Roadside memorials: public grief or public eyesore?

That is a headline in the Vancouver Sun today, Saturday November 20th.

What a powerful and emotional subject this is. Made even more so today as the Saddle Tramps prepare to remember 4 of their own who were killed earlier this month in a horrific head on crash.

This is one topic I have stayed away from for a long time, but now I think is the time to discuss the purposes and the needs for marking a place of passing - the time frames for doing so and size restrictions if any.

I am not sure how many of you have been doing any reading on the painful and tender topic of road side memorials, but it is a topic that is heating up right across this country.

With admitted reluctance, a growing number of Canadian municipalities are clamping down on roadside memorials and imposing restrictions on them. It’s a prickly debate that has ignited Internet discussion boards and newspaper opinion pages.(Quote from Vancouver Sun article)

Now most places have no rules in place to handle the memorials and there is a lot of blather about driver distraction (Yah like billboards and flashing lights and signs do nothing to distract us)...the problem with many of these memorials from what I understand is that they are not maintained, which has lead to comments and discussion about the memorials being eyesores. Other discussions have been that they make people sad and are upsetting or that they are an unwanted intrusion.

Cruel and hurtful words have been said on this topic. Grieving families do not see what they "need" to do as an intrusion or an eyesore. They see it as creating a place of worship and love.

The older memorials that have not been visited in a while is one thing - but those that are maintained and visited often are not eyesores - in my humble opinion.

I have enormous empathy for those who grieve over deaths that have taken place on the highway - I can never go to Sexsmith without saying a prayer for Ronnie at his "spot" - it remains unmarked but I know where it is.

I have some concerns on this topic too though - I am uncertain as to how to approach to subject and pray this comes across as respectful because the written word can be tough to deal with at times like this.

I read about a mother who weekly visits not her daughters grave, but the last place her daughter's spirit was - the memorial that marks that spot. While as a mother, I can understand the emotions and sentiment of this mother, I also think this is one mom who could benefit from some outreach.

Winnipeg let's a road side memorial stand for a year and then gives families the opportunity to have their loved one's name engraved on a light standard band at the light post nearest to the accident. I really like the option. I think for those who feel the need to have a road side memorial that that is a wonderful compromise to the emotion charged situation.

I personally think a road side memorial can offer a number of beneficial things...

The memorial helps families and friends feel in control of the grieving process according to

the expert quoted in the Vancouver Sun Story - Diane Purvey, an associate professor of history and education, at Thompson Rivers University in B.C., co-authored a book last year on roadside shrines called Private Grief, Public Mourning. (I can believe that statement.)

It also, in my humble opinion, can serve as a reminder to slow down and pay attention and

as an educational tool to teach curious children about love and death and mourning and paying attention when driving - that is is a huge responsibility - perhaps if they were taught these simple truths they will become better drivers than their parents are...

The cruelty and selfishness of some people still, even at 50 years old, surprises me. Compassion and empathy are two words I think people in this country need to start learning and to excersise their meaning....

Death, loss - it is so personal, so powerful, so consuming - for a time. The hurt, the missing - they never really go away, they fade and become less demanding but they are always there - waiting for an opportunity to remind you of the love you miss.

Having recently lost my kid brother at 48 - I am deeply aware of the pain that these people feel who need to have a road side memorial. 

I grieve at odd moments caught off guard by something that triggers a memory...

I understand the need to mark the passing but I urge all to remember that life is for the living and the best tribute you can pay to someone you love who is taken far too soon is to live well - to honor them by being the BEST that you can be, for if you allow your grief to consume you the passing of your loved one becomes even more tragic because it has left behind the walking dead as well.

I would welcome your feed back on this topic - just as I do with every topic. I love hearing different ideas and opinions...it is how we grow. You can join the discussion here in my blog (anonymous posts are not accepted - you must provide your name) On Face Book on the Belt Drive Betty & The Busted Knuckle Fan Page or in the forums on www.beltdrivebetty.com - you need to be a registered member...

