As summer approaches it always leaves me wondering “what the hell happened to the surf”. We had a few good days this year but it seemed like when I lived in Delray my first year down here (2004-2005) we had so much more surf days. Months and months of at least two days at the beach, spending my evenings in the surf catching rides.

My only consolation is the motorcycle. That at least gets me out and in the sunshine on an almost daily basis even if only for 30 minutes or so. A quick ride to the beach to clear my head.

Just waiting for life to get better.

Hopefully the issues have been alleviated but only time will tell. Thanks to the guys over at EZ-Web Hosting for getting it sorted out and rebooting my server when I couldn’t even get access to it.

Just one more issue to deal with I guess. As you’re probably aware, when I don’t write there’s probably not much to write about. Facebook has taken my daily “blogging” outlet to a medium that I can share with my friends and family as well. I’m not sure what the future of this site is going to be but again, only time will tell.

Hopefully life starts to ease up a bit and let me move around a bit and actually enjoy my day to day existence. Again, only time will tell.

After a pretty good morning, of course the day goes to complete shit. Got up early, grabbed breakfast at Panera and headed to the beach for a nice sunrise breakfast at the Wall. Got back to the office, worked for a couple hours and then, bam… no internet. My payment to Primecast was a bit late but it got there on the 1st of March. They had no record of it. My bank did but they, in their dumbass Alabama wisdom, didn’t.

“Temporary cut off” is what they called it, and not only did I owe twice the bill, I had to set up auto withdrawal from my account in order to get my service back up. Needless to say I kind of went off. Useless POS.

After contacting my bank and checking the records on my iPhone I had the evidence I needed….calmly called again and got someone with a brain (Stephen, thank you). Faxed and emailed over proof of payment. I even went to the branch and had them fax the necessary information over.

An hour later my service was still not on so I headed out to a Starbucks on Village to work next to my buddy, Rich.

On top of all that I had an emergency project due tomorrow which, honestly, I’m still working on right now (8pm). Luckily my home service is back on. Hopefully it stays on tomorrow morning so I can just bust ass all day and get this done. Otherwise I’ll have to go buy a pack of smokes and try to keep myself calm while I verbally rip someone’s head off in Alabama.

Yeah, you guessed it, when I don’t write it usually means I have nothing worth writing about. Right now I’m just tired. Tired of being broke, tired of my shit Land Rover, tired of worrying about taxes, money, long distance relationships, work, bills… just plain tired.

You ever have one of those days where you’re just plain tired of being you? It’s pretty much been that way for a few weeks for so I apologize for the lack of postings. Not much around here to report.

We had surf yesterday but I was only able to get in the water for about an hour as I was promptly kicked out of the water by the local landlords (sharks) after catching a nice ride.

The motorcycle’s running well but it too needs some work. The rear brakes are just about gone. I can’t tell if it just needs new pads or the line needs to be bled out. The front headlight bulb needs to be replace but it’s working on high beams so I do still have a headlight for now. The new chain and clutch push pin seem to be holding up so far so I guess I learned something in taking it apart half a dozen times.

Times like these I guess, well, shit could be worse. Taxes are going to take a bite out of the monthly budget and the deadline for sending in the check is quickly coming around. That’s got me up nights but again…shit could be worse.

After over a month of issues, possible transmission failures, waiting for clutch push pins and eventually discovering the motorcycle needed a new chain I’m finally back on it. Actually kind of proud of myself for getting everything fixed, and what a learning experience it has been.

Not only did I have to buy a new chain but I had to buy the tools to replace it including a chain breaker. The guys over at CycleGear are usually saviors but this time I wanted to wring their fucking necks.

I bought a new 525 chain ($165) and a chain breaker ($35) to get the final repairs done on the bike only to find the instructions on the chain box didn’t pertain to the chain I bought. Some chains are master link + safety clip installed and some are rivet. The box clearly had instructions for clip installation yet the box didn’t come with the clip. So I went back to Cycle Gear and spent $3 on another master link including a safety clip. But… master link was too small and I ruined the original getting it off of the chain. So back to the shop… told them the new master link was too short and I needed one for a 525 with the safety clip… they didn’t sell and then proceeded to tell me the chain THEY SOLD ME wasn’t a clip type. It required an $89 tool set! Yet they kept selling me crap that was useless.

Finally I said screw it, went to Broward Motorsports and got the right part for $9 and screwed with removing another master link, adjusting the alignment, etc. all over again.

Now that it’s back on the road I’m about to clean it up and get it ready for sale. Hopefully I can get at least $4,500 out of it. I love the bike and it’s going to be tough to let go but it fits into the overall scheme of the next few months so it’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make.

Way to start the new year off right. The other day, about a bock from home I took a corner on the motorcycle, gave it some throttle and bam, a loud pop and the chain was off. When I looked down I saw fluid leaking from the engine. The clutch had no resistance at all… not good. It took a few minutes to get the chain back on and I pushed it home. After a quick conversation with my local bike shop they basically said it would more than likely be $2,000 or more to fix.

Then, today when I was going to go for a huge grocery run (since I was almost completely out of food) I got in the Rover and…nothing. The damn battery is dead so a no go for that either.

The bike’s really got me bummed out and the Rover issue just put the icing on the cake. It just feels like my life is falling apart, nothing’s going right.

I can’t say I remember it ever being this cold around here. This is Palm Beach where 50 is considered freezing. I’ve surfed in 45 degree weather before but in the low 30′s? This is getting out of hand. I had to get out the flannel slacks and turtle-neck sweater this morning and turn the heat on in my place.

It’s really not so much the cold but the wind. I’m on the 8th floor and my balcony feels like 20 degrees. Come back warm weather…this is why I moved here!

It looks like there’s going to be even more surf on the way for this coming weekend, even bigger than last weekend. Unfortunately I was unable to make the last swell…I’m blaming Vince… and our taste for good tequila.

I was hoping to hit it after work on Monday as there was still some swell in the water but damn Daylight Savings time said, “no…I’m going to make it too dark for you sucker so you can’t surf after 5pm”. Damn you Daylight Savings time, you get me every year. Everyone knows how much I hate you! And here. Now we have to wait till March for it to end.

I’m actually considering boycotting Daylight Savings time…at least when it comes to work anyway. Since I work from home for a company in Seattle I may just see if I can work from 7am to 4pm….I get out of bed around 6am every day now anyway. It won’t be that much of a change for me.

I still haven’t changed my bedroom clock…and don’t think I’m going to. Screw you Ben Franklin, I’d rather have daylight after work than before.

Anyway, I digress. This weekend’s surf forecast is calling for 10-12 ft with a 15 second period… this means big, clean and amazing surf. Even if we get half that size with the same period it’ll be awesome. I think I may have talked my buddy Dan into coming up from the Keys for the weekend to join me. Crossing my fingers, waxing the boards and keeping a weather eye on the surf cams. Here comes fun!

So over the weekend last weekend I managed to completely lose my voice. I blame the Snoop Dogg concert at Roxy’s but who knows what happened. Regardless I still can’t talk very well. It feels like someone punched me in the throat…kind of like when I was 5 and some jackhole swung down from the monkey bars with cowboy boots only to catch little me square in the throat. Hopefully it’ll come back before next Tuesday as I had to postpone a sit down meeting until then because of the lack of vocal abilities.

In the meantime, the weekend’s back at last so everyone out there… enjoy!