Paradise

Now for an update on the square PB is doing with the HD dealer. or rather the dance they are doing with him.
Torch said we should speak the dealership's general manager. Problem is, there has not been one for atleast 5 years.
Remember the scandal with Merrill Lynch? How their execs lived large with $35,000 toilets, I mean, commodes while the company tanked? That's how it is at this particular dealership. Long story short, the owners lived like movie stars, seldom coming by the dealership. Crying about hiow they were losing money and no one could get a raise. They could barely afford to keep the doors open. meanwhile they were buying vacation condos, $150,000 sports cars, boats, taking trips every month to Europe, Alaska, Hawaii, spa trips, buying each other $10,000 gifts. All of this was charged to the dealership as business expenses to entertain clients, even luxurious home improvements turning all their homes into places Madonna would live. None of which had anything to do with the business.
Meanwhile their employees can barely pay their bills, each one leaving for better paying jobs until there is a complete turnover of new employees every few months. Yet to ask for a raise is to be yelled at and threated with loss of job.
Plus the owners told their people that anyone has problems they has better work it out themselves. If the owners had to come in to deal with anything, that person would get fired. But one could make a desision. So in a sense the dealership runs itself with most of the day to day things being done by people who have been employed there less than a year who make little more than minimun wage.
With jobs being scarce there are about 3 people work there that have been there more than a year. All of the mechanics have less than a year of employment there.
So little by little the dealership tanks and the owners are angry as the can't understand why they can't keep spending for their lifestyle and that they actually have to go there occassionally. So they take it out on the employees who must be doing something to cause them, the owners such distress.

PB did not hear from the dealership and hsi calls were not returned. He did finally talk to the finance "guy" who told him yesterday that the check had finally been signed and that "it was in the FEDEx box" as we speak.

Fun and Games with Harley Davidson Financing

Picture it, June 2009. handsome man, PB, walks into the HD dealership and buys a 1999 1200 sporty. He goes to finish the paperwork for the financing and the person sells him a 4 year service contract for $1300, which is added to the loan. 3 weeks later, PB gets a letter from the service company informing him that his bike is a year too old to be eligible for the service contract.

This is news. He has not heard a thing from the dealership. So he calls them. They tell him that as soon as the service company sends them a check for the $1300, they'll send it to the finance company. Weeks go by. Now its over two months after the purchase. Meanwhile PB is paying interest on the $1300 which is still on his HD loan. No word from the dealership. PB calls the dealership. A new person is in charge of the financing dept and he'll call PB back. This does not happen.

So PB rides down there. The new guy, a very slippery character, who has quite the reputation and could give sacks of shit a bad name, tells PB that he had been meaning to call him, as PB has to fill out some paperwork. He tells PB that the service company sent the check for $1300 a month ago, but he had been waiting for PB to come in, huh? I guess the novelty of a courtesy phone call had not occurred to him. So snakeboy types a piece of paper and it says that PB has cancelled the service contract.

HUH?

PB makes him retype it to say that the bike had not been eligible. So PB signs it and Snakey tells him that he'll take the paper upstairs so the person that write checks can write a check, they'll send it to the financing company, tells PB that he can leave and he'll call him. PB says he'll wait right there for him to come back down and show him the proof that the check was written and then sent to the finance company.

So shitheel returns with the check but says that the person who SIGNS the checks is not there and as soon as he gets back, he'll sign the check and shitty will send it. PB has now been at the dealership for 3 hours. he waits longer and the check signer has not returned. So he leaves. Shitty tells him that he'll call him tomorrow and let him know that the check was signed and sent in.

So today, its about 4 pm, no call from the dealership. PB calls, and what a surprise, he gets Shitty's voice mail. Its now 8 pm and no call.

What a way to run a company. if anyone from HD is reading this,

Attention : This is the reason people say nasty things about your company. This kind of behavior and treatment.

I'll keep you all informed of the events as this thing progresses. Tonight it is Sons of Anarchy night. Yes I watch the show. PB and his bro just pulled up on the bikes with dinner.

Bullies Suck

Busy life here in wonder world. BUT....I could go on and on about bullies. Not much time to write just now, BUT I just read a story about how bullying laws don;t work cos teachers and school administrators don't enforce them. They probably don't enforce then cos they don;t want to face off against the parents of the bully, who are most likely bullies themselves. Easier to deal with the parents of the victimized.
They saw that after looking into suicides of kids who were bullied, the bullying had nothing to do with the suicides.
One word---BULLSHIT!!!

ANYHOW, I was bullied in school. I dreaded going to school. Did not want to go many mornings. In fact I could not even ride the school bus it got so bad. Plus the bus driver was on the side of the bullies. She was the one who kicked me off the bus. "If you don't stop crying, you'll have to walk to school!" And I did. Then at age 15 after a horrific car accident bashed in my face, I threatened the ringleader of the girls who bullied me, told her she would look worse than me, if she or her friends ever bothered me again.
And that was the end of the bullying. I was now the bullier of the bullies. I figured I had nothing to lose by that point, I was ready to kick some ass. But I didn't have to as they were cowards.

