a rigid mind is a terrible thing

Q: After a doctor's appointment this morning I went out to my motorcycle and couldn't start it up. Here's the scenario: can you tell where my mind made its fatal error? This is a good lesson for anyone who ever does troubleshooting of any sort!

Usually, I put the key in the ignition and turn the ignition to the on position. The green neutral light comes on. Then I push the start button to start up the engine.

Today, I went out, put the the key in the ignition and turned the ignition on. The green ignition light didn't come on as usual, for some reason. I've been having some other electrical-related issues lately and figured that the ignition switch, or something connected or related to it, had quit working. I poked around for a long time and then had to call a wrecker. Before the wrecker arrived, I figured out the problem, in a frustratingly "duh" moment.

So?

A: The green light that comes on when the ignition is turned on ISN'T the ignition light...it's the light that comes on WITH the ignition. Right in capital letters on the instrument cluster, the heading above the green light is "NEUTRAL." So today, the green light didn't come on when I turned the key, not because the ignition was faulty. It was because the motorcycle wasn't in neutral. When I was messing with the ignition and key on the right side of the motorcycle, I couldn't think of anything but the ignition and possible electrical problems. But when I went around to the left side of the motorcycle finally, to check out the kickstand/kill switch, I then re-remembered that there should be a green "Neutral" light on. Voila.

Live and learn. At least I figured it out before the wrecker arrived.

when Macromedia Flash attacks!

This is very creative!

Theodore Gregory Parker obituary

It's amazing what one learns about someone after he or she has died...my grandfather's brother-in-law, my great-uncle Gregory, died last week. Here's his obituary:

From the Johnson City Press:

Theodore Gregory Parker, age 98, 2101 Christian Lane, Johnson City, TN, died Wednesday, September 6, 2006, at the Johnson City Medical Center.

Gregory Parker was born in Gardner, MA, son of Robert N. Parker and Ruth Gregory Parker. Gregory lived in Johnson City, TN, from the age of 12 and graduated from Science Hill High School in 1926. Gregory was married for 68 years to the late Frances Long Parker, a Johnson City native who graduated from Science Hill in 1925. Gregory graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, OH, in 1930, and later received an M.B.A. degree from Bucknell University in Lewisburg, PA, in 1933.

After Ohio Wesleyan, Gregory became employed by Empire Furniture Co. in Johnson City, and then with Armstrong Cork Company in Lancaster, PA. In Lancaster, Gregory played one season as pitcher for the Lancaster Red Roses baseball team.

Gregory and Frances were married at the First Methodist Church in Johnson City in 1935 and moved shortly afterwards to Lewisburg, PA, where they lived until 1969. In Lewisburg, Gregory was first employed as sales manager for Lewisburg Chair & Furniture Co., where his father, Robert N. Parker, was president. In that role, Gregory conceived the trade name Pennsylvania House Furniture for the company's products, which name survives to date.

In 1954, Gregory became president of Pennsylvania House Furniture until he retired in 1969. Subsequently, Gregory and Frances lived in Annisquam, MA, and Boynton Beach, FL, until 1975, when they returned to Johnson City and resumed their membership in the First United Methodist Church.

In civic affairs, Gregory was active in the Beaver Memorial Methodist Church in Lewisburg, while Frances served as church organist. Gregory was also active in the Rotary Club in Lewisburg.

Gregory is survived by his children, Frances Parker Swartz, of Framingham, MA, and Robert Ted Parker, of San Francisco; as well as by his son-in-law, Jim Swartz; his daughter-in-law, Kristine Salkeld Parker; his two granddaughters, Frances Reynolds, of Cape Coral, FL, and Heather Boggini, of St. Petersburg, FL, and their husbands, Dr. Fletcher Reynolds and Mr. Andrew Boggini. Gregory enjoyed his five grandchildren, Blake, Anthony, Dominic, Fletcher and Beau. His nieces and nephews include Johnson City natives Hardy Long, Jane Long Hardin, Edwin A. Long, Frances Long and Jerome Long, the children of Dr. Carroll Long and Mrs. Lou Ann Long. Others, from elsewhere, are Dr. William Scott Long, Vincent Long Stephens, Frear Streeter Simons, Susan Kohli Marsh, Mary Kohli Furniss, Robert Allyn Streeter and Roberta Kohli Garlock.

