Modern Vespa

Plenty of gravel experience so more of a mild "fuck, didn't really want this". Bit of gentle brushing of the brakes to lower the speed to 60ish and turning on the ASR brings life back to relaxed

a generic part I was waiting on that I'll try and hack into shape to fix my bike is arriving today (correct oem part still hasn't arrived after two months).

New tasty bottle pop.

Makes me happy when I finish a vid

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DHtM2PTB-sV/?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

Last Wednesday we went to a concert by Lenny Kravitz and his band in Antwerp. We, that is my wife, my daughter and me. And we were not alone there. The concert hall was sold out.

Great concert it was.

It is the second time I attended a concert by Lenny Kravitz. The previous one being 10 years ago. This time the show and the sound quality were so much better.

The structure of the show was unusual. The band playing 3 to 4 songs in a row without a stop and then a pauze with Lenny talking to the public or disappearing and then bang, another 3 to 4 songs in a row. All of them in perfect timing, what fantastic musicians he has.

He brought at random songs from the very beginning "it ain't over 'till it's over" to songs from his most recent album.

Ditto!

Wife told me our trip to Rome is now assured economically.
Nice to hear that! Only that a bit waiting for that still, as we are there October, November and December.

Pope-a-palooza should be dying down by then assuming they don't have to pick a new one. I know an amazing tour guide who doesn't do the usual tours (think courtesans, lesser-known emperors, etc). But he also does stuff like colosseo/forum/palatine if you want. He can even do private tours if you want and it's pretty comparable to the general small group prices.

I share your excitement!
The wife and I are planning a return trip to Italy late August and focusing on the Puglia region for the 4 weeks we are there.
The wife has family in Isernia and my Sister/BIL lives in Rome so we'll have to visit them too. My BIL is currently working/based in Naples so my wife is excited to meet up with him there. Me....not so much.

I'm currently looking for a Vespa rental while in Puglia.....

Rome is great, no doubt.

The only risk you run is that weather could be not that good or even quite bad in autumn and winter. You can be lucky but typically in Italy it comes with lots of rain.

Talking of Rome my daughter is going there in a few days time on a school trip and then I'm taking my wife there on her 50th birthday in early September as it's on her bucket list.

installing new 🛞🛞 today. Hopefully will distract me from my failing TB and the mad cost of an aftermarket one.

Been there 15 times, perhaps half a year if added up. On every phase of year. This year is as a whole the worst to be there, as its the anniversary-year and there is calculated to be 2-3x the amount of us: annoying tourists. Of course they are packed to rather limited area and the magnet-spots, but anniversary means the churches are even more packed than usual.
Anyway this all underlines my rule: never tell the nice restaurant, cafe, icecream place etc. in internet, the risk spoiling it fast is there. been there, seen that. But, all has silver lining too: check the places tripadvisor recommends, and keep clear!
-and: the end of the year is still the time to be there if want to see least amount of us.

bonus-spam:
I had year 2014 a idea of "a little romantic" arriving to Rome: walking.
So, wifey to taxi with luggage, and myself just walking.

Did it last summer, when "nothing to do-day inRome": took a metro to Cinecitta, then bus to Ciampino airport, and then walked by via appia antica to city

Blue shell boots on point.

This guy is cheering me up today.

He does look cheerful, and it's infectious!

Fidget pen!

How does it work?

Apt question, because magnets.

Installed my new Balalaika strings last night. Now they stretch and settle in for a couple of days before I can tune it. Since it's a six string instrument and they are double strings and I only use three, it's essentially two sets of strings in one.

That chick has a huge balalaika ...

I thought someone might want to use that in the "Heard Without Context" thread.

A Malossi belt and 14g Polini Rollers.

They both cheer me up.

Penguin memes

I wear a huge balalaika when it's cold riding.

https://youtube.com/shorts/5LtYAS2oAII

I don't know if that turkey was actually jive per se, but he was certainly pretty wild.

