Tokyo Rose

I work a lot of weekends and usually are scheduled days off during the middle of the week....Thursday's off is a lock....I have "family" obligations that require most of that day....So, I still get one other day pretty much for me...
I bought my Yamaha Virago 920 three months ago, a gift to my self I am still paying for but worth the additional sacrifice....Well, Shane doesn't agree since theres no food in the fridge, but what the hell, he weights 275 and can afford to starve for awhile.
I work in the afternoons and get done at 10pm....I was so stubborn about riding the bike when I first got it I rode to work a couple of times when the afternoon weather was mild...The ride home those first couple of trips gave me pause as to reflex on my own grasp of "common sense". Alpine (little town I work at) is about 40 minutes from my place....It's elevation is 2500 feet and my place is 3500 feet with the route home topping 4500 feet over the mountain passes....Leaving work the temperature in Alpine was about 30 degrees.....
...I was raised to appreciate nature and understand we are all a part of.....One of the reasons I like motorcycles is the stripping away of the buffer that exists in automotive modes of transportation...I am a rider that would never consider a fairing or windshield attached to my bike....For one, I think they suck as far as looks go, and two, what's the point?....Why not just drive a convertible and put the top down.
So, as I am riding out of Alpine I am feeling the cold,...I am like,...."man this is going to be a cold ride home"....As the elevation starts to climb I can feel every change in the degree of temperature...Even when I top a rise and slide back down into a little valley I can feel the difference....At 3000 ft. theres no difference anymore and my hands are vise gripped to the bars while the rest of me is doin cold shock spasms like theres a short somewhere and the voltage generated by the alternator is flowing through the handle bars and I am a perfect conduit...My right hand a positive pole sucking up the current and my left the negative side completing the circuit....
I pass the Border Patrol check point at 4500 ft....They have a big bon fire going all huddled around it and when I cruise by they're staring at me until I vanish around the bend...It's down hill from here dropping to the valley floor at 3000 ft. and the cold air has settled down here....naturally.....I swear to God I am "super glued" to the fucking bike and am having a hard time finding the flexibility to "lean" into turns...
...I make it though...obviously or I wouldn't be writing this.....Sitting in the driveway, it takes me a full minute to find the mobility to put the kick stand down...
....Like I am with women,...a glutton for punishment,...I do this again within less than a week....

This last weekend I had Saturday off work and was looking forward to riding...
The Santa Ana wind had finally settled down enough later in the day to make it possible.
I've been having some trouble with Tokyo Rose's battery so I bought a new one...The outfit I bought if from had to fill it with electrolyte and put an initial charge on it...So I picked it up from them "all ready to go"...
I installed it and for a couple of days it was all good...I went out to start the bike Saturday and the instruments wouldn't even light up....
Being a "Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance" kind of guy, I do my own work on all my vehicles, and so checking this situation out I notice the battery is only half full of electrolyte....It's not even covering the plates....This piss's me off, cuz,.....I could "rant" on right here about the decay of personal work ethic values prevalent in every industry in the country, ...but,...that's another blog for another time...
...The point is...if I am not diverse, creative, and problem solving orientated addressing this situation,...I am fucked..
I try filling the battery the rest of the way with water and hope theres enough "acid" mix to charge it....Nope...I can jump start it now with cables and a "extra" car battery and the bike runs, but what happens if I have to shut if off "out there" some place when I am riding?...."Make sure you stop on a good down grade" I think to myself, or maybe by this time I am saying it out loud "talking to myself"....Yea, that's it, I can always "bump" start it in third gear to get the motor started!.....However, there is this nagging fear and mistrust swirling around back there in the mind of LooseCanon. I keep remembering the model name of my bike....Virago.....I didn't know what It meant when I bought it, so I looked it up...."A noisy, scolding, domineering woman"...".A large strong aggressive woman"...."A shrew"....."A discontent, malicious woman"......In other words....A BITCH....
What the fuck they have to "tag" it like that for?..... Do I really want to trust a bike named "Virago" to start up for me with a dead battery by doing a free fall bump start?.....I thought about it...I really did think about it....
...Yea, about this time I am starting to feel sorry for myself....gettin kind a pissed.....Nature is not cooperating with the high wind condition,...fucking bike is fucking with me....and top it off,...ain't no woman fucking me either....
This is when a man has to make a decision...Stand up and fight back, or go inside and curl up in a fetal position for the rest of the night....Me,...I am too old to curl up....age takes it toll on the elastic ability of the muscles...
The back of the "bitch" has a luggage rack I strap a duffel bag on...I carry extra shades, clears, camera, gloves, a extra helmet, (women's size).... ya never know,....a bottle of whatever I'm drinking...So I dump everything out of it and decide, fuck it, no battery issue is going to defeat my goal of riding this thing today...I put the car battery inside the duffel bag and the jumper cables in there too...I use the car battery and the cables to jump start the bike to the bike's battery,...Theres enough "juice" in the battery to support the alternator and the bike doesn't know the difference.....Some times I guess you just have to use reverse psychology on women to get what you want....I don't know, it's hard for me though, I feel like I am not being honest...In the case of "Tokyo Rose" however, I don't have any remorse....I got out there Saturday around 5pm, the wind had died down as is typical of Santa Ana blows between 3pm and 9pm...It was all I'd hoped it would be...Felt great, and "Tokyo Rose" loved it too....I could tell you know, the way she seemed to kind a purr along, not stressed, or freaked out......Maybe "Tokyo Rose" is a lot like many women my age today....They've had to get tough to survive...I think maybe just the fact she realized there was a problem with her battery and I "her man" took the necessary steps to insure her safety, enable her to relax, let go of some of the masculine exterior she's had to build up layer after layer over the course of her life.... and just for a time,allow herself to feel feminine again...