Modern Vespa

So much in the Uffizi is stunning. I was drawn in by a self-portrait and the wife had to come back and get me; they'd already moved on well past. She said "who is that anyway?"

"Rembrandt."

Her jaw dropped lol.

She had no idea. Just chillin there lost in a sea of self-portraits. Rubens was a couple frames over from it too.

Hard to imagine bypassing it on my first trip. But then again there was a ton to see anyway, and besides, I was enamored of my new Dutch friends from the youth hostel who kept me laughing the entire time I was there....

I FINALLY got up off my ass today and pulled the front wheel off of my Triumph to take it in and get the new tire I bought for it about three weeks ago, mounted.

I haven't ridden the bike for several weeks because of the dangerously worn condition of the front tire, it's second. I mean, crap, it's all of about fifty bucks to have a pro 'spoon it on' for me and I can ride the damn thing again.

Pulling either the front or rear wheel on this bike is easy-peasy, relatively, and I have no excuse for taking so long to get this situation rectified, other than my laziness.

So, I am cheered up by my sudden burst of ambition, and it will be good to get this beast back on the road again.

Always leave something on the table for a return.

Today I am cheered up by the return of my 2006 GT200 after spending a year with the mechanic at the local Vespa shop. The intermittent stalling that was occurring was only partly resolved by replacing the rear rotor, which was modestly warped and, combined with out of true axle/hub, resulted in heating of the assembly and part of the stalling issue. All that nonsense was resolved, but the issue persisted at higher speeds.

Months later, after systematically reviewing/replacing nearly everything that could be providing air/fuel/spark to the system, there was another GT200 in for service which was used for direct comparison. Turns out someone prior to my ownership had, for some reason, replaced the vacuum lines with lines comprised of more pliable material that deformed under load. This is a small detail that was understandably overlooked for a long time but now that the original spec vacuum lines are in place, everything works as it should.

Chapeau to Jason at South Sound Scooters for refusing to give up and finally properly resolving the issue. Fortunately I had other scooters to ride during the interval and, also fortunately, the shop bent over backward to minimize my pain in the costs. Rain is forecast for at least the next week but I'm inclined to ride her anyhow just to celebrate.

Bob

nope

This new case for my iPhone 16 Pro -- designed by our resident artist Ironfoot -- is definitely cheering me up today.

I don't know about strange happenings, but there are two very interesting fish in Pyramid Lake. It is home the the Cui-ui (an endemic sucker) and the Lahontan Cutthroat Trout (the record Lahontan Cut weighed 41 lbs - pretty darned big for a cutthroat).

Mrs Z got me this tee

Sitting in the front yard and a neighbour's 10 year old girl walks past and i invite her to come in the yard and pat my cat ... I'm in danger of looking like paedo 🤣. Nah, my cat is a local celebrity 😻

(The cheering up part is just how much everyone loves my cat)

My newly acquired Malaguti has a lasagna hook!!

After sitting for long periods of inactivity with occasional running by original owner, got her zipping around nicely for now. 2003 and 510 miles. 2 miles by me today. 😁 Oh, yeah!

Sharp looker - best of luck!

But, how many lasagnas can you spear on that hook?

Accidental poetry

Quite accidental

Oh cool! Thanks, that's cheered me up too.

Super busy week last week, but had just enough time and good weather to enjoy cooking cheesy brats over a fire on the patio last night.

Nice! But reminds me of when I bubbled my running shoe soles on a campfire years ago Luckily they were old.

My garage has been an absolute disaster for years. It's a 3-car garage occupied by my wife's car (non-negotiable) while mine sits in the driveway. The rest of it's full of a "project" '66 Mustang corpse, its engine on a stand, a riding mower, 2 bikes, a scooter, bike carrier, lawn implements of various types, and eight tons of assorted other crap through which I've had to high-step, shuffle sideways, and otherwise contort to get through to do anything. This includes getting into the wife's vehicle.

I started cleaning it up on Friday, I think it was. It's about 2/3 organized and cleaned up now, and I'm in danger of being able to park my truck in it this winter if I can find a spot for the riding mower. I think the new patio will work for that.

Today I got my workbench unearthed and cleaned off. That's cheering me up today.

And my label maker works.

Make sure you label the spot for the 10mm socket.

That's something I haven't had in a long time! Makes me hungry thinking about it. I love it when they squirt and burn you with the hot juices.

You are talking about brats, right?

Of course! 🤣

You mean the empty spot where the 10mm socket goes, but isn't, because it was the first thing to get lost?

Either that, or you're so fixated on the possibility of losing it that something pathological happens.

Look in the floor drain...

So I already reported that after 12 months of languishing in the shop, I was able to retrieve my 2006 GT200 on Saturday.

Today we met a fellow local GT scooterer downtown for coffee (tea, thanks) and conversation, and then ran some otherwise dull errands, made more enjoyable by the fact that they were done on a scooter. The handling feels wonky to me, but perhaps that's due largely to having ridden only newer scooters over the past year.

This, plus a few brief intervals of actual sunshine, have cheered me up today.

In my ongoing saga of losing things, I finally found my wire cutters. I'd been combing the area for a while, but when it fell out it was covered by a clod of dirt from digging up an unwanted tree. Just saw the red handle peeking out at me. It's been dry for the month, so hardly any rust.

Now I'm just down a pair of reading glasses!

Have you looked on top of your head?

Ha! Everywhere but...

My A1C is down by 0.8 and my PSA is <0.1 (aka undetectable). So that's good news today.

Congrats, my LDL is always high, but not too high, so I don't do much about it.

There's a Pho Hoa up in Seattle? I knew they franchised a decade ago but... Didn't know it's up and down the entire (West) coast line

I didn't even about the franchising (https://phohoa.com/locations/) and thought they were just South Bay. I'll be darned: TX, LA, MN...

Also, their homepage right now has some Halloween-themed messaging. The future [(NSR) - Halloween Candy (Post 2708300)] may be coming sooner than expected.

Yesterday afternoon, less than 30 minutes before the end of day, my Director sent me an email with the following text: My Retail PTSD immediately kicked in, and when I entered her office and she said, "close the door" it ramped up even more. I mentioned that, and she laughed and said it is good news.

It turns out that pursuing my bachelor's degree is already paying dividends.

She's going to be posting a new position in the department that is tailor made for my current skills, with additional responsibilities that I can grow into as I earn my degree. If I get the position, it will include a new title, and an approximately 10% pay bump.

She still has to post it, and she's required to conduct interviews with at least three candidates, so there's a chance that I won't get it. I just have to hope no "rock star" people see the posting.

We had a good long talk about the future of our department in the school district, so I feel really good about how things are going. My mindset towards work and my career has completely changed in the last 6 months, in a good way.

monogodo - Kudos! It's nice to see the work you are putting in on the degree is worth it. Too many people with too many degrees working in Starbucks and going no where. Congrats.

Early congrats, and best of luck!

Todays Halloween, it's always fun to see what costumes the kids wear and giving out candy is always fun to me.

I have been using Garmin GPS units to guide me on scooter rides for the past fourteen years.

They have led me well, but lately I find myself using Google Maps and Apple Maps for many of my rides.

Garmin has several advantages, especially when lots of waypoints are necessary, but many of my rides simply need a destination and a choice of highways or not.

One of Google Maps disadvantages was that it would offer a speed limit on most roads, but it did not offer your actual speed.

When riding a Vespa while using the GPS, I never look at the wildly inaccurate speedometer, using the GPS for that instead.

When riding in North Carolina a couple of days ago, I noticed that it was showing my speed next to the speed limit.

That is what is cheering me up today.

Bill