Wednesday, May 30, 2018

I'm not really surprised by any of this


I had a 9 a.m. appointment today with the Indianapolis BMW motorcycle dealer to get my faulty battery replaced under warranty.

There's been rain in the forecast for several days as the remnants of a tropical disturbance make their way toward Indiana, so I was sweating having to ride the bike down to Indianapolis in rain.

But when I tried to start the bike, which had been on a battery tender for five or six days, the battery was dead.

So I called American Motorcyclist Association road service and ordered a wrecker. I used them last September for an identical problem and they sent a driver who thought he was picking up a BMW car and lacked the appropriate motorcycle dolly, which necessitated dispatching another wrecker the next day. (See photo above.)

So, true to form, when the wrecker showed up in my driveway a few minutes ago, he didn't have a dolly either. The towing company is now searching for a truck with a dolly as the rain inches closer and closer...

Saturday, May 26, 2018

Circus Minimus


The Culpepper & Merriweather Circus was in town yesterday.

Dora woke us up about 7:15 a.m. after she detected circus folks setting up in the park diagonally across from our house. It was a novel experience watching from our house as they unloaded cages of a lion and a tiger and our dogs fell strangely silent when the lion roared.

The Big Top was up on the Little League ball field by mid-morning and several of our neighbors joined me on the front porch to watch the proceedings.

There were performances at 5 and 7:30 p.m. and the roustabouts (I guess that's what they still call them) started tearing things down before the second show was over. They were gone by midnight.

And, no, we didn't attend.

Wednesday, May 23, 2018

The good news is that BMW warrantees batteries for 2 years

My 2003 BMW K1200GT is headed for the shop.

I rode it last Thursday and then parked it for six days to see if the battery would hold a charge.

I checked it this afternoon and it was flat again.

So I called Falcone Powersports in Indianapois, my local BMW motorcycle dealer, and made an appointment to ride down for service next Wednesday morning.

In the meantime, It's back on the charger.

Tuesday, May 22, 2018

Stay hydrated


This is what happens when you're pushing 73 and don't stay hydrated on a hot day.

I ended up in the Witham Hospital ER Sunday evening after nearly passing out at home. The initial fear, of course, was that I had a heart attack, so I chewed up the obligatory two low-dose Bayer aspirins while waiting for the EMTs. They did a quick EKG and determined there was nothing obviously wrong with my heart, but advised me to go to the hospital. Maria drove me there and the next stop was the ER (see photo above).

They gave me a chest x-ray to rule out a blood clot in the lungs, wired me up with a heart monitor and decided I should spend the right there.

Twelve mostly sleepless hours and a few blood tests later, they cut me loose with instructions to get hydrated and stay hydrated.

So I did and I am and now my GP wants to see me next Tuesday.

Friday, May 18, 2018

Makes iced coffee too


I got this Russell Hobbs coffee maker from the Amazon Vine Program last October and have used it almost every day since.

But its features conspire to leave me with coffee to thrown away the next morning. It turns off the heat after 40 minutes and most days that's too soon for a second cup. Happily, it only makes 8 cups instead of 12 like many coffee makers, so the waste isn't as bad as it could be.

I was lamenting the fact that I always have coffee left over at the end of the day the other evening when it finally dawned on me to pour the remaining coffee over ice, add sweetener and creamer and voila!, iced coffee.

Now I wonder why I didn't think of it long ago.

Thursday, May 17, 2018

Diagnosis pending


The GT spent the last couple of days on the BMW charger and it was showing solid green when I disconnected it and went for a ride this afternoon.

I made a point of unplugging the GPS at each stop - post office, veterinarian's office and DQ. When I went to plug it back in at Dairy Queen, I noticed green corrosion on the plug. I scraped as much off as I could with my fingernail, plugged it back in and rode home.

The bike is sitting in the shed without a charger connection and with the GPS plug out. I'll let it set for four or five days and then see if the battery is drained. If the battery isn't up to snuff after that time, I'll charge it again and take it to the BMW dealer in Indianapolis. It's only eight months old and almost certainly still under warranty.

