I know yesterday was Sunday, but for me it was a profoundly stupid day. As I get older I seem to have more of these days. Yesterday I came to work, secure in the knowledge I had offered to cover an uncovered 3-11 shift Sunday and Monday. Well, I was part right - about the Saturday and Sunday part, but picked the wrong Sunday to start - it is next weekend that it starts. So, since I was already here I made a few programming changes that I had had on my to-do list for a while, then went home and proceded to arrange for my wife of 45 years to misunderstand something that I thought I had said.
Communication is something magical when it works. However, when it does not work, it leads to misunderstandings and cases of the grumps. Happily it no longer leads to a week or more of the deadly quiet times.
When I got back home, I had intended to go motorcycling, but did not do so, Instead, I sat down to start writing this entry (which never even got to opening the app as I got distracted by something else....) and we talked briefly about something we had kinda planned for the evening and agreed (I thought) to pass it and go to dinner somewhere else later. That's what I heard, anyhow.My wife heard something else, and when she reappeared, she had decided I probably wasn't going to get hungry and so she was going over to church to work a bit and would get something to eat on the way. I of course was flummoxed, but I seem to spend a lot of time in that state. Somehow later on in the evening we discovered each what the other had meant (and had heard) and learned something we have learned times without number - our assumptions about what is meant by what is unsaid usually are dead wrong.
So off she want, a little bit irritated, and I decided to go for a motorcycle ride....
By the way, if you follow you know that I have supplanted Big Suzi with a Moto Guzzi (as yet unnamed) that is a couple hundred pounds lighter (at Phyllis's suggestion) (so maybe next time I drop a motorcycle it won't break my leg on the way down) and much easier to ride than Big Suzi, which is heavy, ponderous, comfortable, and a gas to ride except when I find it laying on my legs.
Anyhow, the Moto Guzzi (a V11 EV from 1999) looks like this:
except instead of a windshield it has a small fairing. It is labeled a cruiser, but it handles like a sport bike, and is a blast to ride. There are some quirks about it that are similar to some BMW quirks, but that's OK - I already know about them, and it is thoroughly happy once the quirks are noted.
It is also vastly cheaper to feed than Big Suzi, although it does demand high-test gasoline, and is fuel-injected, which makes it a great deal nicer to manage when things are not all warmed up. The long and short of it is that I love the thing, and wish I had found it sooner. I've always been fond of the Moto Guzzi, and the folks I have known that have had them swear by them.
One thing I didn't know is that Moto Guzzi is the second oldest manufacturer of motorcycles in the world, having produced motorcycles of varying sized and descriptions since 1921. The current design involves a V-twin (what's new) but it is a 90 degree V, which is far better balanced than the other 'normal' V-twin angles, and is mounted tranverse in the frame, using a shaft drive to the rear wheel. - nice and clean and stone-reliable. The engine design itself is probably 40+ years old, but has had detail improvements throughout the years, and has appeared in sizes from 350cc to 1500cc - and typically will run 100,000 miles if you change the oil as it requires. I like things that don't require fiddling (one of the reasons for my love of Japanese motorcycles - they just work, kinda like a kitchen sink or something) and the Moto Guzzi is atypical among Italian machines in that it is appliance-like (at least in the touring models.)
Probably enough about motorcycles....
Today's political circus reminds me of a story about a small southern town with two churches. The town was so small that it could not adequately support one church, so strangers who passed through were often spurred to ask "Why in this tiny place are there two churches? Would you not be better served if they would consolidate?" to which a handy native will always reply "They disagree on something fundamental - this church says ' there ain't no hell' and t'other says 'the hell there ain't!'"
It would appear, if you listen to the President, Harry Reid or John Boehner individually (before they get excited) as if all are the souls of reason and the other(s) is(are) one way sonsofbitches.
I guess it all depends on your worldview.
I do think closing open air parks that do not have a guard staff and are intended to be available 24/7 is pety and vindictive. I also think WW-II vets ought not to be messed with - all of us who were born afterwards owe them a debt, and as a veteran myself (of a far less interesting period in history) I have an understanding of the commitment involved in military service - something not well understood in todays "I've got mine, Jack" social environment.
ACA is something that I just don't believe in, the president having assured all of us about a number of things proving not to be true, leaving me wondering what else we haven't yet discovered that is also not true. My personal physicians are being required to ask questions that have nothing to do with my treatment, and are having to complete revamp the way they do business to accommodate the demand for more and more information to be shared that used to be sacrosanct. Questions like "Are there guns in your house" are none of anyone's business but mine unless and until I do something proscribed with one of them - and I refuse to give the government information to keep in a database that would let them render me helpless in the guise of making everyone else safer, which we all know, by looking at (among others) England and Australia is not the outcome. For further proof, we might consider looking at Switzerland.
Being required to report depression (and probably ADHD or anything else that would involve psychotropic but not anti-psychotic medications) is also a bit much. I work around cops - and if they had to turn in their guns for either depression or ADHD we'd be down to half strength or less in no time at all.
On other fronts, I'm headed for Sin City (also known as Lost Wages) for the first time in more than 40 years - the child of one of my cousins is getting married there, and I am representing the Reisterstown Rudolphs as Phyllis is unable to get free from her duties for that weekend. It should be an interesting time. I thought about renting a motorcycle instead of a car, but then thought maybe a car would be smarter. I have heard that Blue Man Group is in town there - maybe I can score some tickets for that. Coming home on a redeye Monday Night onto Tuesday Morning - saved almost $100 that way. Airline fares are a flaming nightmare!
Not much else to report - there's a major family change coming, but I am sworn to secrecy, so I'll talk about it after it happens.
Have a great day, y'all - the weather here is sucky, but it is outside - and I am inside, so it is all good!
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