Modern Vespa

But does that mean as soon as that trial is over you will have to show up again or does it count for you being on duty?

My Jury Duty Service has been fulfilled.

From the Dallas County Jury Services website: Because we were assigned to a court, the system expected that we would be in the pool for that trial. Since the trial was postponed, the next jury pool would be the one they pull from. I wouldn't be in that pool, because the system sees me as having served either "One Day" or "One Trial" (I'm not sure which would apply in this case). So I'm clear for the next 2.5 years.

Unless I get called for Municipal Court.

From a great blog:

Janet Jackson had the power to crash laptop computers

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20220816-00/?p=106994

I haven't really been around here much lately, but that's mostly because I just finished up my very first college credit term. Sure, it was all done remotely online, but I didn't really have any guidance and it's been an awful long time since I was involved in any real schooling.

I'm pretty damn proud to say that with 3 classes totalling 11 credits, my GPA is actually slightly above a 4.0!

Yesterday I decided to take my Yamaha Xmax on the 7 Bridges Scooter Club ride.

It has a hard mount for a Garmin Zumo 660 and decided to use the old GPS for the ride.

Shortly after pulling out of the garage, onto the street just down from my house the GPS fell off, onto the road.

I hadn't secured it to the mount properly!

I picked it up, remounted it and it worked!

But not long into the ride, I could tell that it wasn't working properly.

The motorcycle icon was not riding on any road and the purple route line was off on the side of the screen.

Navigation was strange too, not telling me how far to the next turn and only giving me major roads.

When I got home I gave it a hard reboot with no improvement.

So I thought the maps got messed up in the crash and that I would reload the latest map.

I opened up the battery compartment, necessary to connect a cable, removed the battery and found the memory card had popped out of it's slot.

Reinserted, the GPS maps returned!

Happy me.

Bill

I ordered staples for my printers back in November of last year. When they hadn't arrived by January, I ordered them again. When neither order had arrived by March, I again ordered them.

The initial order from November showed up in May.

The orders from January and March showed up yesterday.

I now have 13 boxes of staples (I used one back in May).

Two years ago, almost to the day, Bill's Ace Hardware at the end of my street closed, due to the landlord raising rents right in the middle of the pandemic. The whole local community was saddened - I was in there almost every day for some essential nut, bolt, or screw.

Today I learned that Westlake Ace Hardware will be opening in the same location in October. My birthdays and Christmases have all come at once!!!

https://westlakehardware.com/westlake-ace-hardware-to-add-store-in-pleasant-hill-california/

(Background that I may have already mentioned): I work in the printing department for a school district, but we're considered an "Enterprise Fund", so we're able to do outside work and actually make a profit on what we do. One of my clients from my previous employer followed me to my current shop.

One of the items that the above mentioned client requests fairly often is foam core signage. We print the sign at 18"x24" or 24"x36", then laminate it and mount it to foam core. On most of them, I then have to affix a self-adhesive 12"x9" clear vinyl pouch to it. This allows them to easily change out what the sign says during the event. My previous employer bought the pouches in bulk from Uline. My problem is that Uline is not an approved vendor for our school district, so I can't buy directly from them. To buy their products, we have to go through a different vendor, who then buys the Uline product and marks it up when they sell it to us. My client has established themselves enough with my bosses that they're comfortable with me purchasing 1000 of the pouches to have on hand.

Uline's price breaks for this item are at 1, 5, 20, and 60 boxes. If we're going to buy 5, we might as well get 20. Five boxes is 250 pouches. I'll go through that in a couple of months. The 60 box price break is not great enough to justify us getting that many (even though we have a lot of space to store them). So we sent off a request to the middleman vendor to get a price on 20 boxes.

Uline's price per box for 20 boxes is $64. ($1280 total)
The Middleman Vendor's price is $87.14. ($1742.80 total)

The second vendor is charging $462.80 to give us a quote, place the order, and collect money. They'll have Uline dropship the items to us, so they won't have any physical contact with them, they'll never be in their actual inventory. I understand that companies are in business to make money, but a 36% markup for maybe an hour's worth of work seems rather excessive to me.

I was talking to the office manager who would be ordering these, and she said we should check with a different vendor to see if they can get them for us, and what their price might be. So I called that vendor.

It turns out they can get the items, and that they would be able to sell them to us, as they'd fall under the type of item that they are approved to sell to us. Better yet, their price is $79 per box, $8.14 cheaper than the other vendor. And they're much more responsive. Initially she quoted us $75 per box, but then she realized that she had to pay freight on them, so that's what bumped it up.

Yeah, $300 for an hours worth of work still seems a bit excessive, but it's better than the other vendor.

I'm so happy I talked to my office manager about this, because I'll get the items I need quickly, and at a better price than before.

I am quite happy to be home from hospital today. It was a stressful wait for the date of my cancer to be removed. There will be some changes in my lifestyle, but I am truly hopeful for the first time in six months. It was a robot assisted surgery that my doctor said went really well, although I didn't get the robot's opinion. (Insert Bender GIF here)

I had mine five years ago. Still cancer-free.

I wish you a good recovery and a long life.

Snoopy is off for a jaunt around the moon this week.
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/snoopy-to-fly-on-nasas-artemis-i-moon-mission

Lots of Vrooming 🛵♥️

On Friday last week, I rode Vanessa 220 miles to Avon Park to meet up with Lostboater and Celeste for a weekend of riding and hanging out.