There is a ton of stuff on the news again today:

Ontario is ramping up more motorcycle tourism

Edmonton Harley-Davidson has announced their Christmas Party and Customer Appreciation event

Azzkikr's in the lower mainland of BC is offering some great service deals to our members!

In Edmonton City council is playing the stutter step on the Noise Bylaw Issue - they are waiting for a court fight on the Motorcycle Noise bylaw - ANY TAKERS IN EDMONTON?

In the US noted tuner Eyvind Boyesen passed away last night. Tonight he is being inducted into the Hall of Fame.

There is so much more in the feeds today - but I also have a ton of work to do around the house that has been neglected for days so...

Have a great day and please take your time out there.

Belt Drive Betty

Editor/Rider

www.bustedknucklenews.com

www.beltdrivebetty.com

Been gone far too long...

I have just gotten through 5 of the most stressful days of my life - getting the community phone book ready for printing. It is the MOST nerve racking thing I have ever done. You worry yourself sick thinking you are going to miss an ad or have type "o's" (which I am famous for because you really can't proof read your own work - it just doesn't work).

None the less, I am finished, it's at the printers and good lord willing it will look as good in final copy as I feel it looks in PDF format.

The free book and membership cards will be available at the January bike shows in Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and in February at Saskatoon's new Motorcycle Show and Red Deer - they moved to February! In March we are planning on attending the Nation Motorcycle Show In Toronto - Carolyn Neveau is one of our RFBA business partners and hosts this particular show! I am looking into creative ways to get the books to riders for free in the East so if you have any ideas!!!

Otherwise you can order them on line but it costs $7.50 for shipping and handling - plus tax.
I am stoked as this year we have a ton of new sponsors - Intercon Messaging is offering their Never Ride Alone Program to all REGISTERED BDB Club Members - (remember MEMBERSHIP is FREE!)

We also have a much grown Canadian Riders Network - and their assistance will be available to our members through the same toll free number!

In all the membership card is good for special services and savings at over 300 Canadian Locations from Coast to Coast to Coast!

We are working on a ton of initiatives that could see this little plastic membership card be good for special services and discounts at over 500 businesses before long!

If you are not a member and not using your membership card for all of the perks it offers, well, you will be missing out and that would be a shame!

We are also looking at ways to reduce the cost of delivering the community newspaper and still comply with all anti spam laws etc... speaking of which - make sure you have us white listed in your emails address list (added as a contact)!

Our 2011 Beat the PMS Blues On Line Show n Shine is shaping up to have some FABULOUS prizes this year!

A Doran Tire Pressure Monitor is the Top prize - what a nifty idea this is! With an approximate retail value of $270 - I'd say that's a pretty good prize! 

To win you just need to share your photos with us!

We have hotel rooms, meals, camping, event tickets and more to hand out to the winners in the various categories because we have some awesome sponsors! You can live anywhere in Canada - the prizes come from ALL Over Canada!

Beginning January 1 you can start loading your photos into the contest gallery...voting begins February 5th and wraps up March 5th. Official winners list will come out on March 15th. Join us. We have a blast - it's a great way to deal with your PMS - no matter how severe! January 1st 2011 - Join us for Belt Drive Betty's Beat the PMS Blues On Line Show 'n' Shine!

It is totally the prescription for coping with PMS!

Don't forget to vote on the photos in our Ride like a Local contest! There are some 60 photos or so all vying for the prize of 2 nights hotel in a Canadian Community of your choice OR $150 cash.  You have to be a registered member at www.beltdrivebetty.com to vote - but with all of the perks that membership has, maybe now is finally the time for you to register! Vote Here: Rider Like a Local Photo Contest


Ali has our on line store resurrected and has gotten it kicked off with a few of the license plates we offer, next will come the subscriptions to the Busted Knuckle Chronicles Community newspaper, the phone book and then our bar and road signs.

