mizarchivist

with evila 's help, the bike got home. Galen wasn't exactly pleased with the bike's performance when we arrived so good thing dinner right then was the plan anyway. Turns out there's a really great Korean restaurant down the block from Bikeworx. So one Bibim Bop later, the rain had stopped and all was well. Unfortunately, Galen'd run the tank down to fumes and was running it on reserve already. I was a mile from the gas station when she gave up the ghost: yet another good reason to have evila  as backup. It was just after 8- the station in question a small one, but the office door was still unlocked- a living Kaylee and her hipster male companion were playing cards. My tale of woe swayed Kaylee's heart and she found a loaner gas can and turned the pump back on for me and refused my tip. Funny, with 2 gallons in the tank, Miss Beatrix decided that maybe after all she'd be willing to go. Can returned, compliments on bike paid and an uneventful ride home- Hurrah!

I have a very busy day tomorrow. A test run to make sure it's not a fluke before I trust myself to a full day of bike travel should happen.

The Pod. Oh, the pod. A less happy tale to tell. It was just whirring and whirring, clickety clickety click, but overall, not willing to go. I've been willing to take the long term patient path for many a week, but I miss having options on my daily 2 hour commute. Ebay + $ = solution. Hopefully this one will go.

After the commentary from Thursday, I decided to extend a bit longer to make sure the reboot works. Not much else worth noting other than I'm not dead- neither is anyone else. I may get mini eclairs at BJ's when we go at the end of the week, though. (Mwah hah)

I was just minding my own business this morning, riding my bike to Alewife as I have been doing rather often when I came to the last 1/4 mile and whoom. Have some downed branches. OK, have some down trees. I was able to duck under the first one, but the other three required major clambering and bike-carrying. Microburst, you say? Yowza.

It seems that once a year near quiet_elegance 's birthday (observed), that there's the biggest cleaning events that overshadow all other uncluttering moments. Q_E started on Saturday, which sparked me to do many random things yesterday, things that are not apparent to the casual observer. However, my art drawers are now beautifully arranged. The Ikea bookshelves are much more full and hold 90% of card/board games and a large stack of the over sized art/coffee table books. I am most pleased.

I may have mentioned that I really have taken a shine to Chef Sang, the sushi guy at Teppenyaki. We took lifecollage  a week ago and purple_terror  this past Friday. That makes 2 converts in 2 weeks. He's really that brilliant. quiet_elegance  made a box out of rosewood for our chop sticks that we're keeping there and Sang hung out with us after we were done eating, as there was rather significant lull at that moment. Supposedly, they're redoing the menus eventually, but even if they did, I don't think I'd use them. I'm more than a little happy to be a guinea pig for new ideas he has. I have yet to be disappointed with anything, rather it's usually way too brilliant for a middle-of-the-road establishment. I am keen on taking one of his classes at some point.

Tomorrow: I go to my first salsa class in years. Should be fun, though. I am curious to see what they're working on, how much I remember and how much Bollywood improved my ability to pick up moves faster. After all, I know all the basic moves already, so that's an advantage. It will be a sadness not go go with q_e.

Motorcycle: Still in the shop. The latest theory is that there wasn't enough compression in the ...uh, tubes (?), which threw off the vacuum and so fuel wasn't going through the petcock like it was supposed to. The mechanic almost certainly experienced the bad when he was testing it out and he saw this with another bike earlier this season. This is apparently a gradual deterioration, so it makes sense that last fall it could limp along, but by 2 weeks ago, I was doomed. I'm hopeful that I can pick it up on Friday. Fingers crossed!

I haven't seen Richie around in quite a while. Last time I saw him was when he was having issues with a cop hassling him, so it's possible that he's had to set up shop elsewhere. But I worry enough to him in random dream cameos.

Well, I got home unscathed- yay! But enmoistened by some- meh.

I left the choke all the way out for 3/4 of the way home and then once I was off the rt 2 access rd fiddled with it to see if the fun and games would commence. Happily, nothing wonky, so... yay!

Now for tea and Glee. ^_^ (JOSS WHEDON GLEE!) ahem.

So, I got the bike washed as I noted in the earlier post. I decided it would be cool to ride out to the Militia game. And I had the power loss thing happen a few times on the way over- but I did get it there- and then again on the way home.

This bike being an '86 is no spring chicken. It's pretty basic in many ways. One thing it has is a 2-part choke: pull it all the way out to start the bike, press it in to the mid-way after you get rolling, then all the way in once the engine's warmed up. Well- I am not stalling if I have the choke all the way out. Seems bad to run it thusly, but .... well, I did get home at least. But boy am I twitchy. I am not keen on being a mechanic. (I have enough hobbies already, thanks) I'm really not keen on having a bike that is unreliable. Problematic.

On the upside, Militia shut out the NY Sharks and it was cool hanging out with shut_it_already , evila , a few of our friends and the whole team at a bar that is about 3 blocks from my first Somerville apartment.

