Ack!

This is the brutal summer heat I've come to hate, loathe, despise, and dread.

Day after freaking day of temperatures in the 90s with heat indices in the 100s. I'm so sick of being held hostage by the blazing heat and so ready for cooler weather, even if it does mean the end of the summer "travel" season.

Waiting for the UPS truck

I'm waiting for the UPS truck this afternoon because these three Amazon Vine review products are listed as out for delivery - a set of Bang & Olufsen wired headphones, an HD remote surveillance camera and a Wifi router.

I got a call earlier from Grass Roots BMW Motorcycles telling me they finally got a fully functional starter relay in for my K1200GT. It's $170 plus labor, but the improvised fix they did for me a few months ago is working like a charm, so I'm passing on the new relay.

Happy 73rd birthday, Mick!

I was at the Rolling Stones concert on July 26, 1975 at the Indiana University Assembly Hall when Mick celebrated his 32nd birthday. I.U. was the only college on that Stones tour.

I shot this photo at the Indiana Convention Center in July, 1970.

Schadenfreude

I was a young reporter at The Indianapolis News in the summer of 1968.

I was a liberal, I was against the war in Vietnam and I believed Lyndon Johnson was an evil man and should be replaced by Sen. Eugene McCarthy.

So I was horrified and sickened by what was later termed a "police riot" at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

The sleazy machine politics that resulted in the nomination of Hubert Humphrey fractured the party profoundly and led to the election of Richard Nixon. Twice.

I've grown up since then and am watching history repeat itself as another generation's youth movement tears the party apart.

This time, I'm enjoying the show because I suspect it will mean the end of Democrat control of Washington. And maybe the destruction of the Clinton Crime Family.

Testing

I'm testing a couple of Moultrie trail cameras for the Amazon Vine Program. I have them set up on two trees in the fenced part of our back yard so they should both see about the same thing.

They don't.

A quilt for Sean

Maria writes:

This quilt went to live with my oldest stepson, Sean Flora. He's been due a quilt for a long time, and I'm so glad it finally reached him. It has scraps from dresses I made for Lisa Flora, when she was tiny, and from her bed quilt, plus lots of others that went into happy projects for other people. There are fabrics John and I bought as we traveled, including one to represent Sean and other family members. So we are all connected at Sean's house, even though we live far apart.

Coming home from the BMW MOA Rally last year

Today was the final day of the BMW MOA Rally in Hamburg, NY - a day when tents are struck, bikes are loaded and everyone hits the road, mostly for home.

That day was July 26 last year and about this time that afternoon I was sitting at a country store in the South Dakota Badlands with Jeffrey Vestal of Greensboro, South Carolina, waiting for this storm to move out of our path on I-90. Drivers from the east reported heavy rain and hail and at least one motorcyclist crashed.

Jeffrey was riding a BMW GS bike and emailed me that he made it home safely. He sent me this photo.

TCB

Some weekends pass without me accomplishing much of anything, but this weekend was different.

We were up early Saturday to hit the ASU Farmers Market for tomatoes, peaches and a watermelon, then off to Morgan's house to attack mulberry trees with chainsaws. I say chainsaws plural because I took both of my Poulan saws in case one failed. And it did. And in the middle of the job the remaining saw showed definite signs of a dull chain. I know some guys like to sharpen their own chains. I bought a file and tried it once but decided I didn't want to take the time required to get good at it. The alternative is to buy a new chain when the old one gets dull. I'd rather spend $16 or $17 than fool around with a file. We needed to go to Lowe's for Delta faucet parts anyway.

We even got permission to go into the neighbor's yard and cut some mulberry trees that were attacking the fence that separates the two properties.

Back at home, I tackled the leaking faucet on Maria's side of our double bathroom sink. Turns out the guy in Lowe's plumbing department gave me the wrong seals, which necessitated a late afternoon return and a pleasant dinner at Qdoba.

I finally finished the repair this morning.

Now I'm wondering whether I want to mow some grass while the temperature is 91° and the heat index is 101°. It's supposed to be hotter still tomorrow, so maybe if it cools off this evening...

I finally got it right

I'm testing this Hamilton Beach espresso maker for the Amazon Vine Program and finding out how little I knew about espresso and cappuccino.

