Modern Vespa

I really like this thread. It's about the good things, even if they're small. It's way more fun to read and post in this thread than in the "What's pissing you off" thread.

Today I finally got around to installing some 60mm gauges (oil pressure, oil temp, and boost pressure) in my Subaru STI. I've had these gauges in my garage for 5 or 6 years and just didn't have time to install them. It took me a solid 8 hours. Nothing complicated, but I'm a fanatic about clean wiring. I will not cut into the factory wiring harness so it was a bit more work. I wish I'd bought a coolant temperature gauge instead of the boost gauge all those years ago. It would be more useful. Finally getting this done is cheering me up today 😃

Mince Pies have appeared for sale in my local supermarket! 😋

Nobody loves cupcake more than I do! There might be quite a few that love cupcake equally as well but nobody loves it more.

Here in Reno Nevada there are two I guess what I will call them are "craft cupcake shops" similar to a craft brewery where they make the good stuff.

So far after having tried both Sugar cupcake and Mix Bake Shop I am giving the nod to Mix Bake Shop. Sugar cupcake is excellent but IMHO the crust at Mix is probably the best I have ever tried.

We are at 5,000 feet (about 1.5 K) here in Reno and surprisingly enough they make some excellent sourdough here as well in this dry high desert climate.

The craft cupcake shops pies are around $30 each.

So I am legitimately referring to the round baked goods that are not the mathmatical equation...pi...I don't know why it autocorrected upon posting all of the words for pi.

Are mince pies a seasonal offering? We don't see mince pies here in the USA. They're probably available, but I imagine you'd only find them in a specialty shop.

They're meant to appear for Christmas, so it annoys me to see them at the start of September, but I love them, so it also cheers me up 😋

Thought there was a more specific reference, but this will shed some light.

FAQ: Why are words in my post getting censored?

Reminder, we're coming. Way to use your head! lol

Found a couple pics of the ride across Italy.

The IS38 and tune went in the GTI on Friday, all is well it's extremely healthy, extremely unslow, and I can't wait for a good dry couple days to appear so I can put it thru the paces properly. Should probably grab up a proper intake, inlet elbow, charge pipes and aftermarket intercooler now. That can be winter's project I suppose.

Traffic court went well this morning. I had a "reckless driving" citation from a cop who didn't even see the incident.....a road rager was following me, attempting to run me off the road, etc....i was attempting to escape the situation, they called the cops and showed video of me "driving erratically" to evade and "un-arse the area" (to the cop's admission, he only saw a tiny portion of the video and stated the time bar at the bottom of her phone screen indicated a significantly larger situation than she would admit to). Judge bumped it to a "negligent driving" and the $500+ fine turned into $100 (102.50 since there's a service fee for a debit card dontchaknow) and the 5 points became PBJ so as long as I can be a good-ish boy for a while, it all goes away and the insurance vultures don't find out.

Yes, it SHOULD have been a dismissal, but "punishable by fine" just means "legal for a price" so i accepted the fact they gotta generate *SOME* revenue from the incident. whatever, the look the judge gave the other party spoke volumes....and i'm not long for this state anyway. I've had to be a good boy for a while before. I can be a good boy for a while again.

My Director forwarded Customer Satisfaction Survey results to me where I was named twice, with both responses being Exceeds Expectations across all categories.

Making the department, and myself, look good to the higher ups is always good.

So Armed Ferret the road rager tried to run you off the road and YOU get fined??? That is not right.

OFG

Indeed.

#justmarylandthings

I'm already over it, a little dram of Maker's BEP and a cigar from a good friend has me looking further forward to retirement and life anew in Colorado. Where people are less......entitled......than they seem to be here.

I was in traffic court once to plead for my license. I got a ticket for illegal lane change and told both the cop and the judge when it was finally my turn that I was trying to avoid road debris while riding my motorcycle and got to keep my license but still more traffic school.

The funny part was while waiting for my turn there was aa cop there testifying about the ticket he wrote for the older Russian couple in attendance with theri young adult daughter as a translator.

The cop described sitting in traffic in a left turn lane at a stoplight several cars back. The front car saw an opening and despite the red light and CHP car a few cars back went for it.

The Russian couple were in the car behind the front car and went the front car went they did too but by then the opening had closed and they narrowly missed a huge clustercrash in the intersection and kept on going.

