Good Morning! 52F @ 9:30AM. Showers this morning, becoming a steady rain during the afternoon hours. High 56F. Winds SSE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 70%.
Lots of rain last week leading up to the weekend, and more rain last night and this morning, but oh my what a beautiful sunny day Friday and partly cloudy weather for the weekend. Just in time, too, because about two dozen folks showed up here to work on motorcycles, eat and drink too much, camp out, laugh, and enjoy each other's company. Sorted out some electrical issues, in fact it seemed that most of the work was electrical this year. A little tire work, too, but the two big mechanical projects canceled out at the last minute, and a third had wheel bearing problems on his trailer and didn't make it either. I was still running around like a headless chicken for the three days, first trying to get ready, then helping people find tools they needed, or parts, or doing little machining jobs for them. Almost without exception everyone was very gracious, giving back in good spirit and kindness all they had received and more.
Almost everyone headed out early Sunday morning after a yummy pancake breakfast (the waffle iron just wouldn't cooperate), and I had most of the cleanup done, when a fella from Reno shows up with a filthy bike and a tire for me to change. He was the exception, arriving late, and with little intention of doing his own work. He'd attend the first meeting two years ago, and sat on his butt all weekend watching others work on his bike for him. This time, though, I pointed and handed him an occasional wrench, and gave him a can of gunk to clean off his wheel before putting it on the tire machine. He ended up replacing a 14 year old tire with one half that age but with more tread, all the while boasting about his collection of classic cars and motorcycles. Both tires were hard and stiff, and needed a tube, which made changing them a real b1tch. As he rolled his sorry ***** back out the driveway I was very glad to see him on his way and only hope he forgets about ever returning.
Spent the rest of the afternoon finishing the cleanup, rearranging all the leftovers in the 'frige and freezer, and gathering up bottles and cans for recycling. My body shop neighbor dropped by with his son, and I gave him the 7x optivisor magnifier I'd ordered for him, with a 2x magnifier mounted for extra close work. "Hey, I can read a book with this" he exclaimed, evidently something he'd been missing as his smile was ear-to-ear, and all the reward I could ask for. His son went home with a bag of oranges and pastries, nearly as happy as his dad.
After a little more chat they left and I moved the trash can up to the road for collection, depositing a plastic garbage bag on top and not leaving enough room for the lid to close. I kept going up the road to take down the signs at the main highway that had helped some of the guys find the place (I had one complaint that there were no signs, but running back up there to check showed them to still be in place), and by the time I'd returned saw that something had already gotten into the plastic garbage bag and scattered trash all over. Obviously it was some kind of animal, but not a dog, as the bag was still on top of the trash can. From the tears it looked like it may have been a squirrel or jay bird; I'll never know. Got another trash bag to put the mess into, then put the ruptured bag into that. Put them both into the back of the truck and will deposit them into a dumpster next time I go into town.
So all-in-all a wonderful weekend that leaves me looking forward to next year, and also to next weekend when I'll be hanging out with the VW bus and BMW motorcycle folks for their camp out at a mountain lake. Be nice to just participate instead of facilitate for a change.:laughing:
Hope everyone's week gets off to a great start!
