Causing controversy....

I have been accused of being a wee bit of a pot stirrer at times.
Sometimes I do it intentionally to provoke dialogue and thought and other times all I have to do is open my mouth or put pen to paper and it happens - without intention.

So it goes this week.
I unintentionally caused a bit of controversy over at the Moose Jaw Times Herald on line in my blog there.

I had posted the poem "Just a Biker" and I had used many of the pictures that came with the poem and tried to lay it out as it had been sent to me.

A rider in Moose Jaw was offended that I had included the picture of the Bandidos funeral.

Now, to me that poem is about two things - social prejudice and unsafe driving.

I was surprised that a fellow rider would object to that picture being included in the post.
But it got me thinking...the social prejudice that every day, ordinary riders face as a result of the 1/2 of one percent of our community that call themselves 1%ers is obviously still pretty high. If you are at all interested in what I have to say to this reader of my blog on the Times Herald site, here is the link to my blog on the Times Herald site

To add to the thoughts from the article "An apology and explanation" in my blog on the Times Herald site, I would have to say that regardless as to whether you wear a patch - be you riding club, independent or motorcycle club member - regardless of how good or bad you may be as a person - everyone has family that will miss you when you are gone.

Prejudice comes from fear, you overcome fear through education...
Please people, don't judge a book by its cover, but rather by its content.

Stay safe - ride like everyone around you is blind and can't see you.

Belt Drive Betty

It's Monday!

I have a busy couple of days ahead as I get ready to head to Cyclemania in Saskatoon.

I will be at Loving Hands Family Restaurant in Kerrobert on Friday pouring coffee from 10 am to 5pm and then working in a booth at Cyclemania on Saturday and Sunday.

I am looking forward to meeting some of my brothers and sisters of the wind and seeing old friends...

This week's newspaper is done and it is a thing of beauty - stories from across Canada...everything I ever hoped it to be - now if I can attract more advertisers to support provincial sections I will be truly feeling like I am accomplishing what I set out to.

I intend to get out on my bike over the next couple of days - I have to get my fix in since I will be in my car for the trip to Saskatchewan.

I hope more of you have entries for our Great Canadian Day Rides contest and the McCool's Street Bar & Grill Logo Contest and don't forget Slack Alice's contest....

Have a great day everyone and please - ride like everyone around you is blind...

Belt Drive Betty

What a great afternoon of hookie!

Yesterday I went for a blast on Blackie, stopped at Timmy's and had a gab with a few other riders - about 30...

After another tour around the city, I wen home and did some work in my flower bed, cleaned it up in preparation for this season's flowers...I have not lost my florists "roots" so to speak, I still love mother nature's most perfect creations and for me, that's flowers...

Then at about 4:30 my husband's bike was delivered home from Time Machine in Edmonton.
Mark's son brought it home for him, Johnny Black had set the timing and twinked a few things, so of course hubby and I had to go for a ride to check out how the "Rain King" would perform.
His old war horse is running beautifully so far...so yes, I had a great day of hookie and am looking forward to taking a bit of time off today to sneak in a putt.

The sun is up, the sky is clear and the call of the road is strong...
Happy Easter!

Stay safe, ride like they are blind and can't see you...

Belt Drive Betty

Enough - it's sunny and gorgeous

And I am going for a ride...been working since 3:30 am so I can get out on the bike for a bit.

I hope if you can get out to go for a putt that you will take care, there is so much crap on the roads and man some of those cagers...please - enjoy the day but stay safe.

And Blackie, my 07 Street glide says..."All work and no play"..."fire the witch you work for, let's go play"...

Ride like they can't see you - because they can't.

Belt Drive Betty

Web sites and servers

Our web is hosted on Godaddy and I gotta tell ya I am frustrated.

I spent the better part of a day I should have been riding and doing a hundred other things...but oh no, these geniuses had me on ignore - long distance to the USA off and on all day.

My complaint? Our site loads so painfully slow.

Ali has gone over it to ensure it's nothing on our end - it's not - they want us to move to a dedicated server at the cost of $175 US a month.

So we are going to be moving to Host Gator...

We'll get is sorted...

Ride safe,
Belt Drive Betty

I feel GRATEFUL!

From comments like Berge Baronian's to the fact that I just signed our first PEI sales rep/reporter for the province of PEI I am feeling grateful.

I have, over the years picked up some survival skills and habits that don't serve me well.
We have all had our sack of hammer handles to drag around with us in life. Everyone has a story!
Dysfunction is something that most of us are familiar with - intimately!

Mine hammer handles were sexual abuse and rape as well as an alcoholic mother and - yada, yada, yada.

The survival skills of someone who has been abused range from self sabotage (I don't deserve anything good) to hiding and swallowing pain (I deserve to have bad things done to me).

In my case, self sabotage and time management skills have been the biggest hurdles for me to over come.

For years I have worked on bettering myself, breaking the chain.
I did not want my child to experience what I had at my parent's hand and I did not want her making the same dumb assed bad choices I had made as a result of the training I had received from my family environment. I went to counseling, I read self help books. (Still read self help and self enlightenment books today.)

