Modern Vespa

Good weekend this weekend. We went to the Home and Garden show downtown, I got the Aprilia started, my wife and I successfully fixed our carpet cleaner without killing each other, and this is almost complete. I need to do a little routing for fitment issues, but I had already drilled a hole and I didn't have the heart to pull out the Dremel.

Final grades for the academic term that ended yesterday have been posted.

I miniaturized the gondoileri. They don't even know.

Hah! Reminds me of these photos I took on our 2010 Tuscany scooter tour.

Great minds!

I do love a tilt-shift. So glad I took 30 seconds to realize PS has it as a filter, so I didn't have to spend an hilarious amount of money on a lens

Out riding on a section of road today which contains 3 sections of Dual Carriageway with a Circle/Roundabout between the sections where you can overtake some cars and then brake heavily for the next Circle.

The last stretch is longer and therefore faster but at the end of the section you have to be in the left lane which is the junction for home.

As I headed for the junction I changed down from 6th to 3rd just as the truck to my right pulled into the Circle nicely but unintentionally blocking the traffic for me.

I leant left, accelerated, clipped the apex of the turning and changed back up the gearbox then headed for home knowing that little manoeuvre couldn't have worked out better.

That cheered me up.

^^^ - The advantages of knowing your bike and how to use the gears properly. Kudos!

I use other vehicles as 'blockers' all the time at roundabouts - saves a smidgen of decision-making.

Sometimes they arrive at exactly the right time and this one did.

Not fast but big enough to know that nothing is coming that way while I'm pulling out into traffic.

In other news, the 1200 has a really long first gear but 2nd through to 6th are all have close ratios so some slipping of the clutch has to be employed at low speeds, so it's best to avoid first and roll on in second as much as you can.

Like today for instance.

Snows gone (even from nearest ski slope, darn) and tomorrow promised hottish 6c temps, so going to get the GTS out from garage near by. Battery had strangely 12,6 volts in but still charged it a bit.

Cheering me up that i stopped before stepping on him. About 1-1.5 metres from him ...

Tiger Snake for the curious and yes it's venomous.

These guys. My girls are getting rather long in the er, beak, and just when prices went up and I wanted to gloat, they left me down. It's been a good run, but it's getting near the end.

My local Fleet Farm had its first "Chick Days" offering a good variety at well, reasonable-ish prices. Unfortunately, it was a bit of a Rocky rollout- nobody at the store could tell me when they were arriving, even on the morning of. I didn't want to be calling every hour, so waited until later in the day to swing by. Then wete there...or mostly had been. Everything was gone except 4 Wyandottes. They were on my list, so I snatched them up, and we cheered our way out of the store and all the way home. Cute little things!

Happiness #2, I'm checking out, and a young kid behind the clerk at the service desk was telling me they had "wyandotys" at home... I'd recently had an encounter with a waitress when ordering Caprese salad, which I had been mistakenly pronouncing "capreez." She pointedly repeated it back as "Caprezee" not once, but twice, so I tipped her with my dirty napkin (just kidding) and went home and looked it up.

Anyway, now I'm being challenged by another creature a third of my age, so first thing after I settled in my new pets, was to check it out. I was right this time!!. Woo-hoo! Gotta take yer victories where you can get 'em!

So how long until they become productive members of society?

Well, they're great entertainment at the moment, but if you mean eggs, I 'd just read something like 6 months. Considering they grow from little 4 ounce fluffballs to 5 pound mini-dinosaurs in half a year, that's pretty impressive.

"Chicken TV" is a thing.

I can imagine, though it's hard to resist interacting with the fuzzies.

No, I meant watching the actual chickens instead of watching TV.

Preferably with an adult beverage.

Been there, done that. We had chickens for about 15 years. They really are entertaining to watch. One or two would always dig a chicken-size hole, and take a dirt bath.

They could be pretty savage, too. Two times mice got in their coop, and they killed them and started eating them. And, not for lack of chicken feed.

They often attack each other, creating a very real pecking order. Sometimes they'd make each other bleed, had to use some sort of repellent so they'd stop.

Once you've owned chickens, you realize how many idioms in our language come from owning chickens.

Chicken, like majority of animals actually, eat both flora and fauna. If there is only seeds and like, chiken are in need of "meaty stuff" and they are then attacing each other, so: some worms etc they find on yard if "free" keeps that problem away.

