Modern Vespa

I called my mom last night because it was her birthday.

She's doing well, and had a good solo dinner out. There's a restaurant in the area that gives you a discount percentage off your meal on your birthday based on your age. She had a 10oz NY Strip, baked potato, and a Bloody Mary w/ beer chaser, and paid just over $9.

We had a great chat about all kinds of things.

My dad moved us around a lot when I was a kid. By the time I was in 4th grade, I had attended 8 different schools in 7 different school districts, and had spent 2nd grade in three different schools/districts. At the time I graduated HS, the count was up to 11 different schools in 9 different school districts, and I went to the same school for all four years of HS. He met her when he was teaching HS English at the district where I finished 2nd grade, she was doing her student teaching to get her college degree & teaching certificate, and had been assigned to his class. They got married the summer between 4th & 5th grade, and divorced during the summer between 10th & 11th. I kept her in my life, because, to me, she is mom. She did more to raise me to be the person I am today than anyone else in my life. I make sure she knows it, too.

Anyway, that's what cheered me up.

That made my day. Thanks for sharing.

My grandmother turned 101 today.

My son affectionally calls her 'old nana' as to not confuse her with his grandmother, 'nana' (my mom).

It's a great problem for a 5yo to have, and amazing we both still have our grandmothers.

Well done! She was certainly also cheered up by your call, bonus points to you.

My mom raised 4 kids on a VA nurse's salary and lots of creative thinking. I don't connect as often as I should but when I do, she sure enjoys it.

Bob

The final results on this helmet repaint are in. I definitely learned a bit. Mostly not to put the clear on as heavy. More coats, but a bit lighter on each coat. It took a lot of wet sanding and polishing and it still has some imperfections. All in all I'm happy with the results and the match to the chopper base color is good.

One of the things we talked about was how she and my dad were struggling financially during most of their marriage. I didn't notice it at the time, but looking back on it now it's clear as day. They'd get food from the Commodities program (government cheese, beans, flour, rice, etc.), and we always had a large vegetable garden. We'd eat radish sandwiches (sliced radishes on bread with mayo), and BZT sandwiches (bacon zucchini & tomato) for lunch during the summer. She'd bake lots of zucchini bread. But we always had food, and were well groomed and had clean clothes. There were plenty of times where one or the other of them were not working, and if they were both working, one wasn't getting paid that well. They always drove older cars (76 Chevy Vega, 73 AMC Hornet, 70 AMC Hornet, 68 Dodge A100 van - all during the mid- to late-80s), that they had paid cash for.

I know they made mistakes, or they think they did. But I know they did their best with what they had, and I think they did a good job of raising us. Sure my brothers and I all have our issues, but so do kids who had perfect childhoods. I've told both of them that they have nothing to apologize for with regards to how they raised me.

Trixie counted five wasps running around in the Wasp-a-torium a couple days ago, so that means that none of them have died during the past three months or so. They are absolute masters of hiding out when they are inactive, and I was almost certain that at least two were no longer with us, but all are accounted for.

Maybe they've become immortal under your stellar care!

Not very "stellar" actually, I just put some fresh honey, and now also sugar water in their little feeding bowls and forget about them.

As for the' fresh honey' bit, that's really just to make myself feel like I'm doing something for them, but honey is one of those weird foods that just doesn't deteriorate or spoil readily, so refreshing their supply of it is for me more than it is for them.

So, other than starting a crown this morning (though it is costing less than expected....

I had a busy day on the phone with selling the family farm. When our mom died last October, we kicked the can down the road about selling, so we could grieve and work out what to do with the stuff. Then there was a lot of back and forth about selling on an "auction" model, then discussions with a realtor friend who suggested some problems with that. I admit that the stress of dealing with all of that nearly pushed me over the edge some days. I could do fine, but then my BIL would ask me a number of pointed questions, or suggest a different perspective, and suddenly go into a funk. I'm assuming there's a lot of subconscious stuff going on here.... Before having a third party involved, we decided to offer it to a couple of locals...one is my mom's land tenant for nearly the last decade, the other a neighbor we'd sold some land to already. I particularly liked the renter, the other guy not so much, and I was concerned he wasn't entirely truthful about his intentions. The first guy has a young family, wants to live there and include the land in his holdings. The other guy originally said he wanted his sister to live there (she's a couple of hours away at the moment). She never saw the house, nor did he take photos or even mention her. Good likelihood he'd wind up renting or selling the house and just keep the land. I know my mom's wishes weren't for that, and that she'd approve of her renter getting it.

