Back on the track!

My friend Armen's little "get off" at the track. I think I saw a banana peel on the track. LOL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tt9glYzsoA

Look out here I come. :-)

( Wind blown eyes. They still hurt. )

11 months ago I was on the race track with my motorcycle and broke my foot. The last thing to go through my head was hearing the motor seize, the tire chirp as it locked up and the feeling of floating which I knew was me about to high side. The next thing I knew I was sleeping in bed, oh wait, I’m not sleeping. Where am I? Why do I hear motorcycles? Did I go to the track today and crash? Nahhhhhhh. Opened my eyes and there was my beautiful bike looking back at me. Dang, I crashed! Ohhhhh my foot.


This leads me to today. I went to Streets of Willow. It’s been so long since I have been on the track. With only the visions of my crash in my head, I was nervous. No really, I was nervous. Sure I have been on a track countless times, but when the last thing you remember is something bad and it takes you this long to go back, it’s hard. My foot still hurts. That adds to it. Your body likes to make you dislike things that make you really sick (ever have food poising? You pretty much never crave that food item again.) or really hurt yourself? I think it’s saying,” Hello stupid. We going to do this again? Did not learn a thing did you!” I know it is on the dangerous side, but I live and breathe it. I love it. Getting on the bike after my crash was weird, but I had a smile on my face ear to ear. I love going up into the mountains. Everything is so pretty and smells so good. You can’t get that feeling in a car. Also, the feeling of doing a turn on the track perfectly. Awwwwww it’s great. I also love passing people. Not that I get to do that much, but it’s so cool to see your skills are better than someone else’s. Not to say your better, but that you are skilled in that activity. It’s a sense of accomplishment for me.


Today was going to be a tough day for me. I was feeling nervous. I could not clear my head, but knew I needed to establish a new memory of riding on the track. I was eager to erase the last one. Up at 4:45AM and off at 5:30AM. Got to the track to a cold 44 degrees with 15 MPH winds. (It only warmed up to 69 and the winds picked up to about 30-35MPH. It was not much fun. )That just makes you feel that much colder. You can only sit in the truck for so long before you talk yourself into going outside. Miles, Derek D. , and myself drove up together. We all laughed when we opened the doors to the truck and shut them again. Dang cold I tell yeah. After some time in the cold and after the riders meeting it was time to hit the track. I picked the slowest group so I did not have to worry about being in everyone’s way. I was glad I did that. My first session was slow. Cold track, tires, and rusty rider made for some slow laps. The next session I was picking up some speed and was feeling pretty good. I was passing lots of people. The next few sessions were all pretty much the same. I only got passed a few times all day. That was by 1000cc bikes on the faster parts. I feel very good about today’s ride. I am happy to be gaining my confidence back. I am supper happy to have left the track in the same vehicle I arrived there in. hahahahahaha Derek was just a spectator today, but it was really nice to have him there. He is a funny guy. Miles also did the track day, but felt really off today. He made a smart decision to do short sessions and the cut the day short. No need to push yourself and get hurt. I stayed out for the full sessions ever time. I was having a good time. I did go in once early when there was a red flag. Some guy lost it in the bowl area of the track. There had been 9 red flags for the day and it was only 2:30PM!!!!! I don't know how many more happened after that. Makes you worry about the riders around you. Don't want to get taken out by them.


One of our good friends Armen was there with his family. Sad to say he went down. He is a very fast rider. Stupid fast. His tires got cold and he went too fast. Down he went. He was out riding again the next session so it was not too bad. Jeff R. was there as well as John and Amanda E. Mako was there, but he hung with some people we know from a forum.


It was a cold, very windy day. It was fun and I am glad I went. Good times with friends and bikes. I am pleased with my progress at this point. I still have a lot to get back, but I am getting there. Oh and my foot did not hurt shifting! Supper excited about that. It hurt walking the pit area. Funny thing that foot of mine. I can ride a bike, but walking the pit bugs.
I tried to video my sessions, but the camera did not work. I did get one session, but it was for 14 minutes and youtube only allows 10 minutes. Oh well. I tried.

Armen Munched his bike.

I munched my "sammich".


Miles taking a break.


Here I go.

Looking good.

Armen kills me. He could not get his ear plug out.

If you think that'sfunny, you should hear the stories he tells.
Derek D., John and Amands E.
Pre crash morning prep.
I'm cold. Take the dang picture!
Ready for the track on a 600 for the first time. Stepping down from the 1000.

:-)

I still have a smile on my face.

