Snippets

[Dusz]

My third grandson was born last night weighing in at 8lb15oz. Had to go to my son's to help take the other two to school and nursery so got to see the new edition when only 8 hours old.
Crusty, enjoy your visit when you make it.

[Crusty]

Recovering Slowly


The ride home from Salmon, Idaho kicked my ass. I didn’t realize how much until yesterday and I’m still not 100%. Actually; to be honest, the ride from Provo Utah to Salmon to home is what kicked my ass. I hit cold rain from Arco to Salmon, then I hit more on the ride south from Salmon to Kemmerer, Wyoming. It was already pouring when I left Kemmerer, and it rained heavily until I was on I-80. Then it played cat-and-mouse with me for the rest of the day. The next day, from Ogallala, Nebraska to Bloomington, Illinois, saw the temps go from the mid 40s to the 90s.

I was tired when I got home, but I didn’t feel the drain until the next couple of days. I thought I had recovered until I went out to do some errands yesterday. First, I went to the Quarter car wash and blasted the dead bugs off the bike. then I went to one supermarket and got a few items and stopped at the meat market to get a few other items. When I got home, I was exhausted once again and it took most of my energy to fix dinner. I stalled off hitting the other supermarket until today. I also need to clean the Express; the quarter car wash gets the heavy crap off the bike, but there’s still a lot of road phlegm all over it. I’m going to have to take a bucket of soapy water and a sponge and spend a bit of time getting it to look pretty again. I also need to mow my front lawn. My neighbor’s teenage kids did my back yard for me, but the front yard is looking pretty scruffy. How much gets done in one day will be an indicator of my energy reserve levels.

I get my meat from a meat market for a couple of reasons. First, they have much better Rib Eye steaks than either of the supermarkets. Second, they’ll cut me 1-1/2” thick pork chops. Thick chops taste a lot better than thin cuts. And Third, I can see the ground beef that they’re putting in the paper tubs. The local Supermarkets like to put their ground beef in plastic rolls. I don’t trust them.

I tend to weigh out my ground beef to make burger patties. Yesterday, I wasn’t thinking and told the people behind the counter I wanted 2 one pound packs of Ground beef. They weigh the paper and wrapping along with the meat, so by the time I opened the package and portioned out the meat, I had 7- 4 oz. patties and one 2-3/4 oz. patty. So I decided to have a cheeseburger for breakfast with the little burger. Then I had a brainstorm. I had a small package of bacon (Half the amount I normally use to make a BLT). So I cooked both the burger patty and bacon and had a very tasty bacon Cheeseburger for breakfast. That should hold me until tonights Rib Eye. Now I just have to decide whether to have a Yukon Gold potato or asparagus or a package of Antioxidant Blend Vegetables with it.

Well; it’s almost Noon. I guess I should get started.

[Crusty]

Food and Other Things




I normally do my big grocery shopping once a month when I get my SS deposit. I try to get all the big ticket items and parcel them out into meal sized portions and freeze them. That’s when I’ll make a big pot of Spaghetti Sauce, or a month’s worth of Beef Stew or a bunch of Pulled Chicken. I’ll take Ground Chuck and make burger patties or Italian Sausage and do the same. Bacon slices get cut in half and put into baggies for BLTs.


This month, things got kind of screwy, because of my Truncated Trip to Tuk. I had a few items in the freezer when I got back, but not enough for the month, so I’ve been doing some shopping. As of this morning, I have a bunch of bacon, 8 burger patties, 5 sausage patties, 2-1.5” pork chops and I just made 3.5 pounds of pulled chicken. Doing the math, I should have made 14 meals worth (13, actually; I just had a pulled chicken sandwich for breakfast)


When I make things in the crock pot (slow cooker), I usually start them just as I’m going to bed. That way, they cook overnight. The only problem with that is the smell permeates throughout the house and I wake up hungry for whatever I’ve been slow cooking. I normally eat breakfast (Brunch) late morning, but this morning, I was ravenous for pulled chicken and I had breakfast early. It was wonderful. After I finish writing this, I’ll go portion out the rest of the chicken into 4 ounce portions and put the little containers into the freezer.


