Oooops

I wonder how many other members of the BMW Riders Association noticed the stray type fragment on the cover of the July-August issue of the club magazine, OTL.

The way it was in 1968

This is how newspaper writing was done 50 years ago.

This is me in The Indianapolis News City Room, hammering out a story on my Royal typewriter while smoking a cheap cigar. Notice the Indianapolis phone book. When was the last time you used a phone book?

More work for the mechanics

This is one of the rare occasions when I'm on a motorcycle without a helmet.

In this case, I'm just putting my K1200GT into the storage shed and passed in front of the all-seeing eye of the trailcam.

I've spent every morning this week dealing with automobile maintenance. On Monday, I took the Subaru in to see why it was making a disturbing noise that began in April when I had a right front brake caliper replaced. It had gotten so bad that I forbade Maria to drive it to work and it sat parked for about three months before I had time to get it looked at. Turns out it was a defective caliper and was replaced at no charge under warranty.

Tuesday morning's work was an oil change and lube on the Lexus.

When Maria went to drive the Subaru to work this morning, the battery was dead. Probably a result of sitting for three months, even though it did start for me on Monday morning. We jump started it from the Lexus and I drove it to the auto repair place and left it for battery testing and possible replacement, along with an oil change and lube.

Keeping our vehicles in good operating condition is turning out to be a fulltime job.

Family portrait

I celebrated my 73rd birthday today with a nostalgic trip to Delphi, Ind., my hometown.

Naturally, I had to drop in on my parents.

Dodged a bullet on mower repair

Maria and I loaded the John Deere LA125 lawn tractor onto our trailer and hauled it down to the Renolds Equipment John Deere dealership in Lebanon on Saturday morning, fearing the worst.

They called Tuesday and reported the starting problem was just a horribly corroded battery cable. I asked them to replace it and give me an oil change and lube.

I drove down this afternoon and collected my mower for a paltry $164 and change - something just short of a miracle! And I saved more than $120 by using my own trailer instead of their pick up and delivery service.

That trailer turned out to be a smart purchase.

Jack thought he had been insulted

I'm evaluating this dog bowl for the Amazon Vine Program. It's designed to make a dog eat more slowly and the little projections are supposed to clean the dog's teeth.

Jack is the oldest and probably the most in need of a teeth cleaning, so I'm trying it out on him.

His first impression? He looked at us with a mix of disbelief and insult. How could we play such a mean-spirited trick on him?

I fully expected him to overturn the bowl to get at the contents, but after a time he started nibbling away at his IAMS kibble and after a few hours of off-and-on eating, had consumed it all.

That was yesterday. He seemed reconciled to the bowl this morning and immediately set to eating when I brought him and Dora in for breakfast.

I'll keep an eye on his teeth to see if there is any improvement, since he's overdue for a cleaning.