What Gives...

I was waiting for all of my followers to beg me relentlessly to blog again but then I remembered...I don't have any followers and I'm not even sure anybody reads this stuff anyway so....there you have it.

Now onto my topic... I have had it up to here with local commerce. I used to LOVE Burlington. I thought it was a great place to live and raise a family. While that still may be true, there are just a few things that erk me beyond belief.

Gooseberries. An amazing fresh market following the trend of the local K-Mart in the late 90's. (Most of the time when you need just ONE thing...they don't have it) Be it Goat Cheese or the Margarita Pizza. New Rule: don't create a masterpiece of a pizza and then only make two of them every other week.

Kwik Trip. Top Tier Gasoline. Cheapest Milk in town. And if you haven't tried either their orange juice or milk in a bag...delicious. Seriously, their chocolate milk in a bag beats any other chocolate milk. I'd say go try a bag but 9 times out of 10 they're sold out because they oddly enough only seem to order one crate per week. I have made special trips across town JUST for chocolate milk on their truck days only to be sadly disappointed. Suggestion: if you want to shorten a product life cycle quickly; once people are hooked on your amazing product, only offer it sporadically until people get over it and move on to the next best thing.

Store Hours. Every store in town has hours for the unemployed. Whether you want to purchase a bike from the local peddler or some Burts Bee's Bubble Bath...unless you take a day off from work, they're closed by five. There's a reason the malls and major retailers are open till at least 9p during the week. News Flash: Unless you want to join the 10 empty retail buildings that plague our desolate downtown, you can either stay open one extra hour a day or hang up the "store closing" sign.

No Joe. NEVER live in a city without a coffee shop. Whether it be a local shop or a chain, I see only perks with either one.

In closing, if you find yourself driving into other towns more than once a week to purchase things either not offered or not made available to you because of store hours...ditch the city you live in and reward the ones that are actually trying.

Now since picking up and moving isn't as easy as we'd all wish...just create a blog and complain about it!!

Oh Summer

There's never a dull moment during a season in Wisconsin. If Wisconsin knows anything; it's intensity. It does everything wholeheartedly. When it snows; it's a blizzard. When the sun comes out; there's a heat advisory. What can I say...it lives life @ full speed!

If you're concerned about high electric bills during the summer and even higher gas bills in the winter, this is probably not the state for you. But for those of us who choose to stick around and enjoy these four seasons, there is much to enjoy.

One of the most satisfying parts of the summer is when the corn starts growing. I tend to scoot the same roads and most of them are out in the country where I'll have a corn field on either side of me. We went a month or so with no rain, which I think the corn likes, and then we got hit. There was so much moisture in the air you could almost smell the corn growing. You could visit Wisconsin and drive past a farm and know exactly what kind of season we've had already. First: how does the corn look? Second: if you can smell the cow poop from a distance, we've had a lot of rain.

We also have a ton of lakes which surprisingly are very clean. I've spent the last couple nights on the water and it's been amazing. As soon as that jetski hits plane and you feel like you're skating on ice... it's an incredible feeling. I wish I took advantage of the water more but there is BIG bucks in boating...

And by the time you've had enough of the heat and humidity, the thought of Fall is just around the corner. Camping, Bonfires, and the start of Football Season!

I'll sum up summer in Wisconsin with a quote from a friend while out scooting. We rode the same area a few weeks earlier and after making a turn and coming to a stop..."I recognized this was our turn from the smell of poop."

MUST BE A GOOD YEAR!

Surprise Surprise

I've hinted at this before but one of the most attractive traits of the scooter is that is has nothing to prove. People mostly want to know how fast they go, then how many miles to the gallon they get and then lastly how much it costs. Never would you get asked to do a wheelie at 60mph or show off your loud and obnoxious, chrome pipes. It's got 20 hp; I'm sure your John Deere has more juice than this puppy. It's a scooter...it just goes.

We're always being pushed to prove ourselves. Prove ourselves at work. Prove ourselves to our spouse. Prove ourselves to our friends....the last thing I care to do is provide proof of the things I purchase. But that doesn't mean I don't like to surprise...


Today, I wanted to surprise them. Much like when you see men on their morning commute with an electric shaver. They've transformed their car into their bathroom... while on the way to work... genius.


I rode to work this morning on my Vespa with a cup of coffee in my hand.


As if you were sitting in your desk and you'd hold up your coffee and give your colleague the morning 'nod,' that's what I did to oncoming traffic. Dangerous? Slightly; but well worth it. I even passed a motorcycle on the way but instead of nodding...I took a big sip right in front of him. Ahhh, take that Harley dude.


I think the lack of scooter adaptation in the states is due to people not thinking they're real world. They think they're a toy. They think they only go 30 mph. I love how people ask me how long it took to get somewhere and I reply, "just as long as it took you in your car." They think I had to leave a week ahead of them.


(And if it wasn't enough, after work, I went and bought a 12 pack of PBR and a pizza.) (It was the first time I ever bought beer in a can)


A scooter isn't for everyone...but for me, it's as real world as it gets.


"Hey look, that guy's on a scooter; and he's drinking coffee?"


Surprise Surprise!!

Oh, Say, Can you See.

I had an interesting night tonight. I live in between two widowed women. One is a busy bee and never sits still. The other one, I'll go weeks without seeing her. I figure as long as I see lights on at night I know not to worry. But I've engaged in plenty conversation with the busy bee over the time we've had our home and you could say I'm comfortable with her...

I don't watch the news. I don't know who fought in WW1 or who won the Cold War (that's a war right?) and I could probably barely pick our Vice President out in a lineup but I'll say this...a worn and tattered American Flag bothers me.

