Modern Vespa

Thank you, Bob,

Sam lived in Chicago for 8 years, making it a good trip to come to Wisconsin for Wisconscoot and Yooper Loops.

He is now in the mountains of North Carolina, making for some nice riding when I take a scooter up to visit.

I will continue to come to Wisconsin when I can as I enjoy the company and the riding.

Bill


Sam riding with the Wisconscoot group in 2017.

Glad your mom dodged the bullet. For a brief while during the Holidays thought we'd lose mine. But she's only 91 and seems she's got some life in her yet....
She's definitely fragile, but still living alone and doing what she can. I think she's back to her previous levels as she's back to baking up a storm- In the past week I think she turned out a batch of bread, 2 cherry pies and a batch or two of cookies. Not sure why I'm not losing weight...

Glad the kids can visit....it's a hard time, at some point you're just waiting for the news. You know they're not around forever, but no one knows when they're leaving. Indeed he is. He's been a great kid to ride and hang with. Must be some parental influence there....

puns

Hear! Hear!

Chris from CLE

Time to rebuild my house
(Stolen from Instagram)

Steelbytes,

I can see that you have your priorities in the correct order.

Side note: Near my residence is a newer format of condo garages.
Essentially, a man cave for car collectors/restorers. They purchase
the two story cement garage (Large Doublewide/high garage door)
much like your diagram lay out.

My wife's old friend from high school invited us to an open house
where all the owners displayed their collector cars. Most had
added a second level living space with kitchen, den over looking
the rest of the garage below.

This guy restored convertible Jaguars. His adjoining condo garage
neighbors seemed to specialize. Everything from Mercedes to
BMW and Rolls-Royce Ghosts.

Obviously, these guys had some bucks to purchase their own man
cave.

Your layout format triggered my memory - there is such a thing.
Also, this might be quit common elsewhere around the country.

Bob Copeland

I have awakened !

I have decided to use one all inclusive pronoun - "E" / "Em"
It includes hE, shE, thEy, thEm etc... and is totally gender unspecific.

Now I can offend everyone equally with one word...!

Back in my first year of chiropractic school I was in some intense anatomy classes and skeletons were available for osteology study. Not necessary, but I was gung ho, and purchased a half skeleton (half of everything paired, one skull). It came in handy but wound up in it's box for most of the last decades.

My wife has been watching some television with mediums, etc lately (yeah, I know.. ) and said having the bones in the house creeped her out. So, anyway, nearing retirement and knowing all about bones I need to, it was time to go. Couldn't reach anyone at my school for help for some reason and started poking around the internet, what I thought was a good lead disappeared, then connected with someone. Now I had no idea of the value (I think I'd paid ~$150 at the time). I get a response, and an offer of $2K! Easily triple of my best guess. Went for it, shipped them out (a bit awkward at the PO when they asked the content ("oh, just some dude's bones" ), but arrived okay and money's already in the bank.

Google Search: How to dispose of a body partial skeleton.

Yeah, you're not gonna be on the FBI's radar with that search history.

Dave,

I think this is just a cover story dodge for your future defense team.
You have murdered a member of the family and boiled them down to
just the bones.

Further, you even went to medical school in Chiropractic science
to further throw off Sherlock Holmes.

Recommendation: Next time, just dig a deep hole way back on
Mom's farm. They will never find the body.

Bob Copeland


The case of the Chiropractic serial killer aka "The Bone Doctor"

I have a long and sordid history with that, Bob. We had a pioneer cemetery in a woods on land we rented. Woods had grown up, and the owner's wife hated the dozen or so grave markers, so she hauled them off somewhere. I'd heard that when they'd enlarged the hill cut years before they'd cut into a grave and I had a weird obsession with finding another. Fortunately, the Army surplus shovel was no match for tree roots, so I turned to other pursuits (maybe buying my 50cc Puch?).

My dad, frugal guy that he was, wanted to be buried on the back 40. Wasn't quite kosher with state law, so we had him cremated and spread the ashes in a small woodlot he'd planted as a teen.

But otherwise, innocent until proven guilty.

Hey Dave,

Thanks for taking my humor BS so well.

There seems to be something natural about being buried
on your own land. Especially if you are rural with allot
of of farm land.