I've been using a modest Mr. Coffee espresso maker that my son Steve gave me years ago and expected the Hamilton Beach unit to deliver similarly satisfying coffee drinks.

But when I loaded it with my usual Starbucks Italian Dark Roast coffee, the result was a thin, watery brew that left me unimpressed.

Then I did some research and figured out what wasn't spelled out in the owners manual. Unlike my less expensive model, this unit demands finely ground coffee. The regular Starbucks grind lets the water blow through without picking up enough flavor to make it interesting.

So I put some Starbucks into my coffee grinder and reduced it almost to a powder, filled the brewing cup with it and tamped it down with the included tamping tool. The result was the satisfyingly rich espresso I had been hoping for.

The Hamilton Beach unit sells for $123 on Amazon.com with these specs:

15 bar Italian pump for excellent extraction and rich crema
Patented Slide & Lock filter holder makes setup easy
Swiveling steam wand for steaming and frothing milk
Removable water reservoir and drip tray
Pressure pump for excellent extraction and rich crema

On this date in 1945

The team of scientists and engineers headed by Robert Oppenheimer hoisted the world's first atomic bomb to the top of a 100-foot steel tower in the New Mexico desert, two days prior to detonating it.
The USS South Dakota became the first U.S. warship in WWII to shell the Japanese homeland.
And I was born.

I've been in Florida (and Tennessee, and Mississippi, and Alabama...)

I slept well last night, probably because I spent 14 hours in the Lexus covering the 815.3 miles from Skip and Gloria Hess's home in Holiday, Fla. to my home in the Arkansas woods.

Skip suffered a stroke earlier this year and, since he's 78 and probably not immortal, I figured I owed him (and myself) a visit. Skip came to The Indianapolis News a few months after I did in 1967 and we've been good friends ever since. He and Gloria are our kind of people - smart, conservative, funny, and crazy about dogs. They have had as many as seven rescued dogs in their home when they lived in Indianapolis. They share their Florida home with four - Bo, an Aussie mix; Ben, a black lab mix; Seneca, a mystery mix; and Lacy, a Yorkie mix. Bo is their only Florida rescue and he took an instant liking to me, making a point of greeting me first thing every morning.

I left here about 6:10 a.m. last Tuesday and was in rain off and on most of the way from south of Memphis to somewhere around Montgomery, Ala. I had hoped to do the entire trip in daylight, but sunset caught me about an hour north of their house.

I stopped for an early dinner at the McDonald's in Perry, Fla. Road-addled, I left the McD parking lot turning north on U.S. 19 instead of south toward my destination. Looking for a place to turn around, I made a left turn at the next stoplight, then whipped a U-turn on the side street and headed back south. Seconds later, I noticed the flashing light bar of a Perry police car in my mirror and immediately pulled into a parking lot and stopped. I was wearing my NRA concealed carry vest with my Smith & Wesson 9mm pistol in an inside holster/pocket so, when the officer came to my door I immediately informed him that I have a concealed weapon permit and I was carrying a gun. I handed him my driver's license and permit and he asked where the gun was. I showed him the vest pocket and offered to take it out, be he said to leave it.

It took a few minutes for him to run my driver's license number and plate to make sure I didn't have any outstanding warrants, during which time he opined that Arkansas concealed carry permits are nicer looking than the ones Florida issues. Then he sent me on my way with a verbal warning to be careful. (For what it's worth, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee have CCW reciprocity with Arkansas, so my permit is valid for the entire route.)

Skip and Gloria have a lanai and pool, so daily dips were in order. We went down to the Gulf shore Wednesday and Thursday evenings to photograph the sunsets and I tracked down the Tampa Bay BMW dealership and bought a shop t-shirt.

They took me to dinner the last two evenings - a BBQ place and a seafood restaurant that serves a killer crab-and-pasta in cream sauce.

The only regret I have about the trip is that Maria hasn't earned enough vacation time to come with me. She will go with me next time.

Not going to the BMW MOA rally this year

The 2016 BMW Motorcycle Owners of America rally is next weekend in Hamburg, N.Y. and I will not attend.

It's a 900+ mile ride from my northeast Arkansas home, which is considerably less than the 1,400 miles I rode last year to the BMW MOA rally in Billings, Mont., but I was pretty sure I was going to pass this year as soon as I learned where it would be.

I have no desire to ride to New York State. I've been to that region several times and it holds no interest for me. In fact, I consider it an area to avoid.

