Modern Vespa

Hooray. Great start!

nope

Gordon Murray would like you to have a seat over there please.

I'm cheered up by the fact the Hungarians made a digestive liqueur called "Unicum" and didn't even hesitate to think immature jackwagons like me would wonder if it came from a unicorn.

Anyway.

Happy hump day y'all.

You and everyone else today. Well, not everyone. But still. I just checked and I didn't think I was, but I'm up similarly on NVDA. However, all of this is in the brokerage account portion of my 401k, so there will sadly be no "fun-having" car.

But I am seriously thinking of trading in my 2015 Fiat 500e on a 2025 Fiat 500e.

New in 2025 from Steven Spielberg

E-Duel

Same crazed murdering madman, but far less intimidating and eco-friendly to boot!

Yesterday I finished a topographical chart of Kent Trails end to end. I've never taken a really close look at the elevation over the length of the trail. The data makes perfect sense, the lowest point being at the river.

I'm hoping to get out on the skates Saturday morning and do the full trail, there and back again. It's 12 miles end to end, so almost a full marathon round trip. I haven't done this in years.

Careful planning on the start/stop location will be of utmost importance.

The one thing that concerns me are two stretches that are "dangerous" because there's no actual trail. From 44th it runs up through an apartment complex after crossing a busy boulevard, and then from Prairie to the trailhead at the wastewater treatment plant it incorporates some busy street areas, some with sidewalk, others not so much.

I've explored the route for years, and there's no GOOD way to get around these areas, especially on skates.

4 weeks ago me and my buddy did the complete circuit of Lake Annecy in France, with the bit to and from the hotel, it worked out at 26.2 miles (we made sure of that!).

Age 60, my first marathon.. looking to improve on 11.01 hours for my next one (maybe knock that 1 second off)!

Great route, largely flat (former railway lines etc), apart from one great big rock we had to go up and over.

Fully recommended, and it cheered me up

A morning of riding always cheers me up. Still a bit of snow in shady spots at 9,000ft. Perfect weather.

This post is cheering me up today.

Not me. Cold and rainy hereabouts.

That's some gorgeous scenery right there!

Heading to Nawlins tonight.

So many great King of the Hill quotes about to be unleashed.....

Just stopped by Batteries Plus to get my charging port replaced....cord was going in poorly and as a result charging was spotty. They don't have a full -time electronics tech, so when I went in the first time the clerk looked at it and tried to blow out the socket, but no change. I decided to get a wireless charger to be sure I had a phone to use over the weekend, which worked nicely, so put off my return an extra week.

I made sure a tech was there this time, expecting to pay the $$ to replace the port, but turns out it was still clogged, not broken. So, within 5 minutes I was back out with a fully functional phone. Woo-hoo!

You'd be surprised how often that's actually the problem. Not always, but often.

This lil guy was at Zona Cucina at B terminal in BWI tryna find a snack.

nope

I have to replace the GTI compressor. Wifes timing belt and assocateds took priority.

It's 5-900 for the compressor (stayin away from the cheap aiexpress versions lol) so i'm doing most of the work (thankfully the leak already took care of the onboard refrigerant) but the recharge I'll be paying someone else to do. Not interested in buying a decent vacuum setup for one or two uses.

I took the old gal (the scooter, that is) out for a romp around the neighborhood this afternoon. Figured I'd earned it after a few hours of garage cleanup.

On a flat straight I can almost hit 40. Probably could if the flat straight were long enough. I've got to remember to not shift into third until it's really wound out in second… it's a really wide spread. I need to hit at least 25 in second before hitting third.

But… with WOT I can maintain about 25 MPH in third up a moderate hill. That's better than before the upgrade to the SIP ignition and the new muffler with expansion pipe. It feels like it's got more oomph at WOT than before, too. The idle is a little sucky, and I need to get the headlight reassembled with a gasket or O-ring, and it's got some sheet metal rattles I don't love, but it's pretty rideable within its capabilities (especially hauling my fat ass around).

That's cheering me up.

Well this is frickin delicious

I'm shocked at the amount of crud I've pulled out of charging ports. Pocket lint just loves to make a home in that little slot.

More numnums.

I posted last week about my wife getting a new Subaru Outback Wilderness. One of the things an absolutely hate is the engine auto start/stop feature that has been mandated by the government. You can disable the feature with a button on the screen. But as soon as you stop the engine and restart it, the feature is enabled again.

I found a little plug-and-play gadget on Amazon that fixes this problem. Now when I shutoff the car, the next time it's started the engine auto start/stop goes back to the same state I had it in before I shutoff the engine. It's the little things that cheer me up. 😂

Link?

Somehow managed to graduate this morning.

4 tassels (spliced)
9 cords
3 stoles (spliced)
5 medallions
1 regional PTK award
2 degrees
...with honors.

You head got bigger on the inside without growing on the outside!

Awesome! Congratulations! That is an impressive collection.

What's next for you?

https://www.autostopeliminator.com/collections/subaru/products/2023-subaru-outback-autostop-eliminator

I was certain I'd dislike the auto stop-start when I hired a car that had that feature - I soon forgot to turn it off, and after a few days I never noticed it.

Good air quality is precious!

Be sure and CC china and india on that air quality rant see what they say

Two words I'd like to never hear again: Cuyahoga burning.
In 2021, China produced 31% of all global renewable electricity.
The US? 11%.
Now, we could talk about population, and we could also talk about the relative position in industrialization of each. Either way, the US has a horrible history with regard to the environment, just like the rest of the world. We all need to do better, and start/stop is one tiny step.

PS: That was not much of a rant, so I'm not sure why you're calling it that.

Ah so we should drive hybrids that circumnavigate the globe on wind-powered (oh wait no they're diese huh) container ships two to three times before going on sale. Noted.

You should tell congress to outlaw private jets. They can take sailboats to their next environment conference.

What?!! How would I get to work? I do have a Naples Sabot but that would probably take me all day to tack 9 miles up the creek.🤣

On another note, I'm rebuilding my GS engine with an updated crank. Instead of running 6% oil mix in the fuel, it'll enable me to use 2%! Yeah, boy!

It makes sense, but interestingly after years of smart phone use, with delicate handling (shoved into pockets of work pants, etc), its the first time it found enough fuzz to foul things up.

I think not all auto start/stop are created equal. The Subaru system seems a bit jerky. Not every time, but sometimes the engine really shakes when it starts.

I tend to keep my phones until they don't work anymore. I still have an iPhone Xs. I've had to clean out the charge port a couple times over the years.

This is very true. I disabled it on my BMW because it would shut off the engine just a split-second before the car came to a stop, while still rolling forward but on the brakes, resulting in a pronounced "jerk". My F150 is much better behaved, as is the wife's Highlander. Both wait until the vehicle is stopped, then shut off the engine. I do disable it sometimes, simply because in the Ford it will delay re-starting for the AC until it's getting pretty warm inside. In all but hot weather I just leave start/stop enabled.

That I can understand. That's annoying! I can quite see why you'd not want that.

The start/stop on my 2019 Hyundai Santa Fe worked perfectly. Until it didn't. When we got it (used) it would work some times, but other times, not. Now it just doesn't engage at all.