End of a Long Pause

End of a Long Pause

Posted on October 18, 2026

Today, October 18th, 2026, Tristan and I went on a short recreational ride on Bruce, my 2025 Harley-Davidson Pan America 1250 Special. This was the first motorcycle recreational ride since I briefly rode Scarlett on July 4th, 2026.

On June 26th, 2026, I was informed that my job unexpectedly was ending on June 30th, 2026. The client did not renew several IT support and project contracts to include the contract I was employed under. The job market this year is the most brutal and unforgiving one I have personally experienced since I started working in IT in 1996. I have always been blessed that I have never been out of work involuntarily prior to this for more than 3 weeks in my adult life. This time it was 3 months, which from what I have read is still below the nightmare some are experiencing.

There Will Be No Unauthorized Happiness

Because I was unemployed, I had crazy amount of free time per say (and no money lol). Other than the 4th of July small ride from Douglasville to Villa Rica and back, I did not do any recreational riding (or anything recreational for that matter) while unemployed, I could not justify having fun while financial doom was looming. it is just the way my brain works. LOL.

Today’s Ride

And now that I started working again (September 28th, 2026) this was the first weekend that the weather was not complete garbage. Funny how that works, the weather was perfect during the week for these last 3 weeks, but weekends were terrible to include a hurricane last weekend…..Good Grief LOL. So today, Tristan and I went out for a small afternoon fall ride here in western Georgia of about 90 miles in total, a very small but enjoyable afternoon ride and late lunch at Burger King.

We rode west on GA Highway 166 onto GA Highway 5 to just east of Roopville, GA and angled North and turned onto US Highway 27 and headed North through Carrollton, GA to Interstate 20 East to Villa Rica, GA and then proceeded East on US Highway 78 to Douglasville, GA where we ate our late lunch at Burger King.

On the ride home, we stopped and helped a lady change out her flat tire and put the spare tire on, so we got our good deed for the day as well :).