Wednesday, May 16, 2018


This poster is on the bulletin board at the Thorntown Post Office. Note the reference to Thornton City Park.

O, frabjous day! Calloo! Callay!


I took the K75S out for a spin today, convinced that the surgery my neighbor Grumpy performed last week had failed to fix the speedo.

As expected, the speedo needle didn't move during the ride to the post office, but it miraculously came to life when I headed out of town on Ind. 47 and continued to perform consistently all the way to Dairy Queen, where I stopped for lunch.

Suddenly, I am happy with my bike.
I had the Indianapolis BMW motorcycle dealer install a new battery in my 2003 K1200GT in late September.

I had it on a battery tender off and on through the winter, but it was dead when I tried to start it last week. I gave it an overnight charge and it was good to go for a ride up to the Lafayette Sam's Club and down to Aldi in Lebanon. That was last Thursday. It was dead again when I tried to start it yesterday - five days later.

I find it hard to believe that an 8-month-old battery can fail like this and wonder if something isn't draining it. The first suspect is the Garmin Zumo 550 with Sirius XM radio.

So I put it back on the charger this morning and will leave the GPS disconnected to see if it still can't hold a charge. Either way, it's a sure thing I won't be riding to the European Riders Rally in Burkesville, Ky. this weekend.

Saturday, May 12, 2018

It's a Hafner


Sorting through random boxes from our moves to and from Arkansas, I found this Hafner wind-up O-gauge train set that my parents gave me for Christmas around 1950.

It's the closest I ever got to an electric train set, my parents being overly cautious about electricity.

Today, it enjoys a new life on our living room mantel.

Wednesday, May 09, 2018

It would seem that I've still got it


Back when I was a suburban bureau chief and reporter for The Indianapolis News, and later for The Indianapolis Star, I covered a lot of primary and general elections and spent several election nights in the Boone and Hamilton County courthouses.

Maria arranged for me to feed vote totals to the Associated Press last night from the Boone County primaries. I got minutely detailed instructions from the AP over the past couple of weeks and was just a little nervous about it since I haven't covered an election in more than 10 years and have never done it as an AP stringer.

I needn't have worried.

Old friends retired Judge Becky McClure and Debbie Ottinger greeted me like a long-lost relative at the clerk's office and Clerk Jessica Fouts did a superb job of feeding us the returns as they came in. The AP folks were easy to work with and the evening went smoothly.

I hadn't planned to take any photos, so I left my Nikon at home.

But when the crowd outside the clerk's office exploded with shrieks and cheers at 8:15 p.m. with the news that Lori Schein had scored the upset of the evening, beating County Attorney Todd Meyer and another attorney for the Republican nomination for judge of Boone Circuit Court, I stepped outside and fired five quick photos with my iPhone. The one shown here dominates the front page of The Lebanon Reporter this morning. I can't recall taking a better election photo in my 30-some years in newspapers. And I did it with a chickenshit little cell phone camera.

I love being able to play newspaper on my own terms.

Tuesday, May 08, 2018

Capt. Kroon's V-E Day letter

Seventy-three years ago today, Capt. Philip C. Kroon, an artillery officer with the U.S. Army's 144th Field Artillery Group, took pen in hand in the garden outside an Austrian hotel and wrote a letter to his young bride in Redlands, Calif.
It was V-E Day - Victory in Europe Day - and the young captain from Grand Rapids, Mich., had been in combat since his unit came ashore in Normandy a few weeks after the June 6, 1944, invasion. He was looking forward to coming home, but mindful that the war against Japan seemed far from finished and that he might be needed in the Pacific Theatre.
Here is what he wrote on a sheet of Adolf Hitler's personal letterhead, liberated a day or two earlier from the Führer's Berghof retreat at nearby Berchtesgaden:

My adored wife,
Finally the work of the past year for me and over three years for the nation is completed. The war here is over completely. Of course, we are glad it is over, but to us it is sort of an anti-climax. For nearly two months now, we have completely routed the Germans. During the past few days we have seen steady streams of German soldiers marching to the rear. At some places, even the super-highway is jammed. It was a sight never to forget and one that only happens once in a lifetime. I wanted to get some pictures of it, but my camera was stolen some time ago. I didn't tell you because I didn't want you to worry. I now have another very good German camera that I took from a German soldier, so am better equipped than before.
Now that we are no longer at war here, I should have more time to write you and expect to get off better than one letter every five or six days. In fact, it's now been seven days this time. I'm sorry, darling. I'll try to make it up to you.
About a week ago I went through the Dachau concentration camp. Any pictures you see or stories you hear are only a small part of the picture. The stench was indescribable as well as the actual scenes. I saw some of the toughest soldiers nauseated. I won't tell you any details for they shouldn't be put on paper. It was the most terrible thing I have ever seen.
In contrast, a couple of days ago I went through one of Hitler's palaces -not the one at Berchtesgaden, but an old Hapsburg palace that he took over. It was a paragon of beauty and symmetry. In the two main floors was not a sign of Nazi Occupation except that most of the furnishings had been looted, mainly from France.
The walls were covered with priceless tapestries, the floors with thick pile rugs. We were nearly the first soldiers in the place and looked through it by ourselves. We went snooping in the cellar and came across two storage rooms. One was nearly filled with medals, of which I have a few choice ones. I also found one silver knife (not table) in the house - the only one there, so I suppose it belonged to Hitler. In another room, we found some stationery, of which this is the choicest. His personal. I have quite a bit of it and will send it home. You can give a sheet to various people, but save some of each kind, especially this with just "Der Führer" on it. I also came across some other excellent souvenirs - Onep&j pair of field glasses - the best I have ever seen - fifteen power - this may not mean much to you, but they are two and ½ times as powerful as the ones I and Pop used to have The must be worth three or four hundred dollars. I also have a pair of Luftwaffe swords that are not in the best of shape but will look good fixed up and crossed in my den if I ever have one.
Guess what, Sweets. I shaved off my mustache today - because the war is over. No one noticed it so I guess it couldn't have been so good. I'm not making any plans for a quick return home, beloved, nor am I getting any fancy ideas about it. I would give anything just to spend a few weeks with you, but there is much to be done, both here and in the Orient and I'm sure I'll be one place or the other.
Some will get to go home on their way to the Pacific and rumors are already afloat, but I'm not counting on anything - then we won't have the disappointment.
These Bavarian Alps are really beautiful, dearest mine. They are all snow covered yet, although we are not very high and last week we had snow in Munich. Today was marvelous. The view of the mountains is similar to that from our front yard, though the mountains are much closer and not as high.
During the last mad rush we have been getting practically no mail and I'm way behind, although today I got the letter you wrote on the eve of our anniversary. Sweet - just as they all are - but why not, with the sweetest wife in the world writing them. I wish my letters would get there more regularly. You probably have had a batch since that time, but it is nicer when they come spread over a long time.
Darling, I adore you completely. I don't dream of you often, but that isn't my fault. When I'm awake I can control my thoughts and they always include you. Always I wish you could share the beautiful scenery and the old German cities - Worms, Nurnberg, Augsberg, Munich, Saltzburg and the rest with me. Maybe, in future years, after they are rebuilt we will see them together. Anything we could do together would be wonderful. One thing in particular - I miss you so, Jeanie. I'll always adore you.
Your only Phil
P.S.
A little picture of you know who.
Capt. Kroon came home six months later. He made a career of the army, taking a reduction in rank to sergeant in order to remain in a downsized postwar military. His last duty post was as an instructor in the Reserve Officer Training Corps program at Purdue University. Following his retirement, he worked for the U.S. Postal Service. He died of cancer in 1988. Diane, the first of his three daughters, was born Oct. 30, 1946, and grew up to be my first wife.

Sunday, May 06, 2018

Legendary shirt


I rediscovered this legendary Henley this morning while rotating shirts in and out of an under-bed storage bin. The BMW slogan dates from the 1980s.

Tuesday, May 01, 2018

Happy Birthday, Dora


Our lovely Dora Flora is five years old today!

She makes us very happy and Jack loves her dearly.