Chatted with her attorney today, who advised on the details of a private sale...I think both buyers were chomping at the bit, so no worries there, just needed direction. Got that, called guy #1 who's ready to offer the price we're asking, and my brother-in-law was gifted the task of calling the other guy (he's so much better at those things....), aaand, we're rolling! I'm bracing for an unexpected bump or two, but if it goes, the property is selling at a fine price, and going to a family that will really appreciate the exceptional space it is. I think a good balance of profit and sentiment for all of us. I think the worst part of my stress may be behind me as well.....

Make sure you put in the contract at least one scooter stop with cookies served.

I'm certain it was worth every penny. shame to hide all that beauty under a protective case.

It's not all bad. The leather case gives it a much-needed finger grip, and the leather is extremely nice and should patina well.

So it's my birthday today (no, I'm not looking for attention).

I haven't made a big deal about my birthday since I turned 21. My wife and I will usually go out for a nice meal, and that's about it. Except she's in Arkansas with her mom, and I'm in Dallas with the cats.

At work, we have a birthday celebration once a month for everyone who has a birthday that month. I'm the only February birthday, so they're having it today. The office manager always gets a cake from Nothing Bundt Cakes, and she tries to get a flavor that the birthday person(s) prefer. Except my two favorites are Carrot Cake and Tres Leches. No one else in the office likes those flavors. I told her I'm OK with any of the other flavors, so we're having White Chocolate Raspberry. But she also picked up a piece of Tres Leches from the local Fiesta for me. I was planning on swinging by Fiesta on my way home to get one for myself, anyway, so now I don't have to do that.

This morning my wife texted me to be on the lookout for a surprise around noon today. The delivery actually happened at 10:30. She and her mom ordered me (lemon sugar) cookies & tiny cupcake bites from Tiff's Treats.

So I've got lots of desserts to carry me through today (and tomorrow & Saturday).

Another trip? Nice!

I really really like the Trenit app. Great for viewing schedules, stops along the way, prices, and paying for tickets all in one app. Works in english too.

Made life easy for the missus when she wasn't on the back seat for our round Italy trip. If you haven't tried it yet, or don't have a train app you like yet, give that one a look.

Honestly a few days ago I learned that when the clear coat bottle says "for use above 60F" it really means it.

I tried clear coating in the cold, exactly how I clear coated in the summer time. Same bottle, same setup, same everything.

Back in the summer, my first time clear coating, not a clue what I was doing. Everything came out perfect anyway.

In the cold (even with two propane burners going we were still under 60F) this time, I got some runs in the clear Everything else was being done the same...

Which is to say I was following a PDF of details from the manufacturer that I found online, which had way more details than the side of the bottle does. The manufacturer's pdf recommended 7 coats, 10 minute sprays in between each, and it told me which coats to light, medium, or heavy on. Apparently that's the secret combo.... They really should just put it on the bottle...

What temperature were you spraying at? Maybe there's a manufacturer instruction pdf out there somewhere for your product too?

We get a whole extra day of scooting this year.
Thanks Celestial Dynamics Entity!

The temp on this day was in the 50s. Probably 60s in the garage where I shot the clear. We get some warmer days even in the winter. But… the spray can said use above 70F for best results. The end result was pretty good, but I had to do a lot of wet sanding. I probably should have done a little more.

We're expecting a huge dump of snow on the northeastrn shore of Lake Tahoe over the next 3 days. We can really use the extra snow pack. This is the first really big snow of the winter. This is cheering me up today!

