Stein of the Day

This half-liter stein commemorates Reg Pridmore’s 1976 racing campaign that won him the very first AMA Superbike Championship.

Pridmore competed on a BMW R90S sponsored by Butler & Smith, the Norwood, N.J. and Compton, Calif. importers of BMW motorcycles to the United States.

The British-born Pridmore was inducted into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 2002. He celebrated his 70th birthday last July 15. He was also the founder of the CLASS motorcycle schools.

His son Jason became an AMA road racing champion of the 1990s and early 2000s.

The worst job I ever had

Yes, I was once a member of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, Local 3154.

I had flunked out of Indiana State University after my sophomore year and had to lay out a semester before I could come back. So I got a job at the RCA TV and stereo cabinet factory in Monticello, Ind.

It was a union shop, so I joined the union. I hated the union because it promoted mediocrity and protected useless employees.

I also hated my job. I worked my way up to being a hand-sander on the production line. That meant I used sandpaper and a wedge-shaped sanding block to smooth out corners and sand off extruded glue from joints in the cabinets as they came down the conveyor line.

If you were around in 1965, you may remember it was the year when the Vietnam War really heated up and thousands of guys like me, who didn’t have student deferments, were getting drafted.

In the interest of having some small measure of control over my destiny, I enlisted in the Air Force on Sept. 22, 1965 and was sent to Lackland Air Force Base at San Antonio, Texas for basic training.

When my flight went to get photographed and fingerprinted for our military IDs, it was discovered that I had no fingerprints on my right hand – they had been obliterated by months of working with sandpaper.

I was called back to the ID shop a couple of times for re-fingerprinting, but they never did get a good set of prints from me, thanks to RCA. I suspect the guys doing the fingerprinting thought I did it on purpose for some nefarious reason.

It didn’t matter, because I got a medical discharge for allergies after a mere 41 days in uniform.

I went back to work at RCA until the spring semester of 1966. When I quit to go back to school, I vowed never to work in a factory again.

Roadside confusion

My 2003 BMW K1200GT came with the BMW Motorrad Roadside Assistance Plan, handled by the Cross Country Motor Club.

When it lapsed, I renewed and I carried their membership card in my wallet whenever I rode.

I found a letter from Cross Country in my mailbox last week and supposed it was time to renews.

How wrong. It said, in part:

We regret to inform you that the plan will no longer be offered. But you can be assured that your contract to receive roadside assistance will be honored through the end of your current plan coverage.

All your features and benefits will remain available until your BMW Motorrad USA Roadside Assistance Plan coverage expires 02/22/10.

No explanation about why Cross Country and BMW were parting ways and no suggestion about what to do next.

I called Herb Anderson, owner of Grass Roots BMW Motorcycles at Cape Girardeau, Mo., to ask what BMW Motorrad USA is going to do about roadside assistance. Herb had heard nothing from the BMW folks, but promised to get to the bottom of it for me.

We finally connected yesterday and he gave me a phone number for the firm that is taking over the roadside assistance program. He had no idea why things were changing and said he had to talk to several people at BMW HQ before he found someone who could give him the phone number.

I did a little poking around on the internet and found this notice on the BMW of Cleveland web site:

Effective January 15, 2009
BMW ROADSIDE ASSISTANCE
will changeover from Cross Country to Signature Motor Club.
The Roadside Assistance Number will remain the same:
877-680-2176

Effective Jan 15, 2009? 2009? WTF?

That’s the phone number Herb gave me, so I guess I’ll give them a call next week and see what I have to do to get covered.

I don’t fancy hitting the road without coverage, especially since Cross Country rescued me when I had a flat back tire in Kit Carson, Colo. and hauled me and my bike 100 miles back to the dealer in Colorado Springs in the summer of 2008.

I’m a teacher again

I’m heading back to the classroom for six weeks, starting Feb. 4.

I agreed to teach an advanced digital photography course at the senior center from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. on six successive Thursdays.

Another guy is teaching a beginning digital photography class at the same time.

We met with the activities director this afternoon and sorted out the basic details.

Paper Cameras

I love this YouTube comment:

Is that Sean Flora on bass? It took him until 2:20 to assume the rock power stance and that is when the heavens opened.

Need more pockets?

  I’m on the email list for Travel Smith, the place where I got my bush jacket a few months ago. This morning’s offering included a “Men’s Microsuede Travel Essentials Jacket” that features 39 pockets.

It’s designed by Scott Jordan, creator of the Scott Evest, a line of multi-pocket garments to accommodate all of your iPods, cell phones, GPS units, etc.

