Modern Vespa

Congratulations, Fledermaus!

So nice (and inspiring) to read your family, and your son's, story. Lots of neurodiversity running in my family as well. I don't think it includes me, but everyone else seems to think it does, so who knows?

Your capacity for love always comes through, whether it's family or pets.

I wish you and your family many more "unblemished days"!

Our autumn trip to Rome is settled. No 3 months this time.
Only 2

They say that 80th anniversary events will go on all year. Maybe you'll be lucky to catch something in those 2 months.

Made I laugh

You should have slept in a full bathtub with it!

Plugged in a custom creation and turned on the ignition and nothing blew up

What did You Do to your Vespa Today? (Post 2777629)

There is near a shop restoring oldies, that could be enough of Vespas to me.

Thanks, Michael.
Yeah, the accusations roll....
Years back, my sister (who was a middle school teacher and got to learn about those things earlier) said if our mother was born later she'd have an ADHD diagnosis. Seemed normal to me...though in hindsight. My wife has admitted some personal characteristics, but doesn't hesitate to point out similar with me. Diversity of all sorts makes the world a more interesting (and challenging) place!

Drove the car for the first time since my back surgery a week ago yesterday.

I girded my loins with my super-duper back brace belt, side-slid myself into the little Subaru's pilot seat and rolled away.

It was only to drive one mile to the grocery store for an emergency shopping run for bathroom tissue and butterscotch pudding cups, but it was a 'cheerful activity' to be able to do, and a threshold to be crossed on the sorta long road to recovery..

I stayed in the car while Trixie did the footwork.

Can motorcycle riding be just around the corner?

SHE'S ALIVE!

Congrats! And you did it without any help from Igor.

A couple of updates from What's Pissing Me Off have shifted into What's Cheering Me Up. I'm splitting them into two responses because (as usual for me) they're rather long.

The infotainment head unit in my truck has been replaced [NSR] What's Pissing you off Today? IIII (Post 2776125). I had made an appointment for Tuesday, May5, to get the service ticket started, but for whatever reason thought that the appointment was actually on Thursday, April 30, so I took a long lunch break that Thursday and drove to the dealer. Once there I realized my error, but stuck around anyway. My service advisor went ahead and got the ticket started and sent me on my way, telling me that he'd call once the radio arrived.

On Tuesday, May 5 I got a text from him letting me know that it had arrived. I arranged to have my wife pick me up from the dealer after work, and dropped it off on my way home (luckily I'd driven it to work that day because it was supposed to rain). I rode the BV to work on Wednesday, and that afternoon I got a call from the service advisor with bad news: They'd shipped the wrong radio, and it would be "at least" two business days before the correct one arrived. He asked if I was ok with them providing a loaner vehicle in the meantime. I accepted, and we arranged for me to pick it up on my way to work on Thursday. They put me in a 2025 Santa Cruz XLR; essentially the updated version of mine. I hated it. It has some nice features that mine doesn't (perforated leather seats, rear seat A/C vents, rear seat USB ports, all USB ports are USB-C, adaptive cruise, 360° cameras). But it was also missing features mine has (sun roof, Homelink rear-view mirror w/ auto dimming), and had moved some stuff around (they swapped the radio and cruise control positions on the steering wheel).

Friday afternoon he texted to say that it was ready to be picked up. I told him I'd be in Saturday morning. When I picked it up, I checked it before turning over the keys to the loaner, to make sure that it truely was fixed, and it was!

Update #2:
So the $6.2 Billion bond proposals passed last week [NSR] What's Pissing you off Today? IIII (Post 2770995). At first, I was disappointed, because I was sure that meant that we'd be moving to the less desireable location [NSR] What's Pissing you off Today? IIII (Post 2770951).

But I had a nice chat with my boss last night and got some great news.

Apparently a LOT of people complained about the logistics of having the service center/warehouse in the southernmost location. They brought up the fact that there's only one major road in & out of that location, and that road has a history of having traffic issues due to it being the primary route between Dallas and Houston. The other option they are considering has ready access to four major freeways, and is located just off of a main thoroughfare. Due to these arguments, and the approval of the bond money, they're now working towards the other location.

Not only that, but I found out where, exactly, it is located.

It is about 6.5 miles from home, and the best route is all surface streets; perfect for commuting via scooter!

It gets better. My boss is also going to be the primary contact for the renovation and build out of the building. It's just over 1 million square feet, so it'll be us, plus the service center/warehouse, plus probably a few other departments. She'll make sure that everything is perfect for our needs - both now and in the future. They're also using an outside architectural firm to do the design, and construction services will coordinate the renovation, so it will all be outside contractors, meaning that it will happen quicker than if they did it with all internal staff. They're looking to have us out of our current building next summer (2027). And because it is Bond money being used, nothing will be half-assed. Legally they have to spend the bond money in a specific manner, and they have to use all of it within 3 years. So everything (other than our equipment) will be new.

