Modern Vespa

Oooooh then i found this and it still works!!

Nice! My generation's handheld electronic games were a little more basic. 😂

Whats cheering me up? The mets beat the reds and edwin diaz got a noble tiger.

i was 9 when it came out.

What's cheering me up today? I'll tell you:

I just picked up my brand new GTS 310!!! I went for a long ride, loving every minute of it, and beat the thunderstorm home by a pretty slim margin.

I am delighted with the power and the handling. The brakes are okay, likely to improve once they get bedded in.

The dealer recently took over the Vespa franchise, but didn't know how to change all the settings to Fº and such. They also didn't know how to active the keyless fob, actually to my delight, as I got to play around and set things the way I want them.

It gives the MPG on the run, as well as the average. I went from a low of 55 MPG going up a long steep hill, to a high of 100 MPG going down the other side of the hill.

This is the beginning of a long love affair

I had that football game.

Reading the posts on MV cheered me up today.

I did too. I can still hear the sounds. I had a basketball game like that, too.

So, last week, after raging at AT&T over the quality of their service and a bunch of other things, I actually got a rep on the phone that was probably the most helpful AT&T person I've ever talked with. I was on the phone with him for an hour.

I won't bore you with the details, but the short story is we now have gig speed at home and five lines for about $30 less than we were paying. I'm ok with that.

But that isn't what makes me happy. Part of the deal was we upgraded my wife's phone to a 16e from her iPhone 13. Her old 13 is now the 5th line with 60GB hotspot data attached to it. It will become my work internet. Until now I have been spending $10/month on an XFinity pass and tapping into the hardware at work, which sometimes is sketchy or not available at all.

Right now the Xfinity speed is ... ok. So, I'll ride it out to the end.

But that isn't what makes me happy. What makes me happy is this. Since my wife has a new phone we had to do all of the transfer stuff. Not only the info, but the new number change. The iPhone 16 was shipped to the house. I had already backed the wife's phone up to the computer, just in case. But we went through the whole process over breakfast Sunday morning and it went extremely well. When we were done, her new phone was exactly as her old phone was, we had switched the eSIMs for the phones and her old phone is now a blank slate. And Apple has made it pretty easy. It was one of the few times I have ever had such an effortless transfer.

So THAT is what makes me happy.

Popped a tasty one.

Realtor just "coming soon"'d our house in Maryland.

It can be listed for up to three weeks and then it MUST be either listed or removed. So the house could be sold by halloween....

Watching the look on people's faces when I went for a ride on my penny farthing it always makes them laugh or smile there's never a dull moment cruzin on this bike.

Stopped in at the First Gold Casino cafe in Deadwood this morning for breakfast, which for the month of September is two eggs (over medium in my case) hash brown Potatoes, two slices of sourdough toast, and two strips of thick sliced bacon.

All for 79 cents.

I was feeling generous, so I bought another 79 cent breakfast for an aquaintence who I ran into there.

The total breakfast tab was $2.77 for the both of us.

Then, to top it all off, I won $40 from a slot machine.

Not a bad morning altogether.

I HAVE it! I tried to teach the grandkids but they just liked to move the lights and listen to the trilling.

At those prices, I would eat that.

Every.

Single.

Day.

Fancy dinner tonight. IYKYK

Please report back on whether or not it lives up to the hype!

It is *EXACTLY* like on the show.

Did you see this beauty?

We have a cool neighbor who lives across the street.

When we are out of town, she waters plants, cleans up the yard and even mows our lawn.

When we are home, I often find that she has taken out our garbage, lawn trash and recycles the day before they get picked up.

It is not only us as she does similar things for most of the other close neighbors.

I had forgotten to take out my lawn trash last week, so it sat in the back yard.

I kiddingly told Sarah that I was mad at Julie because she didn't take it out while we were on a short trip to Mississippi.

Yesterday, as I arrived home, I found the two trash bags, one can filled with small branches and our recycle bin out, ready to be picked up.

We reward her simply by bringing pies from North Carolina or small gifts from Europe.

