Modern Vespa

No 1, Confirmed a date and time with a Psycotherapist for a bit of a chat on a particular date and time and then I received in the post a confirmation for a totally different time and date.

I can't be arsed to let them know.

No 2, While in a queue at a Coffee Shop this morning a creepy elderly guy put his hand on my shoulder from behind after he spotted my Royal Enfield T Shirt and wanted to engage me about it.

His bony wizzened old digits creeped me out so much I got a bit pissed off because I don't like old people with no sense of personal space touching me.

The conversation got shut down right there.

I'm going to get slammed for that one aren't I ?

Yep. I was hearing the turbo compressor fins touching the housing. The scope shows all the fins are intact (no chipping or cracks) at this point. It pays to find out what the "new sound" is and not just keep driving it. Should have all my parts in-hand for the swap in a week or so.

Not from me thats for sure.

Personal space is personal space, regardless of intentions. I find a verbal "excuse me sir" is an effective way of grabbing attention without ACTUALLY grabbing.

Thank you.

It felt like one of those skeletal hands that you see in cheap horror movies.

Really nasty.

Yep unsolicited touching is a no no from me too, especially so soon after the covid pandemic.

Clearly the fellow doesn't understand modern ettiquette but that's not surprising
If he's long into retirement age.

Try being pregnant. People think because you are incubating new life you've become public property.


Maybe he just needed a little contact?

Missing a friend in Maui. One of the old buddies I grew up with had a pretty interesting life and retired to Maui.

I have his phone number but a couple other people I am friends with are trying to get ahold of him with no luck. I figured I would just wait to hear from someone else I don't want to call or text when phone battery life and power to recharge may difficult to obtain.

Not liking the worrying and waiting. Devastating what happened there my wife showed me a video of the burned out abandoned cars on front street and if you were in one of those your only chance was to get in the water...at least I know my friend is a really good swimmer.

I'll pass on that offer thank you Guzzi.

Unless it's by invitation or familiarity I really don't enjoy being in close contact with anyone these days.

I just think that this Old Duffer was utterly clueless and he had no idea what the current social norms are.

I offered only a statement of agreement and a bit of a joke about the man needing to engage in physical contact. Sadly, he's probably starving for attention like too many of his peers.

Touchy-feely types are drawn to pregnancy like vultures to carrion. Maybe you have a similar glow that draws people in?

My brother-in-law's wife is pissing me off with her closed-mindedness. Probably can't say too much more here because it could be construed as "politics" even though IMO this issue isn't political.

Your response to their deliberately changing the appointment is part of their assessment.

Strokes beard.

A former therapist did something similar to me, also on my first appointment. Now you've got me wondering... For the record, I freaked out on them.

A glow huh ? You've obviously never met me as I'm a little bit "Marmite" to quote a very English observation

However it is interesting to gauge the reaction to the Royal Enfield name either on a T Shirt or a Motorcycle.

It seems to promote an over-enthusiastic reaction in people that you've ever met and they will glom onto you while feeling the need to share some witty anecdote that you couldn't care less about and as I don't ride motorcycles to meet people or represent the brand I find it all a bit unwelcome.

You don't get this with a BMW. You don't even get a nod from those guys.

Many people don't know how to take me and that's where the divide seems to start. An initial greeting either goes well or badly and this one went very badly quickly as I was already engaged in another conversation at the time and also don't F**king touch me.

What did Leon say ? Is this part of the test ?

Dressing the way you do you're obviously asking for it.

Riding the bike I do I'm obviously not.

So this fire in Lahaina Maui really has me down. My friend Mark Davis is missing. We have no idea what happened to him and his wife.

The longer we have to wait for news the more I can't help but feel the news will be bad.

A lot of us who grew up where we did were really close. There was a huge sense of community among the youth there. My friend Mark grew up in a single parent household with two sisters and his mom in a small apartment.

When he got famous as a musician and started making some money the first thing he did was to buy his mom a house. Can you imagine living in a small apartment with a young drummer?

Then he had the sense to retire early. He had to quit the band to stay alive, he couldn't stay around the rock and roll lifestyle. He had the sense to know this about himself.

The band he was in got to open for Ozzy Osbourne in one of the Warp tours or something like that. Again can you imagine being on stage at a major festival like that and the crowd going wild.

Here is their first big hit and the video that was on MTV back in the day. Ugly Kid Joe featuring Mark Davis on drums. I hope you are OK and just incommunicado buddy!

damn skids sorry to hear about your friend. I remember when that song came out i loved it. still do.

hoping for the best.

Thanks. Yeah I am extremely bummed out. As far as I know there has been no word from him to anyone since the fire. You would think by now we would have heard if he was among the survivors.