$1 from every license plate we sell and $2 from every bar sign/road sign we sell will go into a pool that we will then donate to the CMTA for the Injured Riders Fund...
Over time we will add patches, tees shirts and other items - and again a portion of the proceeds will be donated right back to our community. I am proud to be a rider and proud to support our charitable causes and MY brothers and sisters of the family wind!
And Ali, our wonderful web mistress feels the exact same way!

There is so much in the news. My word - from US Motorcycle Missionaries being attacked in Haiti to Harley-Davidson's new advertising agency and a new way of advertising called Crowd Sourcing - there is one broad and wide variety of interesting stuff in the what's hot section on our site!

KTM is offering up a new bike as is Honda - but we here in North America can't have the new Honda.

In Edmonton the Police service wants the city to expand the noise bylaw to ALL vehicles....HMMMM - Liane Langlois - did your pressure finally pay off?

In the US - Helmets could become mandatory in all 50 states and the state of Oregon is investigating the practice of lane splitting


Well - I have a hugely busy day ahead of me and while there is MUCH MUCH more in the news feeds today I will leave it up to you to snoop and discover the gems for yourselves!

Belt Drive Betty
Rider & Editor

The Busted Knuckle Chronicles
www.bustedknucklenews.com
www.beltdrivebetty.com

From Bad to worse, the news is UGLY today

On W5 there was an in depth documentary on a predator.
Caron Oderbien - a grifter, a predator - call her what you will - I will call her evil.

The W5 investigation took 10 months to complete and uncovered  a lot of dirt on this gal who is reportedly living in the Camrose AB region - or she was up until the show aired.

Our troops, people with cancer - this broad milked a whole ton of us riders and a whole lot of other unsuspecting people. I will never understand why there are people like her - what made her the way she is, what made her - drove her to take advantage of the less fortunate, the ill and the infirm? I guess until she is caught we will never know, in the mean time this gal has left destruction, hurt and empty wallets in a rather large swath right across Canada and into the northern US.

Then in the US, tragedy struck the riding community in a large way again. Reminiscent of the crash last March in Phoenix, this one in Southern California has the Saddletramps Motorcycle Club devastated.

Celebrating the 10th anniversary of their club, riding down an undivided two lane highway and someone, pulls out to pass the riders with a car coming - in order to avoid a head on the driver of the oncoming car swerved to the right, went into the sand, over compensated, came back onto the highway and drive right in to the riders. The card driver who was passing the bikes in an unsafe manner was reportedly doing close to 100 mph.


 With 4 riders dead and the passenger of the oncoming car dead - this tragedy, highly avoidable is eerily similar to the Phoenix crash...I pray with all my heart for the families and friends of the dead riders. I pray for a speedy recovery of the injured and hope that the driver who never stopped - the SOB that caused the accident to get caught - SOON.

The driver of the oncoming vehicle was arrested for DUI but it is not believed that his alcohol consumption had anything to do with this accident.

As always, I love it when you wade in on the discussions of the day - today is no different.

Only thing is the discussions on FB have to take place on our Fan Page - I am at my max for friends on my personal page! So join us at Belt Drive Betty & The Busted Knuckle Chronicles
Or in the forums at www.beltdrivebetty.com or right here in my blog - I would LOVE to hear your thoughts on these two situations...what can we riders do to prevent being taken to the cleaners by the dishonest and what can we do to help prevent collisions like the on in SOCal?

Belt Drive Betty
Rider & Editor

The Busted Knuckle Chronicles
www.bustedknucklenews.com
www.beltdrivebetty.com

The pros and the cons...

Social networking, Facebook in particular appears to be like the rest of us when it comes to this social networking thing. They appear to be making the rules as they go.

Although there are FB sharing tools everywhere - if they don't like the link or the article you are sharing they make it so you can't see it.

If you become "popular" with 5,000 friends - guess what - they cut you off.
I have been at the point of not being able to join a group - cause I am a member of too many groups in their eyes for at least 5 months now. I have not been able to "like" another page in about the same length of time.

