The many faces of Rick

Back when I was trying to convince Suzee to date me - we'd met online and hadn't yet met in person - I set up a web page  to show her the many faces of Rick. The idea was to show "the other" faces, the one's you don't see in online dating. It must have worked - she agreed to meet, and subsequently date and marry me.

Happy Rick

Bored Rick

Thoughtful Rick

Angry Rick

Scared Rick

Silly Rick

Viva la hair!

Okay, those that know me know that I tend to wait a little to long between hair cuts. Sometimes WAY to long.  This self photo was taken after I'd left the navy and went back to school. I hadn't cut my hair for about three years. I don't know that I ever thought it looked good, but I did like that I had the option to not cut my hair. Some freedoms you just have to do without in order to really appreciate.

Viva la hair!

My last Navy photo

We'd all like that heroic military photo to put over the mantle. You know, the one where people go "oh ah" he was such dashing figure! Sadly, this is not that photo. Indeed, this is probably one of the worst military photo in history; it is certainly the "shaggiest" I ever looked in uniform. 

The back story is this picture was on the USS Horne, taken for the cruise book two days out of San Diego on our trip to the Persian Gulf. Prior to deployment, between getting the ship ready, fixing innumerable faults, parting, and oh yes, eloping, I hadn't slept in weeks. Apparently I hadn't gotten a hair cut either! I had no notice about the photo shoot, had to run down and jump into dress uniform (or at least the top, missing the whole top row of ribbons, grungy t-shirt and bottom was my work jeans!) to get one shot at the photo. 

Amazing, as we age, how even the worst photos of our younger selves start to look pretty good. 

U.S.S. Horne (CG-30)

My Honda CX500

One afternoon, while my ship the USS America was in port, I was sitting around lamenting a lack of fun when my friend Paul mentioned he'd run into some cash problems and wanted to sell his Honda CX500 motorcycle.

This got me reminiscing about the fun I'd had riding as a kid. The CX500 looked and handled a lot like my old Indian (not the famous cruisers, but rather the little trail bike). This bike even had some cool features, such as shaft drive, liquid cooling, electric start, etc. With cash in hand I purchased it - without even a class M license.

Similar but not my bike - I don't have any pictures of it

To be honest, I never did fall in love with this bike. It wasn't a long haul cruiser, just a point A-to-B ride, an hour on this bike you'd feel it. There are not a lot of great rides near Norfolk VA, or at least not that I'd found at the time.

Certainly parking at the end of a Navy pier for extended periods of time didn't do anything to help improve it's disposition. It was out of tune, rusting, and I didn't have the money, space, or time to invest in fixing it up. Every day was a drama; it would stutter and stall, flood, fail to start and generally be poor company.

My biggest problem with this bike was that I didn't know about motorcycle care and feeding. I didn't know anyone else who road. I didn't understand the mechanics and what or how maintenance should be performed. I didn't learn even some of the more important habit's (e.g. checking tire pressure before a ride) until I learned the lesson the hard way.

If there is a mistake you can make with a bike, I think I made it with this one. I learned that a big piece of the riding experience happens before the wheels start turning. A good ride depends upon a bike that has been treated well.