Next year's rally is to be in Salt Lake City, Utah. Count me in.

Happy 4th

Happy Independence Day. Say a prayer of thanks for those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. Then pray that we can stop the destruction of the Republic.

Batesville adventure

Here I am relaxing after taking more than 2½ hours to drive about 80 miles to Batesville - a trip that should have been done in about 90 minutes.

There are three genuine routes from Brookland to Batesville, but through a comedy of errors and an unexpected road closure, we ended up wandering around between Walnut Ridge and Newport, doing at least 10 miles on sketchy gravel county roads fit only for farm traffic. Garmin never got the memo about the re-routing of Highway 226 and its closure.

The point of the exercise was to get to Marshall's Dry Goods where Maria could shop for quilting fabric. And that's where we went after a pleasant lunch at the post-conflagration rebuilt Josie's Steakhouse on the east bank of the scenic White River.

Maria is registered as a wholesale customer at Marshall's and brought home six bolts of great fabric.

We came home by a more familiar route that required no GPS assistance.

VR for iPhones

I've been seeing ads for several weeks touting a particular Android phone's Virtual Reality capabilities and I wondered if VR was available for iPhone users.

It is. You can get a cheap cardboard viewer from Amazon.com for $13.99 and free apps from the Apple App Store.

Got my replacement Bang & Olufsen H8 headphones this afternoon

My replacement Bang & Olufsen H8 headphones arrived this afternoon - the same day Betina U. Bertelsen of the B&O Play Team guessed they would show up from Denmark.

Am I a happy camper? Hell, yes! I love these 'phones.

Riding and walking

I overcame weeks of inertia this morning by riding the K75S down to St. Bernard's Fitness Center and knocking down 1.55 miles in 40 minutes on a treadmill. It's the first time I've made it down there since sometime in May, but I came away with no undue discomfort and plan to repeat the process more often.

49 years ago today

Forty-nine years ago today I married Diane Kroon at the Christian Reformed Church in Lafayette, Ind.

This is one of the few surviving photos of the event. The official photographer did all of the bridal ceremony setup shots with no film in his camera.

I don’t regret it. We had some good years and raised two handsome and exceptionally talented sons before the wheels came off 26 years later.

Like new!

The FedEx guy showed up a little after 11 a.m. today and delivered my repaired and refurbished Swiss Army knife with functioning altimeter and thermometer. It really is like new and Victorinox only charged me $10.

Yay, Victorinox.

Speaking of thermometers, when I rode my K75S into town yesterday morning to pay our electric bill, I noticed the sign at the Dairy Queen north of town said the temperature was 93° - at least seven degrees hotter than any other time/temperature sign I saw. Come to think of it, if I ran a DQ in the summer, I'd think exaggerating the heat is a good business strategy.

Good news emails this morning

I got emails from Bang & Olufsen and Victorinox this morning saying I will soon have my H8 headphones replaced and my Swiss Army knife repaired.

Kudos to B&O for their quick response, since they only received my wonky headphones on Monday afternoon. I got email correspondence from Betina U. Bertelsen at B&O saying it would be late August before they could give me a replacement set of gray hazen H8s, but I could have black leather or natural leather almost immediately. I opted for black leather and expect them from Denmark around June 29.

Victorinox says they shipped my knife today via FedEx and the FedEx tracking says I should get it tomorrow. This is the second time they've had it and, hopefully, it's finally fixed and will again have thermometer and altimeter functions.

Stay tuned. (As if you care.)

Monday rant

This is one of those days when I almost wish I was like some folks I know - blissfully self-absorbed and oblivious to world events.

Or maybe so naive as to believe that things are going just fine in this country and that our elected and appointed officials know what is best for us.

Life is so much simpler for those folks. They are puzzled by the things we, who are actually paying attention say and believe.

How idyllic it would be to believe we can get rid of guns and we can "coexist" with adherents to a Satanic cult who are hell-bent on murdering every last one of us. (I was shocked into silence recently when I saw a "Coexist" sticker on the motorcycle side case of an acquaintance's bike.) How nice it would be to think the government can solve all of my problems and provide for all of my wants and needs and make everything free.

The problem is that I've been paying attention for too long and think everyone has a civic duty to understand the issues of the day in the light of the U.S. Constitution.