Scuba Tony

There was a long time Turn2sportbike member named Tony. He was a sheriff in the criminal courts in Downtown LA for many years. He started getting into Scuba diving and he up and changed his life. He sold all this stuff and moved to Cozumel Mexico. Everyone was pretty shocked. He shocked everyone right back by becoming the owner operator of a successful scuba shop. He is completely happy and would not come back for anything. He loves to visit and misses riding the roads here, but he is one happy guy. I did not know Tony when he lived here, but we have been come good friends. I was able to see him when at Mako and Alin’s wedding in Cancun. He is one funny guy, and boy can he dance!
As of late, he is on another adventure. He has a friend that lost his son due to a driver using a cell phone and not paying attention. He has decided to take a motorcycle trip to see if he can’t spread the word to not use a cell phone when driving. Here is his blog and his amazing journey.
I am glad that a group of us were able to get together and have dinner with him as he blew through town. Good food, good friends, and funny stories. It was great. I even got carded when I ordered a drink! I was the only one that got carded. Hahahahahaha Sweet! I don’t look as old as I feel. hahahahahah

What I like to collect

I have always liked coins. Ever since I was little if I found a Paso or a Canadian coin I would keep it. Not that I came across them often, but I liked them. It was not until much later that I started to collect more.

I am a chaperon on the 8th grade DC trip each year. One year I went and found a civil war era penny. That was my gift to Miles from the trip, along with civil war era relics that had been dug up. He really enjoyed the gifts. Why get a t-shirt that says Williamsburg when you can get real history. All that year I kept kicking myself for not spending more time looking in the glass case that had coins and paper money for sale. It all looked so cool, but I was really short on time and had about 90 kids to get in and out of the shop. The next trip I asked if he wanted more money items. He requested Confederate money if they had it. Off I went. I made a mad dash to the same store trying to get there before the kids so I had more time to look. Sure enough, there it was Confederate paper money. I got that, and some coins for myself. The year after that, same thing. All the chaperons and travel agents know I want to rush down to shop at this one shop. Problem is they don’t schedule time to shop there anymore. It’s next to my favorite restaurant. I have to rush the best food ever, to get the coins I like. What’s great is I get a 20% off purchase coupon from the travel agent. Then I can also write it off as educational expensive. It’s a win, win!
So the drill is, shovel all the fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy I can eat in my mouth. (Best food ever. I don’t know how they make it, but it’s magic.) Then mug the travel agent for his coupon. Sprint to the shop and tell the students to get on the bus. Raid the glass case of everything they have, and get on the bus. Only the slow little old ladies that run the shop slow me down. I am a well oiled machine. Since the trip I have bought two Roman coins from home. I would love to get a Roman coin from the B.C. era. That’s next on my wish list. Here is my collection. It’s so hard to take pictures of the coins and money. Bear with me.

My mom went to Itlay and got me a gold venetian coin. It was the best thing ever. I just love it so much. (sorry, I could not get the camera to get a good picture of it.)

I love the one on the left. It's rare and from 1588. Can you believe it?

The one on the right is only from 1710. hahahaha

Here is another bad picture. It's of my two Roman coins.
The one on the left is from 247-249AD
The one on the right is from 193-211 AD
(Need a BC coin)



Top Left: 1668 English coin
Top Right: Silver half dollar of 1810 USA
Bottom Left: 1773 English coin
Bottom Right: 1639 English coin.


I had this one made into a charm.
English coin from 1688

All the bills from 1910-1920 were this size. This is still legal tender!
If I were to spend it, I would only get $5.00 worth of value out of it, and it's worth over $100.00. Kind of funny when you look at it that way.

How cool is this? Confederate $100.00!!
1861 First year of the war.

Civil War coin hoarding caused the US to make small value currency in paper. This type was made from 1869-1875. It is US 10 Cents. It is still legal tender.

I can just see the persons face if I were to give them this and say it's 10 cents.

This is an old Rail Road Cert.

$5.00 Confedertate dollars. Sept 2, 1861.

I hope that you liked the items I have. I enjoy looking at them now and then. I always wonder who had it? What did they look like? What was going on that time? If the money had eyes what would it have seen? I like the Roman coins a lot. I would like to really get a clean looking on that from the BC time period and make a charm out of it. It does not mess with the coin in any way so I am ok with that. I could never damage an old coin. Next on my list is a Civil War sword or gun.

To tell you the truth, anything that is ancient Roman, I would just love to have. Also ,ancient Egyptian. That won’t happen since Egypt is on lock down for any of its ancient items.