Here are the specs:

Stain-Free and Tech-Ready SCOTTEVEST® for TravelSmith®
Intelligent design? Look no further. This handsome, stain-free microsuede bomber jacket is engineered for every travel need - and has 39 pockets to prove it. Specially sized pockets hold tickets, passport, camera, cell phone, and glasses; in the back, a large zippered compartment holds maps. And if you never leave home without a full complement of electronic gadgets, you’re well covered: The jacket’s interior has pockets for PDA, cell phone, and MP3 player, and a clever channelling system to contain and direct cords and earbuds. All pockets are secure; some are zippered, others close with magnets. (To prevent data loss, keep electronic equipment away from magnets.) In soft polyester microsuede treated with Teflon® to repel stains; fully lined. Imported.
Microsuede Travel Essentials Jacket
Sizes: M(38-40), L(42-44), XL(46-48), XXL(50-52).

It was $199.50, but it’s marked down to $99.98. You can check it out here.

Clearing the land

The heavy equipment did a considerable amount of work yesterday, clearing the brush and moving dirt on the lot south of our house.

I got out early this morning while the frost was still on the grass and before the crew showed up for work and shot a couple of panorama photos to record the scope of the job so far.

There’s enough scrub left on our side of the line to let us cultivate a screen of vegetation and maintain at least the illusion of wooded isolation to the south.

Stein of the Day

This stein bears the insignia of the Luftwaffe, the German air force in World War II.

I’m almost certain it was made for collectors sometime after WWII. I can’t recall where I got it.

There goes the neighborhood

I noticed the beeping of heavy equipment backing up a few minutes ago and looked out to see the wooded view out our back door has been seriously compromised.

A crew working with a backhoe and a bulldozer is busy clearing the lot along our southern boundary, a sure sign we’ll have neighbors living there by this time next year. This comes as no big surprise, since I chatted with a surveying crew back there a few weeks ago and soon after test holes for soil percolation tests appeared.

We liked it vacant and woodsy, but it’s beyond our control. Happily, there are no plans to lay waste to the woods that border our property on the west.

Stein of the Day

This pint stein belonged to my late father-in-law Capt. Phil Kroon, who served in the U.S. Army artillery in the European Theatre of World War II.

It commemorates the service of the 208th and 124th Field Artillery Battalions. On the reverse is a list of these campaigns:

• Normandy
• Northern France
• Central Europe
• Ardennes-Alsace
• Rhineland

It was given to attendees of a reunion of the veterans of the 208th and 124th.

Just sayin’

Looks a little like Chrissy Hynde

FOXNews.com - ROXXXY, the World's First Life-Size Robot Girlfriend

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Feels like spring

JONESBORO, Ark. – The cold wave has broken and it feels like spring here this morning.

It’s sunny and 35 degrees, but it feels much warmer. Maybe that’s just a reaction to spending several days in a freezer.

It was truly bizarre to drive down two-lane state roads southeast of Baton Rouge, La. on Saturday morning and see Spanish moss hanging from trees standing in frozen swamps. However miserable people in Arkansas were with the cold snap, it must have been absolutely horrible for folks in the Deep South where insulation and furnaces aren’t considered essential home equipment.

I’ve decided to take on another digital photography class at the senior center. Happily, another guy is interested in teaching an introductory class, making it possible for me to do something more advanced.

I enjoyed teaching an introductory class in the fall of 2008, but it drew a wide range of students, ranging from experienced photographers to older people who were struggling with the basics of Windows. It’s very frustrating to talk about f-stops and depth of field to people who just want to be able to get their images out of their cameras and into their computers, then be able to find them again in the computer. It’s amazing to me how few people understand the directory tree structure of a PC. I ended up spending more time on Windows and computer basics than on photography.

I need to set some basic qualifications for my class, like:

• Know how to download photos from your camera and find them on your computer.
• Know how to e-mail a photo.

Then maybe I can talk about composition, depth of field, HDR, Photoshop, stuff like that. It’s tempting to make ownership of a digital SLR a requirement, but that would probably limit the class size to two or three people.

Stein of the Day

Well, it’s not a true stein because it’s glass, and the Germans call it a seidel (beer mug). This half-liter seidel celebrates the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Lamm-Bräu brewery in Schwieberdingen, Germany.

The report from Excitement Central

It’s a slow, casual, ultra-relaxed Sunday afternoon around here. Maria is quilting, I’m blogging and surfing and futzing around with computer stuff and the dogs are napping. Ruthie, all cozy warm in her polar fleece coat, is in her favorite spot on the couch. Pete, protected by his heavy natural winter coat, is on the back porch, guarding the back door.

Stein of the Day

Just a generic half-liter Beck’s Beer stein.

Mission accomplished

 

I’m home from a 900-mile road trip to Saint Amant, La. and back to help BMW friend Charlie pick up a bike he bought on Ebay for his wife.

It’s a 2006 BMW R1200GS and here’s a shot of Charlie (in the hat and yellow jacket) securing it to his trailer at the home of the seller.

We got up about 6:30 a.m. today and Charlie’s cold was much worse. He was coughing and could hardly speak – mostly just croak. We availed ourselves of the free Comfort Inn breakfast – rather Spartan compare with the one served in Dodge City, Kans. – and headed into Cajun country to complete the bike transaction.

It was only 24 degrees and Charlie realized he was in no shape to take the bike for a test ride. The seller seemed like a straight-ahead BMW rider type and the bike looked immaculate and sounded perfect when he fired it up, so Charlie paid him and we loaded it onto the trailer.

It was clear to me that Charlie was near the end of his physical endurance, so I took over the driving duties when we got back up to I-12 and drove the 430 miles back to Jonesboro while Charlie mostly slept.

I checked out the men’s rest room at the Shell station at the Durant, Miss. exit on I-55 and was dazzled to notice the wall-mounted condom vending machine also dispenses something called “Genuine Horny Goat Weed” for only $1. I kept my quarters in my pocket.

We rolled into Charlie’s driveway about 5:15 p.m.

Stein of the Day

This is a lidded half-liter stein featuring a view of the old city of Munich, Germany. It was sold in some BMW motorcycle dealerships back in the 1990s.

Road trip!♦

AMITE, La. – Charlie and I are on a road trip tonight and tomorrow to pick up the BMW motorcycle he bought on Ebay last weekend.

The bike is at Saint Amant, La., which is about 40 miles south of here.

We left home about 3:30 p.m. That’s Charlie gassing his Toyota FJ  in Jackson, Miss., where it was 24 degrees, but it felt much colder. You can see his breath if you look closely.

We finally went to ground about 10 p.m. at the Amite, La. at the Comfort Inn. But not before we stopped at a gas station and bought a six-pack of Abita Ale, a Louisiana brew. It’s their Christmas ale and it’s not bad.

We’ve got about an hour’s drive tomorrow morning to where the bike resides, Charlie will test ride it and, assuming nothing is wrong, pay the guy, we’ll load the bike on his trailer and haul ass for home.

I spent about 90 minutes this afternoon at the Sprint store and completely transformed our/my Sprint situation.

Working with a very astute Sprint kid, he restructured our Sprint plan, saving us enough money to add a Sprint G3/G4 Internet dongle for my netbook without raising our phone bill. And, the new plan gives everyone on our plan – me, Maria, Morgan and Austin – unlimited texting.

And since I qualified for a phone upgrade, I swapped my Palm Treo 700p for a just-released Lotus flip phone. And they were able to transfer my 500+ item contact list from my old  phone to the new one. Cool, huh?

Of course, I’ve missed several calls because I don’t recognize the ring tone on the new phone.

They’d rather stay at Gitmo

By: MARK HEMINGWAY
Washington Examiner Commentary Staff Writer
01/07/10 11:43 AM EST

Buried in a blog item by Newsweek's ace reporter Michael Isikoff is a bombshell. Apparently lawyers for Guantanamo detainees want to keep their clients in Guantanamo, rather than transfer them to the Obama administration's proposed new prison in Illinois:

But the final irony is that many of the detainees may not even want to be transferred to Thomson and could conceivably even raise their own legal roadblocks to allow them to stay at Gitmo.
Falkoff notes that many of his clients, while they clearly want to go home, are at least being held under Geneva Convention conditions in Guantánamo. At Thomson, he notes, the plans call for them to be thrown into the equivalent of a "supermax" security prison under near-lockdown conditions.
"As far as our clients are concerned, it's probably preferable for them to remain at Guantánamo," he says.

The strident left-wing critiques of the Guantanamo facility have all centered around the fact that detainees there are horribly mistreated and conditions unbearable. But when push comes to shove, it would seem concerns about Guantanamo are overblown, and the prisoners there know that being held under the Geneva conventions outside the U.S. is much preferable to a maximum security prison in the U.S.

Tradeoffs

I figured I had three choices for Wifi and hot chocolate in town this morning – Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, and Hastings.

I figured Barnes & Noble’s cafe would be full of kids, since the schools are closed because of the cold (13°F at the moment, but it feels like -1°F) and I didn’t want to be frozen at Hastings every time someone came through the door, so I opted for Books-a-Million.

But Books-a-Million has a downside too. Their Internet connection is spotty. It took me five tries to load the Weather Channel web site just now.

I had a Skype chat with Dom LoDuca up in Indianapolis earlier this morning and was chagrined to learn it’s warmer there and it is here. The cold is pretty much all the locals can think of to talk about. I guess I have to be somewhat sympathetic, since this cold snap is way out of their comfort zone and most people around here just want their mild winter back. Come to think of it, so do I.

We’re supposed to see highs in the 40s as early as next Monday.

Yikes

I’m up before 6 a.m. and it’s a chilly 8 degrees here.

The average low temperature for this time of year is 26. Today’s high is expected to be 21, compared with an average for this date of about 45.

Stein of the Day

This lidded half-liter stein commemorates the first BMW motorcycle, the R32, introduced in 1923.

It featured the original air-cooled boxer twin engine with a displacement of 486cc and a shaft drive. The bike had a three-speed gearbox and a top speed of about 60 mph.

BMW Design Director Max Friz is credited with the engine design.