Now I can't add any friends - only confirm those who had accepted previous requests or referrals. remember - I have only been on Facebook for 10 months in any kind of earnest way - 1 year since I set things up but only 10 months of active use...

I joined Facebook, kicking and screaming. My web mistress ORDERED me to join and create a group, a personal and a fan page. So I did that - now the group page is closed - what a pain to maintain that was...my personal page is there but has hit the growth wall and now I have to work my fan page and my personal page together...- what the heck happened tot the social in social network marketing?

Well - for those of who who are interested - once our community phone book is done and off to the printers I will be working my own Facebook style of components a lot harder on www.beltdrivebetty.com

I am going to get two groups going over there for sure: the RFBA one and the BDB Club one.

You can start your own social networking group on www.beltdrivebetty.com - it's free and works almost like Facebook and the best part? It just us riders over there!

So while Facebook decides my public fate on the amount of friends I can have and I finish this community phone book - I hope you my friends will join me either on my fan page or better yet, don't make a girl work so hard - become a member over at www.beltdrivebetty.com

Instead of helping a big corporation, how about helping a little owner operator..join us - our sharing tools are free and the only restrictions will be when our server starts to cost more - and even then - if we can attract the advertisers that won't have to be an issue either...

So for all of you who love "crackbook" so much: http://www.facebook.com/?tid=1484667758435&sk=messages#!/pages/Belt-Drive-Betty-The-Busted-Knuckle-Chronicles/201980414908  that's the link to our fan page...

For those of you who wouldn't working on building a "bikers" community on www.beltdrivebetty.com

Our NEW Groups components are done BETA testing and are ready for you to use!
They are brand new and clean and all they need is you - your pictures, your videos, your laughter and sharing...to become a home - so come on and help us grow our own community where the only restriction on how many people you can have as friends is going to be how many advertisers we can attract to help us grow! Go on your profile tab and then to community groups....Join us - WE'D LOVE TO HAVE YOU THERE!

Remember all BDB Club members have the ability to print off their membership card for savings at close to 300 Canadian Businesses and use the NEVER RIDE ALONE program from Intercon Messaging for FREE!

Let me know your thoughts on social networking for we riders - what is important to you?
Photo galleries, sharing tools, videos etc - what makes a social network work for you?
I'd LOVE to have you in on this discussion!!!!

Belt Drive Betty
Rider & Editor

The Busted Knuckle Chronicles
www.bustedknucklenews.com
www.beltdrivebetty.com

Thank YOU

To the young men and women of our country who have given their lives in service to this country.....And I do not just refer to those who have lost their lives, but the ones who come home who live with tortured minds and souls and those with broken bodies too....

Thank you.

If not for you, I would be riding around big gaping holes in the pavement where a bomb had landed, or I'd be in hiding when a band of insurgents came to raze my town or I'd be being beaten...

If not for you the kids of my community/country would be begging for food or learning how to kill to protect themselves.

If not for you, the horrors of war would be here - in Grande Prairie AB or Toronto ON or Vancouver, or Churchill...

Your willingness to lay your life down for this country will never be forgotten.

And to the families of our soldiers an even bigger thank you for supporting your soldiers decision to defend this country even though you know it will forever change them.

THANK YOU.


Every day needs to be Veteran's Day - Every day, people who live in relative freedom should be remembering to say Thank You ...

Two little words to go with two short minutes - on the 11th day of the 11 month at the 11th hour - for two short minutes FEEL THANKFUL - FEEL GRATEFUL and remember that today a mother is missing her son or daughter, a wife is comforting a restless child who misses her daddy and a father is consoling his son as he feels the loss of his wife...

Remembrance day is a day of GRATITUDE for we, the people who benefit from those who have chosen to serve us and our country.  Think of where we would be if it were not for them.

With love, honor and respect... Thank You - to all of the Veterans and our serving personnel. I am humbled by the depth of your love and respect for this country.