Thanks for looking, and have a wonderful day.

Family History

Welcome to my family.

"Lucchesi"

My Uncle Jimmie Lucchesi. He has since passed.

My grandparents. Leo and Alice Lucchesi.


Great great aunt Carlotta. Just found her picture and a letter from Italy form her to my great grandma. I was jumping up and down finding a new family member.

My handsome Italian Grandpa Leo. :-)

Family on the wall of Lucca Italy 1958.

I walked on that very wall 2009.

Church in my family town of Riolo, Italy.

I MADE IT!

The church tower in Riolo Italy. It was the first thing I saw when I drove into the village.

My great grandpa Atriemo Lucchesi in his Army uniform.
Look what I found. That very church tower in Riolo, Italy. This is a family member of mine. I can't believe I was standing right there in that town.

As most of you know I am big into my family history. I love to find old photos and hear about my history. We all come from some place. All the different people in our past make us who we are. I have been finding out about a great deal of my English side. The English would take census records for many years. This has been wonderful in finding my past. Cross, King, Berry are a few of my English names. I found out that many worked in mines and one was a confectioner. I know this because it lists occupation at time of the census. Also, all the names of the people in the household and their relation. It’s been great. I have a bunch of family info on that side. Now what happed in Italy. My ties to the Italian side is strong. I am deeply fascinated in historical things. Not just history, but more into ancient history. Rome was a power house and I have roots from this amazing part of history. This leads me to my problem. There are not records. Also, I can’t understand the language. I have been collecting pictures and scanning them. My goal is to write all the info I can about everyone in my family as well as add some pictures. I would like to make this into a book form. Technology is always changing, but a book last forever. It’s a lofty goal, but I can do it.
I thought I would share my Italian side with you at this point. I am proud of them and know I have so much family over in Italy that it makes me sick. I plan on trying to find them somehow. I would love to take another trip to Italy and spend time just doing that. I need someone that speaks Italian to help me.

For more pictures CLICK HERE.

:-)

Met a new group.

Ride one and two this weekend.




There is a forum for supermotos that I am a member of. I have been a member of it for a while, but never had a supermoto to ride. Now that I have one, I am happy to say that I met a local group to go ride with today. Of course my ridding buddy Mike was more than willing to join in on some riding fun. Why put off until Sunday, what you can do today? It was my first time meeting these people. I did not know them from the forum, but it said “all level riders welcome”. I did not have to worry about being the slowest person out there. Some of those people ride the same roads so much that they are really fast. I don’t know the roads at all. It was Big Bear again, but different roads this time. This could be a problem for me when I try to keep up. Well, I won’t try, if I can’t I can’t and won’t push myself on a road I don’t know. Heck, I just got back to riding last weekend and don’t want to get hurt and be out again.

There were 6 of us (to start and 8 later on the ride). It was a nice bunch of people. I told them my bike tops out at about 80MPH and that I can only go about 90 miles on a tank of gas. They said it was no problem. So off we went. The guy leading was going a little slow so Mike just goes around him. That caused the leader to pick up the pace. We were moving right along. I was third out of the six riders the whole day. All but the end of the ride. I asked if I was holding anyone up that was behind me. One guys said I ride faster than most the guys he rides with. That made me laugh and blush. The other said I was intimidating and he pulled over for me to pass. Not sure how that could be but I did hold my own on some weird tight road.

