Tuesday, March 19, 2013

End of winter thoughts

Spring is less than 15 hours away, but it will be a week from Thursday before the temperature rises above 60 degrees.

And winter is dealing a late cheap shot of snow to the northeast.

This winter was maybe slightly more severe for the Mid-South, but mild by Indiana standards. We had a “blizzard” that would only qualify as a routine 5” snowstorm in north central Indiana where I grew up.

As far as I know, none of my Indiana BMW friends made it to Daytona because a snow storm buried them. The only exceptions were Indianapolis BMW Club members now living in Florida. My ride to and from Daytona was cold, but the days were sunny and snow-free.

You may recall that I had to leave my Gerbings heated jacket liner at home after it blew the accessory fuse on my bike. I asked the BMW MOA forum if I could replace the stock 7.5 amp fuse with a 10 or 20 amp fuse to handle the load of heated gear and a GPS. I was rewarded with an even better solution – connect the heated gear directly to the battery with the stock Gerbings wiring. I had the connecting wiring at one time, but a search of the garage late last week failed to turn it up. Grass Roots BMW Motorcycles, where I have my bikes serviced, is a Gerbings dealer, so I’ll just have them do the wiring next time I’m up in Cape Girardeau for service.

I’m about halfway through figuring our income taxes and expect to have that onerous task completed by the end of the week unless procrastination intervenes.

I remember my dad doing his tax returns at the kitchen table with a big yellow legal pad and the big clunky mechanical adding machine he brought home from his office for the task. Coffee, a few sharpened pencils and a pack of cigarettes complete the tableau. The tax code was much simpler in those days. I think he would be impressed with the H&R Block tax software I use now.

No comments: