I need to update more often, since I usually just let the days go by in a blur, and this is not good. On the good side, nobody I know is probably going to read this, and I can prattle on aimlessly.
I met an old friend for dinner, he works at Lockheed now and so we decided to get together. That went really well, then at the end, my mother called. Turns out she wants me to send her $250/week to live off of. I guess this means my uncle has gotten her cut off from the money she gets from my grandmother.
That's a soap opera you want to stay clear of! My mother hasn't worked a day in her life, and she's going to be surprised if she's expecting Social Security money. It's sad. She got a degree in computer science back in the '60s then trotted back home to live with her parents, and my grandmother has controlled her ever since.
My grandparents owned a big Western store in Ocala, and made some decent money from it. My mother worked there, but it was all under the table of course.
Life with my mother was a continual battle, and she would beat the crap out of me at the drop of a hat. I got tired of that, and I was glad to move to Orlando to go to UCF. In all the years I've been here, she's only visited me twice, and once was to beat me up over getting a job and buying my motorcycle. This was because they would only pay to fix my car if I was a good boy and did everything they told me. Screw that.
Once when I went home to visit, it was freezing cold, so I froze my ass off for 90 miles since I was too broke to afford a decent jacket. I was hungry when I got there, and so I was going to pick something up for us at Wendy's or something. So then my mother goes off on how I'm "not riding that bike around and waking up the neighbors." I wasn't in the mood for this sort of crap, so I said I was leaving, and as I was going out the door, she ripped the phone out of the wall and threw it at me.
That was 7 or 8 years ago and I haven't heard from her since.
Then one night in March she calls me from out of the blue and I find out that the hurricanes trashed her house and she's living in a trailer. Yup, the old oak over the kitchen window totally destroyed the roof. At this point I would like to say "I told you so" to all concerned.
Anyway she wants me to call around and get it fixed. I have no idea how to do this, and I don't think it can be fixed. The insurance company gave her money, but I'm not sure how much it is, or how much of it she's spent. It's that "she won't talk about money" crap all over again. Well fine. She can sit in her trailer.
I did fix the toilets so she doesn't have to crap in a bucket in the shower any more.
I was planning on going back, but I'm not going to miss MotoGP, the lawn needs to be mowed, and I had to take the DL-650 into the shop. It's developed some sort of surging problem. The tech says it's a dirty air filter, but the damn thing only has 6k on it total.
My other bike, the SV-650 needed some clutch work. I needed to put stock springs in, clean up the edges of the clutch basket fingers, and adjust everything. I discovered that you can pull the clutch out w/o draining the oil if you leave it on the sidestand. BONUS!
I even set up my portable A/C unit and put a flood light on a camera tripod. The parts looked so cool I took pictures of everything. You can reach in and spin the gear for the oil pump. You can also see the shift cam, and the gear on the end of the crank, and the cam chain. Very neat!
So everything goes swimmingly, until I go to adjust the cable mechanism on the other side, and the goddamn work stand drops the bike on it's side on the floor! I found out I couldn't pick it up, so I yelled for Mike to help, and he and the next door neighbor helped me pick it back up. It wasn't damaged, thank god.
I distroyed the work stand with a pipe cutter, so I'll never use that damn thing again. I was so absolutely furious I just went and crashed out for a couple of hours.
I got up and leaned the bike the other way on a jack stand so I could get to the mech I needed to adjust. I put it back together and rode it around, and it's MUCH nicer. I went to Baskin-Robbins for a celebratory banana split.
Let's see... oh yeah... I also got a little electric toy helicopter, and I've actually learned to fly it. It's really stable for a helicopter and it's a blast to fly. I can hover it in the living room.
I also got my house refinanced fixed-rate, so I don't have the floating interest rate looming in the horizon any more. I had crap credit so I had to accept a crap mortgage, but it's getting better now. Yay!
Hm. Well, that's about all the exciting things going on.
I met an old friend for dinner, he works at Lockheed now and so we decided to get together. That went really well, then at the end, my mother called. Turns out she wants me to send her $250/week to live off of. I guess this means my uncle has gotten her cut off from the money she gets from my grandmother.
That's a soap opera you want to stay clear of! My mother hasn't worked a day in her life, and she's going to be surprised if she's expecting Social Security money. It's sad. She got a degree in computer science back in the '60s then trotted back home to live with her parents, and my grandmother has controlled her ever since.
My grandparents owned a big Western store in Ocala, and made some decent money from it. My mother worked there, but it was all under the table of course.
Life with my mother was a continual battle, and she would beat the crap out of me at the drop of a hat. I got tired of that, and I was glad to move to Orlando to go to UCF. In all the years I've been here, she's only visited me twice, and once was to beat me up over getting a job and buying my motorcycle. This was because they would only pay to fix my car if I was a good boy and did everything they told me. Screw that.
Once when I went home to visit, it was freezing cold, so I froze my ass off for 90 miles since I was too broke to afford a decent jacket. I was hungry when I got there, and so I was going to pick something up for us at Wendy's or something. So then my mother goes off on how I'm "not riding that bike around and waking up the neighbors." I wasn't in the mood for this sort of crap, so I said I was leaving, and as I was going out the door, she ripped the phone out of the wall and threw it at me.
That was 7 or 8 years ago and I haven't heard from her since.
Then one night in March she calls me from out of the blue and I find out that the hurricanes trashed her house and she's living in a trailer. Yup, the old oak over the kitchen window totally destroyed the roof. At this point I would like to say "I told you so" to all concerned.
Anyway she wants me to call around and get it fixed. I have no idea how to do this, and I don't think it can be fixed. The insurance company gave her money, but I'm not sure how much it is, or how much of it she's spent. It's that "she won't talk about money" crap all over again. Well fine. She can sit in her trailer.
I did fix the toilets so she doesn't have to crap in a bucket in the shower any more.
I was planning on going back, but I'm not going to miss MotoGP, the lawn needs to be mowed, and I had to take the DL-650 into the shop. It's developed some sort of surging problem. The tech says it's a dirty air filter, but the damn thing only has 6k on it total.
My other bike, the SV-650 needed some clutch work. I needed to put stock springs in, clean up the edges of the clutch basket fingers, and adjust everything. I discovered that you can pull the clutch out w/o draining the oil if you leave it on the sidestand. BONUS!
I even set up my portable A/C unit and put a flood light on a camera tripod. The parts looked so cool I took pictures of everything. You can reach in and spin the gear for the oil pump. You can also see the shift cam, and the gear on the end of the crank, and the cam chain. Very neat!
So everything goes swimmingly, until I go to adjust the cable mechanism on the other side, and the goddamn work stand drops the bike on it's side on the floor! I found out I couldn't pick it up, so I yelled for Mike to help, and he and the next door neighbor helped me pick it back up. It wasn't damaged, thank god.
I distroyed the work stand with a pipe cutter, so I'll never use that damn thing again. I was so absolutely furious I just went and crashed out for a couple of hours.
I got up and leaned the bike the other way on a jack stand so I could get to the mech I needed to adjust. I put it back together and rode it around, and it's MUCH nicer. I went to Baskin-Robbins for a celebratory banana split.
Let's see... oh yeah... I also got a little electric toy helicopter, and I've actually learned to fly it. It's really stable for a helicopter and it's a blast to fly. I can hover it in the living room.
I also got my house refinanced fixed-rate, so I don't have the floating interest rate looming in the horizon any more. I had crap credit so I had to accept a crap mortgage, but it's getting better now. Yay!
Hm. Well, that's about all the exciting things going on.