The Bee Butt means pictures

A lazy post. I've done some playing with shots taken in Maine, and in the Gatineau.

Battered

Just the usual sort of mushroom shot.

The next few are a study in editing. All from the same shot, slightly different treatments. I'd say all are, "honest", though each is a different take on the scene.

Dockside



Dilapidated



Dilapidated II


Last, a series of squirrel shots. This guy was tearing into the bark of a pine tree. He was pissed at me for being there, and never did decide I wasn't a threat.

Determined


That Face


Determined


Determined

Want to stop rape?

Don't rape

It's not a great campaign, but the idea is sound. Men rape. Women don't need to change what they do, the people who rape them do.

Yes, I l know the arguments... people need to take care of their surroundings, not do stupid things, etc.

It's all true, and none of it is relevant to the real issue. No one will really say, "it was my fault" if I do something which increases my risk, and I get attacked.

Example: A kid was murdered down the block from me. The word on the street is he was killed over money. What money? Stuff he won in the illegal dice game the folks next door used to run (they stopped, just after the killing... I wonder why).

No one is blaming him for playing in the local game, nor for being on a streetcorner. They blame the people who shot him.

Which is as it should be. They also don't have campaigns up saying, "If you hang on the corner, you are asking to get shot/robbed/thumped." When the Klan rolls into town and beats someone for being "uppity" we (no longer) blame the victim.

But rape... we still do that. She was in the wrong bar. She went out alone. She wore, "provocative" clothing (which is to say, she wore clothes). She "led him on", etc.

All of it is nonsense.

Rape isn't a con-game. It's not a Nigerian scam. It's not a case of the victim being beguiled into doing something. It's a guy who doesn't take no for an answer. It may be force, it may be subterfuge (the "get them drunk" trick). It may be social pressure. It may be any number of things.

But the root of it all, the rapist didn't take no for an answer. It may have been in advance (force, drugs) it may have been soft-pedal ("if you loved me", "you know you want to"), it may have been thoughtless (she says, "maybe this is a bad idea").

The simple fact of the matter... the consent you want, if you are going to avoid rape; the consent we need to teach our sons (before they get confused messages from the culture), the message we need to make the norm...

Consent = enthusiastic consent.

It's that simple. If one's partner is enthusiastic, then the question of rape goes away. If one doesn't pressure, then the question of rape goes away. If one sets rules (when I started having sex, my rule was, "if one of us is impaired, and we don't have an extant physical relationship, we aren't starting one now." As I got more experience with sex, and impairment, I modified it some. I have a pretty good idea when my ability to decide is starting to get fuzzy, and at that point the rule kicks in. For my partner, I do a slightly less nuanced version of this. I look at age, and what I've gleaned from conversation; while not impaired, to decide. I try to err on the side of, "we can wait." First times are, IMO, better sober, in any case).

Enthusiastic consent = no rape.

Non-consent (no matter when, nor how mildly expressed) = rape.

It's that simple. The same way the thief steals, the murderer murders and the liar lies: the rapist rapes.

And a bit of clothing to go with the shoes

With a moderate amount of confusion (Givi's website makes it seem the mounting bracket,and the mounting plate are separate, when it's actually two different types of mounting plate... and each comes with a bracket), I have luggage. It took me about an hour to get it all done.



The case was chosen by means of being 1: on sale and 2: the only choice left. I was deciding between a larger, more rectangular 54 litre case, and this one (a 48l). The red one walked out the door as I was sorting out the return on the hardware I didn't need (Givi has a 30 percent restocking fee. They agreed their website is defective [I was with the store rep, trying to figure out just what I needed, and both of us thought it was bracket, and plate. When I was talking to my parts guy at CalMoto, in Mountain View... that's what he thought), so they waived it. I hope the accountant at Goodtime forced them to pay the return shipping too).

So there she is, all tricked out. You can see the new tires, and the slight difference in shade between the new signal lens, and the old.

The only thing which really wants fixing, is the ABS. Around Oklahoma City it went out. This is not a real problem. My tires are good in the wet, and the failure mode for BMW's ABS is to default to standard brakes. They have quite good standard brakes. I've done several "panic" stops on them... with Marna on that back, so the bike was pretty massy, and she stopped just fine.

I know what's wrong. My taillight went out. Since it's in the same circuit as the brake light (though they are separate bulbs), the ABS reads it as a fault. I've changed the bulb, but the system needs to be reset. I know how to do this, but the diagnostic blank I need to ground is hiding.

It's sort of frustrating. There is a blank visible, but it's in the wrong place, and seems to be bundled to the fuel-injectors brain, not the ABS. When I get home, and take her in for her 12,000 mile maintenance, that will be something to ask after.

Routing

So... with a bit of fiddling, I have a route. I have a rough idea of where to stop.

North Bay to Home

Marna and I will be riding the bike her to her family function, and I'll leave from there, on Saturday morning. That makes packing easier, since I can put things which would otherwise not fit on the bike, into a car, and arrange them without a passenger. It also means the bike will be less loaded going to North Bay.

I should be across the border by evening, and I'll find a place to put up for the night once I get out of Sault Ste. Marie. I'll aim for Rhinelander the next day (more or less), then for Minneapolis mid-day on Monday.

That gives me the afternoon to have lunch with a friend of Marna's (she thinks the two of us will get on splendidly), and then try to have a dinner meeting with various "Twin Citizens".

From there it's a slow hell for leather trip home. From leaving North Bay, to my front door, looks to be eight days.