Deeds

This time of year, we're always on a roller coaster ride of weather with a mixture of winter and spring often rolled into one week. The past several days was no exception, with temperatures in the early week reaching highs in the 50s, 60s, and even 70s but this morning greeting us South Dakotans with temperatures in the teens.

But for the warmer days, they're perfect days to pull the motorcycle out of the garage, dust it off, and go for a ride. Every time I get on a motorcycle (or bicycle) this time of year, I'm just grateful that summer is approaching and have the opportunity to once again enjoy the open road.

I'm a big believer that it is the small positive things we do in our day that have the biggest impact on our own well being.  From here through the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, I've decided to just blog about the small things I'm doing to escape from the anxiety producing headlines in our news. Today, after my day of teleworking, I'm finishing up what I started over the weekend. I'm listening to the second half my Star Wars LP, Sides 3 and 4.

Like most of the country, winter-like temperatures came early to South Dakota. But this past Saturday southerly winds brought warmer temperatures briefly back to my neck of the woods. I of course took full advantage of the opportunity to ride my 2017 Cam-Am Spyder RT within and outside the city limits. All in all, I put close to 60 miles on my three-wheeler.

Yesterday, we just didn't get rain but also had some snow in the mix. It's days (weeks) like this that have me miss the warm days my son and I get to ride our bicycles on the city bike trails. In April we did just that and completed a 25 mile bike path with a nice stop at the Sioux Falls Waterfall.

I've taken my son on these bike rides since he was eight years old. We started out with 12 mile rides but he can now easily do 25 to 30 miles with me. He's now getting to the point that my sport is his sport and he'll hit the long bike trails even without me.

Today, I woke up the Spyder and took it out to get a drink at the local gas station. She'll be ready for some of our 50F weather this week!

My plan is to ride the Spyder for a couple weeks before I schedule her her first 3000 mile maintenance checkup. I'll be taking her to Big Sioux Powersports, our local Can-Am dealer here in Sioux Falls.

What a long winter this has been!

I just deleted my Google+ Profile. This is what I posted on my Google Plus account before I deleted the account.

I’m pulling a Google and shutting down my Google+ profile much sooner than expected…like this evening.

After a round a spammers hit my comments and seeing the “where do you go from here” conversations get personal…it’s just not healthy for me to stick around here any longer. Please come by and visit me on my blog and at Twitter. I’m also experimenting with MeWe, PlusPora, YouMe, and Minds. Wherever you decide to go after Google+…may you have a happy life!

Alternatives for following me:

Definite Replacements:
My Blog: https://bryanruby.com/

Today, I submitted my last Google+ post. From here on out, I won't be actively monitoring the platform given the expected demise of Google+. This is what I posted:

This is likely my last Google+ post but I don't plan to delete my Google+ account until February 28, 2019

Unless something significant happens, I don't plan to post again on Google+. It doesn't seem logical to invest my time and effort to post something we all know will be deleted in a couple months. I may leave a comment here or there on G+ but that's about it.

Shaved my 32 day old beard today. The government shutdown has outlasted my shutdown beard.

Trying out YouTube TV for the first time. I'm a current DirecTV Now subscriber and have used SlingTV in the past. 

Technically, YouTube TV isn't being offered for my area so I used the zip code of another location I visit often. For my area, local channels aren't currently available via YouTube TV but I'm OK with that since for the past few years we've been getting our local channels through an antenna and utilizing a TiVO for our DVR. I estimate that we've saved around $2,000 in the past three years by not subscribing to Cable or Satellite TV with this arrangement.

I'm not that big of a fan of people calling pets "their children". Yet, here I am reluctantly admitting that our Miniature Australian Shepherd has become part of the family since she entered our home in early 2016. By my estimation Jasmine has already traveled across six different states with us as she has accompanied us on family vacations and family visits. She's still a "teenager" and like most teens even has her own Instagram account. I'm not joking, her account is jasmine_the_mini_aussie.

The below video of Jasmine was produced automatically via Google Photos.