The Perfect Storm

The bottom pictures are from 7:30 this morning. We had about an inch of fresh snow, about 30 degrees F. The top pictures were taken eight hours later, at about 4 PM, and 36 degrees F. Now, I gotta ask you, is this the perfect storm or what? There was enough heat left in the asphalt driveway to melt the snow, so it didn't ice up. The rest of the landscape got just enough to take a few pretty pictures, then the blessed rain came and washed it all away. And, by golly, you don't have to shovel the rain. To me, THAT's the perfect storm.

P.S. As I sit here typing this, looking out the den window, the temperature has dropped, the rain has turned to heavy, wet snow - dime sized flakes. If this continues, we will have a foot of snow by mid morning tomorrow. Ah well. I put the snow shovel in the garage. We won't be riding the harleys to the meeting tonight, like we did in January. Does anyone make tire chains for motorcycles?

New Harley - insanity?

Jan. 10, 2009
Well, the day started out cheap enough - just show up at the Auburn Harley dealer for Get Acquainted day, pay the $15 to renew the local H.O.G. membership for the year, have a free samich & Coke, get in a nice ride in the overly warm January California sunshine, drool over the beautiful new Harleys, yak with other members about old rides, or upcoming rides for this year. I just happened to mention that I loved the new red Street Glide. We took a major loss in our retirement funds recently, so my wife said a new bike was out of the picture for now. The '03 Road King was pushing 50K miles, and didn't have a lot of trade in value. Or so I thought. New Harleys are almost never discounted. Besides, there was nothing on the showroom floor just like I wanted.
However - out in the garage, slightly dusty, covered with paw prints, sat this brand new 2009 Hot Sunglo Red FLHX Street Glide. ABS brakes. Six speed. Six gallon tank. Newly redesigned wider frame. 180 rear tire. Radio AM-FM-CD. Rerouted exhaust (under the frame, much cooler on the legs). Horribly stock mufflers; think Honda-like. 96CI engine, handlebar mounted fairing with gages and a cigarette lighter plug in for my GPS, or heated jacket(which we don't need in sunny Calif!!??) - all things lacking on my pretty 100th anniversary Road King.
Well, that was love at first sight, even tho the Street Glide needed a lot of additions and replacements. It was, after all, except for the ABS brakes, about as stock as they come.
Several years ago, I took a test ride on a BMW with ABS brakes, and I loved the very positive way it stopped. Harley has always been a little slow to adapt new technology. Maybe it is because the owners tend to be traditionalists - fuel injection is just too mysterious, if you like tinkering with carburetors. There aren't any water cooled bikes that have that throaty rumble of an air cooled V-twin, and there are a lot of good Harley riders that will tell you they can stop just as well with conventional brakes as ABS, so they have been slow in coming, plus they add some $700 to the cost of a new bike. So I test drove an ABS equipped Harley, and stopped it hard several times. And I'm sold. I'm convinced that in a panic stop, if I braked THAT hard on my Road King, I would have locked up the front wheel and crashed. You have to be going straight, tho. If you do that going into a curve, even ABS won't keep you from going down. There is a DVD that comes with ABS equipped Harley's that explains all that.
So I make them an offer they couldn't refuse. They countered with an offer I couldn't refuse. I called my wife and explained all this. I forgot to remember that it is easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. It took two years of begging and whining to get the Road King, and I'm just too damn old to go through that again.
So, now I'm stuck with 7 years of very affordable payments, with the option of paying it off at any time with no prepayment penalty if the economy improves. I have a bike that needs a lot more invested to make it like I eventually want it to look and run. But I'm good at doing most of the work myself, and for me it is a labor of love. I've already added a taller, clear windshield, a meager beginning for what lies ahead.
I have a lot of parts left over from the Road King. I have just listed many of them on eBay. Hopefully, I can generate enough cash to get a head start on all the changes I want to make. Thunderwoman will get over it, maybe even come to like the new bike eventually. Meantime, looks like I'll be riding alone for a while.

Toy run

Dec. 13, 2008 Well, the storm held off just long enough to attract 1281 motorcycles to this years' run, but it was quite cold. I got a kick out of one of the kids - he took a look at my vest and asked, "Are you a general?" I said, "No. Why?" He said, "If those were Army medals, you'd be a general"!

Snow storm

Dec. 15, 2008. We awoke to seven inches of snow this morning. There is more on the way. This much snow is fairly rare at 2430 feet in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Only twice before in ten years of retirement have we had this much at once. I grew up 60 miles west of Chicago, and when I retired, I never wanted to shovel snow again. Or be that cold. This is wet, heavy snow; the kind you get when the temperatures are just at, or slightly below freezing. We need the moisture. It has been warm and too dry so far this "Winter". We have power now, but it went out for a few seconds several times last night, and I had to reset most of the clocks. I have a small portable Honda generator; it will run the tv, a couple lights, and the fan on the propane fireplace. The dish antenna has to be free of snow to function, so I have to spray it with Pam, or hose it off, if the hose doesn't freeze solid. So far, it's not too cold.

The other cat, Shadow

We occasionally house-sit for friends in Kona, Hawaii. Take care of the dog and cat, fix stuff around the house, do a little yard work. Their cat, Bandit, is not a people cat, will swat you, or hiss if you try to pet him, altho he has mellowed some in recent years. When we came home in July 1999, we said we would never have a cat. Besides, I'm somewhat allergic. The next morning, this pathetic, starved, injured kitten crawled out from under our car. My wife said we had to take it to the pound. I said nobody would adopt it in such bad condition. Sooo, she went from a carpeted box on the front porch, to the vet to be neutered, to the garage, to confinement in the laundry room when it turned cooler. Now, Shadow sleeps on the foot of the bed, and I use Nasonex to keep my nose clear. I never knew anyone could get so attached to a cat. If my doctor said get rid of the cat, I'd have to get another doctor. She is ten years old now, and still a joy to have around. We keep her in at night because of all the critters-coyotes, bobcats, raccoons, and the occasional bear or mountain lion. Joey is fated to be an indoor cat; they live longer and stay cleaner. Joey has not figured out how to purr without drooling. He sings, loudly, for his dinner. To hear him, you would think he had not eaten for days.

BIG Joey! Gee, they don't stay kittens long.

He won't be seven months old for another week! We weighed him today at 9 lbs, 9 ozs. Anybody know how long cats keep growing? He's almost quadrupled in weight since we brought him home. His purr-manent appetite is amazing. When he is awake, he makes the Energizer Bunny look like a snail. More to come...

Introducing Joey, the wonder cat.

Joey, the wonder cat, earned that label due to the perpetual look of surprise on his face. He is of undetermined ancestry, rescued from the local pound as a three month old kitten. We figured (or perhaps more accurately, I figured) he would be good company for Shadow, our other cat. Shadow is a ten year old neutered female who arrived at our house in very bad shape, starved, one foot broken, full of ear mites, and a crooked head. More on Shadow later.

I am a firm believer that you do not pick a cat; they pick you. Joey climbed up the side of his cage and reach thru with one outstretched paw to snag my pants leg, his meow plainly saying "Please get me out of here, NOW." So we did.

Joey is almost three months old in this picture, and 2 lbs. 7 oz. The white "bib" made this picture come out pretty well. He has been in foster care since birth, so he is sociable, almost litter box trained, and eats huge amounts of food for such a little cat.