He was quoting Mr. T as he passed, the DJI Mic Mini just didn't pick it up over the exhaust. 😘

It was so unnerving I had to come home, prepare a banana bread ol fashy (in one of my most recent pickups on Murano), and light up a cuban.

I just read that the California snow totals in the Sierra Nevada for this year (as measured on April 1, 2025) are 96% of average...first time in 25 years that California has received an average amount of snow 3 years in a row. Aquifers across the state, though, are still being overused. It's the main reason I stopped eating almonds.

Maybe the drought in the west is ending. Yeah, sure.

Bought a new drill that was on clearance down from AUD$100 -> $75 and the shop guy gave it to me for $50. Unexpected win!

Reason for purchase [NSR] What's Pissing you off Today? III (Post 2718451)

First time I had a turkey buzz me like that on a scoot I nearly crapped my pants. We have a lot of them around here. They look like pterodactyls when they take you by surprise like that.

I put the bow on the 2024/2025 ski season today. 23" of new snow Monday/Tuesday meant I got in 2 days of awesome skiing this week on the best snow of the year. The resort is open next week, but temps at the ski hill are going to approach 70F. I don't care to ski in that level of slush, so I'm calling the season "done". It will be close to 80F here at the house so I'm switching my focus from skiing to riding. This cheers me up!

Crap weather blew around us so I was able to get out on the T100 for a bit.

It's sunny out there today, and about 50 F, so I had better get out there and ride something for an hour or so.

Meanwhile, the wife (Trixie) is in Memphis running a 100 mile ultra marathon, and undoubtedly getting pounded by the heavy thunderstorms they're having down there.

Here's a current weather radar shot of the Memphis area where she's running, and it's been like this for over two solid days of strong storms, one after another, with almost biblical rainfall, and flooding. She comes home on Monday.

Club ride on the Copper Triangle (177/60/77) today. Twenty-seven riders came along, but we did have one breakdown (cracked injector plug on a GTS).

Nice to get together and roll with the Phoenix folks.

I just got word that Trixie has finished her 100 mile ultra-marathon down in Memphis in 30 hours, well before the cutoff time. She'll be spending tonight and the next day eating Ibuprofen, sleeping, and healing blisters. Not bad for a 61 year old.

Sunny and warm-ish day for the first ride of the season for the South Sound Slow Rollers, about 60 miles there and back for breakfast at a pretty good cafe. 16 turned up, which is amazing for a group started from scratch just last summer.

Bob

Central Bakery in Superior rocks! My wife is from Globe and she's been going there since she was a little kid with her grandma. Cool dirt airstrip at the south end of town.

Mrs Syd's first day in the dorm at NAU (the highest rated university in the state, by elevation), her roommate said she was from Miami. Must be cool there, Mrs Syd said. Miami, AZ her roommate corrected her. 'told me she felt like an idiot, haha!

At 61 years old, Trixie triumphantly finished her super-grueling one hundred mile ultra-marathon in Memphis, TN yesterday, doing it in a little over thirty hours.

As some will know, the weather in that part of the country over the past three or four days has been one savage thunderstorm after another, dumping something like fourteen inches of rain over four days on the area, with widespread flooding, etc

You would think that she would be unable to move today, much less drive her rental car to Graceland for a tour of the place, which she did.

So, after $1500-$2000 dollars for airfare, hotels, car rentals, marathon event admission fees and miscellaneous other minor expenses just to torture one's self covering one hundred miles on foot for a day-and-a-half, through some of the shittiest weather in years if not decades, she earned the covered Viper 100 miler finisher's belt buckle.

In the meantime, I've been busy back in South Dakota, laying around the house, playing with the cats, eating disgusting things while watching endless YouTube videos on the big TV, riding my 'new' BMW, watching the dirty dishes stack up, and being completely useless in general.

I'll pick her up at the airport tomorrow around noon.

The trophy....this sucker was hard-earned.

Are you going to do the dishes before she gets home? Enquiring minds want to know