Sorry, skids. I think the anxiety of waiting for news like that is about as stressful as it gets. One would think the living would be accounted for fairly quickly, but weird stuff happens. Unfortunately for loved ones, the deceased may take a long time to identify.

Update: Just got the text

"Davis ok"

Thanks for the well wishes I was worried.

I never wanted to be old. I never thought I would be old. Now I am old and losing friends is tough. Thankfully I didn't lose this one yet!

Glad to hear man. Hopefully they're able to rebuild.

Awesome. I can only try to imagine the relief.

That qualifies for "What's cheering me up today". Great news.

Excellent news, skids!

Had my annual physical yesterday. It had been postponed from June 6.

I was on my way to the doctor's office on June 6 when they called to reschedule because the doctor had an emergency and couldn't make it in. No problem, they rescheduled me for August 14.

The appointment was at 9am, with a requested arrival time of 8:45.

I arrived at 8:47 and checked in.

The nurse called me back to the exam room at 9:10. She weighed me and took my blood pressure (130/80), and said the doctor would be with me shortly.

At 10:15 I started to wonder if they forgot about me.

At 10:30 I stopped surfing on my phone because my battery was down to 20%.

At 11 I opened the door and asked the staff if they knew how much longer it would be for my 9am appointment. The nurse jumped up and said he was with another patient, and that I was next. In other words, no, they didn't know.

At 11:15 the door opened and the doctor came in. He was very apologetic and explained that he has been putting out fires all morning, that there is a cardiologist who doesn't like the medical group and was being pissy about something. No problem, he's with me now, the physical started going.

We talked about my weight loss, and the other positive effects that were coming about from it. We discussed some of my medication and made a switch to one of them. I told him about the new health plan I was signing up for, and that one of my meds that isn't covered now will be covered by the new plan. He poked and prodded me, then said he'd order lab work and to schedule a follow up in 6 months.

Blood draw went great.

I was on my way home just after Noon.

I don't mind being made to wait. It was the fact that my phone battery was dying, and I didn't have a charger with me that was pissing me off. I checked the battery health on my phone, and it's at 79% max capacity, which means I should really get a new battery for it.

ETA:
I forgot to ask the doctor about alcohol consumption while taking Mounjaro. The manufacturer says to "ask your doctor." All the research I've done has said that the issue is that alcohol raises blood sugar levels, which can make it seem as if the medication isn't working properly, thus leading to higher dosages than necessary. Since I'm only barely pre-diabetic, I don't think that will be an issue. Still, I'll need to send him a message asking about it, just to be sure.

My order from Sip finally arrived. the box had a massive gaping hole in the side.....and surprise surprise, not everything that's supposed to be in there, is.

It's missing a mirror. But at least the flyscreen made it.

Now we wait and see what Sip does to make it right. Either the box they used was already REALLY in bad shape, or the shipper (DHL, when I selected--and PAID--for FedEx) completely decimated it and either removed the mirror, or it just fell out due to incompetence.

All I want is to be able to get the things for my Vespa all these sellers claim to have, then only to find out I *HAVE* to log in on scooterwest but can't (see prior post), or they don't have it in stock and don't plan to restock.....the bud is clearly a dirtbag, and we'll leave it at that.....and now Sip changes the shipper from what i choose and pay for (why is it even an option if they aren't going to honor it?).

Yay.

There's a guy who works in the building that has a habit that pisses me off.

At the end of the day, he presses both the UP and DOWN buttons on the elevator on his floor (3rd floor). If it is going up, he then gets on and rides it up to whichever floor it is going to. I then get on when it stops at the 5th floor (the top floor). We then ride down where it stops on 3.

You'd think this isn't that big of a deal, except that the elevators are freight elevators, and they have this really loud warning tone that sounds when the doors are closing, and the tone is very close in frequency to my tinnitus tone.

Plus it delays his departure. If he just pushed the DOWN button only, the elevator would go past 3 without stopping and I'd get on at 5. Then it would stop on 3 for him to get on.

I think I'll just start taking the stairs down at the end of the day.

Get into the lift first and press all the buttons, then get out and take the stairs.

What pisses me off is when a Man Friend has a problem he doesn't tell anyone. Not even his best friend.

He goes into his little cave and spends hours trying to figure out how to resolve it. He'll know when to come out because an announcement will be made.

Don't offer him any help up to that point because it's unwanted and utterly emasculating.

When a Woman Friend has a problem I have to spend hours listening, asking questions and then cross examining the answers while at the same time not giving any advice whats so ever because that's not what they want even if they appear to be asking for.

The tactic is to listen for about 3 hours until you are both exhausted and then wait for roughly 6 weeks for it all to happen again.

