Chili and Sleeping at the Office.

Do you remember that comedian by the name of "Gallagher"? He was famous for smashing watermelons and other fruit and vegetables during his routines. Pretty funny guy. Haven't heard much about him lately, but assume he still might be around.

One thing I remember him talking about was "colors that only exist in yarn". He would go on about this for a few minutes and I would laugh my ass off.

Well, this weekend we rented a pickup truck that reminded me of Gallagher and his comments about colors.

How about mustard yellow for an F-150!! Pretty Cool Huh?


Well you might ask why we rented this baby and the reason is so I can take naps at the office. Let me explain.

With my heart condition, I have discovered the value of a nap in the afternoon, even if it is just for 15 to 30 minutes. So we moved a couch up to the office so I might be able to take a nap if I need one. And on some days I really need one.

After we moved the couch we decided to take in some of the Chili being offered up at the local "Chili Cook Off". As we walked down a few blocks to the area of downtown blocked off for the event we ran across this sign for a local theatre group for a play they were putting on.

We noticed that the price of admission seemed a bit high. Could it have been $19.00 instead of $1,900.00?

When you arrive at the chili feast you pay $5.00 and get a wristband. Then you sample each vendor's chili and later vote for your favorite with a bean that you place in their jar at their table. Each vendor has a booth and table along with litle cups and a spoon.

 The first chili we tried looked like this. It was a vegetarian chili that just seems to defy all the logic of what chili should be. But my daughter and I actually liked this one very much. It had very good flavor despite the lack of animal proteins. Not too bad for our first taste.

 A lot of the vendors identify themselves with a funny team name like this one, the "Chilionaires".

 Here's another catchy team called "Low Bid Chili", not bad, not bad.

 At one of the booths, you could decorate your chili with cheese and some jalapeno peppers, which I did, and I enjoyed this one very much.

 Wichita even has a hockey team, yes you heard me right, hockey, and the team mascot was here to help promote their booth. Go Thunder Dog!

 At one booth there was a warning about the contents of their chili. Oddly enough, this chili was sponsored by a local bank. (One that didn't need a bailout)

 Even the mayor of the city was here, well at least a cardboard cut out of him was. Apparently you could throw beanbags through him and win a prize.

Why, I don't know.

 There was a little sideshow from the players at Old Cowtown as well. Here a banjo player was accompanying a guy trying to swallow some sort of a balloon.

Again, why, I don't know.
 
Apparently this group later in the day tried to beat a Guinness World Record for fire eating by enlisting a lot of audience participitation. They weren't successful. But, Hey, You only live once.
 

 The only evil thing going on this lovely afternoon was a preponderance of "strollers". Yes, "Strollers". More evil than V-Stroms. More feared than K-Bikes. Inviting more dread than Bonnevilles. Some of these devices are huge, encapsulating entire city blocks and carrying more children than the ball roomplayhouse at McDonalds.

And this one didn't even have a child in it. They all walked along the side with Mumsy and Daddy, all carrying their little chili cups and spoons. Oh, the humanuity of it all.

 Here's the booth for our favorite, "Code 3 Chili". This booth was offered up by a local firefighter's union and their chili was delicious.

 After growing a bit tired of fighting the crowd, we went our way back to our mustard pickup. You know, the one with the color that only exists in yarn. But on the way, we spied this Harley trike parked along the street. It was only barely bigger than some of the strollers we saw that day.

 As we walked along we went by an antique store and had to stop and peruse the goodies. Out front was some early ATGATT merchandise for sale. Still looked usable.

And inside I found this picture that looked like it may have been off of an old pinball machine. The guy remionded me of many of my fellow bloggers. You know, those that have this kind of swagger and that always have women hanging off them.

Not!

East Douglas on a Sunday Morning

My next older sister had called me on Saturday to check up on me and chewed my butt pretty good for not posting anything on the blog for a whole month.  I apologized to her and said there were two reasons:

1) I can't drive a car or ride my scooter right now and it's a bit tough to come up with motorcycle content for the blog. Yeah, a bicycle ride is fine, but I bet some readers are bored with that.

2) It has been hotter than Hades here. Yesterday was our 48th day this summer where our high temp reached 100 degrees. The record number of days is 50 from 1936 (Dust Bowl Days). August isn't over yet and it is predicted that we will break the record. Our normal for a summer is more like 11 days, so there you have it.

But my sister did get me thinking, so on Sunday morning I took off at 7:30 am on Bruiser, my mountain bike for a ride downtown to check out the car and motorcycle show that had been going on all weekend.