The cop turned on the lights and eventually made it through the intersection to stop the offenders. He pulled over the Russian couple first but when he went after the first car the Russians figured they were good to go and just split not understanding english and all the cop then had to get the first car to follow him so he could chase the Russians...

The cop presenting the case in front of the judge was very entertaining. The commentary that went along with describing the scenario was very colorful to say the least and at one point I laughed out loud.

The judge shot me a pretty stern look but I wasn't the only one in court that day trying to hold back the laughter so I guess he took pity on me.

It sounded to me like the cop had enough material for a good 45 minute stand up set.

Earlier today I was downstairs in the bindery department chatting with the Production Manager while he was struggling with punching a job on the automatic puncher. He kept holding one part of it while it ran, and if he took his hand away, it would jam. I asked if it had a problem that required he hold it like that, and he said it is missing a knob on the output guide. I looked, and sure enough, it had a knob on the left side, but not the right. I told him that I had a couple of random knobs up at my desk, and I'd go check them and see if one might fit it.

The two knobs I had were different from each other. They had different diameters to the threaded post, and one had a longer post than the other. The shorter post one also had a shoulder on the post near the knob end.

I took them down and tried them. The one without the shoulder was too small of a diameter. The other one threaded perfectly, but the shoulder caused it to not "clamp down" on the plate to hold it in place (the shoulder was actually tapered from the threads to the base of the shaft, so it couldn't get a good grip). I noticed a bucket of random screws & nuts & bolts nearby, so I dug through and found a standard thickness washer, and a really thick metal bushing. I put them on the knob, and threaded it in. It held.

I knew there was a reason to keep the random parts that I run across.

I took the day off from my "to do" list today. We don't have too many more summer-like days left this year. We already got our first snowfall in the mountains on September 1st.

I rode down old US-395 to Carson City. It's a nice rode for cruising 45-55mph and looking at the scenery.

This ride and the beautiful weather cheered me up today.

I have a future job offer, twice over.

For one of my college courses this summer, I've been doing an internship. It's a bit odd for a miriad of reasons, but I've really enjoyed it. Essentially, I've been working at a very small magazine office reviewing submissions, proofreading, writing book reviews, and helping a bit with layout. Apparently the editor has enjoyed having me there too, because he offered me a paying position next summer after I finish my AA and in a few years after I transfer and graduate from elsewhere.

For anyone who's got a bit of free time, you can check out the publication here. It's a multicultural youth magazine, and the vast majority of the content is submitted by kids from all over the world. Been going for 35 years now and just happens to be a few blocks away from where I live. We finished the most recent print issue just a couple of weeks ago.

**WARNING: NERD ALERT**

I've been hatching eggs in Pokémon GO, specifically 12km eggs, hoping to hatch a female Salandit, so that I can evolve it to a Salazzle (the male Salandits do not evolve). When hatching 12km eggs, there's a 5% chance of it being a Salandit. Then there's a 12.5% chance of that Salandit being female. So there's a 1.6% chance of hatching a female Salandit from a 12km egg. My wife has hatched 8 Salandits, and all were male. Up until yesterday, I had hatched 7, and all were male. Yestderday I hatched 8 more 12km eggs, two of which were Salandits. When I went to check their IVs (Attack/Defense/HP), I discovered that BOTH of them were females!

I've already evolved one of them, and will trade the other to my wife.

Caught a lander at BWI finally.

A couple nights camping always cheers me up.

Just closed on my building today!
Been a bit of an albatross....moved in with a colleague a couple of years ago to transition to retirement, had a buyer that strung me along for two months and then abandoned me. Bit of a loss, but then the commercial real estate market hasn't been stellar around here, and I just wanted out.

So now I have "fun money." Unfortunately the top items on my list are some home improvements. Who knows, there may be a new Vespa lurking in there in the distant future......

Congrats on the sale. Seems like everything is slow with commercial real estate lol

I'm happy that my review of the 2023 Moto Guzzi V7 hit 10,000 views in its first three weeks.

TLDW: Great commuter that, with the help of a bigger 850cc motor has long legs should you want to go far from home. Moto Guzzi has corrected many of the shortcomings of the 2014 V7 that I borrowed for a month and wasn't crazy about. Bike is still loaded with character, but now it's all good character. A little on the cramped side for two up riding or taller riders. Neutral still finicky. Whirring sound may annoy some people (me). Overall a nice machine, quality fit and finish, fun to ride, less agricultural feeling than in the past, while keeping plenty of personality.