A memorial service will be held at First United Methodist Church, 900 Spring Street (at Maple), Johnson City, at 4:00 PM on Friday, September 8, 2006. Visitation with the family will occur in the Church Parlor at 3:00 PM prior to the service. Burial will follow at the Oak Hill Cemetery in Johnson City. Floral deliveries or contributions should be made to First United Methodist Church, flowers by Thursday afternoon or Friday morning.

Appalachian Funeral Home & Cremation Services, 800 E. Watauga Avenue, Johnson City, is serving the Parker family.

my Yamaha Vmax

Here are a couple of pictures...one I took in the middle of December, 2004, and one from yesterday. It's changed a bit!

Click pictures for bigger version.

and

new motorcycle?

I'm thinking of selling my 1985 Vmax and upgrading it to something newer, perhaps a newer Vmax. I'm going to check out a Kawasaki ZRX 1100 this week, to see if that's something I'd like instead (though I'd probably search out a 1200). Here's a picture. What do you think?

dogatonic...too cute!

Wednesday the dog is having none of it...

from the reality show, The Girls Next Door

stingrays and George Bush

Whew...being an animal lover, I'm glad all the television and newspaper reports of Steve "Crocodile Hunter" Irwin's death reported it properly as a freak accident. Otherwise, Bush might've proclaimed all stingrays (and other rays and skates, probably) "turr'ists" and had then all shipped off to a detention camp somewhere!

Jesus is crying!

And he must be crying hard!

Mississippi Beyond Katrina

SDCPB at 2006 European Championships

...playing their medley

SDCPB at 2006 Dumbarton

...playing their MSR

SDCPB drummers warming up

Shotts and Dykehead's drum corps warming up with the MSR before this year's World Pipe Band Championships in Glasow.

SDCPB warming up: reel

Shotts and Dykehead warming up before this year's World Pipe Band Championships. This is their reel.

SDCPB warming up: strathspey/reel

Shotts and Dykehead warming up before this year's World Pipe Band Championships. This is their strathspey, "Susan MacLeod," I think it is, and their reel, "The Sheepwife."

SDCPB warming up: march

Shotts and Dykehead Pipe Band warming up before this year's World Pipe Band Championships in Glasgow. This is the march "Highland Wedding."

SDCPB Drummers Salute 2006

Shotts and Dykehead's drum corps playing their fanfare this year, at the Glasgow Piping Festival.

day 7: "More List Yourself"

A couple of entries from the eighth chapter of More List Yourself: Listmaking as the Way to Personal Discovery.

Chapter Eight: Mmmoney

List the jobs or companies you wish would disappear from the face of the earth.

Any one that does animal testing...Procter & Gamble, Huntingdon Labs

and

List the things you love most about your work.

• freedom to set my schedule of calls
• wear what I want
• have my own office
• good bosses and colleagues
• nonstressful for the great part
• good benefits
• enough free time to get things done, to catch up

Quiz Farm: "Which Religion is For You?"

You scored as atheism. You are... an atheist, though you probably already knew this. Also, you probably have several people praying daily for your soul. Instead of simply being "nonreligious," atheists strongly believe in the lack of existence of a higher being, or God. atheism 92% agnosticism 75% Islam 63% Paganism 63% Satanism 63% Buddhism 54% Christianity 42% Hinduism 33% Judaism 29% Which religion is the right one for you? (new version) created with QuizFarm.com

Quiz Farm: "How Will You Die?"

You scored as Natural Causes. Your death will be by natural causes, though not by any diseaese, because that is another option on this test. You will probably just silently pass away in the night from old age, and people you love won't realize until the next morning, when you are all purple and cold and icky. So be happy, you won't be murdered. Natural Causes 73% Suicide 73% Posion 53% Disappear 53% Accident 53% Gunshot 47% Suffocated 40% Bomb 33% Stabbed 33% Disease 27% Eaten 20% Cut Throat 20% Drowning 7% How Will You Die?? created with QuizFarm.com

day 6: "More List Yourself"

A couple of entries from the seventh chapter of More List Yourself: Listmaking as the Way to Personal Discovery.

Chapter Seven: Sixth Sense

List the times you were in just the right place at the right time.

The time I bent down to dust/vacuum under my chest of drawers and found the miniscule (no exaggeration) pearl that had fallen off my grandmother's cameo!

Having to work Christmas Eve day in Boston and ending up finding my husband a job at one of the service calls I did.

Working in the Deans' Office at the University of Chicago's Graduate School of
Business and having one of the computing services bosses come down and offer me a job, for which I had no previous formal training. I'm still doing that same kind of job now, 12 years later.