Okay people I’m looking for a lot of help on a project I’m starting. I’m planning a nationwide charity poker run. We’ll decide on a good day to have it, April 1st sounds good to me, and then we’ll have simultaneous rides across the country. Maybe at the end of each ride we’ll have a bake sale too because we need to raise all the cash we can. So what charity is this going to benefit you ask? Well that would be despondent financial CEOs of course. I mean one company CEO has agreed to live on a paltry $600,000 salary this year. He only made $68 million last year but now the government has to bail out his company. Some other execs in that company also made 8 figure salaries.

It looks like we might have to make this a yearly event because the big three American automakers are on Capitol Hill pleading poverty and looking for a hand out too. Can you imagine how much the top brass of those companies haul down a year?

An attorney in Wisconsin wants that state to require highway construction contractors to place warning signs for motorcyclists near their construction sites. These signs would be to inform the riders that there may be loose gravel on the road or uneven pavement due to roadway construction, both highly hazardous to riders. These would be in addition to the construction warning signs already mandated. Of course riders should slow down and use caution in any construction zone.

Today, November 11th, is Veterans Day. This is the day we set aside to honor all the service men and women who have fought in all the wars to protect us and our country. The holiday originally was called Armistice Day to celebrate the end of World War One which happened at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. World War One was supposed to be “the war to end all wars”. After a couple more conflicts the holiday was renamed Veterans Day to honor the soldiers who had fought in those wars. So take a minute and thank the veterans for all the freedoms we’ve enjoyed.

For all of you that have subscribed or renewed their subscription to IronWorks Magazine to enter the IronWorks/BrassBallsBobbers Giveaway Bike contest there’s an update in the December issue. This installment gives a look at some of the prototypical parts that have been designed for the bike. One part is the hand tooled and stitched leather seat by Rich Phillips. I sort of like the natural look of the seat in the picture.

While perusing the December issue of IronWorks there was a story that really caught my eye. The story is about flywheels, rods and pistons and the crankshaft and how they all work together to create the power to move the motorcycle. Normally I give such technical articles a quick glance over because I am what they call now-a-days, mechanically challenged. I’m not a wrench. I can change the oil and the spark plugs and that’s about it. Don’t get me wrong, I do know the basics and with the help of a service manual can perform some things but I would rather let someone who really knows what they are doing do it.

I spent an interesting evening on Election Night and it wasn’t in front of the TV watching the results. I had been asked to attend a meeting at a local volunteer fire company. They are in the process of planning their bike show for next year and asked a couple of us “old-timers” to give them suggestions. The fire company had “inherited” the show from a fraternal organization who had started it five years ago. A couple members of the club, who owned motorcycles, talked the membership into sponsoring the three day show saying it would be an easy way to make money for the club. After a couple years of hard work for little easy money the club gave the show to the fire company.

One of the great things about our country is that WE are the ones who select our leader. They are not appointed to and they do not inherit the job like in other countries. WE select them by electing them, but the only way they can be elected is if YOU vote and TODAY is ELECTION DAY! Get out and support the local and national candidates of your choice by doing your civic duty that all the brave service people of our country have fought to protect and preserve.

Look at it this way, today is the culmination of all those attack ads, junk mail and annoying phone calls from the candidates, political parties and biased talking heads that we’ve had to put up with the last few months. Now we only got to listen to the pronouncements about analog TV for a few more months. In my area we have an extra incentive. A local grocery has an election day special; a reduced price on a dozen eggs and a package of bacon after you show your ballot stub. My sister always knows we’re having either BLTs, French toast or gnoccis with sauerkraut and bacon for supper on election day.

Seriously, do the right thing and VOTE!