My channel is pretty small (or big depending on your perspective), but 10,000 views with 97% likes vs 3% dislikes in 21 days is pretty good, and I was starting to really slow down my video output so I'm happy this one did well.

There are fixxin to be some really good bargains in some areas of commercial real estate in the not too distant future.

I am reasonably certain this will put downward pressure on all commercial real estate save warehouse and it too may be affected.

Laughing at myself....

So, 50th class reunion was Saturday. About an hour away, planning on spending the night at my mother's place.... stopped and picked apples on the way so wore old clothes. My mother still likes buying me shirts sometimes (despite my protests that I won't be wanting to wear them once I retire but she persists....
). Anyway, hadn't tried it on before, so when I dressed for the party, I put on the shirt and it was more than a bit tight around the middle. Nothing else to wear but an old t-shirt. FFS.

Go to put on my socks, and I'd grabbed a tan and a brown one.

I decided hey, I'm old but still standing, so that should count for something.

I really doubt anyone noticed. Or cared. But for some reason I still find it amusing.

Great day hiking the Galena Falls trail near Incline Village, NV yesterday. The falls is usually dry by August. This year we still have lots of snow melting at the higher elevations. It was a beautiful day to get out before winter takes hold in this area.

This cheered me up.

Good book

My Kung Fu Kitten always cheers me up 🐀🐈

Agreed. This booger got a fresh new collar for halloween. It has a lil bat in place of the usual bow tie.

I hatched a third female Salandit today. That makes 3 females out of 10 hatches.

Also, my math above was wrong. 12.5% of 5% is actually 0.625% My female Salandit catch rate is currently at 30%. Time to look into lottery tickets...

The plumbers just installed my vacuum tube solar collector for the hot water cylinder.

If it works properly, I should be independent of our mismanaged, overpriced and uncaring national electricity service provider for my hot water needs.

Later this year, my planned PV solar array will take most of the balance of my electricity consumption away from Eskom too !

What do you have for your heating, a Heat Pump?

If you are referring to space heating, we don't heat.
I live in Pretoria and the sub-tropical climate here is very mild - even at our altitude. Mid-winter minimum temperatures seldom drop below single digit Centigrade. Usually a sweater or hoodie worn inside is enough to keep our bodies warm.

With a heat pump, we could actually use summer heat inside the house to heat the water cylinder.
But it requires power to run the heat pump.
I did investigate a solar PV powered heat pump solution, but the vacuum tube solution came in at around 1/3 of the price.

I already have a battery bank and 3KVA inverter for the essential electrical appliances and a LPG gas range for cooking. When the PV panels are fitted, I won't have to recharge from grid power. Roll on the day !

My new shirt arrived. It was a blipshift design several years ago but since their stuff falls apart after 3 wears (assuming it wasnt printed crooked in the first place) i waited and had another spot do a one off for me.

My in-laws had a solar water heater tied into a conventional (for here - gas) water heater. Even in winter the water heater rarely turned on.

I got the new Pfizer 5G nanobot upgrade today!

Very happy with the side effects.

Just now Mrs Syd came to me asking me to follow her; she was excited. Follow I did, to our bedroom, only to look out the window to see a fox napping in the unmowed grass. Pics to follow.

Here he is. I only had one viewpoint, as I didn't want to open the slider to the backyard and scare him off. His middle is blown, but his head and tail are nicely in the shade of our grapefruit tree.

That guy's cousin ran onto the field during an ASU game !

Too early to check in at the hotel so oh dang we have to daydrink and get brekkie at an irish pub.

Yesterday I mentioned in another thread that I hate throwing away things that are fixable. I just think it's wasteful and increases my footprint in terms of consumption of resources.

I bought this patio furniture 23 years ago. It's really well made but after that many years in the sun, the sling fabric tore on one of the chairs. Since the frames are still perfect, I found a place that could make custom sized replacement slings. So for $175 I was able to replace the slings on 2 chairs and a 2-seat glider. Beats the heck out of spending $1500 for new furniture and tossing these perfectly good frames in the landfill.

Fixing this patio furniture cheered me up today!

Beers for 39 czk (23ish czk/dollar) at random underground (literally) bar we wandered into.

Yay!

Love this city.