We stopped for lunch where two other riders from the other side of the mountain range met us. They seemed nice until I saw them ride. The leader of the ride had bike problems so he went home. One of the two guys to join us late took over as ride leader. He was on a white bike. His friend was on a black bike. That black bike rider just about ran into me. I was very upset. To give you a clue to how he rides, he would dive the bike over just to move from one side of the lane to the other. He cut off cars to go around them doing that same dipping motion with the bike. Not a smooth motion as he moved over. Kind of hard to put into words how he was riding. He was a mess. I made sure to stay away from him. I tried to stay behind him so that I could keep an eye on him. Even with that it was a problem. He would let off the gas just before a turn and then gas it through the turn. Ok I guess, but we were all still going about 15-20 mph due to cars in a busy town area. I kept running up on him when he would do that. It made no sense so I was not expecting it. I felt I had to pass him for safety. Here is where it gets good. We were riding around the lake with a bunch of cars. He was in the back and I was in the middle. We were only going about 20 MPH. We were all riding stagger. He wants to tell his friend in the front something. He thinks it’s a good idea to split between the center of all of us on a winding road to get to his friend. Who does that? We were in a slow tight pack.
How did he almost hit me you ask? Just at the moment he wanted to gun it and split us all, there were debris in the road. I’m talking some giant chunk of something and other pieces of junk getting kicked all around. The best way for me to get by this chuck of stuff, that took up the whole lane, was to go from the outside of the lane to the inside by the yellow line. I did not know that guy was on it hard to split all of us. Everyone was swerving around all this stuff and he does not see it. He was inches from clipping my bar end at an accelerated rate of speed. He would go slow then hammer it. What a nut. I would have given him an ear full, but we never stopped after that. We just split up. The guy on the white bike made Mike uneasy also. He said felt that it was turning into a race down the mountain. So you can say we both don’t like riding with those two extra riders. The others were very nice.
Miles shocked me by buying me a GoPro camera. I have a helmet cam, but it’s not the best. He heard me talking about getting one and got it for me. That was very kind of him and a surprise to me. He hooked it up to the bike this morning for my ride. It seemed simple to operate. Push button to turn on, push other button to record. Repeated to stop recording and turn off camera. I can’t tell if it’s on or recording when I riding so I was just pushing things now and them. Seems I somehow missed recording a great road section. I also seemed to have recorded about 50 minutes of one section. I thought I turned the camera off when I was done with the downhill section, but I was wrong. I recorded my ride all the way home. You can even see me turn into my driveway, get off the bike and turn off the camera. I guess I need to work on my camera skills. Too bad the footage is so long I can’t get it on youtube. It only takes about 10 minutes worth of video at a time.
Here are two videos from the ride. One is riding, the other is me being a dork trying to work the camera.


I don’t know why, but I was really pooped when I got home. I know it was very hot most of the ride. Well over 100 degrees and I had a sinus headache, but I was really tired. Nothing a nice nap could not fix. Don’t you just love a good nap when you’re tired. Ride hard, and nap. Awwwwwww good stuff.






Ride Video Click Here.

Dork Video Click Here. Is this thing on????


I could go for some Mexican food right about now! Ummmmmm Tacos.......

RIDE NUMBER TWO THIS WEEKEND
Went on a sportbike ride today with the club. As soon as I sat on the bike, I felt funny. It's hard to go from the Supermoto to a sportbike. The other way is easy. It took me most of the day to feel ok on the bike. (Mushy brakes were not helping.) The roads we went on were really tight. Not so good for me just getting back on a sportbike. I felt so slow. I was doing ok, but just ok. I was also getting tired. After the ride yesterday of just about 200 Miles on the supermoto, I was tired. Then about 250 miles today, I was getting tired. I have been off riding to long. I am also dealing with what I thought was sinus, but now I don’t know. Yesterday my nose was stuffed up. Last night it was stuffed and runny. I had to take a hot steamy shower as soon as I got up to clear my head. It did not help. With me being tired, I thought maybe I’m sick. I’m not sneezing like allergies. I only get allergies once a year and that always seems to be Super Bowl weekend. I always have to bring tissue to watch the game. I am leaning towards sick. I have a lot of sick students right now. I think they could be the cause. I missed most of last school year and did not have a cold. It was so nice.
Time to blow my nose. Oh the joy. :-) (Sniff,Sniff)

School Daze :-)

Here are the pictures of the doughnuts that I was talking about in this blog. I can't move the pictures around since it's in code right now and I can't switch it for some reason. Enjoy time with my classes. (If it's not fun, why do it?)















After a nice long vacation I am back to work. I left last year thanksgiving weekend and finally made it back to start this school year. I did not know what things were going to be like with teacher cuts, but I have been there long enough that I should be pretty safe from the cuts. Now I just hope they don’t cut our pay.

I never know what my schedule is going to be like when I return. They always change my prep and what grades I teach. I like to teach the 6th graders a little more because they like the games I come up with. 7th and 8th get lazy and can be so low energy that I don’t feel much like doing things with them. They just want to stand around and talk. This year I have two 7th grade classes, one 8th, and then two 6th grade classes. I have 3rd period as my prep. All different from last year. I guess change is good.

The first week of school we just take roll and make sure the kids get their clothes and lockers. The second week is all about Social Skills. Getting to know the class and working together. I like to play crazy fun games with the kids. My co-workers always laugh when they see me putting stuff together. As my co-worker says,” You have to be a little off to teach middle school.” That might be true. I always end up blowing up a ball that is over 6’ X 6’. It’s a monster. I have to fill it outside since it won’t fit through the door. I don’t know why I am the only teacher that uses that ball. The kids love it. I also crack up watching them bounce off it. Then there are the giant doughnuts. Yep, you heard me. I laugh all day long when I have my class working with them. Don’t ask me how I came up with this, but I have my class do races with a giant doughnut. Half the time they start off running and in a flash they tumble. All you see is feet in the air. Or a student falls down and you see this kid pop out from under it. Everyone is laughing and having a good time. Again, I am the only teacher that uses that stuff. I get sick of soccer, football and so on. I like the track and field unit, tumbling, rugby, and paddleball. I like to change things up.