Belt Drive Betty
Rider & Editor

The Busted Knuckle Chronicles
www.bustedknucklenews.com
www.beltdrivebetty.com

Publish Post

More decisions to make...

Since the news feeds are nice and quiet other than for sports, I thought I'd take some more time to ask you for feed back on glasses and goggles.

You have all been so helpful in talking about the jackets, chaps, boots etc...and I appreciate ytour taking the time to talk about good gear with me.

Now - glasses...I have some from an outfit called Chaotic Choppers - hands down they were the best glasses I have ever owned but they were expensive - $300 a pair. They had interchangeable lenses and were ultra light weight made from CNC machined aluminum.

Chaotic Choppers is not around from what I can find out and sadly though the frames and lenses are great still the nose pieces are buggered on both pairs and I can't seem to find anyone who can re foam them.

So - I am in the market for a really good set of glasses and or goggles - now I have one more kink yet to deal with. I was just prescribed glasses...so how do you deal with that?

I wear a half helmet...any suggestions?
What should I be budgeting for this particular purpose?


That's all I have for now...I would LOVE your feedback on this topic...you can join the discussion here in my blog, on my Face Book or in our forums on www.beltdrivebetty.com

By the way - have YOU voted on our photo contest photos? No - well I hope you will take 5 and go vote - some lucky human being is gonna win wither two nights hotel or $150!

In the News today:

On Vancouver Island a spokesman for the HA finds himself facing charges

The Old Bike Barn offers some winter storage tips

In Milan Italy the EIMCA show has wrapped up

In Sports, Rossi rides Ducati

Belt Drive Betty
Rider & Editor

The Busted Knuckle Chronicles
www.bustedknucklenews.com
www.beltdrivebetty.com

Riding Boots...

The news feeds are once again very quiet and so today I am going back to the topic of gear and am asking you about riding boots.

During the January and February bike shows I will be looking for new gear to replace my tired stuff.

So - I wear braces on both feet. The mechanical ankle makes it super tough for me to wear very many kinds of boots.

My requirements are zippers, preferably outside of the boot not inside. Lace ups are a must to adjust the tension. They must be ankle height minimum.

My one season old Harley boots have just about got a hole worn in the back of the left heel from the heel toe shifter. While I only use that shifter rarely, it holds my foot in place and helps take the strain off of my weakest knee...the left one.

If any of you have suggestions as to what boot I should consider trying I'd appreciate it.
Out of all of the riding gear I have to choose this winter - this is the one investment that for me - it's one of the MOST important...

I'd also be curious about the footwear you have invested in and why - because by your sharing, some rider who reads this blog and the comments might find some solutions to their footwear decisions.


There is one thing of interest in the news for Albertan's. If you live here and you enjoy road racing your future may not be too bright.  Stratotech has announced that it is up for sale. So that will mean NO road racing in Calgary or Edmonton...what a freaking shame that would be.

The track in Edmonton - if I remember right from the article is worth like 7 million dollars (that might be what it had cost to build)  Anyway - whatever the price tag is - I think it would be phenomenal to see this track be bought - I think all of those high powered machines out there that need a place to play, that is safe and free from outside factors as much as possible. A place where people can test their limits and that of their machines...

So everyone, let's pray that the Stratotech park gets purchased by someone who really loves motorsports.

And this one is for ALL Canadian Riders...Cycle Source Magazine is running a survery on their site and our very own Mark Mazerolle of the BMHS Bike Klub in Moncton is up for the man of the year award.

I would take it as a personal favor if you would consider taking the time to fill out the survey and vote for Mazz - the work this man does with the kids of the Bike Klub is inspiring. http://www.esurveyspro.com/Survey.aspx?id=57dada25-661e-431e-9cce-9f250d20353a

That's it for me today - final proofing and layout of our 2011 phone book - the next 5 days - that's all I do...

Belt Drive Betty
Rider & Editor

The Busted Knuckle Chronicles
www.bustedknucklenews.com
www.beltdrivebetty.com