Along those same lines, I started my MBA classes on 20 April, and currently have a 100% grade in my first class (Building Business Leaders). If everything goes as planned, my degree will be conferred on 1 August 2027, just in time for the move.

Yes, I know this could all change tomorrow, and we could end up moving to the remote location after all.

One american guy did not believe when he heard that in Europe houses out-doors go locked when shut. Had to make a video of our house
And Italian guy wondered how come it can ever work if have only one key! True: as in Italy could be your house have 12 locks and: 12 keys in your pocket.

Multiple 'Cheery Things' to report today.

Cheery Thing #1...Managed to ditch the grey sweats and yank on a pair of jeans for the first time since my back surgery on the 4th.

Cheery Thing #2...Poured myself into the Subaru and drove 35 miles up the road to Deadwood for a coffee on the sunny patio of The Pump House Cafe

Cheery Thing #3...Stopped off at the First Gold Casino/Hotel in Deadwood for about twenty minutes, and came out with $40 more than I went in with.

Cheery Thing #4...A half mile out of town on the way back home, I was halted by representatives of the Deadwood Clan of Bighorn Sheep who had decided to cross the road ahead of me.

Cheery Thing #5...You didn't -ram- into one of them with the Subaru.

True, and some clever wording there.

By the looks of some of the mature Bighorn rams often seen in this local group, the Subaru might have lost that theoretical kerfuffle.

As often as I see this horny bunch near, and literally IN the town of Deadwood, I've never seen or heard of one of them being killed in traffic collisions, and I've been here since 1993.

My brain says there's a comment about a horny bunch in Deadwood...

Well, it wasn't all that long ago that the infamous Deadwood 'Pleasure Palaces' were officially shut down...

The city's last four brothels (including the famous Pam's Purple Door) were permanently closed on May 21, 1980, during an FBI and federal raid.

I'm kinda laughing about the idea of a business plan for a brothel in a place called "deadwood".

"You can't reason someone out of a position they didn't reason themselves into".

-- Mark Rober, speaking about the futility of reasoning with flat earthers

Nice 3-wheeler surprise (before blind women).

Is that a Messerschmitt?

Yes it is.

When I came out of work today there was another Liberty parked next to mine. There's mine on the left (2025 light grey), with a new, red, friend.

But mods make yours look so much better with additions like the flyscreen and topcase. The new friend is a Plain Jane. Still, finding it parked next to you is a cheer, for sure.

Are you sure it isn't a Fokker?

I just made a trip up to the store on my GTS for a couple of things. As I was leaving, a woman came up to me and asked who worked on my scooter. Caught me off guard a bit. After telling her my preferred shops (all over an hour away) were out of business, and that I did my own work, she asked if I'd look at her scooter. It's a bit fuzzy, but it seems to be an LX150, possibly an ET4. Something rattling in the transmission case, which I expect is going to be fairly straightforward. Heck, maybe even simple.

Anyway, I apparently convinced her that I was unlikely to leave her with a bunch of parts laying on her garage floor, she got pretty excited and offered to pay me...and help, even, and we settled on a minimum of homemade cookies. How could I say no?

Anyway, looks like I have another career of Vespa mechanic on the front burner. Hopefully I can be a hero, if not, happy enough to walk away with a cookie.

Sounds kinda like the old "come up to my room to see my etchings." Especially if it's fuzzy.

That's brilliant! Maybe the second one was the father of the 1st. Or maybe the mother.
Another great "get away with it on TV" was on Saturday Night Live some years back:
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The virtual commencement ceremony for my BA in Graphic Design and Media Arts is tomorrow (Saturday), 23 May, at 3pm EDT (7pm GMT).

If anyone is interested, here's the link.

I'm told the entire thing last approximately 2 hours. Graduates are listed alphabetically by last name. I looked at a previous virtual ceremony, and saw that the names started at about 37 minutes into it, and had I been on that list my name would have been read about 50 minutes in. So I'm figuring It'll be about the same.

Yeah, my wife's already nervous, but then again it doesn't take much....Guess I'd better bring my tools to calm her.

Congrats, monogodo! I won't be able to tune in, but it's something to be proud of.

It most certainly is. Any education is a good education. Congrats, monogodo!

After my back surgery on the 4th, about all that I've been doing is sitting on my ass watching a never ending series of YouTube videos on everything from the battle of Agincourt to what's at the edge of the Universe and so on, and on, and on...

So, in spite of the advice from the medical folks who fixed me up, I put on my back brace, tightened that bugger up, and mounted my new Royal Enfield 650 and rode a twenty mile local loop. Then, I tried it on my BMW 1200R but returned after only five or six miles, finding that the higher and farther rearward foot peg position could cause some discomfort, so I tried a rematch astride the Royal Enfield, and logged a second 20 mile loop ride with no discomfort.

It definitely cheers me up that, with care, I should be able to start riding at least one of my bikes again.

Yipee!

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

Yes, violence is the nowadays answer and tool to all!

I made it to Deadwood and back without any problems this morning. It's SO good to be able to ride again, even if (self) limited a bit.

Did they give you any PT to do?