Had a "quick morning" planned at Walter Reed to determine if the X-rays which were taken of my spine about 3 weeks ago showed anything of interest.

With a 0940 appointment time, i arrived punctually 15 minutes early as is tradition in the military.

At 1113 and a few seconds, my name was finally called.


But hey the good news is, the Taliban gave me Scoliosis!!

45* lumbar curvature, 47* thoracic. Even my spine would be fun to ride on a Vespa.

The VA is going to regret having ever *MET* me.

Amateur.

You should put sticky goo on the upper floor buttons.

Finally heard back from sip. They have no desire to file an insurance claim with DHL (although that's the only way to do it as they're DHL's customer) and basically said "well we put it in the box so pound sand."

Anyone want a single chrome bar-end mirror?

Myself, but on a positive note, I'll always do it better next time from keeping notes on all my errors in judgement.

If the elevator is empty when I get on, I can turn the "lock" key, then press 1 and the door close button, and it will go all the way down without stopping. Then I can unlock it when I arrive, and it'll go back up to pick him up.

If he's on the elevator, I can't do that.

Yesterday I went down to the first floor about 30 minutes early, and helped the rest of the department move some things, then hung out to wait on quitting time. Much less stressful, and no annoying buzzer.

Work seems to consistently piss you off.

Why don't you change your job ?

The work doesn't piss me off. Equipment not working properly and people in general piss me off.

Plus I get paid very well to do what I do, and have great benefits.

When I clock out at the end of the day, I don't have to think about work until I clock in the next day. It's physically impossible for me to take work home with me (printing). And the job is very low stress. The only stress is situational - individual deadlines that have to be met - and at this shop, those situations are rare.

If you really look at what pisses me off at work, most if it is minor bs that really doesn't matter. I'm generally exaggerating when I say it pisses me off. It's more of an inconvenience than anything, and it helps to vent about it here.

Like the guy in the elevator. As I was composing the post, I understood that it is such a minor thing to be bothered by, and realized that I could avoid it all by taking the stairs. But had I not posted here, I wouldn't have come to that realization when I did.

No job is perfect. Every job is going to have its good and bad aspects. Here the good far outweighs the bad, especially compared to my last job.
• In November I'll have worked here 4 years. In that time my pay will have increased by over $11k per year (my hourly rate will be $5.55/hour more than the rate they hired me at).
• In 15 years at my last job, my pay increased a total of $7800 per year (my final hourly rate was only $3.75/hour more than the rate I was hired at).
• I get annual raises here.
• My former employer had the policy of "employees must ask for raises to be considered for one." But they didn't publish that policy, or let you know about it.
• The health benefits are better here (better coverage with lower premiums).
• I get 19 paid holidays here vs. 7 at my last job.
• I get the same amount of PTO (20 days) as I did at the last job

I've had frustrating equipment at every job. I've worked with people that I couldn't stand at every job. I fully expect to have the same at any other job.

Every job that I've had that's pissed me off I've left.

I listen to myself first and then I leave.

Just like relationships.

US Customs.

Tossed a coin and did a SIP order last month. All went well with them (I think, though armedferret has me wondering). Problem started when tracking stopped in Memphis. Then a missed call that wound up being from a customs agent at FedEx. Got hold of her, she was nice enough to let me know at least that they had my package, then ultimately passed if off to someone else. On contacting them, I found out that the problem seemed to be Chinese extruded aluminum, apparently one of the more recent trade war battles. I filled out a form which I barely understood (with her help-I just checked the boxes she told me to ). Then crickets. Follow up email was met with "we're working on it." That was 10 days ago. I guess I could pester her more, but that might backfire, so waiting. No longer patiently. All for what might turn out to be 25 cents worth of aluminum. (there's a spare screw and a pair of valve stem caps that seem to be of interest, though an oil pump might be in the mix).

Got a notice that FedEx had a delivery for me yesterday, between 8 and noon. We were leaving for out of town at 1. Pulling out of the driveway, saw a FedEx truck approaching, so parked along the road expectantly....he pulled up to our neighbors just past us. I asked him about a delivery...nope, probably different delivery truck. Got home last night and found a package...a flat envelope with a replacement CC.

So, sitting in limbo, as Jimmy Cliff would say...

Don't forget that in the US, people can be often chained to a job they hate by the health insurance 'benefits'.

Not that Monogodo hates his job - rather the opposite I gather.

It's not in the same league but I'll try to make out that I'm hard done by to gain some sympathy:-)

The only things that are preventing me from collecting the Free Kymco Downtown from the shop are three sliders for the final drive.

Kymco excelling on the spares front once again