Kid's don't come with an instruction manual.
No where does it say that child A likes this but hates that.

All I could do was try something different. I remember one day teaching my kid how to skate.
I loved skating as a kid almost as much as I love riding my motorcycle now as an adult.

Anyway, she wanted to learn, I had the skills and teaching background - perfect bonding time right? WRONG.

There we are on the ice at Mara Lake BC...she's being a clown, goofing off, not taking this seriously. I am furious - how dare she...keep in mind that she's five years old.

I go to back hand her on the fanny, I raise my right arm and all of a sudden I get this flip card rolling through my minds eye of my mother doing exactly the same thing to me...immediately I felt the pain of the hit on the behind, the humiliation I felt because hey, I was just having fun and feeling free...down went my right hand. I stopped and looked at my daughter and I joined her in being a clown. After we were done, we took off our skates, I put her in the truck and we went in to Sicamous and I registered her in skating classes. I changed the outcome of that horrible time for me, by changing it for her.

Yes, I have been working at changing me, my programming, my interpretations of the world around me for a long time. It is amazing how what you are taught as a kid, the values you learn, the beliefs you hold on to, how they stay with you - how long they impact you until you discover that they are really aren't serving you all that well.

Sometimes I get it and sometimes I am a slow learner.

I go though spells of working at improving me, getting complacent and then getting back on the treadmill so to speak. Self improvement is like exercise, you need to be consistent with for it to have lasting impact and value.

Working with the Law of Attraction, watching the Secret, reading books, practicing every day at being a better, more loving, more abundant person. I have to tell you, no matter your religious beliefs. No matter where you are today, you can change things in your life quickly if you choose to. The Laws apply to everyone, kind of the way the law of gravity does. It doesn't matter if you are Christian or Muslim, whether Judaism or Buddhism is your faith. The laws are the laws...

It's hard work working with the laws - yet it's not. It's more like it's joyful work. The more you concentrate on the things that make you feel happy, the more things to feel happy about you attract to you.

The more of your energy you devote to anything, the more of that you will attract - good or bad.

Working with the riding community, focusing on the good things in life, the things I am grateful for has brought me so much. My life, as I work on the housecleaning in my brain and my soul, is becoming richer, better and more abundant because of it.

I am following my passion in life, I hope that you are following yours.

When you are happy, grateful and joyful, it makes living and working so much fun!

Stay safe and ride like they are blind and can't see you...
You are important and valued!

Belt Drive Betty

A love affair with the motorcycle community...

I have had a love affair with the motorcycle community for well over 20 years. I have been part of the community for over 30 but the love affair began for me Christmas 1988...

My old man and I had separated, he was out of work having been laid off and staying with his brother in Alberta and looking for work.

My daughter and I were on our own for a while and things weren't looking too rosy.
I had gifts for my daughter, a book, a doll. Money was tight and I was scared.

On the 24th of December, a couple of the local riders showed up at our home. They knocked on the door, I invited them in and offered them a coffee. They said they stopped in to see how me and my girl were doing. We visited for a bit and Doug McPherson went out to the truck, he brought in a box with some groceries and a couple of presents wrapped up for my girl.

At first my reaction was I don't need that - that's charity, I started to protest but Doug who had set the box down on the table, grabbed me by the shoulders and looked me square in the eye and said "Girl, this ain't charity. When you and Ronnie are good again and you are in a better place we expect you to pay this "Loan" forward."

I cried. The coffee that was in the box was for me, the best gift. I was out of coffee (having made my last pot to share with them). I gratefully cooked the chicken, invited a couple of our old bachelor buddies for Christmas dinner and celebrated Christmas with a happiness I had not felt in a while.

Well, time passed, things got better and I never forgot the "Loan" I was given.

I have done my best, every year to pay that loan forward.

The fact that the two riders who came over knew my "Bikers" heart well enough to know I was proud and stubborn. They left me with a feeling of dignity, a sense of family and a sense of pride.

Since then, every Toy Run Season - I participate in the planning of the parade, volunteer to work during the event, help out wherever I can.

It touched me deeply, profoundly and forever altered the person I was and put me on this path.
I am in a position to really give back to my community. To make a difference, to give of myself and to be of service.

That is why I donate 30% of the available space in the paper to the charities and causes that riders support, why Ali and I donate free web sites to 6 riding clubs and or their charitable causes every year.

It's why we donate $1 from the retail sales of the Little Black Book to AIM-Can, the Alliance for Injured Motorcyclists.

Paying it forward has become my Mantra, it's what drew me closer into this community, it's why I am so passionate and loyal to this community. Every week of the riding season I get to be around people who do the same thing I do. Give back, pay it forward, lend a helping hand and do it gratefully and happily.

Is our community perfect? NO - far from it. But it is a wonderful community filled with talented, generous and caring people. I have been blessed many times in my life for being a part of this community.

Ride safe, you are important - VERY important.

Belt Drive Betty