BUT, I can remember how horrible it was. Reading the stories about the kids who killed themselves, how they hated going to school for fear the taunting the bullying, I felt the same way. But no one sticks up for these poor kids.
Everyone passes the buck. "Not my fault" they all say.

So I say to all those teachers and such that look the other way and pass the blame. and to the parents who say their little angel would never bully other kids,
a very simple

FUCK YOU! You're a liar. Simple as that. You help to continue this horrific tradition of bullying. Sure fuck you sounds ugly but the horrors YOU allow to continue are far uglier.
I know cos I know a bully. She picks on the weak. She always has. In school she picked on other kids who sure as hell didn't need it. She made their little lives hell. She gets strength from it. She's not my friend but I have to deal with her. She hates me cos she knows she can't be me. I'll never be scared of her. It drives her crazy. She'll never be as strong as me. Not physical strength but other strengths.
I am kind and sweet and supportive to those in my life. She is not. She hates people of color. She hates anyone different from her. She likes to make those horrible jokes about black people. She thinks she is funny. She is not. She passes on this tradition to her son.
I am not white, not all white. I am part native. My dad had dark skin. Very dark. I do not find her jokes or her sarcasms amusing. It is just as nasty as what I heard in grade school.

Ok I've have had my say. Back to work. 4 day work week.

Hungover

Not really. But sadly my drinking days are best left behind me. God I love my Cosmos and PB makes the best ones. But my body which has been heavily poisoned by vast qualities of alcohol several times in the past 35 or so years, has let me know, it will no longer tolerate any more. I ate a good dinner last night, had about 5 or so Cosmos over the course of several hours, then ate a very hearty 1 am breakfast. Woke up this morning at 7am and my body was not happy. No headache but the GI system was quite miserable.
I'm better now. Yes I am a bad ass biker chick, can't even drink.
PB is resting, he does not feel well. The stress of losing his job again, is far rougher on him than he lets on. He hates his job but losing even a job he hates, tears him down. He is very much a hard southern man, with much pride. He is a man's man. He is very stoic, doesn't complain. He is very much like a blue collar Rhett Bulter. Charming, courtly, gentlemanly, but he can hang with the rough crowd. Its hard to see this proud man feel beaten down.
I am very much a New England Yankee. Like my hero, Katharine Hepburn, I always try and rise to the challenge. I see a problem and I must solve it immediately or see a solution, or I cannot rest. I Must have the light at the end of the tunnel.
We are quite the pair, Him the proud but stoically quiet southern gentleman, and me the loud, rushing about, opinionated Yankee woman.
So this morning after the "perfect" day of yesterday, I will answer emails, get ready for the trade show this weekend. I leave tomorrow. I have already planned the meals for the household for the next week. Trying to organize things for the show. Having work to do during the slow times.
I now have alot on my shoulders with these two men who need me. my business is everything right now. So back to it.
Oh and the picture? Very New England. Guilford, CT 1993. This was the view from my kitchen that year. Quiet road, morning sun streaming through the fall hardwoods. An escape from the real world.

Just Perfect!!

That's a quote from "Back to the Future." Marty comes home after school to his poor man's life, and sees that his dad's car is wrecked.
This is just how I felt today after finding out my ex got laid off his job of 10 years on Friday and then today the boyfriend got laid off his job of 8 years.
So now the freelance artist ex wife / girlfriend has to somehow help support 2 men. Yes they will get unemployment but you know it won't pay all the bills and of course I'll have to be there for both, with advice and emotional support and trying to help them get their lives back on track.
My business is doing OK, not great but I'm getting by. And I was so very happy and grateful for that fact. I was happy and hopeful.
This morning, I was all set to write about the incredible weekend PB and I had at the lake.
I hear the BF's bike coming up the road. Reality time.
McFly said it best:
Perfect, just perfect!

"Fall"ing

I love fall. There's something that wakes up inside me when the brutal heat of summer days gives way to the chill of fall. maybe summer heat puts part of me to sleep and the crisp air of fall wakes it up again. 2 more days of work. Actually 1 and 1/2. Then we pack and leave for 3 and 1/3 days at the lake. Yeah!!! I'm planning the menu. Fried chicken, baked chicken ( I got lots of chicken in the freezer,) venison sausage breakfast sandwiches, tomatoes and green bean saute (from the garden), and that's as far as I have gotten. What sucks is, after this weekend, it will be 3 weeks until we get back to the lake and the weather will be chilly for real. Hopefully the water won't be too much colder. I think I'll buy a wetsuit for cold weather swimming.

