Modern Vespa

This winter's 'shed bunny' seems to be doing well, in fact, there's two of them. It's been a year or two since we last hosted any shed bunnies, but their return is always a nice thing to see.

Over the years, a series of Cottontail Rabbits have burrowed under our backyard shed and made quite the sheltered den beneath it, had their litters there, and with luck, grew and moved on.

I'd forgotten you had one! Kristin laughed out loud!

The electric 12 string guitar I ordered (for myself) from Eastwood Guitars just before Christmas is FINALLY on-the-move, and heading my way, though so far, it's apparently heading in the opposite direction, undoubtedly to a FedEx air hub where it will start westward across the Atlantic. This cheers me up, and I can now begin some genuine anticipation for it's arrival out here in 'Prairie Dog land'.

When I ordered it, I thought that it was coming out of their Chicago warehouse, but they apparently only currently have them in their Liverpool facility. Not that it matters, but that's an amazing deal considering it has free shipping from all that distance.

How many of us are there now?



If you drive like I do and it's mostly around town, you can squeeze a lot more out of it than it's rated for. Even in the winter I'm hitting well above 4m/kWh. I know the GOM is notorious for being "inaccurate", but if you know how you drive it's a really good indicator. Every time I get in I'm aiming for a high score, so to speak. Coolest video game ever.

Sadly, I had to give up on my last Westy after years of service.

Let's hope it doesn't turn out to be just a brown leather wallet.

Nah, It'll be ok. I've been getting guitars from Eastwood for years, and they build and sell some models of my own brand, so we're pretty 'tight'.

Last ride of 2023. Sunny and 57 degrees F.

OFG

What's cheering me up is seeing yet another photo on Instagram of my cat Bruno invading a neighbour's house 😸

https://www.instagram.com/stories/_nic_hamilton_/3270292256380702686

Nice area to ride! I used to live in Owens Crossroads and my buddy lives in Ryland.

Last time I visited, we rode over Keel Mountain, through Woodville, Pleasant Grove and Skyline, down to Scottsboro. We came back down 79 to 431, then cut over to Hobbs Island Road at New Hope and then up to Green Cove Road by way of the Marina Parkway.

Next time, I want to bring a bigger scoot so we can ride a bit farther afield.

Thankful for the purchase of the little blue one on the left. Got it in particular for undoing the windscreen supports which i have less room than normal because of the extra lights i installed

Cheap from AliExpress of course https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003826531636.html

Scored today.

An acquaintance of mine started his engineering apprenticeship MANY years ago at a shipyard in Scotland. They got a tool allowance each week and had to add to their equipment each week. He spent his first allowance on a sizeable crescent spanner. When he proudly showed his foreman, said gentleman grabbed the spanner and threw it as hard as he could into the Clyde River, ever to be seen again. "Don't you ever bring an abomination like that back to this workplace ever".
Guess he didn't like them 🤣🔧🛠️

(stubby 17mm should do the trick without slipping like an adjustable can)

Yeah, couldn't find a cheap one and i also carry this for general use in my on bike tool kit

Routed the cables for my my dashcam today (front + rear). Took advantage of having the bike in pieces to work out a neat route

(I'll probably write a 'project' post when complete)

It's yet another year to add to my 'resume', so here's an updated photo of me from this morning to start it off right....

Cool! May your resumé be many pages longer!

My wife made Arroz con Pollo today, which I am calling a (new) New Years Day tradition.

So delicious.

Looks good! I'll be right over for leftovers

We have plenty!

17mm or 11/16th of an inch?

Spoiled myself with a new monitor at home.

I. Can. See. Everything.

That's not a monitor - it's a M O N I T O R !!!
It looks like a real treat!

seamus26.

Yes, monitors, the bigger the better. I am curious about other stuff in posted photos. Looks like you are musically rocking the keyboards. Also. is that a Bass Guitar? Do you perform professionally?

Bob C Minnesota

Unfortunately I'm more of a collector than a rocker. I do not play professionally, although at one point in my life that was a goal.

I think I'm glad I dodged that bullet.

So, seven guitars, a bass, that big Yamaha piano, a couple of MIDI controllers, a banjo, a violin, a couple of autoharps, a hammer dulcimer, some Simmons electric drums, a Roland Aerophone, a clarinet and various recorders, bongos and miscellaneous items including (but not limited to) a melodica, a Magnus chord organ, a bagpipe chanter and a balalaika ... I'm sure I've forgotten something.

I have the means to make a lot of noise, but like all things it's time intensive. My joke is that when I graduated from high school, all of the positions for rock star were filled, so I followed my second dream of metrology. Meh. Pays the bills.

Much to my wife's chagrin I just ordered an Otamatone this weekend.

I will never do anything that creative, but I will at least have one. I think George Michael's "Careless Whisper" would be brilliant on it. May even figure a way to fit the banjo in.

EDIT

Doggone it ... already been done.

Awesome. Brand? Model?

As smarmy a company as Samsung is, it is a Samsung. I know they make a decent product, and the price point was right.