There are so many civil codes that for good or bad have
taken stuff away from us.

I own a sizable forested land on my lot behind the house.
You can't even bury your loved pet back there.

I love the critters that live there. I have buried some of my
beloved squirrels and rabbits found dead from either old age
or natural attack. In the winter, I put corn and salt free peanuts
out for them. I recently found out they love black oiled sun
flower seeds. Sguirrels that live in the big oak trees are now
having their babies. A small red sguirrel flocks to the seeds
and peanuts. He runs the food up to his nest in the oak trees.

So I know it is supid, but I love those guys. I even have a
remote camera to watch them chow down.

Bob Copeland


These are my guys. You can tell the ladies from the guys, because
the ladies pluck their tales to build and line the nest in the oak trees.

You've got me going here, Bob. Speaking of burying pets....my beloved Chocolate Lab was on his way out with cancer. I decided he'd be buried in the back yard (now under a 30 foot Burr oak). As the ground was going to be frozen soon, I decided to dig the hole in advance of his death. I was excavating the rather large hole (he was nearly 100#) when he hobbled over to be with me kind of like "whatcha doin' there, boss?" I'm glad I didn't have to answer.

He died peacefully a couple of weeks later. Awesome dog, still missed.

Fledermaus,

Great remembered tale. Like seeing the future

A wonderful lab lived next door named Maggie. She waiting
behind her electric fence each day kind of dancing and barking
waiting for her daily milk bone dog biscuit from old Bob next
door. I joked with her owner Bill that it was my dog, but, he
had to take care of her.

I truly miss Maggie now that she is gone. Seems like those big
boned dogs only last 10-12 years. This was my neighbor Bill's
second Lab. After Maggie, they didn't seem up to doing it again.

Bob Copeland


I got to get of this dog thread - becoming verklempt.

You already know what's cheering me up today

My family have been told that, when I shuffle off this mortal coil, I want to be cremated and my ashes strewn into a hole where they can plant a tree on top.

I'm just wanting to do my bit for the environment. Instead of grassed graveyards that need costly upkeep, we could have lovely woodlands where animals could live and people could roam.

That thought makes me happy...

Why bother with the cremation?
Composting Burial is a thing.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/feb/19/human-composting-industry-deathcare

Mrs pigletpilot suggested we go for a ride today; big win as her confidence is still low following her crash. I took Bella and we went out for lunch 🥪


At the café

Not having to deal with this makes me happy

Twenty years ago (plus a few months), I was doing my first animation studio internship. I was having great difficulty sanding some very small baked clay pieces, on account of my chubby little thumbs (I have Brachydactyly Type D). I simply couldn't hold on to the tiny pieces and sand them at the same time. I asked the fabricators for either help, or something else to do. Once they actually saw my thumbs, that became the amusing subject for the day. I later got a pair of reverse tweezers, and ended up using those things for YEARS for similar tasks. The fabricators ended up telling everyone about my weird thumbs, and that got me the first human on-screen appearance on "Robot Chicken" a year later. (Well, my hands, at least.)

This morning, I started off the day by using a pair of reverse tweezers to help me sand some very tiny clay pieces for a school project.

I have EXTREMELY specific nostalgia.

Today was a day 44,444 riding

I don't know about where you live, but where I live, ashes are not legally defined as human tissue. You can do with them as you wish - hence my choice.

Other means of disposal of human bodies are strictly managed by law.
Freeze-drying + composting is not legal here at this time.
However, I do think it is a very good option.

Fud,

I like your new photo. I also have elected cremation for the end game.
I know burial is a Western Tradition, but it really is putting toxic
pickles in the ground. Expensive and it takes up realestate.

I expect there is some comfort in having a grave site to visit and morn.
I was thinking, after a few generations, nobody knows or remembers
who is in the graves.

I have a brother who is buried in North Dakota that died (The Flu).
In 74 years I have been to his grave once. When I am gone, no
one will even know who he was.

Your growing trees is a good thought.

Bob Copeland
Tough Winter here in Minnesota


Long and soon to be lost in memory.

I have a little story that could have been embarrassing but turned out to cheer me up.

I was sitting with two brothers recently.

Both older than me.

One has a beautiful head of hair, the other bald.