When ever her schedule allowed, Kathryn Hepburn lived on the water at her family home in Fenwick, CT. And every morning until she was in her 70's, she went for a morning swim. No matter the season, even in the winter. And this sure ain't as north as CT and Long Island Sound was never as warm as the lake. So hopefully I'll be swimming for another month or so. By then I'll have bought a kayak. What I really want is a rowing skull. Zip across that surface.

I've always admired Hepburn. Always wanted to live on the water like her. If this is as close as I come, so be it. I'll make the most of it. Pb can fish and I'll row and swim.

PB and his dad are taking the boat out on the nearby little lake to test it out. Then we'll take it to the big lake tomorrow. It will be so fun to take the boat to breakfast. Pull up at the dock.
I love looking at the houses on the lake. I watch the life in them as I swim or row by. Sometimes seeing the people as they go about their lives. Wondering what its like to have a lake house like that. What kind of people live there. Its like tv only I'm getting a workout.












As for the pleasuredome of the motorcycle industry, I have work to do, actually enough to pay my bills for a while, so far. This business can be scary, a fact I know all too well. It takes so much dedication to stay on top, to stay in the spotlight, in the public eye, it takes hours of work each day. Get the actual work done, then update the website, check the boards to see what's happening, answer emails, return calls, do followup calls, do quotes for new customers, do magazine work to stay in the public eye, see what the competition is up to. Not a 9-5 job. It takes 12-16 hour days. No time for much of a personal life. So you'd had better really love what you do, cos it becomes your whole life.

And that was my problem. Years of no personal life. I had lost me. And now I am finding me. I could be making some big bucks right now. But that would mean not many weekends at the lake, not many weekends riding my motorcycles. I used to hate Friday afternoons. at 5 or 6 pm I would know most people were getting off work, going home and starting their weekends. I would be working. And I would be unhappy. And I did this for 18 years.
I can't do that anymore. And so I make the financial sacrifice for my personal happiness. That is unless the ex loses his job or PB loses his.

So I will make the most of my Labor Day weekend at the lake. The wicked world of real life business will be waiting for me when I return. Let it wait.

Stevie Nicks

said it or sang it best,

and the summer became the fall.
I was not ready for the winter,
it makes no difference at all,
cos I wear boots all summer long.

And just like that, the summer was over. The mornings were chilly and it was time for sweatshirts again. I remember this time last year, I was so stunned I was still with PB. It was like a dream.

And it still is wonderful to be with him. We spent the last two weekends up at the lake. We'll be there this weekend. His dad wants us to take his boat. The lake cabin is very small and shacklike. It was an outdoor shower and bathroom. You stand in the open air behind a wooden fence and shower. You can see the lake over the fence. A shower with a view. It was a dock with a screened gazebo which is very cool.
The place needs lots of work which we don't mind doing. The porch roof and floor of the cabin needs replaced as it is rotting away. Hoping PB's dad will pay for the materials.
But I love it and PB does too. There was tons of overgrowth that was taking over and we cleared most of it away last weekend. Now you can see the lake from the cabin.
I've been doing lots of swimming and rowing. But the pants are still tight, dang it. I am in constant motion up there. But we do hang out on the dock and watch the action on the lake. Its so peaceful. I'll row out to the middle of the cover at night and just lay down in the raft and watch the sky.
Its like a dream, a wonderful dream. The best my life has ever been. And I want it more and more. I want that dream to continue, but dreams aren't like that.

There's always that evil thing called reality.

PB and I are are still in love and that is good. But there is bad news.
1) His arms hurt him badly. Those beautifully muscled arms have bad tendinitis, I want him to see a doctor.
2) Things are slow at his job. I'm hoping he doesn't get laid off again. He's very worried about money.
3) My ex may lose his job. Things are dismal in the custom bike world. Especially if the owner of your dealership is a fool and hires over priced consultants who charge big bucks to suggest that departments should share pens. That if someone in parts needs a pen to go over and borrow one from sales. Wow. if your accountant tells you that these consultants are not doing anything useful, hey rich person that happens to own a dealership-------listen!!! Spend the money on advertising!!! Bring business into your shop.

Things are slow in my business but I'm doing ok. I just hope my men hang onto their jobs. Old Randy Simpson sold business at auction. I wonder what that was all about. The whole suddenness. Sometime I'll see him him and I'm sure he'll tell me. Even sold his bikes. He musta owed quite a bit.

Thing change, Milwaukee Iron out of business, Billy in jail, god how things change. I wonder just how Eddie is doing. can't believe he hasn't run out money yet. He musta stashed a shitload way back when. But then maybe like Randy, time will catch up, but then Randy is a good guy with morals and Eddie, well, he's not.

This weekend will be the last one for the lake for the following two weekends. I have a car show in two weeks and then the weekend after, PB and I are going to the mountains on the bikes. So that is almost 3 weeks, 18 days till I need to fit into my leather pants. And I will do it!!

I'll be cookie free for 18 days. Can I do it??? I do not want to bust that zipper on those pants or look like sausage legs.