But the days cheer, hmm, yesterdays actually, today it is cold again, was that I got the Vespa here from winter-shed!

Last year we planted a community garden at a friend's place. She has ten chickens now. The lot we planted had been the chicken lot for about three years. I have to say, we grew amazing veggies.

It was fun having them around. While I was tilling they were right on my heels (and toes) eating anything that moved.

I'm just working my way through a couple dozen eggs from them. It's cool knowing the source of the eggs. Like, literally knowing the name of the chicken it came from.

Not like "Colin the Chicken" but, yeah.

Ah... I just assumed I was behind the curve. It's a strange world. Who would have thought Puppy TV was a thing?

But yeah, I do indulge. Fascinating, these critters that have only been in the world maybe 48 hours eating, drinking and pecking at pretty much everything packable, including each other.

They can be terrors as adults. The pecking order stuff is brutal, reminiscent of schoolyard bullies. It's fun to let them roam, but they'll scratch away at everything and if you use wod chips for mulch, they'll spread them on the lawn daily. They will find a spot to take dirt baths, preferably in your freshly planted garden. But still, the eggs....

Got DSL fixed today after only four days. That cheers me up.

What a beautiful skin pattern that snake has.

Long time ago when I was a kid we had chickens and a rooster at home.
I remember the little chicks, so cute. But day after day one disappeared. And after some days all chicks were gone.

Big drama. Tears.

So my dad decided: no more chicks.

Weird to lose one at a time. It's always a mystery.....just reading about mink decimating entire flocks, so not them!

Anyway, seems there's always some drama with livestock, pets even. As a kid we'd celebrate the arrival of new farm kittens, play with them daily. Milk cows in winter were given straw bedding in their stalls. Cows stand up, kittens discover warm straw, take a nap, cows lie down, voila, pancake kitten. Yeah, tears....at least my sister, lol.

My customer bought me these steaks. Never had Wagyu before. Tomorrow's treat with the wife. Guess he thought I did a good job installing the new engine on his plane. That was very nice of him. Thanks Chris!

Score!

Here in China it's Toreador Pants for your cell phone.

We live extraordinary days over here.

We've had a long gray and wet autumn and winter season with only a handful bright days, but they were cold, close to or below freezing.

Now last week we've had nice and sunny days with last friday, yesterday and today max temperatures between 15 and 20°C, unusual so early in the year.

But so nice. It really makes you feel good.

Today is the last nice day, tomorrow it will be all over, but you can feel spring and summer are not far away anymore.

I took the California Motorcyclist Safety Program Motorcyclist Training Course (CMSP MTC) at Golden State Moto in San Jose over the past few days - evening class on Zoom Thursday/Saturday and morning class on the riding range Saturday/Sunday. It was a bit weird riding a dirt bike and changing gear with my left foot, but I got the hang of it.

I passed! Riding evaluation was pass/fail, with debrief of things to work on. I got 96% on the multiple choice - pass is 80%.

I already passed the DMV written test to get my permit; now I just need to wait for the DL389 certificate to arrive in the mail, go spend a morning at the DMV, then I'll have my full motorcycle license 😃

I'm shuddering to think how that helmet behaves above about 40mph (or on a windy day).

Bit breezy today but thankfully only one person tried to kill me by merging without looking. Turns out no cat and Motone Saturn Vs rev-bombing 2 feet (and closing) away from your head seems to get peoples' attention pretty well.

I love skiing mid-week in March. It's like having an entire ski resort to myself some days. This always cheers me up!

These photos were from Tuesday last week.

Ha, on year 1983 I had permit to drive a mc, as I had car-driving license.
But as never even sat on one, my boss came to get my Yamaha 400 out of dealer, and we drove to road on woods, I tried 4 times abt 100 metres -and then jus training in traffic, 2 weeks...
-and then 2000kms to Milano, and bit more back thru Geneva and Paris etc.
lets say 5000km -2 bikes, 4 young idiots without rain stuff, or any desent stuff

Wow, you really have some snow left!
I was skiing alonside golfers

It is going to be approaching 60ºF all week here in NE Ohio. I plan to steal a couple early season rides. Like the Belgian spring, these days can be fleeting so we need to enjoy them while we can.

Chris from CLE

Rode the Aprilia to work for the first time this year. It's been rough.

I realized this weekend I'm due for another registration sticker. Hard to believe I've had that bike six years now.

Why was it rough?