Kevin, that was a great story. Here's one of my own. And yes, I too know that adrenalin is brown: I'm riding my Vmax through the Mojave desert in California on my way to the River Run in Laughlin, Nevada last year. I'm crusing along around 85 to 90 miles an hour, and my eyes start feeling a little scratchy. I ponder why this might be, and come to the conclusion that the dryness of the air is drying out my eyes, making them feel like there's sand under my eyelids. Now, Shoei bills their face shields as being 100% UV blocking. I tend to doubt this, as I sunburn through them (fair-skinned guy that I am). So I wear sunblock on my face when riding any distance, particularly in hot and sunny places. And I'm here to tell you, it doesn't get much more hot and sunny than in the Mojave desert. All at once, the scratchy feeling in my eyes turns to a burning so intense that I feel as though someone's sprayed napalm at me and lit it. It took only a microsecond to realize that the dryness of the air wasn't causing the scratchy feeling- It was the sweat on my forehead making the sunblock run down into my eyes. I couldn't keep my eyes open, no matter how hard I tried. On a motorcycle going roughly 90 mph, this is a BAD thing. Naturally, pulling over and stopping became high on my list of things to do. Luckily there were no cars around for me to hit. The question was, how to do it? There was little shoulder to speak of, and I didn't want to hit the dirt while riding blind. Obi-Wan Kenobe's voice called to me, saying "Use the Force, Luke!" I slowed down as best as I could, downshifting to first, and hoping I was still riding in a straght line. There was the occasional reflector dot at the edge of the lane, so I used those to keep my trajectory in the proper direction. I stopped just to the right of the last dot I ran over, and in one fluid motion had my helmet off and my handkerchief blotting the offending chemicals out of my screaming eyes. When I was able to see again, I saw that I had stopped two inches from the soft dirt shoulder. I hadn't crashed, I hadn't hit anybody, and nobody had run into me. A good landing by all accounts, though not one I'm eager to duplicate. Now I'm careful about what kind of sunblock I buy! And yes, that ordeal taught me that adrenaline is indeed brown. Keep the shiny side up, -K ====================================================================== Kelly Cash Direct: 408-845-5762 Sr. Systems Engineer Main: 408-845-5700 Solid Data Systems FAX: 408-727-5496 2945 Oakmead Village Court [EMAIL PROTECTED] Santa Clara, CA 95051 www.soliddata.com ======================================================================