I could go on, but I'd rather sit quietly with my dogs. They truly are enlightened beings who have mastered the art of living in the moment.

Happy Father's Day

Since I am a dogfather to two Aussies, Maria gave me this cool denim shirt for Fathers Day. It's from Cherrybrook Premium Pet Supplies of Phillipsburg, NJ.

Off they go to the repair shop

My fabulous $500 Bang & Olufsen H8 Bluetooth headphones are on their way to the repair shop in Arlington Heights, Ill. The Bluetooth pairing crapped out a couple of weeks ago and I finally completed the repair order form online with the patient help of a B&O customer service rep. The hangup was that the system didn't recognize the serial number, probably because it was a pre-release example that I got through the Amazon Vine Program. We finally came up with a workaround and generated a repair order that went off this afternoon via heavily insured Priority Mail.

This will give me an opportunity to amend my review with some observations about B&O's customer service.

In the meantime, I'll just have to make do with my Parrot ZIK Bluetooth headphones, which are pretty damned good in their own right, but not quite up to the Bang & Olufsen quality and comfort.

I made a morning run into town today to pick up a couple of prescriptions from the Sam's Club pharmacy. The temperature was in the mid-80s and I was pleasantly comfortable in my FirstGear MeshTex pants and jacket. I think it's the first time I've worn the MeshTex pants since July, 2012, when they helped me survive the blazing heat of the BMW MOA Rally in Sedalia, Mo. I'd forgotten how well they work - it was like riding in shorts and a t-shirt, but with the security of CE armor in all the right places.

I upgraded my HJC flip-face helmet yesterday with the arrival of a set of new visor base plates. Now the visor ratchets like new. I like HJC helmets because it's so easy to remove the visor to clean both sides.

Hostage situation

One of the books I have listed for sale on Amazon.com sold yesterday, but the heat index was well over 100 degrees and I didn't fancy a painfully hot motorcycle ride or un-air conditioned drive in the Subaru to mail it. (The Subaru has a costly AC malfunction that we haven't gotten around to fixing, so I insist that Maria take the AC-equipped Lexus to work on hot days.)
It was already a toasty 88 degrees at 9 a.m. when I rode to the post office today and dispatched the book. Taking off my helmet at the post office, I noticed the starboard side of the chin vent had broken loose. I superglued it back into place when I got home and expect that will be the end of that problem.
The last time I checked, the temperature stood at 97 degrees with a heat index of 109. The dogs are in their kennels in the bedroom and I broke down and turned the air conditioning back on. These are the days when I hate living in northeast Arkansas - when the oppressive heat holds me hostage.

Welcome to the eve of summer in Arkansas

You know it's gonna be a miserable hot day when you wake up to find the windows covered with condensation.

Happy Birthday, Maria!

Happy Birthday to my beautiful bride Maria.

Yard work for Morgan

We did some useful yard work at Morgan's house this morning, despite rapidly rising temperatures.

The shrubbery in front of her house was chest-high - high enough to conceal a lurking intruder - so we attacked it with our electric hedge trimmer and then with chainsaws, taking it down to about 24 inches.

Then I chainsawed a bunch of tree limbs in her back yard that were menacing her fence. It was hot, hard work, but we were persistent and got it done by 11 a.m.

Everything is broken (Dylan song)

My fabulous Bang & Olufsen H8 headphones have lost their Bluetooth connectivity.

It happened yesterday after I used a new charging source and I am trying not to be despondent. I just sent a query to B&O to see what can be done.

In the meantime, I got my Swiss Army knife back from Victorinox earlier this week, but the altimeter/thermometer electronics were not repaired. Instead, they enclosed a new battery, but with no explanation. I sent them a query this morning, also.

Grrrr.

Helmet improvements

After five years of use, the latch mechanisms on my HJC helmet are wearing out. The one on the right side has become increasingly hard to work when it comes to reattaching the face shield after cleaning it. And the one on the left side let go of the face shield as I was getting onto I-40 at Jackson, Tenn. a couple of weeks ago.

I found replacement parts online for $15.99. They arrived this morning and now, after simply undoing and redoing five screws, they are in place and the improvement is noticeable. Now, I'm waiting for the UPS guy to bring me a replacement face shield later today.