I arrived downtown at about 8:00. The show was scheduled for 8:00 to 4:00 for Sunday, but it was obvious that a lot of people and cars hadn't made it back downtown when I first arrived. Not a lot of cars or motorcycles yet to look at. I did find a display trailer for a Kawaski dealer from Hesston, KS, about 40 miles from here. This red Kawasaki is way too big for me.

But they also had a Kymco Agility Scooter.  (Too small for me)

Then there was this screaming green Kawasaki sport bike. Pretty nice , but not much in my taste either.

The next trailer over was for another dealer here in Wichita. They sell lots of bikes, everything from Honda, Suzuki, even BMW's on occasion. I talked with the sleepy looking guy manning the trailer a bit. As I took a couple of pictures, he asked me if I rode. I said yes and said that I had a scooter, but sometimes wondered about stepping up to something a little bigger, I mentioned a V-Strom, a Bonneville, even a Honda Silverwing scooter.

He said they had a Silverwing in stock, a 2010 model and he liked the V-Strom. Here's a Honda Shadow they had on display.

The local Harley dealer had a big display last year, but didn't see them this year. They still might have been around and I just didn't see them. Harleys are very popular here.

But just in case you run out of cash while you are at the show, here's a portable ATM for your convenience.

I rode back around the convention center and checked out a few cars. Here's a nice roadster.

And I really liked this pickup truck. A '34 Ford if I remember correctly.

 Then this Mini Cooper caught my eye.

And then this Mini Mini Cooper caught me eye as well, (check out the valve cover).

I eventually decided to ride back home in a leisurely fashion down East Douglas Street

I arrived at the train station onthe east end of the downtown area. Wichita has not had passenger train service since I have lived here. But we do have a marvelous old train station that over the years has been owned by a couple of corporate entities, most recently I believe by the local cable television provider.

I notice as I ride by that it is for sale again. Kind of a shame, if you ask me.

Then about another mile to the east of there, is the former world headquarters of  Big Dog Motorcycles. They produced very expensive motorcycles from the 90's to the early 00's at the rate of maybe 2,500 per year. That was until the economic downturn of 2008, where the company essentially tanked itself as people gave up their luxuries. Apparently not many people needed $30,000 motorcycles no matter how beautiful they were.

The building housed  a former Chevy dealership. They declared bankruptcy last year and formed a new company (BDM) to take care of parts and supplies for the Big Dog motorcycles still out on the road.

There is not much in the building right now except for a few bikes. I became somewhat interested in the reflections that resulted in some of these pictures. I was standing in the middle of the street when I took this shot. I am eerily visible if you enlarge the photo.

Most of the people that worked here have of course lost their jobs. Ironically, supposedly they sold lots of bikes to construction workers in the Las Vegas area during the real estate boom in Vegas. Well, Vegas now has one of the most depressed housing markets in the nation and it apparently spilled out into the motorcycle world as well.

Of course, this place is now for sale as well. Kind of a shame. They made beautiful bikes. Not really my taste, but beautiful bikes nonetheless.

Here's Bruiser up next to a chopper frame inside the building.

Down the road about a half mile further east is East High School. Built, I believe, in the 1920's and it only became known as East High after other high schools were eventually built. There is construction going on here at the school for a new auditorium. At the same time there is discussion about building 2 new high schools. But a potential problem with the new schools is that even though there is money available to build the buildings, there may not be enough money for the teachers. The state is bleeding money these days and education seems to be an area that is taking a hit.

It's a beautiful old school. Both my kids graduated from here. My son now teaches and coaches here.

About another mile east is a rather unique building with interesting tile work. There used to be an old guy that ran a hardware store here. It was one of those places that you could find something when nobody else seemed to have it. It was dirty, messy and grimy, but I loved the store. Even though it was sort of a mess, the old guy that ran it knew exactly where everything was.

Then another half mile east or so is the Hillcrest Apartments. It is mostly condominiums by now I believe. Condos are not real common here. There are lots of apartment complexes, but then there are also lots of single family homes. These condos are quite nice and somewhat expensive. As soon as one goes up for sale here, it gets snatched up pretty quickly.

A little further east again and there is a rather stately home. I don't know the history to this, but it's quite a place. This home sits just a little north of College Hill Park, possibly the nicest park in town.

