Friday December 15, 2006 Pete and I did a really short ride.   This ride was so short it wouldn’t even qualify a new member to be part of the club if this was their first time riding with us.  But, sense it was only me and Pete I guess it really doesn’t matter.   

We were both using up one of our last remaining vacation days, that is the reason we were able to ride on this Friday which would normally be a work day.  Working for the automotive industry we both also get all the days off between Christmas and new Years as holidays, so we will have the opportunity to do some more riding before the end of the year.  I also have to use up the last of my vacation days before the end of the year otherwise I lose them.  My employer doesn’t allow carry over vacation days.   

Luckily we haven’t had much snow lately, hardly any as a matter of fact, so riding is not a problem.  I’m beginning to wonder if we are going to get much snow this winter.  It is starting out as a very mild winter from a snow accumulation point of view. 

This ride was so short we actually spent more time in the restaurant eating lunch than we did riding.  This is unusual, typically we at least spend more time on our bikes than we do sitting down eating lunch.  Our plan for this day was to put in a couple hours continuing our work on the Jubilee game.  We certainly can’t expect to work efficiently on an empty stomach so we had to plan for lunch.  Since I am stating the unusual I might as well keep going.  It is also unusual for Pete to meet at my house and get in the extra 5 miles of riding, but that is exactly what happened this day.  So, I guess I need to add 5 miles to our ride total, even though I actually didn’t ride this extra 5 miles.  Hang on a minute while I go to the bottom of the page and update the ride statistics. .

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Ok, I’m back.  We ended up going to Buddy’s on the corner of Walton and Squirrel.  It is a really easy ride there from my house.  We go through the back of my subdivision over to Squirrel and head north on Squirrel to Walton.  Buddy’s was relatively empty when we got there.  We got seated right away and our service was quick.  We ordered a small pizza to split and we also got a small antipasto salad and split that as well.  The salad is delicious and a good way to kill time while you wait for the pizza to cook.  By the time our pizza arrived we had finished our salad and two pieces of pizza each was perfect.  Buddy’s makes great pizza and if you haven’t tried their pizza, keep in mind I highly recommend them. 

After lunch we put our extra layers back on to stay warm during the ride home.  We got a couple strange looks as I put on the thin head covering I wear that goes under my chin.  It is kind of like a full hooded mask with an opening for my eyes, nose and mouth.  I find if I wear this mask over my head and ears it makes a huge difference when riding in the cold.  The strange looks we got were similar, but also a little different than the looks Pete typically gets wearing his various themed dew rags.  I can’t remember which dew rag Pete was wearing this day, but he has quite an assortment.  Lets see if I can remember how many different style dew rags Pete has.  I know I am going to miss a few, but at least it will give you a flavor of the type of dew rags Pete wears.  Spider rag, red white and blue patriotic rag, flower power pastel colored rag, camouflage rag, Germany world cup soccer rag, Genius thin black colored rag, purple and black rag,  custom Friday Knights hockey team rag.  Like I said I know I must have missed a lot.  Maybe some day we can get Pete to sample all his rags and we can get Steve to take pictures to share with the world. 

We rode home opposite the way we came.  It only took us a few minutes to ride the approximate 2.6 miles back to my house.  When we got to my house we did end up working on the Jubilee as planned.  The game is turning out really well.  It is going to end up being a very nice game for someone once we are done.  If I do say so myself, Pete and I are getting very good at fixing up and repairing these old pinball games.  I think we are ending up to be some of the best in the country, no let me modify that, in the world at bringing back to life old worn out electro-mechanical pinball machines.  We have a rare talent and we work on items that are becoming harder and harder to locate.  We are truly a dying breed.   

After all the talk about the pinball machines we have fixed up over the past couple months, I will have to suggest to Pete that he update his website and post some nice before and after pictures of these games.  Once Pete updates his site I will let everyone know.  Its about time Pete updated his site anyhow, it has become stale without any new material lately.  This is a challenge to Pete, just in case you didn’t get my hint with these last few sentences.    

I forgot to rest my speedometer from the previous ride, so I don’t have the normal complete ride statistics on this ride, 5.5 + 5.0 = 10.5 miles total.
David Lindquist