. its U.S.129. google map it for more visual details. the long and short of it.....318 curves jamed packed in to 11 miles. most people cant visualize what that may look like. to me it was like riding a rollercoasters rails on my motorcycle and having sex at the same time while trying not to fall off the cliffs and not get cliped by any cars that cant stay in their own lanes. this road is so curvy that tractor trailers cant drive it and hafta be towed out.
i worked monday. work didnt need me on tuesday and i was off wednesday. so i call mark to see if he wanted to ride. he says..."i already am" i was like "sweet!" "where can i meet ya?" he laughs and says "i'm at moms 45 minutes from the Dragon" "GOD DAMMIT!" i said. he invites me up.
i am up at 7am the next morning (tuesday) and heading west bound 4 hours.(no hawks the whole time) FOUR HOURS of SLAB! nothing but straight lines all the way there. not to mention but i missed the highway 74 exit by 30 miles and hadda turn around. so i get there FINALLY! mark meets me on the side of the road just off an exit ramp. an hour and a half later we get to the dragon. i am tired as hell and have not had much to eat. i grab a snickers bar and a red bull from the gas station. we sit and chat with other folks that are there for the same reason. and its off we go. still tired and kinda outta it i head up the Dragon. i flip on my chatterbox and mark is already calling out the road hazards to look out for. "um sorry dude,i missed that" / "i said, look out for the dried cement splatter spots, ya hit those and it will send ya off the side of the mountain" ok....i can feel my heart in my throte as the red bull starts to kick in. FUCK IT! this is my ride. so i took my time getting up this curvy bitch. i was doing maybe 30mph. i got passed by 12 guys and a girl too. i meet up with mark at the top where the over look is. i sat for a bit leting it all sink in. it was like 70 outside. this was the day to be here if you were ever gonna. so back down we went. mark stops at a spot to take some photos. i musta took 10 passes. each one geting faster and faster. mark got some great pics of me. then we switched. my turn to shot photos. mark looks like a pornstar in the corners. i got some really great pics of all the action. so after all the fun of play'n hang ten speed racer style/austin powers photo shoot (YEAH BABY! GERRRR!) we headed down the back side of the dragon towards the Fontana Dam. AHhhh! the view of the north carolina mountains and the pink, orange and blue sky behind them is like nothing i have seen anywhere else. it was a calm ride down at the bottom. smooth long sweepers that ran with the rivers edge. (still no hawks) seeing a hawk is a me thing. an inside story. long and short of it.....if i see my hawk it usually means a good and safe ride. now try to pass that one by mark. so i didnt see the hawk, i sum it up as a (not needed today) all is well. as the sun dips down behind the mountains the temp starts to drop a bit. thats our Q! we set off towards marks moms. we have a little over an hours ride back. after the dragon ya merge in to U.S. 28 its kinda like a warm up for the dragon. then it opens up to high rolling hills and a few long sweepers. you can see down the road a few miles in spots. well i am kinda ancy so i drop down in to 4th gear and rip back on the throttle. i hit 102mph in no time and hold it for a second or two. mark gives chase. we do this back and forth a while. as soon as we get our fix we see a STATE TROOPER! i hear mark say "SHHHHhhhit" in his sarcasitc tone. i look down and i'm doing 70ish mark is right behind me. no biggie! just 70. its gotta be like a 65mph zone. NOPE! 55mph. we watch for brake lights and the quick turnAround. Nadda, nothing,zilch! we didnt like it. so as soon as he was outta sight we dipped in to a side road to hide out. mark couldnt see it but i had a grin from ear to ear. its like playing cops and robbers. after we waited 5 minutes we decided to move on. that shit was funny. hell, he was probly on his was home. after all, it was after 5pm and he works for the state. so we make it to marks moms. she has supper ready and waiting. i love this woman. super nice and dam she can cook. everything was alsome. mark said "try the baked beans, you will love em!" i had a plate full already so i'll hafta come back to them after i make room. man i am stuffed! now the beans.....oh my god! i have never had anything like this before. they had a viniger kinda flavor tucked in just behind the brown sugar. WOW! so i went back for more. i had too. i dont get a moms home cooking that often. after supper we previewed our photos from the ride and watch adult swimm on marks ipod. what a long day! END
5-14-2007 (all is quiet in my apartment compartment)
Well, it seems as though i have lost my riding partner and long time friend Mark H. Lots has happened over the last few weeks. I'm not gonna go into it all of that. So i have been riding alone alot these days. i dont mind it much. i just point and shoot. i ride where ever the roads take me. Last week was my last 4 days in a row off from work. i had planed on going up with mark to the Dragon. since the falling out between us, that was a no go. so i woke up monday late morning, had a big breakfast, put the bike in the back of the truck and off i went. i left around 12pm west bound for the Dragon. 4 hours later i get there. unload my bike, put the leather gear on, drink a redbull and off i went. i rode from the time i got there till the sun went down.