And here's a view of another older home in the College Hill area. This home is on the National Register of Historic Places. As old goes, some would not consider it very old. Wichita wasn't even founded until 1871, but this home is just about that date, perhaps just a bit younger. This home sits atop a little hill in the park area. Bruiser is good at standing without a side or center stand. (No tachometer either)

Another view of the park. The park is surrounded by nice homes. There is a pool and it is a great place for kids to play and grow up. Following in the footsteps of Jim Ryun, who grew up in Wichita and went to Wichita East High School, the cross country team for Wichita East frequently runs and practices here in this park.

And finally at Douglas and Oliver sits what is essentially the first shopping center ever built in this city. It has been a fairly vibrant shopping center since its inception in the 1950's. Not huge by today's standards, but in its day......



There are residential neighbrohoods for the next mile east or so, but then you encounter the city of Eastborough, which was once a sort of suburb, and is now compleyely surrounded by Wichita, having steadfastly resisted the urge to be annexed into the city. But that is a whole other post by ityself. I'll get back to that someday.

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Just a final word about my health. I'm doing fine. I am walking about 2 miles a day and bicycling on the weekends. I'd probably do more exercising except for the unbelievable heat we have seen lately. I will not be able to drive or ride until at least February 2012, but I am in a way sort of enjoying the change in lifestyle.

The little gadget in my chest, designed to keep me alive should my heart screw up again, is amazingly sophisticated. I keep finding more and more about it as we go. For instance, not only is it a defibrillator, designed to be capable of completely restarting my heart should there be a need, but it is also a pacemaker too. It constantly analyzes the behavior of my heart. If my heart rate drops below 60 beats per minute, it will act as a pacemaker and get me back to a 60 bpm rate. If my heart rate goes to 170 beats per minute, it first studies my heart rate to see if my beats are steady and even. If so, then it assumes I may be exercising, and not give me the big shock, yet keep an eye on me. If my faster heart rate is uneven, then it may first try and pace me out of it using the pacemaker function of the device. If that doesn't work, then I may get a big shock from the device to hopefully restart my heart.

The device has a wireless transmitter and sends, once a week, some diagnostics to the manufacturer through a phone line connection in my bedroom. My cardiologist then can obtain this information for my chart. It is designed to report any unusual rhythms my heart has had and any attempts made by the device to correct those aberrant rhythms. Pretty fu*$in' amazing if you ask me.

To date the device has detected no unusual rhythms since the time it was implanted back in February. That's a very good thing.

The device is commonly called an ICD (Implanted Cardioverter Defibrillator)

To me it might mean I Can't Die!

Trendy, but Mis-Spelled Street Names and a Hot Bicycle Ride

In a housing development near you, you might encounter a street sign like this. Trendy, Huh?
Wouldn't you be happy to live near this intersection and tell all your acquaintances what the street names are.

Except, why can't they spell it Governor?  Huh?  What's the deal?  Are you special or something?


We can, I think, blame Brits and Canadians for spellings like this!

Last Sunday I went for a bicycle ride and explored a section of a bike path that I had never ventured on before. It's mostly flat and straight in spots, like this area.



Straight and level, good for bicycles, just not always very exciting.



Then again there are some spots where the road isn't very straight and that makes it a bit more interesting. 



A little bridge over a small (very small) creek

 It was a blasting hot day! I was out on the bicycle at 7:30 am. Any later in the day and I would have fried. And I don't want to fry. I just wanted to ride. I think we have had 20 days above 100 degrees this year, normal is about 11 days. Summer has a long way to go.

There is even some signage on the route. I am not sure I have even ever encountered a stop sign on a bike route, but here you go.



It's a little smaller that a normal stop sign. Is that fair? And why is it that the bikes have to stop? Couldn't we instead make all the cars stop? In Kansas, we just recently passed a new law for motorcyclists that get stuck at red lights where they cannot trigger the signal sensors to change. The new law now allows a motorcyclist to pass through after a reasonable wait and watching for traffic. In honor of this new law, when I encountered this stop sign, I sort of "coasted through" just for fun. No harm done.

  There is even some wildlife to be encountered on this bike route.



Nice deer statue at the entrance to part of the route, complete with its own gang sign graffiti.

Continuing on with more signage and another creek encounter.



I'd rather encounter a sign like this out on the open road on a scooter, but it's not bad on a bicycle either.

 Finally, this last sign sort of sums it up for me right now.



No motor vehicles allowed for Jimbo right now due to health conditions.

There has been some clarification to my driving (riding) restrictions placed on me for medical purposes. The powers that be have determined that it should be one year (1yr) from the date of implant for my ICD (Implanted Cardioverter Defribillator) before I can drive a motor vehicle again. One thing's for sure. It will be a lot cooler in February when I get to ride again, and I won't get nearly as sweaty. That's a good thing.