I would say the same except yesterday we had the single largest 24 hour temperature drop in recorded Michigan history. We went from 75º Tuesday (t-shirts, car windows down, considered sunscreen) to 22º with an 11º windchill and snow yesterday. This morning was again frigid. This weekend we'll be back up to 65º and pushing 70º for the weekend.

Perfect. Let's just both blame our results with the clear on the temperature rather than a lack of skill lol

This is what I was clear coating.

In the fall, in an attempt to minimize my fleet a bit before the winter and generally have less money tied up in bikes, I sold one of my two Vespa GTS 250ie's...

Right, so obviously within about a month I said screw it and bought this alleged theft-recovery 2013 Moto Guzzi V7, and have been slowly rehabilitating it.

So, same number of bikes, but, at least I'm still up ahead a couple hundred bucks vs what I sold the GTS for, and now I also have a Guzzi.

This week we finally got to the bottom of why it was struggling to idle and warm up and was generally behaving like a bike in need of a carb clean:

Pressure valve by the fuel pump was messed up. We were getting about 15 psi but needed about 50 psi...

All of a sudden she runs like new again, for the first time in (probably) years!

Dammit. Missing my V7 now.

You come to Toronto, you ride mine. The Mistrals make nice music.

And I shall sing the songs of my people.

My V7 is in a bike showroom hoping to take the eye of its new owner.

God it made a nice noise.

For the nerds out there who like this kind of thing. This is the part that was causing the misery:

I am back on Modern Vespa.

For some reason beyond what Jess and I could determine, I lost the abiity to post reponses on the forum. It started a month ago, when I quit getting email responses to my posts. Then I could not post at all.

So here I am back on as a newbie lurker using gmail vs email.

I could hardly stand not snooping on you rascals even for a few days off.

Bob Copeland
Back from Frostbite Falls

Welcome back

Or not
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/02/leap-year-glitch-broke-self-pay-pumps-across-new-zealand-for-over-10-hours/

Yikes! Testing software for leap year issues is a pretty basic test case.

I had a few extra dollars laying around along with a marked shortage of common sense, so FINALLY went on eBay and ordered up a reproduction 19th century British army pith helmet, something that had definitely been missing in my life.....until now.

But that's not all, my friends!

I also purchased a pair of round-framed, flip-up sunglasses to compliment the pith helmet when worn, perhaps adding just the slightest hint of 'Steampunk' into the mix.

A very fake, plastic smoking pipe to finish off the visual accessories was also procured. At $10, a bargain of epic proportions.

This is all a giant SCORE!, and the entire trio didn't exceed $70.

Thus, I am once again, cheerful.

Estoril booked for mid April.

Gonna ride it.

And cue pith jokes ... now.

But...but...are you gonna model them for us?

You would think.

I remember being at my folks during Y2K. My mother suggested we celebrate with a drink.

People were thinking elevators were going to crash, airplanes would fall out of the sky and society was going to end as we knew it.

As I heard the "PSSSST!" of Mom opening a bottle of Boone's Farm and watched her pour it into plastic champagne glasses the lights flickered a little and I silently hoped it was the end of it all to save me the embarrassment of telling people that this - yes this - was how I reverently observed the dawn of a new millennium.

Stupid coders got it right. And here we are.

Having been employed as a professional software engineer in the run-up to Y2K (and for many years thereafter) I can tell you that the threat (and the fear) were real. The stupid coders knew how stupid coders were, and started sounding the alarm many, many years in advance.

It took worldwide hysteria to really get a lot of decision-makers to make the right decisions about critical infrastructure that had mostly been forgotten. A lot of things needed fixing, and the vast majority of them actually did get fixed -- by hook or by crook -- in the final years/months/days leading up to Y2k.

In the end, when nothing particularly bad happened, everyone thought the hysteria was unwarranted. But actually, the hysteria achieved its purpose.

^^^^ This!

Over that New Year I earned a rather OTT amount of overtime pay plus a cash bonus for being on site for 24 hrs. We had six TV stations broadcasting out of the Studios at the time...

Happy days while it lasted.

There's always an exceedingly small chance that I won't.