I have enough food to get me through until my next SS Deposit, and I have enough pulled chicken to get me through a long while after that.


I’m slowly focusing on house Improvements. I’ve put off making improvements for a few reasons. I was building the Gentleman’s Express and saving up to go to the Arctic and that took all my money. However; I was also thinking about the house and what changes I want to make. I think I’ll start painting the bedroom, next. That will be relatively cheap; it should only cost me a couple of hundred bucks. I bought the last three sets of Blackout Curtains yesterday and I’ll start putting them up today.


I need to get an Indoor antenna; the flat antenna that I’ve been using doesn’t want to stay taped to the front window any more. I think a little unit from Microcenter will do the job and it will sit on top of the CD/DVD rack unobtrusively. I don’t do cable, nor do I subscribe to streaming services. I can live with over the air TV. Even if I did subscribe to those things, there wouldn’t be much worth watching. I can go to the theater on Senior Day, once a week and watch a movie for a lot less than it would cost to watch one of the Star Trek series on Paranoid, or one of the Marvel movies on the Dizzy Channel.


The bigger house improvements will take a while. I want to renovate my bathroom and replace the tub with just a shower, as well as get rid of the ugly wall tiles. I want to change the bedroom back into two rooms, like it was in the past and I really want to replace the carpeting with something that looks a lot better. Doing all that will probably cost me as much as a new motorcycle. Hopefully, my present bikes will be pretty much trouble free for a while.


I still want to go to the Arctic; but I think it would be smarter to get a minivan for that. I could sleep in the van and save the money that campgrounds and motels cost. A minivan that gets 30 MPG would be a significantly cheaper way to go than camping and moteling. I’ve started looking online to check out prices, though I won’t have the money to buy one for a while. I would have liked to ride there, but I can be reasonably content to drive there. Of course, If I could hit the Lottery… maybe I should start buying tickets?


Well; I need to start doing something. I’ve been vegetating all week, and that's too long. I need to accomplish something today.

[Crusty]

On A Soaking Rain Day


We’re getting waves of rain, this morning. It’ll rain heavily for a few minutes, then it stops for a few, which lets the water soak into the ground. Then the next wave comes through and the process repeats. It’s supposed to quit by tomorrow, so I don’t really mind. It will give me a chance to watch Rooster Cogburn. I’ve always enjoyed that movie and when I last saw it on broadcast TV, I got so annoyed by the commercial breaks that I bought a used copy on fleaBay. (It cost me a whole $6.43 with tax & shipping).

I had a migraine yesterday. I was fortunate that it waited to start until I finished mowing the front lawn, but it had me sitting in the recliner with all the blackout curtains drawn for the majority of the day. The pain eased by the time dinner rolled around. Migraines are funny in that they leave me feeling really tired and weak; but at the same time I’m also feeling kind of hyper. I watched a couple of episodes of Black Sheep Squadron. I like WW2 Fighters as well as Bombers, and they have some neat examples. They even had a Willys MB Jeep, this was the original Jeep from the war.

Anyhow; after the show ended, I still felt a bit wound up, so I went to the supermarket and got a few items that I had electronic coupons for. Some of the coupons were about to expire, so that was enough to push me out the door.

One of the items that was on my list was for a box of 75 freezer bags for five bucks. That was less than half the usual price. Of course, the store was out. That happens a lot with that particular store. I had checked online, and it said that they were in stock, but either some stocking clerk was screwing off, or the website lied. Judging from past experience, both are probably true.

I think I’ll pull the crash bar off the Express and put the “Mustache” highway peg bar on in it’s place. I don’t like the crash bar and the highway pegs that are on it suck; to put it bluntly. After I finish with this Snippet, I’m going down to the garage and draining the Primary/Transmission oil. I have an increasingly growing suspicion that engine oil is getting by the crank seal and getting into the Primary case. If more than a quart of oil drains out, then I’ll know for sure. I’ve put 2700 miles on since the last oil change in Colorado; this is the longest distance the bike has gone since the rebuild.