I commented that they couldn't be brothers with such a difference and the bald one said of his brother "don't tug on it"

The one with the beautiful hair admitted that it wasn't his, luckily smiling.

I thought I could spot a hair hat from a mile away, but his was perfect.

Bill

I'm just going to leave this here ...



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Nico.

[quote="Bob Copeland"]
.......[snipped]
I have a brother who is buried in North Dakota that died (The Flu).
In 74 years I have been to his grave once. When I am gone, no
one will even know who he was. ....[snipped]
/quote]

I feel the same way and have been writing brief biographical sketches of my family members and uploading them to www.familysearch.org, the Mormon Church website. I'm not Mormon but feel that their geneology site will likely stand up to the sands of time and it's free.

I work by myself and usually go out to lunch by myself.

Yesterday I got on the scooter and headed to Goal Post, a small sandwich shop that has been in the neighborhood for 50 years.

When I walked up to the front door I could see that it was very busy, so I thought I would go to the Fox instead.

The Fox is another old diner nearby, owned by a friend, Ian, for the past 20 years.

I sat at the counter, followed a minute later by a beautiful woman whom Ian had taken to the stool next to mine, telling her that I wouldn't bite.

I ordered my food and could tell that she was a first timer in the restaurant.

So I spoke up and let her know that it was a friendly place and everything on the menu was good.

Then we started talking and I found out that she was from Connecticut, visiting the area with her husband.

They were staying in Palm Coast, 50 miles south of Jacksonville.

She came with him on his business trip because she wanted to move south and had seen information about our neighborhood, the Riverside Avondale Historic District.

She had driven by a few houses that she had found for sale and was very enthusiastic about the area.

I asked if she had a realtor and she answered that she didn't.

So I offered my realtor wife's phone number.

We talked about the neighborhood and I offered my knowledge after living in it for the past 37 years.

I later heard from my wife that she had called and they would be looking at houses in the future.

Just another friendly encounter that benefited both.

Bill

OCArt,

A really good idea. I also am not Mormon, but understand a tenet
of their faith is you can go back in your ancestry and bring them
forward into Mormonism. Thus, their amazing research on burial
records. I hope I got that right.

Back in the 1960's before internet sophistication and DNA testing
my Uncle in Canada used the Mormon compilation of city county
country burial records to research our Copeland Family back to
1793 in Virginia.

Good stuff.

Bob Copeland

AI image generation is fun

I had to look close to be sure that wasn't mine.

Mornings

Final project day in my Sculpture for Animators class!

I've been drawing this little guy since 3rd or 4th grade, and I genuinely don't have the skills or practice to produce exactly what's in my head. But this is pretty damn close, and I'm really, really happy with how he turned out. The teacher said he looked "professionally finished."

It's a urethane cast made from a silicone mold of a clay sculpture. I finished it with acrylic paint, a little bit of wire, an ungodly amount of glue, and felt.

I was driving the missus to the station today (couldn't ride, she's leaving town and had all of her bags), and I see a motorcyclists head going up and down over traffic about 100 meters down the road...

Those of us who've owned vintage bikes already know what's up.

I get a little closer, and I was only half right. He's definitely trying to kick start a bike, but it wasn't a vintage machine, it was a dirt bike, Honda CRF.

I roll down my window: Are you fucked? Do you need a tow?

Rider: Yes, and yes please?

I told him I'd be back in five minutes, dropped off the missus, swung back and picked the guy and his bike up in my truck.

His name is Kurt, he works at the Honda dealership just over a mile away. He had made it from quite far before his bike overheated and now wouldn't fire back up again.

I didn't take any money for the help. He's a young guy in his 20s on his first bike, it only took half an hour out of my day. No big deal.

We got the Honda dealer and he introduced me to his coworkers: "This is Adrian, he's my guardian angel."

Good enough for me.

Yeah, that's worth a whole lot more than money...

Witch,

Excellent sculpture - very professional. You definitely have talent.
You not only nailed the design, but had the practical factor skills to
actually construct it. Way out of my league.

Bob Copeland


All I can do is draw this figure from the old "Mad Magazine"

adri,

You are the kind of guy that makes civilization possible.

Bob Copeland


Good on you