Tuesday mutterings....

It is almost Wednesday - just another four minutes or so and it will be.

I lost out on a BMW motorcycle I wanted, but heard from the seller - he thinks the buyer is hinky and wants me to consider the purchase if the winner falls out.  Meanwhile, I bid on a Moto Guzzi that looks pretty nice.

If Murphy is alive and well (and awake) I could end up with two motorcycles (in addition to Big Suzi) instead of just one. Maybe it won't happen - if it does I am certain to lose points with my lovely wofe, who thinks I should be doing this next spring.

I started out looking at sidecar rigs, but didn't see anything (for under about $14,000 for something at least 14 years old) that I really wanted.  Sidecars are odd beasts, and can be really dangerous - but a properly rigged sidecar is a joy to push around, and really scary fun to watch.  If you've never seen sidecar racing, you're in for a real treat, since sidecars are raced by a driver and a passenger - and it is the passenger (he's called a monkey, and if you ever watch a race you'll understand why) who moves around to place his weight where it will keep the sidecar wheel on the ground - and this sometimes means hanging out in the air over the sidecar wheel with his arse around 4 inches off the ground!

I guess I am probably a little long in the tooth for that sort of excitement on any but a voyeuristic basis - but it really is cool to watch.

My lovely wife thinks I need a lighter motorcycle - Big Suzi at over 800 pounds really hurts when she lays down on my leg.  I am happy that it was not suggested that I either add wheels or learn to love my car - a motorcycle a couple hundred pounds lighter would be a bit more nimble - and BMW twins are lighter by at least 200 pounds, and I have always liked them.  The Guzzi I bid on was more a lark than anything else - I like them, and unlike other Italian motorcycles they seem to be devoid of anything resembling temperament. A V-twin sitting crosswise is strange enough but it seems to work really well - and a 90 degree V-twin has perfect balance so it is not inclined to shake at all.  All in all, I think the Guzzi might be a lot of fun - if I can get it without having too many motorcycles.

On another topic, I managed to piss myself off this evening.  I have had a DVR around here that I have been paying for that has not been used.  Well one DVR got flaky so I resolved to replace it with this other one that I have never used.  In the process I discovered that the sound was out on the TeeVee that had been on the unit downstairs, and I thought it was the DVR.  I was wrong - it appears to be in the set itself.  I think what I will do is grab a speaker set off the downstairs PC that isn't being used and see if I can convince the DVR to drive it so I won't have to replace the TeeVee right now.

Work this week has been interesting, and I just got another set of data to produce for a special project that has kinda been back-burnered for a time - but it will be fun, and I should be able to finish it early.

Tomorrow, I have to give my beloved Volvo up for a couple of days - it needs a radiator - not urgently, it's just a drip, but that Murphy bastard seems to have settled in Reisterstown, so I figured that it would be best not to wait for the leak to become a gusher.  By Friday I know I'm gonna be more than a kilobuck lighter, but with vehicles you might just as well do it right the first time - 'cause if you don't the aggregate of do-overs will cost a hell of a lot more!  Don't even ask how I know this....

Soon I have to go to bed - after I seal up the package that has to go into the car to be given to the Post Office or UPS to send back to Verizon some stiff I no longer need to have here - one cranky DVR and two set top boxes for Standard Definition Teevee, which I no longer allow in my house.

So I'm going to sleep.  Tomorrow is gonna be a really good day!

Thursday, all day long

My motorcycle mas been returned! I went up to the shop that has had it and picked it up today, after paying a reasonable ransom for all the work that needed done. Of course, nothing is ever easy around here.

My son took me up - but the slave cylinder for the clutch in his car went to hell yesterday, so we drove my old Volvo up, and he agreed to bring it back, so I left him with my keys, and went in to pay for the motorcycle, then start it up and ride it home. Someone who does not ride cannot imagine just how good it feels to be back up on two wheels again after being confined to a 4-wheeled cage for more than a week. Today was warm, and although rain was threatened it did not arrive, at least not while I was out & about. Riding home was great until I got home and realized that my house keys are colocated with my car keys - and my car keys were in my car. My car was where my son was - and at that point in time I had no clue where he was, but I did beat him home. I folowed a hunch and looked at several of his friends' homes, but did not find him.

This presented a problem, as I had reason to want to get into the house, so I tried to call him and realized that I did not have his new cell number. But fortunately, my wife was at work, so I rode the motorcycle over there and borrowed her house keys - and by the time I got home my son had arrived and I no longer needed the keys. But Phyllis told me not to bring the keys back to her - she'd get them when she returned, so I now have my keys and her house keys and I am inside the house so I don't need either set.

Just as I was relaxing I got a call from the office followed by an email describing something arcane that is happening, so I got out the laptop, logged in and VPN'ed to the office - and could not find anything, so it looks like I'll be stuck observing for some hours yet tonight.

The person for whom I work is one of those folks that likes to write down what we did when something happened so we can do it again. I prefer to try and figure out what the problem really is - sometimes it isn't what it appears to be.

My favorite reason for this is appendicitis.

Consider - you have a bellyache in a certain place, you go to the doctor, and he takes out your appendix. Problem solved.

A year later, you have what feels like the same pain in the same place. Does he re-remove your appendix?

Folks who think like this can be astonishing hard to educate.

With luck, tomorrow will be a great day. Maybe I'll get to ride tomorrow. Meanwhile I get to sit here with two laptops waiting for the phone to ring or for an email to come to give me some more information so I can chase the problem and fix it.

Well, at least I have this nice big HD TeeVee to help keep me bored.

Happy Thursday, everyone!