The saga of the bikes

My new bike!!!!

The saga all started about 2 weeks ago when a car pulled out in front of one of my friends when they were riding my motorcycle. (He only had a broken thumb). The headlight and turn signal were broken on it so I went to the Harley Dealership to get a new headlight. To make a long story short I had been looking at buying a new buell in about 2 months, but I went in for a headlight and came out with a new bike (a really good deal).

Alot has gone on since the last time I wrote. We took the body off my Wagoneer to get ready to shorten the frame and put the cherokee body on it. Eventually I would like to make it so I can switch a cherokee body with a roof and one without off and on in about 30 minutes. During this whole time I have been debating the role of the church in alienating many non-christians. Sometimes it feels like an elite club where entry into the church itself is barred to those who do not conform to the churchs standards, not neccessarily moral standards but standards of dress, culture, and the like. I guess it would be moral standards to. How many people who struggle with homosexuality feel alienated by the church because there sin is considered by so many to be so much more taboo then many of the other sins. Even if people do not consider it worse in there mind. Even people of a more liberal mindset in politics can feel ostracized because there views do not tow to the party line of churches. I'll admit that there have been different small groups I have been involved with where I felt like I would be alienated if I shared some of my views on the environment and big business.

I think the church should keep poltics out of its sancutuary and focus on winning people to christ. They should trust that the Lord will lead people who come to know him in the right direction and not feel that they need to control what people think. A liberal exchange of ideas that allows beliefs to be challenged will cause people to think and either become stronger in their beliefs or realize they are not correct. I really like the church I go to right now because the pastor will bring in people to speak who have very different views from the mainstream church. I have agreed with alot of what they have said but some things I don't. It makes me rexamine my beliefs and question why I have those beliefs and come up with cold hard facts for most of my beliefs.

Springs is here. It was such a nice day to ride.


Bike after hitting car (surpirisingly will cost alot to fix according to estimate)

Killing the Roof

The chop is complete!!!

Jev and I chopped the top off the jeep yesterday. It is so much fun to destroy stuff. Especially when I know that something really cool is going to come out of it. We drove it over to the porters last night (which was totally illegal but oh well). I did find out from Jed who runs armorology that we could run without a windshield legally in colorado so we chopped the windhield off to which I hadn't been planning to do but it is so much fun driving around without a windshield. In two weeks I am going to order a tubing bender and we will start building the roll cage.

After that we will start to build a new frame for it so I can put the v8 and axles from my wagoneer onto it.

the intial chop before the top is totally removed

Is Death a good reason to spend money

Over the past few days as we prepared for a memorial service for the president of the organization I work for, I have been thinking," Are we doing all this to honor this guy or to ease the pain and suffering of his family?"

Some of the things I am doing to prepare, seem like things that should be done normally to spiff up the place for the guest who stay at our conference center. Mulching the beds and having flowers almost year round are things that would happen at a normal business.

I would hope if I ever die to be cremated and placed in the ground without a big service or viewing (viewings are morbid, who wants to see a person who looks artificial and kind've scary?)

On a brighter note the Glen is a beautiful place during the spring. Today was in the mid seventies and I love working in gardens!! Especially when the weather is amazing out. I rode my motorcycle every where I had to go tonight. The temp was even warm tonight.

Well the jeep is getting modified even more now. I had previously cut the back behind the doors off it (Pic above). So now for the summer my friends and I are going to build a roll cage and cut the whole top of and install a roll cage. It should be a blast. I have to buy a tubing bender in the next week or 2. I think we could get really artistic on this and have some fun. Anybody who has ideas for some cool designs to make out of tubes leave a comment!!

Back to bed now I have to work the memorial service tommorow. I think it will be cool. Hopefully when some of the people who come see the Glen they will feel God calling them to donate. The title is kind've cynical isn't it...