Here are some pictures of my classes I took today. We did mod. pull ups. Today was an easy one for me. :-) I just had to demo how to do them all day long. lol I missed taking a picture of my last period of the day. A group of 56, 6th graders. Oh and my class sizes are always weird. I normally teach about 230 kids p/day. This year I am down to the low 200. My first period has only 12 kids. What can you do with 12? Ok, 6 on 6 again today. There are not enough kids to change it up. They finish everything so fast. I would like about 40 in each class. That’s a good mix. The most I have taught in one class was 72 students. I was then given 3 soccer balls. What do you do with that? Stupid. That may be why I am always looking to create something out of what I am given. What games can I make out of this? I came up with a game that my students love. After seeing my class do it other teachers are now doing it. How cool is that. To create a game just by looking out at some trees and then it works well enough that the kids like it and so do other teachers. You will find me standing in the equipment room just looking around. I try to think of things I can do and try for fun. I must be a little off to come up with the things I do. Lol

Enjoy a day with the teacher. What, no apple?

Ugh, I forgot the pictures of the kids in the doughnuts at work. Dang, they are pretty funny. I will have to add them tomorrow.

On The Road Again

After 10 long months I am happy to say that I am back. (Think Willie Nelson “Oh the road again…… I just can’t wait to get on the road again…..” )
I took out the supermoto this morning to meet some friends for a ride to Arrowhead. I have not done that ride and was a little worried about how I was going to handle it. I did not know how far we were going to go. My buddy Mike was very sweet and said he would stay with me and if I needed to turn around, he would go with me. Thank you Mike. It seems that I did not need to turn around. Not only did I go to Arrowhead, I also made it to Big Bear. We were all over that area. My foot did fine and I was doing better than I thought. I made sure I was in the back and taking my time. I don’t know the roads and I know my reaction time is going to be a little off. That and a new bike that I am still getting to know. I was pretty much with the group the whole time. I just could not really go over 80. That’s about top speed with the gearing I have right now. If I could have gone faster it would have been better on the ride. It was weird to ride after so long. It hard trying to get the feel of things when I did not know the road at all. There were also lots of cars on the road. That’s why we never ride that area. At this point we had to since all the roads are closed from the fires or they are still burning.
It was so nice to feel the wind hitting me. It was even nice to feel sweaty in my leathers as well as to have soggy sweaty gloves. I even missed the bug splats on my visor. Then the best part was after smelling the cool pine are, we made a turn and had that blast of furnace heat hit us. It always amazes me how within a turn or two, it could go up 10+ degrees. I also enjoyed our stop for lunch. I did not know where we were going to eat and only had one thing to say when we got to the restaurant. “High altitude and Mexican food? Really?” If you can believe this, I had a bean and cheese burrito and it was not very good. How can you mess that up? I enjoyed the conversations and funny stories. They always make me laugh.

Here are some videos of the ride. The first one you will need to watch until the end.
They are about the same. Just riding here and there. It was just fun to get out. The quality of the video is ok. The SXV vibrates enough so that it affects the picture. I would like to get the go-pro camera. I believe that’s what it is called. No picking on my riding or bad shifting. Lol It’s been forever. Awwwwwww My bike and I are back. Sigh…… I missed it so much.

VIDEO # 1

Video #2

My friend took some pictures. I hope to add them later. Oh yeah, we did the Alpine Slides. It was my first time doing this. It was pretty fun. We all had on our full leathers looking like dorks. CLICK HERE FOR INFO

Can't wait to see the pictures. I can only guess how bad we must look. LOL

My Brother

I typed this whole long thing about my brother, and for some reason it wont let me cut and paste it on my blog. I am not up to typing it all over agian so I will make it short for now.

My brother Eric is an amazing person. He can see the world like few others can. Take a look at his blog and you will see what I am talking about. All the pictures are his pictures. Take some time to look at his older post and you can spend hours lost in his world.

Enjoy is blog.

CLICK HERE FOR HIS BLOG AND PICTURES

Thank you and enjoy.

xoxoxoxo

Lisa