For me, Quiet Journal = Normal Life
Nov. 23rd, 2002 02:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tugrikToo busy to post? Nothing huge going on? No, not really. Mostly it's just that everything's going quite good, but also quite normal. This leads me to not have things pop to mind that are journal-worthy. That's soon to change, though.
This weekend is an unexpected free period. About 4 different social obligations and one work-related one all fell through. While this is normally a good thing -- the time freed up at about 5pm on Friday. Enough time to know that I shouldn't waste the weekend, but not enough time to find an available buddy and go for a good long ride. Those take at least a little bit of planning. Heck, I would have gone with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
learnteach to the Cal BMW / Doc Wong dual-sport training class this weekend, but by the time I knew I would be able to the classroom portion was already underway. Hrmf. I don't think they'd take kindly to me showing up for the Hollister portion on Sunday without having taken the classwork first.
The evening consided of a relaxing dinner-and-TiVo with friends. While my PVR may not be a TiVo proper, it's still a good noun (and verb) to use. Most folks know what you mean when you say you're going to watch TiVo, but give you funny stares when you say you're going to watch what's recorded on your PVR. Of the many shows caught back up on this included an episode of South Park thatreality_fox said I must see. Fox -- damn you. Damn You. That broke my brain. Ow.
10pm rolls around and the friends-and-TiVo comes to an end. I still have utterly no plans. Most the folks I know online had ambled on to other things, stores had closed and I wasn't tired in the least. So... time to tear into the bike. That's why I picked the icon for this entry that I did.
The PIAA 2ndary light system on the GS has been giving me some trouble. These are the massive 'fill lights' that sit on the crash-bars of the GS. They were shorting out fuses for no easily-discernable reason. To fix this requires minor but time-consuming surgery: removing the gas tank, getting under wiring harnesses, metering things out, and so on. Additionally they've been perched on the crash bars at an awkward angle since their installation back in March. I've tried a few times to have new brackets made but never could quite get around to it. This time a new person on the Adventure Rider board I frequent had a very easy little mod he did on the same old brackets I had, and it looked great. I wanted to give that a try.
A few hours, a half bag of zip-ties, new wire-runs and a good bit of dremel-usage later, and all was done. The lights are finally level and installed much more securely on the bike. I improved on the suggestion and found a way to crimp the mounting and keep the lights inside the diameter of the crash-bars, even. Tomorrow I'll take some photos and post 'em as a reply on the Adventure board for others to use (tech info sharing r0xx0rz). I took the GS for a test-ride over Shannon road, and happily lit up the countryside with all six lights blaring (low beam, hi beam, 2 driving lights, 2 PIAAs). The experience was seriously improved. I was able to see the reflection in the deer's eyes at quite a distance the first time, and the brown fuzz of the 2nd one early enough to slow safely while exiting a corner (Shannon road is notorious for road-dwelling deer).
The bike's now cleaned, lit, 6000-mi service completed, insured, and the tankbag/panniers properly re-mounted. It's sitting in the garage looking for all the world like a little kid who can't wait to go to Disneyland in the morning. The next 2 days are free, the weather is cool & dry and I have a little bit of safety buffer in the wallet. It feels good to be prepared, as it were, even though I still have no plans.
Hopefully something will inspire me when I wake and I'll disappear for the rest of the weekend. If not, it'll sure feel like a waste when Monday rolls around.
This weekend is an unexpected free period. About 4 different social obligations and one work-related one all fell through. While this is normally a good thing -- the time freed up at about 5pm on Friday. Enough time to know that I shouldn't waste the weekend, but not enough time to find an available buddy and go for a good long ride. Those take at least a little bit of planning. Heck, I would have gone with
learnteach to the Cal BMW / Doc Wong dual-sport training class this weekend, but by the time I knew I would be able to the classroom portion was already underway. Hrmf. I don't think they'd take kindly to me showing up for the Hollister portion on Sunday without having taken the classwork first.The evening consided of a relaxing dinner-and-TiVo with friends. While my PVR may not be a TiVo proper, it's still a good noun (and verb) to use. Most folks know what you mean when you say you're going to watch TiVo, but give you funny stares when you say you're going to watch what's recorded on your PVR. Of the many shows caught back up on this included an episode of South Park that
reality_fox said I must see. Fox -- damn you. Damn You. That broke my brain. Ow. 10pm rolls around and the friends-and-TiVo comes to an end. I still have utterly no plans. Most the folks I know online had ambled on to other things, stores had closed and I wasn't tired in the least. So... time to tear into the bike. That's why I picked the icon for this entry that I did.
The PIAA 2ndary light system on the GS has been giving me some trouble. These are the massive 'fill lights' that sit on the crash-bars of the GS. They were shorting out fuses for no easily-discernable reason. To fix this requires minor but time-consuming surgery: removing the gas tank, getting under wiring harnesses, metering things out, and so on. Additionally they've been perched on the crash bars at an awkward angle since their installation back in March. I've tried a few times to have new brackets made but never could quite get around to it. This time a new person on the Adventure Rider board I frequent had a very easy little mod he did on the same old brackets I had, and it looked great. I wanted to give that a try.
A few hours, a half bag of zip-ties, new wire-runs and a good bit of dremel-usage later, and all was done. The lights are finally level and installed much more securely on the bike. I improved on the suggestion and found a way to crimp the mounting and keep the lights inside the diameter of the crash-bars, even. Tomorrow I'll take some photos and post 'em as a reply on the Adventure board for others to use (tech info sharing r0xx0rz). I took the GS for a test-ride over Shannon road, and happily lit up the countryside with all six lights blaring (low beam, hi beam, 2 driving lights, 2 PIAAs). The experience was seriously improved. I was able to see the reflection in the deer's eyes at quite a distance the first time, and the brown fuzz of the 2nd one early enough to slow safely while exiting a corner (Shannon road is notorious for road-dwelling deer).
The bike's now cleaned, lit, 6000-mi service completed, insured, and the tankbag/panniers properly re-mounted. It's sitting in the garage looking for all the world like a little kid who can't wait to go to Disneyland in the morning. The next 2 days are free, the weather is cool & dry and I have a little bit of safety buffer in the wallet. It feels good to be prepared, as it were, even though I still have no plans.
Hopefully something will inspire me when I wake and I'll disappear for the rest of the weekend. If not, it'll sure feel like a waste when Monday rolls around.