SEE WORD PROBLEM BLOG ABOVE.
6-17-07 (Mark's on his first trip up to the BRP)
So after 2 weeks of planing, my old high school friend mark and i got a ride together. we took a day trip up to the BRP. it was his first time out of the city on the road and into the hills. i was just as nervous for him as he was. well maybe not as much as he was. he took his time. on the straights and even more so in twistys. this was a good thing. unlike most of the squids that live in the city that are stunters. doing wheelies, shit like that. you know, i'd love to take any of those fucks into the mountains and leave them there. like on the hill side maybe, up top shaking in their ghetto fab leathers. cause those boys look good and if ya look good ya must ride good right? thats how things work on the ever popular MTv. So i got off on a tangent......mark and i had a blast! we took a left onto the parkway from 181 heading away from Asheville. i had never gone that way. with in a few miles we come up on the linn cove viaduct. these bridges were cool. at times they would head upwards into the sky and hook a hard left back into the mountain side. this gave it a ramp like feeling. like we were gonna just fly off into the nothingness and crash hundreds of feet below.........
7-15-07
When it rains.....
ok! it was a lovely sunday afternoon. i got outta work 3 hours early. i just wasnt feeling it and we were kinda slow. so i jumped at the chance to go for a ride. i called Pat at lunch and gave him a heads up. so at 2:30 i ran outta that place. called pat and it was on. by 3:30 we would be carving it up n the local twistys. ya gotta love the NC summers. ya never know when the weather is gonna flip on ya. it always looks like its gonna rain in the summer but rarely does. Pat and Jason show up around 3:45. i have known these guys for 4 years now, we use to ride bicycle trials together. they still do. i dont so much anymore. So we are off! heading out towards the hand cuffs. we get to 485/77 and the bottom falls out. so we turn around and head towards Pats side of town. more rain there. after an hour of trying to avoid the rain we decide to call it off. so i head back from Harrisburg. then all hell breaks loose! it starts to rain like im in a hurricane, cars are scattered all about the highway like a yard sale. theres 3inches of standing water in some spots. people are driving 30mph. me, in my leather. i wanna get home asap! so i am doing every bit of 85mph, spliting lanes and hoping i dont get hit by lightening. im riding mostly in the slow lane cause its further away from the cables in the median. i figure if i go down at all, i dont wanna be anywhere near them. the last guy on a bike to hit them got split into 5 pieces. all of a sudden! a car in the fast lane 12 feet in front of me gets side ways! he is hydroplaning. FUCK! he heads straight for the ditch. all of the water from his car creates this wave above my head that tubes me like a surfer. CRAZY! urban surfing. next thing i know i cant see a thing and i am getting pounded by this wave. i hold my line and squeez my knees to the gas tank. i shoot out of the tube like those lucky guys ya see in those surfer films. i get home finally and i must weigh an extra 30Lbs. my leather is soaked and i dump out 2 cups of water from my boots. what a ride. glad i am here to share it with ya.

END FOR NOW GOTTA GO TO WORK