Modern Vespa

Just doing lock rabbets for these on the table saw, there's 6 and despite being retired time IS a factor lol. Wanna get them done and in use before we move and there's lots of rain ahead (along with a trip to ride Skyline in april and a jont in vegas in May).

Now to figure out how to transport a 4x8 sheet of 1/4 birch ply with a golf....

It's nice to know that I can now get a tire with a strong spirit-forward taste.

Lost in translation ?

Vee Rubber. Accept no substitutes.

AI?

Picked up on key word "Manhattan" and took off from there?

A hint of bitterness ?

Not necessarily AI. Could be a human copy writer with a weird sense of humor.

When you slide down the road in the wet with the bike beside you, and think - why did i trust the shitty sales blurb.

I was going a touch too fast yesterday and the front tyre slipped on a little bit of gravel ( which I actually heard ) and it moved about an inch to the right while negotiating a left.

It happened too fast for me to react. Still shit me up though. Hands up, my fault.

That's quiet a tyre.

The Manhattan scooter tire is better than the Harvey Wallbanger scooter tire.

I don't know about that. I'm a big fan of Harvey Wallbanger scooter tires -- I think they have better grip in the wet.

Caution from your resident physicist: If you put these on all your bikes your garage may melt down.

Well, the local tirebiter dog may well appreciate the new flavor in tires.

They're literally called wallbangers, how do you think they got that name?

"Oh hey it's raining now...." BANG slide into a wall.

I thought it would be amusing to ask AI to replace the tire in this image with a lemon rind in the same shape.

But as is often the case, AI gave me something else instead. Kind of delighted, actually.

That made me pucker up just looking at it! Cool picture, though.

I've been getting their email ads for years now.
They are usually entertainingly silly.

Yesterday I went to my late parent's house to try to retrieve some stained glass windows along with picking up four antique bentwood chairs that my mother had collected.

Because I was carrying the chairs back home. I needed my pickup truck that has a fixed cover over the bed.

To pull two pins that hold the cover in place, I took a pair of needle nose pliers.

After I got the top off, I apparently left the pliers on the bumper of the truck.

I drove 6 miles to my parents house, tried to get the windows out and failed, loaded the chairs in the back of the truck and drove back to my house.

When I got home, I was unloading everything and noticed that the pliers were still on the bumper.

Must be a smooth riding truck.

And I must have driven it like a grandmother.

Bill

It pays off to drive that way. I left my wallet on the back bumper of my Chevy truck one time when leaving a job site. I stopped at a gas station on the way home and realized what I had done. There it was, still on the back bumper, heart attack averted.

I grew up in a chair factory town, predominately not upholstered. Names like S Bent (not is bent) and Nichols and Stone. Any brands or labels on those chairs?

My mother collected bentwood furniture over her last 50 years.

Some pieces museum quality.

All of the 100+ chairs, tables, hat racks, etc were made by either J and J Kohn or Thonet in Austria in the 1800's.

No visible markings on these, but my mother knew.

Bill

I had a class meeting. We seem to have one on every 25. year. Wht is nice point of that, I have had only 48hour hangover. So not touching Vespa with my chaky hand...

I got to use the Senior Discount yesterday.

My wife and I went to see her god son in a play. When we were paying for our tickets, the woman at the window said, "looks like neither of you qualify for a discount."

My wife looked at the list of discounts in front of her and said, "he qualifies for the Senior discount."

I looked at the list and saw it said, "Senior Citizens (55+)."

I already had my wallet out and was about to pull my ID when the woman said, "we don't need to see your ID," and gave me the $1 discount.

Oh, interesting chairs, the companies in my hometown made some nice chairs, but they certainly weren't interesting. Thanks for the clarification.

Here are some of her bentwoods.

Almost all cheap shop finds.

They aren't worth much even when we see bentwood chairs in restaurants around the world.

Bill

Those bentwood chairs, like the one in the front on your first picture, were here so common, not to say they were the standard. You found them in every bar or café over here. They were so common nobody gave them any attention.

Much later I learned they were the result of an ingenious technique to process wood by means of steam to bring it into any desired shape. Literally bending wood.
A revolutionary technique from a German-Austrian guy by the name of Thonet back in the 19th century.

Do not throw them away because it would not surprise me that within a few years they will become a hype among young people.

Last year we went to a baseball game in the New York Yankee Stadium. The New York Yankees against a team from Miami if my memory is correct.

Me and my daughter, we went to buy us a drink. She took a cocktail and I a beer (Belgian beer to be exact).

I think you have to be 18 or older to be allowed to buy an alcoholic drink.
The lady at the counter asked for our ID.
And I asked, just curiously, why I had to show mine. (I am 60)

And she said: "we check everyone's ID to make sure we do not discriminate"
And I found that a very reasonable approach, makes a lot of sense.

It goes way back before that. The Vikings used steam to bend wood for the boats in the ninth century. And it extends much farther back than even that in ancient Egypt.

Exactly, there was 976576 needs to bend wood. But also plenty occasions to forget the skill, like the wooden boats, or btw, making concrete. There has been many times that was forgot, and then re invented.

Timelinbes are interesting thing, from us to Roman age so appr. 2000 years ago, those times of Julius Ceasar, that was also time of last Egyptian farao, Cleopatra. Big pyramids likes of Kheops, those were built appr 2500 years before that. And were not first ones.
So, from us to Caesar and his girlfriend is shorter time, that from Cleopatra to Giza pyramid. Egypt had quite a timeline. Comapred to that, usas consitution is made not long a go

But if we jump back to bar chairs, what is many times forgotten wisdom: 3 legs do not jiggle, like 4 legged does on uneven terrain of outside reastaurants and bars. Same goes to table.

Thanks, Bill. They may be inexpensive, but replacing the caning(?) on the seats and backs would cost a bundle. My mom worked at one of the many shops in town, and back then she was talking about a dollar a hole to replace them. Ouch.

POV: that feeling of running out of sealed road at 100 kph

This post was not quite
What we were hoping to see
Try again, perhaps?

This post was not quite
What we were hoping to see
Try again, perhaps?

How on earth can 55 be classed as Senior Citizen age? I'm 55 and I'm definitely still "middle aged" for a good few years yet.

trust me.. you've only got 5 more years left of clinging onto that middle aged moniker



still trying to get my head around the concept of feeling discrimated against for looking younger than you actually are

This post was not quite
What we were hoping to see
Try again, perhaps?

Over here the discount age is 65 yet pension age is 66,5.
Since my birth date is what it is, the 65+ discount card from gvt cheers me up.

Here in Finland the "discount card" is the pension card, but sometimes it is said "65 and over" on desk.

I'm that 65 but keep forgetting to try discount if not seeing any comment of that. And yes, no problems if not too mucho beer. No religiuous on alchohol on any direction. Not drinking und drivin' still if the traffic seems horrible sober

Pucker factor: HIGH

I was eligible to join the local Senior Citizen's Center when I turned 50.