My son Steve

Steve played bass on a couple of really great CDs with Sylvain Acher back in the early ‘90s when he lived in Cincinnati.

He makes me proud.

My son Sean

I’m embarrassed that it took me this long to find this on YouTube.

He makes me proud.

The del Sol soldiers on at 217,000 miles

The folks at Honda of Jonesboro, unable to replicate my del Sol’s power steering problem, suggested I arrange to leave it with them overnight sometime soon, so they can experience it when they start it the next day.

I decided to wait a couple of days to try their approach.

So, like any good intermittent gremlin, the problem didn’t appear when I started the car this morning to drive to the post office and in to town.

Hmmm.

Maybe they accidentally fixed it in their tinkering yesterday. Or maybe not. I remain guardedly optimistic.

One term and done, Barry

A new Rasmussen poll shows about 60 percent of U.S. voters think Barack Obama will be a one-term president.

Here’s an excerpt:

Predictably, 81% of GOP voters say it’s likely that the next president will come from their party, and 60% of voters not affiliated with either major party agree. Interestingly, Democrats are almost evenly divided on the question.

It’s rather striking that about half of his Democratic base think he’s screwed the pooch in his first year in office.

ABB (Anyone But Blanche)

Election 2010: Arkansas Senate Race

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A snow crisis in the Mid-South

We got less than an inch of snow overnight, hence these school and daycare closings.

School Closings:

• ALTON R-4
  CLOSED

• AR NORTHEASTERN COLLEGE
  CLOSED
• ARKANSAS PET GROOMING SCHOOL
  CLOSED
• ARMOREL
  CLOSED
• ASU TECH INSTITUTE
  OPEN 2 HOURS LATE
• BALD KNOB
  CLOSED
• BAY
  CLOSED
• BLACK ROCK
  CLOSED
• BLESSED SACRAMENT
  CLOSED
• BLOOMFIELD
  CLOSED
• BLYTHEVILLE
  CLOSED
• BRADFORD
  OPEN 1 Hr. LATE
• BROOKLAND
  CLOSED
• BRTC - PARAGOULD
  CLOSED
• BRTC - POCAHONTAS
  CLOSED
• BUFFALO ISLAND CENTRAL
  CLOSED
• CAMPBELL R-2
  CLOSED
• CAVE CITY
  CLOSED
• CEDAR RIDGE
  CLOSED
• CONCORD
  CLOSED
• CONCORDIA CHRISTIAN
  CLOSED
• COOTER
  CLOSED
• CORNING
  CLOSED
• COUCH R-1
  CLOSED
• CROSS COUNTY
  CLOSED
• CROWLEY'S RIDGE ACADEMY
  CLOSED
• DISCOVERY ISLAND
  CLOSED
• DONIPHAN HEAD START
  CLOSED
• DONIPHAN R-1
  CLOSED
• EARLE
  CLOSED
• EAST CARTER COUNTY R-2
  CLOSED
• EAST POINSETT COUNTY
  CLOSED
• EVENING SHADE
  CLOSED
• FUMC LEARNING CTR.
  CLOSED
• GIDEON #37
  CLOSED
• GOSNELL #6
  CLOSED
• GREENE COUNTY TECH
  CLOSED
• HARRISBURG
  CLOSED
• HIGHLAND
  CLOSED
• HILLCREST
  CLOSED
• HOLCOMB
  CLOSED
• HOXIE
  CLOSED
• HUGHES
  CLOSED
• IMBODEN AREA CHARTER
  CLOSED
• IZARD COUNTY CONSOLIDATED
  CLOSED
• JACKSON COUNTY
  CLOSED
• JONESBORO
  CLOSED
• JONESBORO SCHOOL OF ART
  CLOSED
• LAWRENCE CO. COOP.
  CLOSED
• MALDEN R-1
  CLOSED
• MAMMOTH SPRING
  CLOSED
• MANILA
  CLOSED
• MARMADUKE
  CLOSED
• MAYNARD
  CLOSED
• MELBOURNE
  CLOSED
• MIDLAND
  CLOSED
• MONTESSORI SCHOOL J'BORO
  OPEN 2 Hrs. LATE
• NAYLOR R-2
  CLOSED
• NETTLETON
  CLOSED
• NEW DIRECTIONS - BATESVILLE
  CLOSED
• NEWPORT
  CLOSED
• OSCEOLA
  CLOSED
• PARAGOULD
  CLOSED
• PATHWAY CHRISTIAN
  CLOSED
• PIGGOTT
  CLOSED
• POCAHONTAS
  CLOSED
• PUXICO
  CLOSED
• RECTOR
  CLOSED
• RIDGEFIELD CHRISTIAN
  CLOSED
• RIPLEY COUNTY R-4 (LONE STAR)
  CLOSED
• RISCO R-2
  CLOSED
• RIVERSIDE
  CLOSED
• SALEM
  CLOSED
• SENATH-HORNERSVILLE C-8
  CLOSED
• SLOAN-HENDRIX
  CLOSED
• SOUTH MISSISSIPPI CO. #57
  CLOSED
• SOUTHLAND C-9
  CLOSED
• SOUTHSIDE
  OPEN 1 Hr. LATE
• ST. MARY'S SCHOOL
  CLOSED
• ST. PAUL ELEMENTARY
  CLOSED
• THAYER R-2
  CLOSED
• THE COMMUNITY SCHOOL, INC.
  CLOSED
• THE DONI MARTIN CENTER - POCAHONTAS
  CLOSED
• THE LEARNING CTR. OF NEA, INC.
  CLOSED
• THE MARTIN CENTER - BATESVILLE
  CLOSED
• THREE RIVERS COMMUNITY COL.
  CLOSED
• TRUMANN
  CLOSED
• TURRELL
  CLOSED
• TWIN RIVERS - OAK RIDGE
  CLOSED
• TWIN RIVERS - WILLIFORD
  CLOSED
• TWIN RIVERS R-10
  CLOSED
• VALLEY VIEW
  CLOSED
• VIOLA
  CLOSED
• WALNUT RIDGE
  CLOSED
• WEINER
  CLOSED
• WEST MEMPHIS CHRISTIAN
  CLOSED
• WESTSIDE IN JONESBORO
  CLOSED
• WHITE CO. CENTRAL
  CLOSED

 

Daycare Closings:

• ADVENTURE CLUB - FBC JONESBORO
  CLOSE 2 Hrs. EARLY
• BLESSED SACRAMENT CHILDCARE CNTR.
  CLOSED
• CENTRAL BAPTIST PDO / PRE-K
  CLOSED
• CHILD AND YOUTH PED. CLINIC - PARAGOULD
  OPEN-NO VANS
• COUNTRY KIDS DAYCARE/PRE-SCHOOL
  CLOSED
• CRAIGHEAD COUNTY DHS
  OPEN 2 Hrs. LATE
• FROM THE BEGINNING-ASH FLAT
  CLOSED
• FROM THE BEGINNING-CAVE CITY
  CLOSED
• HIGHLAND WEE CARE CENTERS
  CLOSED
• JACKSON CO. LEARNING CNTR.
  CLOSED
• JACOB's LADDER DAYCARE - NEWPORT
  CLOSED
• KIDDIE KASTLE CHILD CARE CNTR
  CLOSED
• KIDS FIRST LEARNING CNTR
  CLOSED
• KIDS FIRST-POCAHONTAS
  CLOSED
• KIDS HAVEN - PARAGOULD
  OPEN, NO BUSES
• KIDS KINGDOM
  OPEN 2 Hrs. LATE
• KIDS PALACE DAY CARE
  CLOSED
• NETTLETON CAMP RAIDER PROGRAM
  CLOSED
• OASIS 4 KIDS PHASE 1 & 2
  OPEN 2 Hrs. LATE
• RECTOR PRE-SCHOOL
  CLOSED
• SCHOOL OF THE 21ST CENTURY
  CLOSED
• VALLEY VIEW CHILDCARE CNTR
  CLOSED
• WALNUT ST. BAPTIST DAYCARE
  CLOSED
• WESTSIDE PRE-K

Stein of the Day

This is a half-liter German stein commemorating a soldier’s service with a machine gun unit. Judging from the uniform, helmet and machine gun pictured, it dates from the mid- to late 1930s.

It has the usual pebbled pewter lid with the distinctive German stahlhelm (steel helmet) in profile and surrounded by a wreath of oak leaves.

In portraying the Reich War Flag as fluttering, the artist made it grotesquely long.

It’s News to me

These are my favorite glasses – a set of six featuring memorable front pages of my former newspaper, The Indianapolis News.

Tim and Linda Balough found these at a yard sale and bought the set for me several years ago.

They include (from left):

• Charles Lindbergh makes first solo flight of the Atlantic Ocean on May 20-21, 1927
• King Edward VIII of England abdicates the throne on Dec. 10, 1936 to marry Mrs. Wallis Simpson, a commoner and a divorcee
• The U.S. enters World War I on April 6, 1917
• The front page of the first issue of The News, published on Dec. 7, 1869
• Louis Meyer becomes the first three-time winner of the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race on May 30, 1936
• The German airship Hindenburg burns and crashes on May 6, 1937 while landing at Lakehurst, N.J.

Steve at work

Here’s my son Steve playing a jazz gig, something I think he needs to feed his soul, since most of his gigs involve an electric bass and rock and roll at the Bellagio and Bally’s in Las Vegas.

It was shot with a cell phone camera and my guess is that it was shot last Sunday afternoon.

Wednesday morning at the Honda dealership

JONESBORO, Ark. – I’m hanging out at the Honda dealership this morning while the technicians try to figure out what’s going on with the power steering on my ‘94 del Sol.

I also asked them to do an oil change and tire rotation, noting that there seems to be a slow leak in the right rear tire, so I’ll be here awhile.

