"Jaques & Lovely"

Arrived at Jacques and Lovely's lovely abode.  They live in a park like setting.  Very thick forest as far as the eye can see in every direction.  That whole stretch of Hwy 97 all the way from Weed was nothing but thick forest.  Pines and Firs mostly.  I'll find out what other types from Jacques later.  He's very handy to have around if you have a question.  He knows everything about everything.  And unlike some people… he is not shy about expressing his massive array of knowledge.

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After being in Jacques and Lovely's home for only a few hours yesterday, I had told them both about my fear of meeting them.  I thought there could be two things that could happen.  Either (a) our personalities wouldn't match and it would be awkward or uncomfortable, or (b) we would hit if off instantly and be close friends, as if we'd known each other forever.  Even though Jacques and I had grown up together as children in the same small town… we had never actually gotten to know each other until now.

Well… it was fear (b) that was realized.  Jacques and Lovely are two of the kindest, warmest, generous, funny, etc. persons I've ever met.  I love them so very much, there are tears welling in my eyes.

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When Jacques and I got home from our day ride, we found a raging woman in our midst.  Somehow she had gotten the impression from Jacques that we were gonna be home three hours earlier.  Bless her heart…   her feelings were hurt. 

Sometimes people get melancholy and quiet when their feelings are hurt.  That's the way I usually am.  Lovely however, has the personality of a tigress.  She wasn't quiet or melancholy about her disappointment.  She was actually quite verbally loud about expressing her feelings.

I could sense the intensity and importance of what she was saying, but I couldn't help but have to fight back a little smile, when I also sensed it was mostly a venting process.  She needed to purge herself of the negative energy in her system.  I love Lovely… even while (or maybe because of) the passionate tirade that she performed for us… it was very endearing to me.

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Side note:

Jacques does circus tricks on his bike.  While riding thru downtown Bend, he went from standing up… to sitting behind his back rest… to laying his legs over the tops of his handlebars… to standing on the top of his seat on one leg, while he raised the other leg behind him, horizontal to the ground.  The guy is a freaking monkey boy.  And besides riding insanely too fast around blind corners, is a pretty darn good rider.