It’s always something

I should have listened to my inner voice when it whispered that I should look into a back up set of in-ear monitors from one of several vendors at the rally last weekend.

That’s because the left speaker – the one Marilyn Navia repaired for me a couple of weeks ago – quit working today. No external sign of damage and no tugs on the wire. I thought I noticed it dropping out as I rode up to Portland yesterday from Redmond, but chalked it up to my imagination.

So now I get to ride the rest of the trip with only the right speaker functioning, which of course is better than none.

I made the discovery when I prepared to ride back to Sean’s place from BMW Motorcycles of Western Oregon in Tigard, having sorted out one of my major concerns with my bike. You may recall that I discovered I had a dead low beam headlight bulb about an hour after I left home on July 11. I’ve been riding on high beam ever since, waiting for a chance to get it replaced by a dealer. That’s because a headlight bulb on my bike is a major undertaking – there is very little room for human hands under the fairing, thanks to the presence of the motor that raises and lowers the windscreen. It’s so tight that mechanics prefer to dismantle part of the fairing rather than replace bulbs “by the book.”

I did it once back in June of 2004 and vowed I’d never try it again. Since then, I’ve lived in constant dread of a burned out headlight bulb and wished for a headlight system that was immune to such failure. While it’s not the ultimate solution of an HID conversion kit, the PIAA bulbs have a one-year warranty and a considerably longer life expectancy.

I also took a stab at another problem/want. I found some bifocal sunglasses on Amazon.com for $19.99 with the option of next-day shipping. Problem is, I’m not sure what level of magnification is right for me. They range from +1.25 to 2.50. With only 9 minutes left to place my order in time for delivery tomorrow, I didn’t have time to run down to Walgreens and try on a few pairs to see what works best. So I gambled that +2.00 would work and fired off an order. They gotta be better than plain sunglasses and for only $19.99, it was worth a try.

We’ll know tomorrow.

I crunched some mileage numbers this afternoon and determined I need to leave Wednesday morning in order to have a full day with Steve, Nicky and Lisa in Las Vegas before Steve and Lisa fly off to Chicago on Monday for a doctor appointment.

So I’m aiming for Arcata, Calif. Wednesday night, Gilroy, Calif. on Thursday night, San Simeon, Calif. Friday night, Las Vegas, Saturday night, Albuquerque Monday night, Oklahoma City on Tuesday night and home on Wednesday. That’s the plan, at least. Ted Simon likes to say the interruptions are the journey. But I don’t like troublesome interruptions.