I’m also working without Internet connectivity. On previous occasions, I was able to use my tethered cell phone as an Internet modem here, but that functionality quit working late last summer. I’ve been unable to get it working again, so I’m now jonesing for a Sprint G4 Internet gizmo. The impact on my monthly Sprint bill is the stopper, though. I’m thinking about dropping the Internet features on my cell phone in favor of having portable G4 connectivity on my netbook, but I haven’t gotten around to crunching the numbers.

I’m one of only two people in the waiting room, so I guess the Honda folks don’t have enough service customers hanging out on a regular basis to justify offering free Wifi. So far, the only customer waiting room I’ve found with Wifi is at Grass Roots BMW Motorcycles up in Cape Girardeau. That’s the classiest “mom and pop” BMW shop I’ve seen in my nearly 30-year association with BMW motorcycles.

TWO HOURS LATER: The good news is that my bill came to only $61. The bad news is that they couldn’t replicate the power steering problem and I need to make arrangements to leave it overnight sometime soon so they can see it right away when the problem is going on. And I need two new tires and they found about $200 worth of other work that needs to be done.

Stein of the Day

This half-liter stein features a BMW motorcycle from the /5 series. The series included the R50/5 (500cc), R60/5 (600cc) and R75/5 (750cc) and was produced from 1970 through July 1973. The bottom of the stein bears the name of Butler & Smith, the New Jersey firm that imported BMW motorcycles to the United States during that period.

The stein was given to me by the legendary Floyd “Pop” Dreyer back in the 1980s when I wrote a weekly motorcycle column for The Indianapolis News. I bought my first BMW bike in 1981 – a ‘71 R50/5.

Mourning for Heidi

That’s Heidi on the right, Mattie on the left.

Tuesday stuff

JONESBORO, Ark. – It’s kinda cold here today – not as cold as it was when this picture was taken back in 1966 on the Indiana State University campus – but 18 degrees (F) is rather brisk for northeast Arkansas, even in January.

The cold snap may have figured in the power outage at our cable/Internet provider’s HQ. We had cable TV but no Internet this morning and, when I finally got through to the offices of the new owners of the company, I leaned the problem was a power outage that requires them to reset a bunch of stuff.

So I’m sitting in the Hardback Cafe at Hastings, using their Wifi and muttering dark curses every time someone opens the door and lets the frigid air wash over my legs under the table. I wonder what would happen if I locked the door…

I think the power steering is failing on my ‘94 Honda del Sol. It steers like a freaking log wagon when I start it in the morning, but improves and eventually returns to normal as I drive. I have an appointment for 9 a.m. tomorrow with the Honda dealership to address the problem.

The good news is that we got a rent check from our tenants this morning, so I can relax for another month and pay some bills.

As I drove to town this morning, I got a cell phone call from Diana Penner, a reporter at The Indianapolis Star, where I used to work. She wanted to know if I’m related to a Ronald L. Flora of Greenwood, Ind., who was found badly beaten today.

Nope, never heard of him. Since I have a personal rule of never again doing anything to help Gannett or The Star, I would have said that if he was a relative, but happily he’s not.

I’m still tracking the saga of Heidi, the Weimaraner, who died yesterday while undergoing surgery to remove a pellet from her eye.

Heidi and Mattie, who belong to our friends Charlie and Deborah, bolted through an open door for a romp in their northside neighborhood Sunday afternoon.

What happened immediately afterward is a little fuzzy – to me, anyway – but there were calls to Animal Control from a woman who said she was going to shoot a dog that was menacing her cat and then Heidi turned up at a different house in that same neighborhood with one of her eyes shot out and pellets in her belly and foot. She was hurt and went to a nearby house -  not the place she was shot -and banged on the door until someone answered and called Animal Control.

When the Animal Control officer questioned the elderly woman who placed the threatening calls, she admitted shooting the dog and showed him a rusty BB gun. It seems highly unlikely that a healthy Weimaraner would stand still long enough for an old woman to shoot it, pump the gun, shoot it again, pump the gun again, and shoot it a third time. A more likely scenario would involve someone else in the house using a shotgun.

Charlie and Deb took Heidi to the animal hospital where she was sedated in anticipation of surgery on Monday. It wasn’t a life-threatening injury and Charlie and Deb looked forward to helping her adjust to life with one eye.

But it was not to be. A blood clot formed and stopped her heart during surgery.

Now Mattie, who is very attached to Heidi, is miserable and won’t eat.

And we await the outcome of the police investigation.

Stein of the Day

I may have picked this half-liter stein up on Ebay or at a flea market or antique shop in Indianapolis – I can’t recall.

I am also clueless as to what it celebrates. I find no record of a Schwaben-Bayern brewery in Indianapolis, nor can I find anything to indicate there was a German-American club of that name in Indianapolis.

Does anyone know the significance of Schwaben-Bayern Indianapolis?

Heidi died today

Maria just called to tell me Heidi, the Weimaraner who was blinded by a shotgun blast yesterday afternoon, died in surgery this afternoon.