Yes, I still consider myself a Hoosier

The Indiana bicentennial stamp was issued yesterday, so being a good Hoosier in exile, I stopped by the post office this morning and bought two sheets of the new stamp.

History lesson

I found this German beer stein - actually, it's a seidel because it's glass and not ceramic - on Ebay this morning with this supposed provenance: "It was previously owned by WWII "Flying Ace", SD Governor, Joe Foss who flew numerous missions in Europe."

Really?

Joe Foss served as a fighter pilot in the U.S. Marine Corps exclusively in the Pacific Theatre of operations and never flew in Europe during the war. He was an ace with 26 aerial victories over the Japanese and won the Congressional Medal of Honor. After the war, he served as governor of South Dakota and president of the National Rifle Association. The seller claims to have had the seidel for 25 years. Foss died in 2003, so he must have parted with it late in his life. If he ever owned it at all.

The Marines played no significant role in the war against Germany and Italy and virtually all of their action was in the Pacific.

The are no bids on this item which starts at $75.

Fixing my helmet

The HJC helmet I've been wearing since September, 2011, gave me a nasty surprise a couple of weeks ago when I was riding to the European Riders Rally in Burkesville, Ky.

I had refueled at Jackson, Tenn. and was on the entrance ramp to I-40 eastbound when I snapped the visor down and suddenly realized that the left side of the visor had come loose from its baseplate. I held it in place until I could get off of the Interstate and reseat it. It held the rest of the trip, but it's the first time that has happened to me in the nearly 40 years I've been riding and it shook my confidence in the helmet.

I toyed with the idea of replacing it - after all, it's five years old. But it's a good Snell-rated helmet that has never been dropped and I figure it has another year or two of useful life left.

So I went online this afternoon and ordered new baseplates and a new visor for a total of about $45.

And I'll keep watching motorcyclegear.com for another such killer deal on a $260 helmet for $50.

It seems like a couple of years since I sat on the screened back porch on a late spring morning, sipping mocha cappuccino and blogging with my Dell Inspiron netbook.

A parade of colorful birds is visiting the bird feeder - cardinal, bluejay, blue bird, finches of various hues, titmice, and of course the ravenous squirrel.

Even with the sound of a wood chipper a mile or so distant, I can still hear the flutter of their wings when they flit to and fro.

It occurs to me that my netbook, purchased in March 2009 when netbooks were the "next big thing," has served me longer than I ever expected. It's still running the Windows XP operating system that came with it, even though Microsoft no longer supports XP. I figure the longer it continues into obsolescence the less likely it is to encounter malware or viruses targeting XP, the bad guys having moved on to Windows 7 and then Windows 10.

Morning Glory war

I planted two packets of Morning Glory seeds along our chainlink fence today - one came from Germany and the other from Holland.

I'm waiting to see if the German plants choke out the Dutch plants.

Change of plans

I was all set to fire up the Lexus and roll out early tomorrow for a few days in the Tampa, Fla. area with my old Indianapolis News compadre Skip Hess and his wife Gloria.

Skip is recovering from a minor stroke he suffered in late April while undergoing a routine heart procedure, assuming there is such a thing as a routine heart procedure. I decided it was time for a visit and tomorrow through the 15th was open on the Hess guest calendar.

Maria and I were at Kroger this morning, buying groceries suitable for her being on her own for a few days when I got a text message from Skip advising that we reschedule because of Tropical Depression Colin in the Gulf of Mexico. The ugly weather system is menacing the west coast of Florida with a potential for torrential rain, flooding, tornadoes and enough unpleasant weather to make for a miserable week.

We agreed that next month is a better time for the trip and I congratulated him on the timing of his call which let us revise our grocery list to include me.

On the Good News side of the ledger, our Thorntown tenant paid his rent via Western Union and I got an email from Victorinox saying my favorite Swiss Army knife has been repaired and is in the FedEx pipeline to me, scheduled to arrive on Tuesday. The knife, a birthday gift from my son Sean about seven years ago, has a built-in digital thermometer and altimeter that quit working a few months ago.

Good Friday morning!

This is how I wake up most mornings.

Catching up

It's been a whole week since I posted here and I am very embarrassed.

