Good Morning!!!! 57F @ 6:45AM. Cloudy with a few showers. High 62F. Winds S at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 30%.
2.65" of rain here yesterday, most of it fine and steady, but last night the wind picked up and it started hammering the windows through the night. Another 1.35" since midnight, and it looks like that'll be all but for a shower or two later in the day. Still windy.
Oh my, you folks sure were prolific yesterday. But your efforts don't hold a candle to Andrew's, or more specifically his wife's, who brought beautiful little Gloria into the world. Congrats to both of you!
Never had much luck with French restaurants living up to the hype, Wng. Better luck with BBQ, but that can be iffy as well, as some will substitute a pressure cooker for low and slow smoke and still call it Q.:confused2:
If the swallows are back, spring can't be far behind, Mike. Can't blame you for not wanting their mess though. They'll find some other place, hopefully close by so that they can stay on top of your mosquitoes and other biting flyers.
Good move keeping the tractor for snow duty, Bill. Is that backhoe a permanent mount, or is it equipped with a 3-point hitch? They're still a PITA to take off and put back on, regardless.
Got to the DMV ten minutes before opening, in the rain, yesterday, but not soon enough to beat three dozen early birds that stretched the line around the corner of the building. Fortunately there was a wide roof to give us all shelter, and we were quickly checked in and given our little classification tickets. I thought one little and quite round lady was going to get shredded when she ditched into the long line, but it turns out she had an appointment and was in the wrong line.:confused2: Ticket in hand the real wait began, and the B team, of which I was an unwitting member, quickly worked through the first four spots toward the number ten I'd been assigned. But that came to a screeching halt with a couple that tied up the counter long enough to buy the place. No kidding, I sat there for almost two hours while the "A"s, "C"s, "D"s, "E"s, "F"s, and even the "G"s all took their preferred turns at the ten or so windows that were open. When my number was eventually called, a simple swipe of the money card to lighten my load by $110 got me two little stickers for the license plate and eleven months of hopefully unharassed driving privilege. The truck cost more than three times that last month, so I guess I shouldn't gripe too much, huh?:confused3:
Speaking of the truck, I still hadn't run it through the smog mill, so after a tasty Bidwell Egg at the Morning Thunder restaurant (odd name for a breakfast place, and certainly brings up an odd mental picture of what happens there:laughing
, it was time to find a smog station and get tested. Yelp! led the way to a fellow on the north end of town very near the mechanic's place, so I gave the number a call but got only an answering machine. Left a message and headed over, only to find no one there. Sat in the cab making calls to other shops and leaving additional messages (I guess these fellas make more money running the smog tester than they do talking on the phone), and up rolls the shop owner. Gave him a minute to unlock the door, and in rolls another car and right into the shop. Must've been an appointment, but he stopped long enough to put me down for a couple hours later and I was off to run other errands.
One of which was to swing by the mechanic's to check on progress, or as it turns out, lack thereof. The engine/transaxle was bolted in, and one of the helpers was connecting coolant lines, but that wasn't much to show for a full five days of work. The wiring harness still lay unmolested and useless on the engine cover, no axels ran between transaxel and hub, and the front differential and muffler were still hiding somewhere else in the building. So still no changed spots on this cat, but we all know that's unlikely anyway. And now that the engine's in, making a clean break from the little worm'll be just that much harder. Funny thing is that the smog guy I found mostly at random turns out to be the mechanic's smog guy, too, and he didn't sound like getting the van to pass would be any big deal. Worst that can happen is I have to figure out the wiring, or purchase a harness from one of several reputable builders, and I'll be good to go, mechanic or no mechanic.
Swung by the BMW shop to pick up a replacement speedometer cable, and got the mechanic there to point out how it should be routed. Odd that the only bikes in the shop were old /2s like mine, as their appointment calendar is usually full. Also odd that the departed owner's widow was cleaning out a display room and installing more shelving; you'd think a seventy-something year old woman would be having someone do that for her.:shocked: I guess that's what comes from stubborn German stock, and why she doesn't look a day over fifty.
Then came three misses, as I tried to purchase a replacement for an old plastic oil drain pan at local auto parts shops. The one I have is square shaped and features a triangular pour spout off one side that extends out about six or eight inches. That extension comes in real handy under a motorcycle to reach in and under the drains, and none of the pan/jug models that are on offer today will work. No wonder Amazon is such a threat to brick'n'mortar businesses that all carry the same merchandise.
That wild goose chase frittered away the best part of two hours so I returned to the smog shop to once again find it locked up tighter than a drum. I was early, though, and a few minutes before my appointment, the owner showed up and I was ushered into the office to complete the paperwork. That consisted of scanning the barcode on my DMV notice and making a phone call for a cryptic exchange of terms that evidently worked to my benefit. The actual test consisted only of half a minute of shining a flashlight into the engine bay while the engine idled. No kidding, no probe up the tail pipe, no computer hooked into the ODB II port, just a "yer all done" and another swipe on the card and I was outta there. Oh, and forty-five dollars lighter for the privilege.:muttering:
Picked up some salt for the water softener at HD and it was time to head for home, and surprisingly, a nap! Just too much excitement I guess. Rounded out the day by viewing the last of the Mad Max movies, Fury Road, the only one missing Mel Gibson. They tried to make up for it with an abundance of special effects but it came out rather bland, and I wouldn't be surprised if that was the end of that formerly successful franchise. It didn't help that the DVD quit a few minutes before the end, either.
Hope everyone enjoys their weekend! If the weather clears like it's supposed to, that old motorcycle'll get its first taste of highway in twenty years this afternoon...