I can’t imagine what Deb and Charlie are going through right now.

Ignore all of the crap in the background

Few things can make me more conscious of the clutter in my house than a webcam.

And right now, the new Logitech Webcam C250 perched atop my desktop monitor makes me want to do some tidying up in our office.

Anyone who knows me knows I love technology and my current technological infatuation is Skype. Naturally, I want to share neat stuff, so yesterday I went to Best Buy and bought a couple of Logitech webcams (about $30 each) to use with Maria’s desktop computer and mine as well.

I figured that my netbook and desktop should both be Skype-enabled, so I won’t miss any calls (Oh, yeah. There have to be incoming calls for me to miss them.) and I’ll have access to the service whenever I’m online.

I even sent an email to my ex in Arizona last night, attaching a screen capture image from our video visit with Steve and his family, and suggesting she might want to look into Skype to keep in touch with our sons and their families. How’s that for being thoughtful?

I was sitting at a table at Books-a-Million yesterday afternoon, sipping coffee and websurfing when Skype notified me that Indianapolis BMW Club friend Rich Nathan was online. I placed the video call and, after Rich answered, we discovered that while we could see each other and he could hear me fine, I couldn’t hear him. He was using a headset with a boom mic that should have been even better than the mic on his webcam, but no sound was coming through. So he grabbed his cell phone and called mine and we ended up using the cell connection for voice and Skype for the video. They were a little out of phase, but it worked.

The Wifi at Books-a-Million was dropping out at odd times a few minutes earlier and my browser needed multiple tries to call up several web sites. The netbook-to-wireless router link seemed fine, but the bookstore’s Internet connection seemed to be iffy. That’s the only thing on my end that I think might have interfered with Rich’s audio, but my money is on it being a software issue on his computer.

Stein of the Day

This is a 1 liter Spaten stein from Munich.

I didn’t think a liter was a lot of beer when I was in my 20s and 30s.  I’m more of a half-liter guy these days.

A liter is 33.8 ounces, which means a liter stein can accommodate half of a six-pack of Spaten Optimator (my favorite German beer) or whatever else you’re drinking. Two liters of that is enough to get me wobbly.

The Spaten Brewery has a long history but it was in 1622 that the Family Spatt gave their name to the brewery they owned in Munich. In 1807 it was taken over by the Royal Court Brewer Gabriel Sedlmayr and he in turn left the brewery to his sons Gabriel and Joseph. In 1861 the brewery started its close relationship with the Franziskaner Brewery and by 1867 Spaten was the largest brewery in Munich. In 1922 the two breweries of Spaten and Franziskaner officially joined to become the Spaten-Franziskaner-Leistbräu AG. In 1997, Löwenbräu and Spaten, two of the major Munich based breweries decided to merge to form the Spaten-Löwenbräu Group and control of this is today in the hands of the Belgian drinks giant InBev.

I believe the “GS” on the spade logo stands for brewer Gabriel Sedlmayr.

Skyping with Steve & family

Son Steve finally got Skype up and running and we had a great visit this evening with him and his wife Nicky and daughter Lisa, fresh from the bath.

I could learn to like this new toy.

What kind of moron shoots a harmless Weimaraner?

I was having a Skype video conversation with Indianapolis friend Rich Nathan this afternoon at Books-a-Million when Maria called to say our friends Charlie and Deb were having a dog emergency and she and Austin were headed for their house.

I packed up my netbook and drove there, where Deb was agonizing over what had happened to Heidi, one of their two Weimaraners.

Austin had been dog-sitting for Charlie and Deb while they were out of town for a few days and shortly after they returned home and relieved Austin of his duties, Heidi and Mattie bolted through an open door and fled into the neighborhood.

After a long search, a city animal control officer caught up with Deb and Charlie several blocks from their home. Heidi, it seems, appeared to have been shot with a shotgun and had been blinded in one eye. She also had a pellet under the skin in her abdomen and another in one foot. Mattie, thankfully, was not injured.

Charlie rushed Heidi to the animal hospital where she was sedated overnight pending surgery tomorrow morning to remove the pellets. It’s pretty much certain she’ll lose the eye.

Heidi is a high-spirited goofy dog who loves everyone and couldn’t possibly be a threat to anybody. The animal control officer said he knows where she was shot and has talked with an elderly woman who claims to have shot Heidi with a rusty BB gun. We think she’s covering for someone else at the house, since it’s patently absurd to think a dog would stay put long enough for someone to shoot her three times with a BB gun. Examination of the pellets tomorrow will show whether it was a shotgun or BB gun.

If it was, indeed, a shotgun, whoever did it could face charges of discharging a firearm inside the city limits and possibly felony prosecution under the state’s new animal cruelty law. Either way, they’re in big trouble and either way Charlie and Deb are entitled to restitution.

(The photo above isn’t Heidi or Mattie, but it looks a lot like them.)

