I won’t whine about it here, but I am not a big fan of winter. It already seems like it’s been ages since I parked my bike for the winter. Oh sure, friends of mine were out on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, just to say they were out, but the days of comfortable warm riding are long gone.

For decades, I have looked forward to the winter bike shows! Despite the fact that it’ll be months before we ride again around here, it’s nice to visit a warm oasis where you can see other riders and new and custom bikes. You can smell new leather and old friends!

Imagine my reaction when I was offered the opportunity to organize the bike show. I was willing and excited, but it was a daunting task. It’s been a huge learning curve but a ton of fun, too.

Since 2004, the World of Motorcycles Expo has been London’s annual motorcycle show. In the past year we added a Kitchener show and I upped my ownership in the show to 50%. My partner and I decided to add another show. This year, we are proud to announce the newest World of Motorcycles Expo in Hamilton.

Come on out and dream of summer again with us! Check out www.womex.ca

Tags: bike show, bikes, Hamilton, Kitchener, London, show, world of motorcycles expo

It’s often said that we are creatures of habit.  Sometimes that serves us and sometimes it doesn’t.  Once we find a rhythm and pace of life that seems to agree with us (or that we become used to partaking of) we find an element of comfort and regularity.  Continue Reading »

Tags: Christmas, convention, fellowship, regular, routine

So, here I sit, about a half hour after the deadline that the city gave to the Occupy London protesters to vacate Victoria Park in London.  Most of them haven’t gone anywhere.  Naturally, there is a crowd of onlookers waiting to see if there will be any fireworks.  (I wonder if they are the same people that just stand around the scene of a car accident or a house fire.  Gawking sheep.  Just like the little brother who squealed on you, wondering what sort of punishment was going to be dealt out) Continue Reading »

Tags: cause, occupy, occupy london, protest

While there are always exceptions to every rule, when you work in broadcasting you get used to packing and unpacking.  I have, anyway.  My family moved to London in 1962.  This is home.  But as we get older, and particularly if we are following broadcasting as a career, there are moves to be made.

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Tags: Blackburn, career, CFPL, FREE FM, London, radio

“Welcome to the Big R Interweb Customer service hotline.  When we say hotline, we don’t mean to infer that our service is snappy or flaming fast, it merely reflects the temperament of most of you poor sods calling in with an issue.  Please punch 20-25 digits into the phone, as you curse the automated responder on the line.  We feel that this will calm you down before you reach one of our disinterested technicians.  Please don’t mind the obnoxiously loud commercials that we’re forcing down your frustrated, bile filled throat in between commands to punch in more digits.  See?  We really DO have a sense of humour because we’re going to ask you all that information again to prove your identity when you finally do reach an attendant.  HAHAHAHA!  Oh yes, this call may be recorded for training newly licensed psychologists in the art of identifying anger management patients. Remember, no matter how much your mouth is full of it, you can’t say the words you’re thinking or it becomes a human rights violation and the call will end.   Just when you think you have slogged through the automated maze all the way, a voice, that you will come to loathe in the next 20 minutes, tells you that “We are experiencing higher than normal demand at this point” and “Please hold, while we play loud music down the line that a very expensive consultant told us would calm and pacify you into thinking that we really are hustling through phone call after phone call, until the next technobot becomes available.”  We have custom-scripted recordings that sound all pleasant and helpful  the first dozen times, but slowly seem to morph into messages that say “Every single other call jamming our switchboard at this time is more important than yours, so please hold the phone close to your sweaty ear and wait patiently until the bananas ripen on your counter.  If someone hasn’t picked up your sorry, blinking call by then, wait some more.”  Finally, after going through the “name, rank and serial number” dance with the technobot, you will be told that we know there is a problem in your area.  That’s why so many of you are calling in.  Sure, it would have been simpler to record a message and insert it waaaay back in your call, perhaps even replacing the shill for additional services, but we like all the calls.  It makes us feel wanted.  You need us!  You really, really need us!”

Tags: corporate, frustration, internet, service, wait, wireless

I don’t like to just copy and paste someone else’s writing, but I can’t take credit for anything but agreeing with this.  Wouldn’t it just be easier to wipe the slate clean, punch the whiny agenda-laden splinter groups in the throat and make some decisions at the top that would fix  much of what is being done wrong by the political machine?

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Tags: common sense, government, politics

From time to time, we all speed.  That is, we drive faster than the posted limit.  Some of us are more chronic rule breakers than others.  The police on our highways will allow just about 20kph over the limit before they will bother to pull us over.  So I push the rules, like many others, and set my cruise control at about 118 kph, when I’m on a major highway.  I still believe I’m operating my vehicle at a “Safe and courteous manner” at that speed.

But I’m not going to niggle about that. Continue Reading »

Tags: celebrity, consequences, fine, Kyle Busch, Nascar, reckless, speeding

“Spring ahead, fall back”.  That’s our mantra a couple of times a year between solstices.  The idea is good.  Ostensibly, it saves power by having another hour of light on the evening, thus deferring the need for power in the evening by 60 minutes.  I think they said we saved .3% more power last year by extending the Daylight Saving Time ‘season’ by a couple of weeks on either end.  I’m good with

Does any one really know what time it is?

that.

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Tags: clocks, daylight saving time, fooling oneself, illusion, trickery

I’ve never been very outspoken about my political views.  Partly because I think one needs to be part illusionist and part snake oil salesman to get anywhere in the political arena and I’d rather not align myself with either of those camps.

Like many things, “democracy” looks good on paper.  Then, when you add the ‘human element’, like self serving agendas or personal gain, the process becomes flawed and it falls in like a house of cards and nothing remains but the smoke and mirrors created by the illusionists and perpetuated by the snake oil salesmen. Continue Reading »

Tags: Canada, democracy, ego, elections, government, politics, Steven Harper

Fed to the Wolves

It’s easy to be armchair quarterbacks. When we have our climate controlled asses planted in our comfy chairs, our whistles whetted and the benefit of expert commentators and a thousand different angles of the play on the field, we have all the tools at our disposal to make the best call.

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Tags: addiction, Charlie Sheen, entitlement, pop culture, stars