The first indications that oil might be getting past the crank seal was that the primary oil has been black at every oil change since the rebuild. The first couple of times, it may have been because of some assembly lube, or maybe some old residue in the tranny or clutch; but there are enough miles on the bike now that the Primary oil should be a lot cleaner. Also, there was a spot of oil under the bike, yesterday. If the trans has too much oil in it, it will blow it out the breather. Then the ejected oil will run down the back of the crankcase and drip in just about the same location as the oil spot was. The oil spot could also be from an O-ring that needs to be changed on the drain plug or it might even be from the engine oil drain hose. I’ll know more in a little while.

I’m getting to the point where I don’t want to work on my motorcycles anymore. However; when I was buying oil in Grand Junction, Colorado; the shop rates were posted at $119/Hour. I’m too poor to be able to pay shop rates. Besides, if I screw up, I’ll be able to kick myself in the butt and I know I’ll give it my best shot. I don’t trust the skill of most “Professional” Technicians. There are many who are more skillful than I am, but there are even more who would have trouble distinguishing between a wrench and a hammer.

I guess I’ll just have to resign myself to working on the bike again.

[ChinCactus]

When I bought my new 1990 1200 Sportster the stealership made a big deal about letting the professionals work on it. Up until that point I always worked on my own Ironhead and Triumphs.

When the new bike went in for it's 500 mile service, the "professionals" severely over tightened the drive chain. By the time I discovered it, I had 50 miles on it and essentially wrecked the chain and sprockets.

At that point I decided I could screw it up just as well as they could for a LOT less $$$.

[Crusty]

Much Ado About Very Little


I watched a weather forecast the other evening. The Chief Meteorologist was expressing concern that the Cincinnati area hadn’t had rain for a few weeks and we might be in a drought. The next day we got rain throughout the day and all night long. It would pour intensely with very strong wind gusts for a few minutes, then, nothing for a while. Then it would repeat the process. At one point, there were Tornado warnings issued for a few counties.

The rain finally quit altogether late yesterday morning. Now, the weather pattern has changed. Six of the next 10 days in the extended forecast on Weather Underground are showing rain; either showers, thundershowers or Morning rain.

This is Cincinnati. The chance of there being a serious drought here is on a par with all the Polar Bears in the Arctic banding together, marching to Washington, DC and devouring all the politicians. (That’s something I’d enjoy watching!)

In other news; My fears about there being a serious oil problem with the Express were just that - fears. The transmission oil was fine and at the right amount (I measured it). The oil dripping on the floor was because I didn’t put the hose clamp on the drain hose properly when I changed the oil in Colorado. I also gave the bike a proper washing in the driveway, so now it looks pretty again instead of pretty dirty.

When I was shopping with David yesterday, I saw Cavatelli in the freezer chest at Jungle Jim’s. I haven’t had Cavatelli since before I moved to Cheviot. So I decided to get the ingredients to make meatballs. I’m going to have Cavatelli with Meatballs. The only problem with that is that I didn’t buy the Cavatelli. I guess I’ll just have to go back and pick some up. When I do, I’ll have the sauce and meatballs ready to go with them.

I tried to organize a Meet&Eat; but between the weather forecast and everybody’s busy schedules, there was only one other person who could make it. Brian’s a good guy and I’d enjoy meeting him for lunch, but I was hoping to get a bunch of riders to all show up at the same time. Maybe I’ll try again after I get back from visiting Megan, Rocky and Burdock John (my new Grandson).

I like Meet&Eats because a bunch of bikers can get together and enjoy swapping stories, but I hate riding in a group. I can travel at my own pace and change routes at will, if I want to without having to worry about messing anybody else up. I’m tired of being forced to ride at a pace that’s faster or slower than I enjoy and I’ve seen enough people crash because they were riding over their heads.

Today, I’m going to remove the handguards I put on the Express. I don’t think they’re necessary. I put them on because I was going to travel up the Dempster Highway. They’re easy to install and remove; so if I decide to, I can put them back on in just a few minutes.

I also think I’ll remove the crash bar and replace it with the Mustache Highway Bar. The one I had on the Roadster kept the damage at a minimum the two times I went down. Plus, the highway pegs are in a better position. That will keep me busy enough for today.