It is a nice relationship.

Bill

FedEx just dropped off a welcome kit.

We do too! It's a huge quality of life issue....small, but lovely.

Before we headed out of town, wasked for help keeping an eye on our cats and chickens. Happily said yes as they love one of our cats....actually found out Mike will sit with him and play him music. They refuse any compensation whatsoever, but we still force gifts on them.

Our trash bins magically return from the curb if we're not around....

We trust each other enough that they have our garage code and they've asked us to keep their opener. As they don't have a basement, they have 24/7 rights to our basement in case of a tornado.

We spent the week camping at Lassen Volcanic National Park. The park is home to more than 40 volcanoes, bubbling mudpots, and steaming fumaroles. A large part of the park was destroyed by wildfires in 2021. The devastation is shocking, but a natural cycle. Lots of new trees are popping up in the burned areas. It was a very interesting visit. This cheers me up!

Great photos!

One of my family's all-time favorite places to camp. We visited many times in the 80s and 90s. I climbed the peak twice - once with my wife and once with my younger daughter.

The house is now a home.

Last day in Japan, but I'm getting to wrap things up with my favorite traditional sweets set

According to the USPS Informed Delivery service, there's a letter from my insurance provider's Subrogation Department, which means that it should be a check to reimburse me for my deductible that I had to pay when I got my truck repaired in July.

I thought Casa Bonita closed. I'm glad it's still around, serving just OK food in a weird, weird room.

Matt and Trey bought it back in, 2021 I think? Completely gutted it and rebuilt the entire thing.

TBH the brisket burrito was a good bit better than just OK. /shrug

After a little over a month of work, I completed the rebuild of the top end on my old chopper. Nice to hear it run again! This cheers me up.

Nice work! Lookin' good!
And, you got those valves dialed in just right.

I was super happy to see the valve seat contact area right in the center third of the valve surfaces. I used Dykem Blue layout fluid to help get it dialed in. The photos show the contact patch after lapping.

Yeah, that's tedious work, but worth it!

Grabbed from the Hot Takes thread.. half way through S1 of Severance and really enjoying it and was sort of hoping it had been based on a book so i could read it, and then found that 'Silo' (what I haven't started watching) is (Wool Trilogy) so off to Amazon..

I think I could put that sound on loop and sleep to it.

When it comes to insuring motorbikes, it seems to pay off well when you're perceived as a harmless old coot, don't live in an urban center, and have... somehow, managed to keep you're driving record shiny.

We now have four motorcycles, three 1200's and monstrous 2500cc bike.

The horsepower range of the present 'fleet' is 77 hp, 110hp, 130hp, and 165hp.

I recently got the bill for our annual motorcycle insurance in the mail, with the 'new' 1998 BMW K1200RS added, it comes to $610 per year for the entire lot.

Not to boast, but that's a pretty decent premium for all that motorcycle stuff.

Last week, I talked to a 22 year old guy who works at sales at our Kawasaki dealership, and he bought a 2024 ZX14R last year and is paying $400 PER MONTH to insure that beast.

Anyway, here's the poop...

I just paid insurance for the Stella for 12 months. It was close to that.



I could post that in the "other" thread, but I won't

On the lighter side, after six fill-ups, the 50cc Sprint is averaging 81.5mpg. I can live with that.

Does Casa Bonita still have cliff divers?

yup!


ETA: Found out the street cup/twin wheels I got for the Bonneville, the front (cup) didn't have the center spacer installed so that was the reason I had issues right before leaving MD. Naturally they're on global "indefinite" backorder so I found a local guy and he machined one for me. Worked a treat, initial quick shakedown before the daily 3-4pm rain started indicates no wobbles or grinding like it had previously.

Should be good to go! More extensive ride tomorrow and then possibly head up Pike's Friday. But that's a big if, it's dropping to below the 40s pretty consistently so maybe around mid-day lol. I'll take my heated gloves and an extra woobie layer in my backpack.

I've got a user of my Vespa Diag app using it successfully on a Moto Guzzi V7 850 E5