This one :

Samsung - 34" ViewFinity S5 Ultrawide QHD 100Hz AMD FreeSync Monitor with HDR10 (DisplayPort, HDMI) - Black

It's probably listening to me all the time, so I make as many disparaging remarks about Samsung as possible in its presence. But it is super cool to be able to actually see what I'm working on outside of my MacBook.

I've never gotten over this :

"Hey, pretty lady ... it's me; Jack."

Looking forward to a 3 day trip on Gabriella. Today, Hamilton (New Zealand) to Napier via Taupō avoiding major roads generally, then Taupō to Napier on the road that was devastated earlier in 2023 by Cyclone Gabrielle.
Tomorrow we are travelling New Plymouth on the opposite coast via The Gentle Annie road, a motorcycle must do road, and then The Forgotten World Highway, another "must do" that I have done before. Probably over 8 hours riding tomorrow.
Friday I will probably just come up the main road from New Plymouth to Hamilton, but a side road through Marakopa is tempting.

Map Link

Bugger! That looks terrible! How do I fix that?

First ride of 2024

Mostly sunny and 47 F, ten degrees cooler than last ride of 2023. Really enjoy riding, cooler temps - not so much. Neck gaiter, chaps, and better gloves going on the wish list.

OFG

Send Jake the Muss around to convince the forum owner that macrons are kinda important?

https://www.consumer.org.nz/articles/how-to-use-macrons-tohuto-on-your-devices

Actually I'd just post a screenshot of your route. I cycled the forgotten highway, Waikerimoana, and Napier Taihape roads last month. Be prepared for a lot of riding delays around Napier.

Some pics of Jake the Muss:

Yeah, no. That URL will not be parseable. Sorry.

He needs a route avoiding LOTR filming locations.

could use a url shortening service
https://www.google.com/search?q=url+shortening

I will probably regret this. I think I already regret it, in fact. But I've just pushed a change to the server that will -- in one narrow case -- correctly parse the google maps gibberish in the above post.

I'm only allowing for this more permissive URL syntax when using this form of BBCode linking: The reason I've chosen this specific form is because it lends itself (somewhat) to differentiation from other URL formats we recognize, and because for very, very long URLs we really genuinely don't want raw links full of google maps barf. Enclosing them in the '[url=' format accomplishes that.

No telling what else is going to break because of this. Like I said, I already regret it. Now I'm just bracing myself for the fallout.

That Otamatone is incredibly annoying!

I've got to have one.

During my ten years as an elementary school music teacher the autoharp was my main instrument. About the only instrument I've ever been proficient on.

OK, this Otamatone thing sent me down a You Tube rabbit hole through Spain's Got Talent culminating in a rendition of "O Mio Babbino Caro" by cellist Manuel Fischer-Dieskau (yes, the son of that Fischer-Dieskau).

It appears to be the illegitimate offspring of a Theramin and a slide whistle, but can pack quite an emotional punch in the right hands.

Recommended:

Just an update. I finished crunching my numbers for year 2 with the 500e.

For Nov-Dec (in Michigan) I am still hitting 4.2m/kWh. Again, in town, old lady driving. That's 141.6MPGe.

I've only put a little over 12K miles on it in the two years, but in that time it has saved me over $1900 in gas cost.

You're going to like it.

Today was a milestone day I've waited a long time for and it has cheered me up immensely...

Eleven months ago (07-Feb-2023) my ski season ended abruptly with a pretty severe knee injury. A full tear of the ACL, compound tear of the meniscus, partial tear of the MCL, and a small fracture to the tibial plateau. We have an outstanding orthopedic practice close to home, Reno Orthopedic Center (ROC), that took care of me from the start. I was able to get an MRI within 2 days of the injury and met with a surgeon to discuss options within a week. Because of the stacked injury and my desire to ski again, surgery to construct a new ACL and cleanup/repair the MCL and meniscus was recommended. The surgery was completed on March 6, a month post injury.

I've tried to do my part by doing my physical therapy (PT) and doing what I can to strengthen and stabilize my knee. I rarely miss a day of PT even 10 months post op. I think I might actually be stronger today than when the injury occurred 11 months ago.

Today was my first day back on skis and it couldn't have gone any better. Honestly, my knee feels as strong as it did skiing before the injury. I still took it easy today and stuck to the blue (intermediate) runs. The knee brace ROC made for me worked very well. I hardly noticed it was there

Getting back on the slopes has been a driving force for me and has kept me motivated. I can't express how thankful I am and grateful to everyone who helped along the way.

Thanks to:

- Diamond Peak Ski Resort ski patrolers, Taylor and Konnor, who got me off the mountain, evaluated my injury, and recommended ROC urgent care.
- The staff at ROC for all their care starting on day #1
- Dr Renny Uppal (my surgeon) and his assistant Nathan
- My ROC Physical Therapist, Jeff, and the entire team who worked with me 3-days/wk for the first 5 months post surgery
- Most of all my wife for all the help while I was hobbling around on crutches. Then as I got more mobile, accompanying me on twice daily walks, hikes in the mountains near Tahoe helping build strength and endurance, and gentle reminders about my daily PT on the days I felt less motivated. ❤️

I couldn't have got here alone!