My only excuse is that we had guests over the Memorial Day Holiday Weekend. Austin and Megan arrived late Thursday night and were with us until Monday morning. I took them on a tour of our commercial building on Friday, not realizing the obvious connection between our tenant the Pregnancy Resource Center and the fact that Megan is pregnant with Hayden Marie Dunbar. The ladies at the PRC graciously offered an ultrasound so Maria and I could meet our new granddaughter. Here she is:

They brought their beagle/boxer mix Louie with them because he is prone to separation anxiety. Louie got along fine with our Aussies, Jack and Dora and with Morgan's Australian cattle dog Tucker. But her bulldog Samantha decided Louie needed to die and the ensuing dog fight left the back porch floor spattered with blood - almost all of it Sam's. Sam clamped down on Louie's lower jaw, which meant Louie's upper jaw was able to savage her muzzle and left her bleeding from several deep wounds. Austin and Maria had to choke her out to get her to release Louie and she went after him again when she regained awareness. Because of this and because we recently discovered a bite injury on Dora's left side that almost certainly came from Sam, we will no longer leave Sam unsupervised and alone with our dogs.

After everyone calmed down and Morgan took Sam and Tucker home, we went to Memphis where we toured the Bass Pro Shops at the Pyramid and had a late lunch at Boscos.

Sunday was low-key and the highlight was a maternity photo shoot at Craighead Forest Park.

I finally got in touch with the people who repaired the plumbing at our Thorntown house this afternoon and arranged for them to repair the wall damage associated with the ruptured iron pipe.

And I checked all of the obituaries for 2016 so far in my hometown newspaper and discovered that a girl who seduced and ran off with the police chief back in the 1960s died in Lafayette nursing home in February. She was 73.

Rain

Jonesboro got more than 6 inches of rain in three hours yesterday, turning streets into rivers and washing a 13-year-old boy several blocks through a storm drain before he was rescued by police who heard his calls for help through a curbside grate.

The drainage ditch south of Morgan's house turned into a raging torrent, partially flooding the house next door and threatening her house as well. She and Maria had challenging drives home at the height of the storm that more than doubled the previous May 24 record rainfall of 2.77 inches in Jonesboro.

It rained hard here, starting about 4 p.m., but when we checked the rain gauge this morning, we found only one inch of water. That eight miles between us and Jonesboro made a big difference.

How I spent my weekend

I spent the extended weekend (Thursday-Sunday morning) with about 30 of my Indianapolis BMW Club friends at the 18th annual European Riders Rally in Burkesville, Ky.

My Garmin Zumo 550 really really really wanted me to go via Memphis, but I really really really hate riding through that city and so I turned off the route mapping until I was across the Mississippi on U.S. 412 and well on my way to Jackson, Tenn. and I-40. I took I-40 to Nashville and let Garmin direct me north on I-65 until I ground to a halt at a miles-long traffic jam. I sweated and inched my way along for about 20 minutes before I realized the next exit was only 1.7 miles ahead. I took to the paved shoulder and cruised up to the Tenn. 52 exit and was soon headed east in very light traffic.

What should have been a pleasant ride turned hellish when I entered a yard sale zone about 40 miles long filled with drivers who weren't all that interested in moving briskly. I was cranky and frazzled by the time I got to the Burkesville City Park and the rally site, but I still had enough energy left to set up my big Eureka! tent (the exclamation point is part of the name) and trudge up to the courthouse square for a Subway dinner.

The next couple of days were characterized by rain, ranging from downpours to drizzles to mists, robbing me of any interest in riding anywhere, so I hung out with friends and caught up with their lives.

The Indianapolis BMW Club won the award for most members in attendance. I think we've won it for seven or eight consecutive years. The woman who coordinates the rally for the BMW Motorcycle Club of Nashville said last year that they wouldn't even have a rally if it weren't for the Indianapolis folks. As it was, we represented more than 10 percent of the total attendance.

I was one of the last to leave Sunday morning, taking my time to strike the tent and pack. I gassed at the Marathon station and, determined to avoid the Tenn. 52 yard sale hell, struck out south for a more direct route to I-40. Happily, Garmin agreed. At least for most of the route, still insisting on going through freaking Memphis instead of picking up U.S. 412 at Jackson. I was grateful not to be involved in the horrendous construction backup in the eastbound lanes just east of Nashville.