[BKB]

Glad your oil drip was nothing to fret about.
I know trying to get guys together for a M&E can be an exercise in schedule juggling. Except for old retired farts like me. I'll see you when we get a few more to commit. Or maybe when you just want to ride somewhere for lunch & want some company.

[Crusty]

Food For Thought

News Release

Yukon Coroner’s Service investigating two separate motorcycle deaths

June 13, 2023 – The Yukon Coroner’s Service is investigating two deaths as a result of separate single vehicle motorcycle incidents.

On the morning of June 8, 2023, Dawson City RCMP reported a motorcycle fatality to the Yukon Coroner’s Service that occurred at KM 456 of the Dempster Highway. A 66-year-old male resident of Columbus, Georgia had been travelling north alone on a 2006 BMW when it appeared that he lost control of his vehicle. The death was declared at the scene and the body was transported to Whitehorse. It has been determined that the deceased had left Georgia on May 15. He was traveling through the Yukon alone en route to Inuvik.

On Friday, June 9, 2023, the Whitehorse General Hospital reported the death of a motorcyclist who had been transferred to the hospital’s Emergency Room. 62-year-old Thomas Errol BOLTON from Coolidge, Georgia had been travelling with two others, all on separate motorcycles. Mr. BOLTON had left Georgia on May 26, 2023, trucked motorcycles to Montana, and began his road trip through Alberta and into the Yukon. Alongside his friends, they were planning a tour of the Yukon and intended to head to Palmer, Alaska. They left Johnson’s Crossing on the morning of June 9, stopped briefly in Whitehorse, then continued north towards Dawson City. Mr. BOLTON was riding behind his friends and appeared to have caught loose gravel near Fox Lake and lost control of his vehicle. He was being transported to the Whitehorse General Hospital by Yukon Emergency Medical Services (EMS), and sadly succumbed to his injuries en route.

Both motorcyclists were carrying substantial amount of gear on their vehicles. Although they were both from Georgia, they were not known to each other or otherwise connected.

I found that article a little while ago and it has me thinking. Both of those poor guys were on stretches of road that I would have been on if I didn’t cancel and head for home. If I had continued north from Salmon, there might have been three motorcyclists being written about, instead of two.

The whole trip felt wrong, right from the start. I had to deal with several things that eventually led to my turning back for home. While I felt that was the right decision, a part of me felt that I had failed; that I had given up when I should have continued. But all it took was some rain to turn me south. I’ve ridden in rain before. I’ve covered many thousands of miles in the rain. If I had headed north from Salmon, I probably would have ridden through the rain. I knew that; yet it felt right to head south and going north felt wrong.

And now, it feels like there may have been a “Guardian Angel” looking out for me. That may sound silly, but it strikes a chord in me way down inside. The more I think about it, the more I believe it.

Some things are meant to happen. When Terri and I were trying to buy our house in Leominster, back in 2001, there were several things that should have stopped us from getting the house. However, everything that should have stopped us was overcome. The people who put an offer in ahead of us, backed out, the mortgage was approved, even though the agent from the mortgage company had told us it wouldn’t be and many more Roadblock items appeared, then evaporated; all through nothing that we did.

Some things are not meant to happen, as well. I believe that my trip to the Arctic Ocean this year is in that category. It does not necessarily mean that I’m not meant to ever go; It means just not now.

When I first got back home, I removed the desktop wallpaper of the Arctic Ocean sign and replaced it with a picture of a 1969 Royal Enfield Mk.2 Interceptor; a bike that I have always loved the look of, but could never afford. That didn’t last a day. I still think the bike is drop dead gorgeous, but the Arctic Ocean sign belongs on my desktop. I think I will get there, eventually. I’ll probably make the trip in a van, but you never know; I might do it on a motorcycle.

I believe that when I do go to the Arctic, my Guardian Angel will be with me and that it will be a great trip.

[rejeanprimeau]

Loose gravel on roads is everywhere up north, Choice of tire is important. I use a car tire at the back of my bike when going for a long distance ride up north. Regular motorcycle tire should be outlawed pass the 51 parallel; knobby or dark side are better on gravel road.

[ChinCactus]

Glad you listened to your inner guardian!