My busy bee neighbor has a flag pole in the front yard right between our houses. I consider it a shared flag pole because I get to enjoy it too. Well her flag has seen better days. It will get caught on the tree and stay stuck for days and it's colors no longer shout with pride what they represent. I figure it's only fitting that coming up on the 4th of July that I take it upon myself to replace it.

(At least I waited for her to get home to ask for her permission!)

What a thrill brining that flag back up the pole. By now it was dusk and the only thing more fitting would have been if someone was next to me either with fireworks or singing "My Country Tis of Thee." (And of course one of the clips broke so I replaced both with metal clips from a Bose headphone case. Worked perfectly.)

British-born scholar Felicity Paxton said, "Both people who support the war, and oppose the war, wave and wear the American flag and therein lies it's power. An effective symbol is one that ordinary people can engage at multiple levels and for multiple reasons."

So there you have it. I'm just an ordinary person who would get wrong every history question you asked me. I'd be the guy on Jay Leno's 'Street Interviews' that you'd make fun of. But there is something about the flag I respect on multiple levels for unknown reasons. The fact that you can still well up during the siging of the National Anthem during a Brewer game gives me hope that you can have a strong sense of pride and emotion towards your country without having ever fought or knowing about it's history. Because really, for that moment, you, along with thousands of other fans, are connected not by race, blood or belief, but the fact that we are all AMERICANS. (I almost cried as I typed that)

(random tid bit about our flag...the current design was from an 18 yr. old in high school who received a B- for it)

(also...notice in the above pic how I trimmed the bush to allow for proper lighting of the flag at night.)

Numb and Dumb

The topic I'd like to discuss next is based around the question of whether or not technology lowers our expectation of quality. We live in a day where good business thrives on finding new ways to advance and cut cost. Ultimately, it is the customer who benefits (so we think) from more options at lower prices. (think Wal-Mart) But I am open for debate on whether that is a good thing or not.

I think it boils down to the principle that we don't expect much from what we buy today. We view most items as 'things' that fill a temporary need. When they malfunction, we just replace them with an even newer, better, and somehow cheaper model. And to top it off, we expect so much MORE from that newer model than we did before...(even though we paid less for it)

This new way of thinking has drastically shifted consumer spending so much that companies have had to adapt...and quickly. Would you buy a new vehicle today without a warranty? Heck, most companies have to promise ten years/100,000 miles to even get you in the door!

When I worked for Bose, aside from cost, people wanted to know two things....Watts and Warranty. Both of which, in fact, tell you nothing of how a speaker will sound. (It's like asking a car salesman how the car drives...just get in the dang thing you pinhead!) I heard a lot "so when it breaks..." As if their expectations of the product were such that it was going to last 6 months and they'd be back out looking for a new one. They'd be the first to say "Bose is the Best!" but then they'd want to know what the warranty was just in case it wasn't the best afterall.

Some would argue that through technology we've been able to create materials (plastics) that are cheaper and more durable in the long run. I disagree. I have a dresser in my room that has got to be 100 years old. At one point, this dresser was made in a small factory, by a human, with raw materials. Materials that have lasted this long and I could restore this piece in a days work. Have you ever tried to restore anything plastic? No silly, you just throw it out and buy a new one.

It's not that all the stuff made today is junk; it's just for some reason we have no incentive to spend more for something of quality. We rationalize the savings being worth more than the craftsmanship or longevity.

On a side note; if this mentality continues we will lose two of my favorite things:

-enthusiasts (without anything to get excited for, we'll all just become numb and dumb consumers)

-estate sales/antiques (without things that last 6 months, let alone six generations...)


...now post some comments!

Dare to be Happy

Last Sunday had to have been the best weather we've had all year. It was 80 degrees, low humidity and low winds. It was perfect. In fact, it was as close to 'normal' as you can expect for living in Wisconsin. So what did I do...went for a scooter ride.

Anyone who has ridden a powered two wheeler has no doubt received 'the wave' from fellow cyclists heading the opposite direction. I don't even want to get into how it started or the proper way to wave...it actually annoys me how much thought and web space has been taken up by a simple gesture. But being a scooterist, it's really hit or miss if I'll get the wave. Sometimes yes, sometimes no. If I had to guess, I think it depends on the day because if I get one wave, I get them all.

So here I am riding along on the most beautiful day, on my favorite roads of all time, and not one single rider waved to me. It normally doesn't bother me too much...but Sunday was different.

The thing about the scooter is it has nothing to prove. It's the most basic machine and it cant' do anything 'neat'. It just goes. And as companies have continued to make these basic machines, other companies have been hard at work making motorcycles bigger than ever and bikes capable of mind blowing speeds. But along with this has come an image...an image of being 'cool.' And image of being 'mean'. An image of being 'unhappy'?

I guess it all depends on how you define happy but I'll tell you how I would define unhappy...not waving at someone who has waved at you. It's almost as bad as not returning a smile! These are basic forms of communications that have been around for all of mankind.

I called this post "dare to be happy" after a Volkswagen ad from back when the Beetle was still in production. Back when auto manufactures started making cars look mean and unhappy to appeal to the masses. Somehow we've allowed manufactures to depict us as evil human beings and we've fallen victim to their scheme. So lesson learned, by buying a motorcycle, you can no longer be nice to someone. It is against the 'image' and against protocol. You are to look mean, act mean and even worse...act unhappy.

Welcome

I'm going to give this whole 'blog' idea a chance and hopefully some of you will find my thoughts interesting or if I'm lucky; inspiring. Life @ Full Speed isn't necessarily about living life to the fullest; it's about the potential in your life. It's about the excess potential that surrounds us and tempts our every move. It will argue against this so called 'American' idea that bigger is always better.

It will be a realist approach from ideas that start by seeing the world from a different view...on a Vespa @ Full Speed.