Modern Vespa

Vespa is gone....wasps are gone....wife is still here, miraculously I suppose.

After trading my Vespa GTS300 in on the 'new-to-me' twelve year old BMW R1200R, I now have a a garage shelf and tool chest drawer with some leftover and orphaned Vespa-specific stuff like Vespa motor oil quart jugs, a new Piaggio oil filter, special final drive and belt maintenance tools. Also a chrome steel hump rack that I removed from the bike months ago.

Anyway.

I need a new flippy-face helmet, but so far haven't found one I like, and won't order one online without trying it on first.

Rode my Triumph to the dealership yesterday afternoon to get that monetarily worrisome 20,000 mile valve clearance check done, so that episode is presently underway. Every once in a while, I log on to my bank account balance and gaze wistfully at the $1000 in it that is earmarked to pay for that service. It's not all that bad though, at least that's what I've been convincing myself of, considering that it only needs to be done at 20,000 mile intervals, so at the rate I'm accumulating mileage on that bike, I should be good for another two and a half years before repeating the process.

Why Triumph didn't utilize maintenance-free hydraulic valve actuation on that big triple mystifies me, it's not a particularly high-revving engine, with a relatively low max RPM of 6500-7000.

My GTS300 was maintained without the benefit of a local dealer, as were my Royal Enfield 650's even though there are two RE servicing dealerships within thirty miles of my garage, I could manage without them quite nicely.

About a month ago, we bought one of those large cat exercise wheels for several hundred dollars, put it against the wall in our living room...and our two cats apparently think it's a satanic device that will steal their fuzzy little souls if they get within five feet of the thing.

Maybe later this month, I might jump on the BMW and head to St. Paul, have a 'sit down' coffee and chat with my older brother, Steve, then head back.

Maybe.

Have I left anything out (besides anything remotely interesting)? Let me know.

Regards.

Thanks for the ramblings!

Ramblings should be a daily occurance, something to just say whats on your mind that doesn't quite fit into established topics.

It was interesting to talk to my daughter last Thursday when I took her to her first ever voting booth now shes turned 18.

I would never directly ask her to vote for a particular party so it was a surprise when we were walking home and I asked her who she voted for on the two ballot papers and she said well Dad on the local one I voted for party A and on the county one she voted for party B.

We didnt know for sure if these parties were both standing beforehand so it was good to hear we voted the exact same on both counts.