ETA: It's late. I have stuff n' things to do tomorrow. I should go to bed, except I'm braced and tense from the ride home. I feel like I'm still on the bike, that I can feel the vibrations in my hands and I'm waiting for the bike to surge and lose power.  Not restful sleepy feelings at all.  :/

There was sushi with purple_terror  and we hung out with evila  until Galen the motorcycle mechanic showed up with his van, scooped up my bike and was gone faster than you can eat a whole spicy scallop roll. It's awesome- he comes, get the bike, and when I come get it, it'll go again!  Then we got ice cream ^_^
I finally saw the end of the Oscars. I mostly taped it so I could play name that dancer in the Best Score montage. Several named, fyi. Now I need to update Netflix so I can see what the ruckus is about with most of these beasties.

Note to self: must update motorcycle icon this season, really.

Today was one of those freakishly productive days. Most of it was planning stuff and writing stuff. There was so much of it that I didn't get to finish before I left. At both lunch time and quitting time, I had to force myself to stop what I was doing to eat / leave. This absolutely makes up for a whole week of apathy, IMO.

So, the motorcycle- that's the point of this post, really. The parking situation turned out to be a success, but next time if I'm the first one in, I'll back in and a lot closer to the inside curb. My ride to Everett was painful. My clutch hand went claw-like after a while :/ But now I have a few pointers on which way to go next time, so yay. I got to help Danny for only an hour and a half, really, but it's rare that we get to spend time together these days and inevitably there's fun to be had coming up with schemes and designs. -

But really! The ride! The ride home was by far the best I've had in recent memory. It currently reads 47 degrees according to my weather bug app. With my leather (vs. synthetic) jacket and riding pants, 100% comfortable. There's a route between Malden/Medford that branches off from the 28/93 rotary that does this unbelievably awesome sinuous thing for miles. The posted speed is 30, so it might be good that it was a regular caravan of cars. I'd have liked to have set my own pace. Thanks to sweetmmeblue  for pointing out that path- I'd not have thought to try it. Eventually it dumps out into Woburn. I wasn't particularly lost at any bit, but I've not gotten the middle bits down quite yet. I'm looking forward to trying different variations on the theme. That's one of the things I love best about motorcycling: I actively look to find different ways to travel. And that's saying something for someone who defaults to a set routine.

Hell.
The motorcycle gods don't like it when you don't ride for a full month in the summer. If I had, I might have noticed what's probably a leaky hose and consequently a dry tank. Only being on the far side of my block, though, I got it back home. It does mean I can't visit ricevermicelli  in the hospital like I wanted to. At least not today- that's a 1.5 hour T experience each direction. At least if I go after work I'm most of the way there.
eta: Heaven!
I go out for a bike ride- a nice evening, I have nothing else/better to do- listening to Vivaldi and enjoying the fresh air- talked with Rollerblader Bob on the way back, also nice. Upon returning home, found that quiet_elegance  has returned with gas for my sad motorcycle and is routing out where the leak (yep, definitely a split hose) is. He's out right now in search of more non-split hose.  I think I'll recount the rest of today in a different post. :)

It really was a perfect day to ride a bike, so I did- first the motory kind to/from craftiness and then pedal before dinner. The new motor-bike is definitely has a bit of a learning curve- the choke is not so easy-going, so I keep stalling out. It occurs to me I'm definitely going to have to get a handle on that (hah) before I try taking a passenger. nchanter  has graciously offered to help, being an experienced passenger. Maybe next month (which is actually only a few days away, but you know what I mean).

The crafting bit was hugely productive. I discovered my jewelry selection has been depleted over the past many months. It's less so by 4 1/2 necklaces and corresponding earrings now. Well, one set I have to keep. Pictures eventually- probably :) One of the more recent styles I've done has been short links of beads with eyelets on either side attached to chain parts. I'm sure there's better words for it than that, but I'm disinclined to figure it out at the mo'. Sadly, the copper/burgundy set I did requires chain that isn't standard gold/silver color, so more on that hopefully tomorrow after a store visit.

All and all I was quite satisfied with my day/evening until I realized how much Other Stuff is happening Right Now and I didn't attend. It's a good thing I realize that's just crazy-talk. You can't do everything all the time- when would you sleep? Besides, I had the pleasure of seeing quiet_elegance  for several hours in a row. There was a bbq chicken experiment for dinner, and then he kept me company- watched Star Wars (the proper original with no edits, thankyouverymuch), and added Family Guy commentation at the appropriate moments.  He's rarely inclined to watch TV with me, so that was note-worthy. And if that wasn't enough justification, I swear I'm busy all the time. There need to be lulls so one can enjoy the frenetic later. Ah well. Rational Brain has really fine arguments, as is only right. Unrational Brain is still a bit sad, which is just like her, so I guess all is status-quo.

'trix.



As in, Beatrix. Why? Well, a Savage 650 is also called a thumper, given it's a single-cylinder engine (also belt, not chain) - so it's a bit... well, thumpy. So instead of a Disney name, I went classic rabbit - and so, why not for Beatrix Potter? I'm sure the lady herself would be slightly horrified.

It is going to be very interesting getting used to almost 3x the motor. Oh, I have to stay in 2nd gear? For a while? Huh. I can do highway speeds comfortably in 4th?? cacklecacklecackle!
( More pictures! )
yes- I'll have to do a new icon, but not today.

This is the obnoxiously obscure reference to things about to happen. Except it seems really transparent to me. And probably to about a dozen of you. Or more? 

But Things! Are Happening! ... or will be Very Soon Now. EEeeeeeEEEEeeeee!