Upon arrival, I went to the grocery store for provisions...beer, muffins, cookies, Cheetos, etc.

The weather was threatening a little when I got there, but I thought I would be ok for the ride back to the hotel.

But while checking out, I could see that it was pouring rain outside.

When the cashier asked if I wanted the beer bagged, I asked her to double bag it as it was going to be carried from the leg shield hook on my scooter.

She noticed that it was raining too, and knew it would be a while before I left.

As i pulled my grocery cart away from the check out lane, another cashier asked me if I would like to have a chair to sit on while I waited.

I said yes and she went to their break room, coming out with a comfortable chair for me.

I only sat for a few minutes when I could see the rain getting lighter.

So I went out to Vanessa and moved her under the roof overhang near the front door so I could pack her with the goodies.

Before I could go in, the cashier came out and asked if I wanted her to bring the shopping cart out so I could load up.

I said I would do it but she insisted and came out with the cart.

After donning rain gear and riding the three miles back to the Jacaranda, I pulled up to our usual parking spaces outside the front door.

I took the packages off the hook and looked up.

Tamra, the desk clerk and friend was standing at the opened front door to help.

I carried everything in and followed her to the manually operated elevator in which she took me to the second floor.

Three kind women helping me on one trip.

It is often a nice world out there.

Bill


Rain falling.

Vanessa moved under the overhang just before my groceries were pushed out.

The Vespas parked in front of the Jacaranda.

I've reached the half century 🎂

Congratulations, time for a birthday ride!

Congratulations, plenty of riding years left. Absolutely demands a birthday ride to celebrate.

I've reached the half century...

...of living with Mrs. mpfrank.

mpfrank,

Congratulations. It is rewarding having a partner in life.

So, fifty years married - got married when you were 10?

Bob Copeland

Did I say married?

We moved in together in October, 1972. We got married in March, 1974.

Hey, it was still the '60s. Or something. It's all kind of hazy.

It does blow my mind a bit to have spent half a century sharing a life with the same person. And counting.

mpfrank,

We use to call living together "Shacking Up".

Same. same - I was transferred by my company. My
"to be" blushing bride decided to join me - much to her
mother's chagrin. Two years later me were married.

Again, congrats to you and yours.

Bob Copeland


On our honeymoon in Rome 41 years ago. I was so lucky she moved with me back then.

My annual raise took effect yesterday. I got a 9.22% increase.

In the 2 years & 10 months I've worked here, my pay has gone up a total of $4.75/hour.

At my previous job, my pay increased a total of $3.75/hour over 15 years.

I'm so glad I found this job when I did.

I'm loving the emoji wallpaper in iOS 16
☕️🛵🔨🛵🍔🍺

Nice but maybe pizza instead of burgers

Good idea. And I'll add another beer in too.

I've got the realtor's photographer coming first thing in the morning and I had serious doubts that I was going to be ready...especially with catching up on the landscaping that went crazy-wild in late summer.
I... think I'm going to make it!

this little guy charged at my scoot when I stopped yesterday on the way home from a long ride. lovely way to finish the day with a smile

.

Congratulations!

You do know it gets increasingly downhill from here on...?

Very aware

Those yellow tablets help.

I drove down to Cape Town two Sundays ago to deliver two R80 G/S bikes to a friend who bought them.
"While you are down there..." another friend asked.
He entrusted me with this gem - a 1957 Faro Basso.

(PS - He will be paying me in wine forever for delivering it to him safely ! )

I bought a multi-tool last year to have at work. It came in handy a few times, so I'm glad I got it.

Then in August, my work location changed, and I had to move the entire shop to a new location 8 miles south. I kept the multi-tool handy during the move, because it was useful.

Once I got almost everything moved, I was at my new shop and needed the multi-tool, but I couldn't find it. I was sure I put it in a box, but none of them had it. Then I thought I must have left it on the counter at the old shop, but the next time I was there, I checked and couldn't find it at all. I figured it walked off with someone. So I bought another one.

The second one wasn't as nice as the first one. Partly because I knew that as soon as it arrived the first one would turn up. Except it didn't.

Yesterday I had to deliver an order to a customer, and grabbed my folding dolly, which I had packed into its carry bag during the move. When I got to the customer's building, I took the dolly out of the bag, and felt weight in the bag. I peered in and saw the multi-tool!

So now I have two multi-tools at work.

So you love your multi-tool and aren't telling us which one it is with photo?

I'll do ya one better, and provide links.

The one on the left is the first one I bought.
The one on the right is the second one.

The main thing I like about the first one is that the pliers are spring-loaded, so they always want to return to the open position. The second one doesn't have that feature.


monogodo's multi-tools

Dammit. Now I have to get one.

My friends told me we were going for a quick bicycle ride around the corner. We ended up going from Toronto to Niagara Falls. About 145 km (90 freedom miles).

Left at 7:15 am, arrived at 6:15 pm. Took less than an hour!

I fixed my refusing to start scooter by hitting it with a hammer. Now to hit the starter motor with some less violent tools to see what's wrong.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/percussive_maintenance

I've been an avid runner for about 10 years, with a marathon from time to time. I'm not the fastest, but I love being outside and go as far as my legs can take me.

After being injured for 5 months (which could have been solved a lot sooner, if I hadn't been so stubborn to not visit a doctor...), I'm finally able to run pain free again.

I just came home from a short run, and it gives me such immense pleasure.