Well, I'll be damned...

 I can still access this sordid clambake!  I may have to start relaying my thoughts to the desperate masses again.  We shall see...

At the Risk of Making Myself Look Less Than Brilliant...

I've never had a problem with making fun of myself if I think it will make someone smile.  That hasn't worked out so well as far as my "career"...or my life in general.  That being said...

 

My back has been wrecked for the last week. At times I can barely walk. I had to cancel my ride to Tampa knowing that, even if I made it there without crippling myself, I'd be miserable company for Josh's family once I arrived. That said, I felt better this morning, so I decided to ride to work.,..to see how my back felt on the bike.

Had my thick lined jeans on over my slacks, heavy leather jacket, winter gloves...all my riding crap...when I decided to adjust the throttle rest thingie that FINALLY arrived from China* yesterday. I had put it on the throttle grip this morning. It was positioned slightly askew, so I grabbed it wearing my thick gloves and wrestled with it. I had cut the bike off, of course, so as not to rev the engine to a level that would wake any unemployed denizens of Millbrook. When I punched the starter button after my adjustments were done....nothing. I got lights on the dash...but nothing. Okay. This happened once before. Loose battery cable, no doubt. Shit. I had put the rear seat and backrest on for my now cancelled ride to Tampa. Can't get to the battery without removing the seat. Can't remove the seat without removing the backseat. Take off backseat. Take off seat. Stash screwdriver in mounting hole for rear seat. Grab screwdriver to take off CPU and battery cover. Something drops into tiny crevice. What was that?! I know I need it whatever it is. Crap, it's the little threaded sleeve from the hole to mount the backseat. It stuck on the screwdriver when I pulled it out to tighten the cables...that didn't need tightening. Dig it out in abject fear of it slipping thru cracks and winding up god knows where.  Battery cables are fine...tighten them anyway. Must be a fuse. Take off side cover. Pull fuses one by one and check them. All look fine. Confusion reigns. WTF is going on? I push bike from behind wife's Pilot in case I have to leave it 'til I get home to check things again. Shannon's standing out there freezing while I'm sweating. I stare at bike for long time. I have allen wrenches and screwdrivers all over the driveway, seats tossed here and there. I look at throttle grip. Holy f*#k! My kill switch is on. With my heavy gloves on, struggling to adjust that $2.00 part, I had pushed the killswitch on. Flip it off. Bike fires right up.

I've spent 45 minutes laboring over the damn thing, when all I had to do was flip the damn switch. ALWAYS CHECK THE OBVIOUS FIRST.

On the positive side, I don't have to be concerned with my battery cables loosening for quite some time and I know all my fuses are happy little fellas. And my chiropractor will repair me Friday.

*Ordered this thing on ebay and was assured it shipped on Oct 11th and would arrive before Oct 25th, in plenty of time for my trip. When it hadn't shown up by the 25th, I contacted the seller and was told it shipped on Oct 17th and might take 25 working days because of "customs problems". Asking for patience, the seller assured me, his "dear friend", that I would be compensated my $4 if the chunk of plastic failed to arrive within next millenium. As I said, it arrived yesterday, in time for the since cancelled ride to Florida. Oh well.

Bruce In His Element

It appears that I can no longer add to the original piece about ol' Bruce, so, as I find photos, I guess I'll just add them in new posts.

This is the perfect shot of Bruce...at his stereo, surrounded by his music, CD in hand, about to put on some tunes as we either play ping pong or thump football.  Seems like every time I went to his house, he was either sitting at the stereo or, in later years, at his computer fooling with the music.  He's wearing one of the Grateful Dead shirts I used to sell.  Often, when he wore this Jerry Garcia shirt, people would ask him why he had a pic of himself on his shirt.  When that hair was long and going wild, he damn sure did resemble Garcia!

I see a Treat Her Right album in the background, a Gate Band CD, a blues collection on top of one stack of CDs, and a Blind Boys of Alabama on top of the middle stack.  These old eyes can't make out anything else.

Let's see...open his door, "Whatcha doin'?", "Got a beer?",  "Let's go ride around."

Good times.

Wagner, ODU, EQT

http://grooveshark.com/#!/s/Tannhauser/2KmC7q?src=5 Other than cartoons, this piece was my introduction to classical music back about 1970 or so. Lee Pratt played this for me and Bruce at Lee's brother's house (the brother who later taught at Old Dominion...to whose home we hitchhiked thru the Smokies.) Same day I was made aware of Eric Quincy Tate.