Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Friday, June 22, 2007
Friday, June 15, 2007
On The Road Again
...as I mentioned in my (bitchy) last post, I completed the MSF Course the other weekend. I enjoyed this one much more than the last time I took it (7 or 8 years ago, I think?) Smaller class, better instructors, cooler classmates. This was a pilot course being offered for the first time this year - instead of a two-day class, it's one day only for people who have extensive experience on a permit (1K+ miles) or "... experienced riders who are returning to riding with or without their endorsement after several years of non-riding". This worked great for me, because, well... I never technically had my endorsement. (Now you know my horrible secret!) I would just go get a new set of temps every year, then never get around to taking the test. (This is more common than it sounds - my brother-in-law has been doing it for 5 or 6 years, and his father did it for 25+ years(!)). Anyways, now I'm completely legal and don't have to be paranoid about getting pulled over at night (daytime only, no passengers on temps in my state). I took the test in the middle of a thunderstorm on a ragged-out 250 Nighthawk and it was easy as pie - much easier than the last time I tried it on my bike, a cruiser with 36" beach bars and cut-down seat.
I finally got around to getting the bike out of drydock and took it for a ride... I did a quick safety check before riding - checked the brakes, signals, etc., felt the tires and they didn't seem low. Went out for a while and thought "Hmmm, steering feels a little sloppy". Came home and checked the tire pressure with a fancy professional-style tire gauge I picked up at a too-good-to-be-true price over the winter - turns out it really was too-good-to-be-true, 'cause the damn thing's broken. Dug up one of the cheapie pen-style gauges out of tool box and tested it - 5lbs. That can't be right. Found another one and tried it - 5lbs. Oops. Should be 33lbs. Got lucky on that ride. Went to do an oil change, discovered I need a lift or a stubby wrench to get at the drain plug. *Sigh* One of those days, I guess. Spent a few hours cleaning her up, taking a trip to pick up some tools tomorrow...
I finally got around to getting the bike out of drydock and took it for a ride... I did a quick safety check before riding - checked the brakes, signals, etc., felt the tires and they didn't seem low. Went out for a while and thought "Hmmm, steering feels a little sloppy". Came home and checked the tire pressure with a fancy professional-style tire gauge I picked up at a too-good-to-be-true price over the winter - turns out it really was too-good-to-be-true, 'cause the damn thing's broken. Dug up one of the cheapie pen-style gauges out of tool box and tested it - 5lbs. That can't be right. Found another one and tried it - 5lbs. Oops. Should be 33lbs. Got lucky on that ride. Went to do an oil change, discovered I need a lift or a stubby wrench to get at the drain plug. *Sigh* One of those days, I guess. Spent a few hours cleaning her up, taking a trip to pick up some tools tomorrow...
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
How To Spend $1300 Without Really Trying
My weekend:
The girlfriend calls me Friday morning and says, "I need to talk to you when you get home". Of course, my first thought was "Oh sh*t, she's pregnant". I jump in the car and race home, and she says, "I think something's wrong with the TV". I turn it on, and the screen is just green wavy lines. I get down on the floor and start taking the grille off the front to inspect it, and it's wet. Her dog (which, I was assured when she moved in, was impeccably housebroken) took a leak on my 52" HDTV. Directly into the gun array (it was a rear-projection TV). For the second time in a month. She's hysterical and crying, thinking I'm going to take the dog to the pound. I calm her down and send her to work and go to bed. That night, we go out and she buys me a new 37" LCD TV - or rather, we try to, but the store declines her credit card (we called & checked the balance before we left). So, she has to stand there at the cash register and call the credit card company - of course, it takes her half an hour to get a real person on the phone, and they tell her that since she never makes large purchases on her card, it was flagged as a "potential fraudulent purchase". Okay, whatever. Card gets re-swiped and goes through, we take the TV home, haul it inside, and go to bed.
The next morning I woke up early and left to take the Motorcycle Safety Foundation advanced rider course. Of course the last two hours of that are in the pouring rain, so I get soaked to the bone (it was still fun, though - much better instructors than the last time I took it). On the way home I stop to get gas. As I'm getting out of my car, my cell phone slips out of my hand and lands square in the tub of windshield-washer fluid mounted to the trash can next to the pump. My immediate thought was "You gotta be f@¢king kidding me". I fish out my phone and it's shot. Go to the cell-phone place and of course they won't give me a deal since I'm in the middle of a contract, chalk up $300 for a new phone.
The next day I go to move the old TV out of the house, and as I'm pushing it into the kitchen from the dining room, I rub up against the kitchen door slightly - which rips the door off the hinges. I take the door off and look at it, seems the previous owner must have done this before, and repaired the edge of the door with cut-down paint stirrers and wood glue, then painted over it so you couldn't tell. I throw the door in the dumpster and get ready to throw the TV in, of course as I was doing that I smashed my thumb between the TV and the edge of the steel dumpster.
After that I went to meet an old friend from out of town for lunch - I told him my story, and he said, "Well, I was gonna show you my new car, but you're not allowed anywhere near it". Oh well, nowhere to go but up from here I guess...
The girlfriend calls me Friday morning and says, "I need to talk to you when you get home". Of course, my first thought was "Oh sh*t, she's pregnant". I jump in the car and race home, and she says, "I think something's wrong with the TV". I turn it on, and the screen is just green wavy lines. I get down on the floor and start taking the grille off the front to inspect it, and it's wet. Her dog (which, I was assured when she moved in, was impeccably housebroken) took a leak on my 52" HDTV. Directly into the gun array (it was a rear-projection TV). For the second time in a month. She's hysterical and crying, thinking I'm going to take the dog to the pound. I calm her down and send her to work and go to bed. That night, we go out and she buys me a new 37" LCD TV - or rather, we try to, but the store declines her credit card (we called & checked the balance before we left). So, she has to stand there at the cash register and call the credit card company - of course, it takes her half an hour to get a real person on the phone, and they tell her that since she never makes large purchases on her card, it was flagged as a "potential fraudulent purchase". Okay, whatever. Card gets re-swiped and goes through, we take the TV home, haul it inside, and go to bed.
The next morning I woke up early and left to take the Motorcycle Safety Foundation advanced rider course. Of course the last two hours of that are in the pouring rain, so I get soaked to the bone (it was still fun, though - much better instructors than the last time I took it). On the way home I stop to get gas. As I'm getting out of my car, my cell phone slips out of my hand and lands square in the tub of windshield-washer fluid mounted to the trash can next to the pump. My immediate thought was "You gotta be f@¢king kidding me". I fish out my phone and it's shot. Go to the cell-phone place and of course they won't give me a deal since I'm in the middle of a contract, chalk up $300 for a new phone.
The next day I go to move the old TV out of the house, and as I'm pushing it into the kitchen from the dining room, I rub up against the kitchen door slightly - which rips the door off the hinges. I take the door off and look at it, seems the previous owner must have done this before, and repaired the edge of the door with cut-down paint stirrers and wood glue, then painted over it so you couldn't tell. I throw the door in the dumpster and get ready to throw the TV in, of course as I was doing that I smashed my thumb between the TV and the edge of the steel dumpster.
After that I went to meet an old friend from out of town for lunch - I told him my story, and he said, "Well, I was gonna show you my new car, but you're not allowed anywhere near it". Oh well, nowhere to go but up from here I guess...
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