Senior Mondays

After work this Monday, I headed to the Tinseltown Googleplex for the 6:10pm showing of the new `X-Files - I Want To Believe` movie. I have seen every episode of the X-Files plus the first movie. This one was top notch too. I return to the Jacksonville Bunny Cave afterwards and reviewed my checking account where I charged my ticket. $5 charge for Tinseltown. Golly! Did I beat the evening pricing? Did I get in on the matinee? No. I looked at my ticket stub and it proclaims that my $5 ticket was for `Senior Mondays`. I don't know what the age cutoff is to qualify for senior pricing, but I can guarantee you it's not 52. I'll have to attend the cinema next Monday to see if this senior thing occurs again. I want to believe.

Do I really look that old?


Epilogue:
I just checked with the theatre and they consider `senior` to be 62 and above. Either the cashier pressed the wrong key on the ticket machine or she thinks I'm really really old.

Oh, the humanity!

Sunny Florida? Hardly!

I have been living and working in Jacksonville, Florida just over two weeks at this point. There has been a large thunderstorm every day that I've been here. Too bad that I don't have any farm land to take advantage of all of this precipitation. I wanted to see some Jacksonville Suns baseball but that too has been a rainout. So it goes.

Presidential Wings - Jacksonville, FL

I hosted the inaugural Jacksonville Presidential Wings at the San Jose Boulevard Hooters, one of four in the Jacksonville area. This Hooters is located on the waterfront of the St. John’s River and has an outdoor seating area overlooking the river. President David rode up from Edgewater and President Pirate John is local to Jacksonville. We had a great time discussing all things BMW. I was there for four hours on a very pleasant Thursday evening. As an added bonus, I got my 25^th and final stamp in my Hooters 25^th Anniversary Passport. I’ll send that in for a wing party certificate (200 wings and incidentals, but no beverages) and to be entered into the grand prize drawing for $25,000 cash. Diane, our Hooters Girl for the evening, is originally from Romania, graduated from college in Jacksonville and will be attending law school in California in a few months.

As an added bonus, Antoinette, the blonde who was holding the bike wash sign with me at the Honda motorcycle dealer the previous Saturday, works at this Hooters and was there with her Mom having dinner. She stopped by to speak with me.

Jacksonville Honda Bikini Bike Wash

I'm taking time on weekends to find my way around Jacksonville, Florida. The local Honda motorcycle dealer, Jacksonville Honda on Atlantic Boulevard, was having an open house to celebrate the opening of their used motorcycle superstore. The festivities featured a bikini bike wash, cookout, motorcycle dynamometer runs and a tattoo artist. One young lady with multi-color hair, multiple piercings and many tattoos on her arms and legs, acquired a new tattoo on her left calf. I took no photos of that. What can you ask the girl when you take her picture... "May I photograph your ink?". As Bart Simpson says about tattoos... they're cool and they last the rest of your life. I cannot imagine what I would want as a permanent marker on my skin other than maybe a BMW MotoBunny stick figure. I have noticed a number of tattoo parlors on my route to and from work so there must be a demand for this sort of thing. My favorite ad for a tattoo parlor is a billboard on I-65 south of Louisville, KY for Tattoo Charlie's... "Done While You Wait". I can't imagine that's the sort of thing you can leave to pick up later. I know what they mean but it's humourous nonetheless.

Pirate John, fellow Internet BMW Riders President and resident of Jacksonville, met me at the Honda dealer for an hour of fun and excitement. The dealer had a great selection of Honda 600s and Honda 1000s, some cruisers, some dirt bikes, one Rune but no ST1300s and no scooters. Pirate John and I made our way around the bikes and played "what if I had the bucks". Neither of us do, besides... we're BMW riders to the core.

Teenie was there along with a few other bikini-clad babes and one who must have left hers at home (she must not have gotten the note about the dress code for the day). Burgers and dogs were consumed, bikes were washed and a great time was had by all despite the heat. I joined the bikini babes on the street to help flag down passing motorcyclists for a free bike wash (donations accepted and encouraged). Somehow the girls got more horn honks than I did. Don't these folks know who I am? Guess not.

Pirate John and I had about as much fun we could stand in an hour in the 90+ degree heat, so he mounted his trusty Cannondale and I fired up the Volvo and we both headed on to our respective Saturday fun. I ended up at the newer, larger, second location of Vespa Jacksonville. I was there to see the Vespas, Stellas and Lambrettas and to inquire if anyone at Jacksonville Beach rents scooters. The last scooter rental company went out of the bidness over a year ago but the dealership, whose home location is on the beach highway, offers demo rides each Saturday from 10am to 5pm eastern. The nearest scooter rental is at Daytona Beach. The closest BMW dealer to Jacksonville is in Daytona Beach. Sounds like an excuse for a Saturday road trip.

Hooters I Have Known

July 2008 finds me working in Jacksonville, Florida. While settling on a location for Presidential Wings (among the four Hooters in the area), I stopped by the Jacksonville Southside Boulevard Hooters. Teenie, second from the right, was my HG for the evening. She is a trainer for Hooters and has domain over the Orlando locations. Teenie also planned to participate in a Bikini Bike Wash at Jacksonville Honda the following Saturday. I found her washing bikes on Saturday.

Hooters I Have Known

If one can have a favorite Hooters, mine would have to be the Polaris location in north Columbus, Ohio. I was on assignment in Dublin for fifteen months and visited the Polaris location almost every Thursday evening, sometimes to host a Presidential Wings, other times just to enjoy a dinner that I did not prepare myself. I did visit the other three locations (the Highway 161 location closed soon after I left in 2007). I once put my business card in the Polaris fishbowl and won a wing party which I shared with members of the Buckeye Beemer BMW Club and a few other folks I knew in the area.

Nearly all of the Hooters Girls were local college students representing Ohio State University and Otterbein College. I was served by such standouts as Cassie, Jessica, Heather, Sara, Clarissa, Taylor and Shannon. There were other notables... I was Hannah's first customer on her first day s a Hooters Girl, but a few days later she broke an ankle and I don't think she returned to work. I asked from time to time but Hannah was missing in action. So it goes.

I hope to return someday soon.