I can only guess at what Deb and Charlie are going through. I would be beside myself with grief and rage if someone did such a brutally stupid and cruel thing to either of our dogs.

More as it develops.

Stein of the Day

This is one of two such lidded half-liter steins I have from a pair of sergeants who trained in Company 3 of the German Army’s 7th Motorized Vehicle Battalion (Kraftfahr Abteilung) in 1937 in Munich.

One was a gift from my late father-in-law Capt. Phil Kroon who brought it back from WWII. I found the other on Ebay about 10 years ago and bought it for $950. I figure these two guys, being in the same unit, knew each other and I’m very happy to be able to put the two steins together.

They show a BMW R75 motorcycle with a Wehrmacht Heer (Army) license plate on the front fender and the Reich War Flag and the National Ensign in the background.

They also have matching pebbled pewter lids decorated with the left profile of a German helmet inside a wreath of oak leaves. And each lid has a small ding in it. Considering all they’ve been through, it’s remarkable they’re in such good shape. I’ve seen one other of these in an online auction and I’m still kicking myself for letting it get away.

I was surprised to learn a few years ago that there is a 1 liter version of this pattern. A collector friend in Indianapolis has the only liter-size example I’ve seen.

Dog stuff

Our dogs have an embarrassing problem. Something I don’t like to talk about, but we can’t ignore it any longer.

They both eat their poop. The clinical name for the problem is coprophagia. Wikipedia has an extensive article on it along with a long list of speculative causes.

We found we had three choices:

1. Accept it (not acceptable because the have horrible breath)
2. Follow them around the yard and pick up after them (not something I care to do)
3. Give them medication that makes their poop taste bad to them (taking it from disgusting to horrible?)

So we went to Petco and bought some medication. We also got some breath freshener dog treats and, since the Christmas-theme dog toys were on sale for 50 percent off, we bought one for them.

Since Ruthie is the Alpha dog, she snatched it up and ripped the stuffing out of it, giving Pete menacing glances. After all, she owns all of the toys, treats and food.

Stein of the Day

This half-liter stein is from a German antiaircraft gun battery in the early years of World War II. The Luftwaffe (Air Force) was in charge of Germany’s flak batteries, hence the wings in front of the 88mm antiaircraft gun.

Yipes! It’s Skype!

My stepdaughter Morgan suggested the other night that we install Skype so we could have video conversations while Maria and I and Morgan and her fiancée opened Christmas presents.

Things were too hectic to undertake the project then, but I had some time on my hands this afternoon, so I signed up for the free version of Skype and downloaded the software onto my netbook.

I let it search my Gmail address book for fellow Skypers and it came up with 32 contacts. Throwing out people I don’t know or don’t ever want to talk to on Skype, I winnowed the list down to a dozen. Then I fired off an email to my sons, Morgan and some friends giving them my Skype ID and inviting them to join me on Skype if they weren’t already on it.

Indianapolis BMW Club friend Dom LoDuca took me seriously, joined Skype and contacted me an hour or so later from his home near the Butler University campus in Indianapolis. It was the inaugural Skype call for both of us and I’m very impressed with the quality of the audio and video.

That’s how it looked on my netbook when I went fullscreen – Dom in the big picture and me in the inset. He saw the reverse on his end.

The pay version of Skype lets you call land line phones and mobile phones. I guess if I were going to dump my AT&T home phone line, that would be a good idea, but Skype is useless for 911 calls and cell phones are only marginally good for 911 calls. So I see no point in moving up to the pay version.

8,522 BMW Motorcycle Miles in 2009

 

I record the odometer readings on our BMW motorcycles every Jan. 1 to report our BMW mileage to the Indianapolis BMW Club for the annual mileage awards.

The club gives a 10,00-mile award to everyone who logs more than 10,000 miles in a calendar year and I used to bring one home every year from the annual awards banquet in February. But other things have gotten in the way for the last five years and I only averaged about 6,200 annual miles from 2005 through 2008.

My 2009 total is 8,522 miles – up about 21 percent from the previous year, but still well short of the 10k mark. In retrospect, I regret not taking the couple of day rides that would have put me over 10k.

By my reckoning, I have more than 308,000 BMW motorcycle miles, logged on five bikes – my current ‘03 K1200GT, Maria’s ‘94 K75S, my ‘91 K100RS, my ‘81 R100RS, and my ‘71 R50/5.

I hope this year will see more miles. I plan to ride to the BMW MOA International Rally in Redmond, Ore. in July and as many other interesting destinations as possible. I might even be able to roll the odometer on Maria’s bike past the 10k mark. It’s pretty much like new, which is saying something about a 16-year-old motorcycle.

The eyeballing game

BMW riding friend Dom LoDuca sent me this link this morning. It’s a pretty cool test of your ability to perceive angular and spatial relationships. I’m pretty good, but not world class.

Stein of the Day

This is my Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity beer stein from ATO’s Zeta Omicron Chapter at Indiana State University. It’s hardly the oldest in my collection, but I’ve owned it longer than any other.