I stopped for a 99-cent Wendy's junior cheeseburger and gassed at a BP station west of Nashville. Somewhere around the 140 mile marker, I noticed my luggage rack load of tent, cheapo Walmart chair and sleeping bag had shifted badly. I determined the chair was the destabilizing element so I abandoned it next to the guardrail at an entrance ramp around mile marker 136.

I exited at Jackson and gassed again about 20 miles northwest of town where I slammed down a little bottle of 5-Hour Energy. Thus energized, I rode the remaining 118.3 miles home thoroughly enjoying XM-Sirius music on my enhanced (extra drivers) in-ear monitors.

I rode into my garage at 4:09 p.m.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Total riding time: 13:10
Average speed: 59.2 mph
Maximum speed: 95.1 mph
Total miles: 779.1

Rally pin of the day

Validation of what we've always believed

Stupidity

This gender identity foolishness reminds me of a joke I heard years ago.

A first-grade teacher brought her dog to school and asked the class how to tell if it was a male or a female.

A girl raised her hand and offered, "Let's vote."

At least it used to be a joke.

Doesn't work and can cause cancer! How's that for a product from China?

I bought a package of this stuff in January and finally got around to opening and using it to repair sunglasses this afternoon.
Here's the review I wrote on Amazon.com:

When you see more than half of the reviewers hate a product, you should consider yourself warned.
Unfortunately, I paid attention to the hype and not the reviews.

This product not only failed to perform as advertised - in this case to repair a pair of sunglasses - but came with instructions that are downright scary.
To quote from the Instruction Guide:

"WARNING! This product contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm."
And:
"Wear safety glasses and rubber gloves
"Never look directly into the UV light. It can cause eye damage.
"Dispose of liquid material safely. DO NOT discharge into sewer or waterways.
"DO NOT allow clothing wet with material to stay in contact with skin.
"DO NOT allow wash water from cleaning or process equipment to enter drains"

I wish I'd never opened the package.

Cheaper to replace than repair?

I got out my Poulan chainsaw yesterday to finish off the cedar tree stump when I discovered the sprocket that drives the chain had seized.

I dropped it off at a small engine repair shop down the road that charges $75 an hour. If the bill is significantly more, I will buy a new one for $111 and free shipping from Amazon and tell them to keep the old chainsaw.

Happy 15th anniversary to us!

Fifteen years ago this afternoon Maria and I stood under the Boone County Centennial Quilt in the rotunda of the Boone County Courthouse surrounded by friends and family and exchanged vows.

Boone County Clerk Lisa Garroffolo did the honors.

It was a spur of the moment decision and we bought my ring the evening before just before the jewelry store in Indianapolis closed.

Our reception was at a Lebanon ice cream stand that also had a playground, which prompted a young nephew to pronounce it the best wedding he'd ever attended.

Bad bad starter relay

This is the original starter relay for my 2003 BMW K1200GT that developed an intermittent fault about eight years ago.

That's when I noticed I had to press the starter button multiple times before the starter would engage and fire the engine. In an effort to solve the problem I spent about $450 for a new right combo switch but the problem persisted.

Finally, when the bike refused to start after more than 150 button presses, Charlie Parsons and I hauled it up to Cape Girardeau and let the guys at Grass Roots BMW Motorcycles dig into it.

As I've blogged previously, they couldn't get a fully functional replacement part out of Germany, but were able to make do with a partially functional replacement and a clever workaround involving a jumper connection.

Freezer Isn't Making Ice? – Whirlpool Refrigerator Ice Maker Assembly Re...

Appliance repair people will charge you an insane amount to replace this. You can do it for $45 for parts and $0 for labor. I love the way YouTube can show you how to do almost anything.

Remembering Walt Kelly on Friday, the 13th

Click the image to see it larger.

Water Dispenser Not Working? – Whirlpool Refrigerator Water Inlet Valve ...

This will come in handy in a few days.

$373? No. $307? No. How about $137!

The ice maker on our 16-year-old Whirlpool refrigerator stopped working a couple of weeks ago.

I called Strong Arm Appliance Repair, a local company that has worked on our appliances before, and their technician said we need a new valve for the ice maker. He said it had to be ordered and they would call me with an estimate. They never called. Finally, a week later, I called and was told they contacted me and I okayed the repair for an estimated $307. WTF? I told them I never got the call and I decline the repair.

So I called a nationwide company and they sent out a guy yesterday afternoon. He told me I should have taken the Strong Arm deal because his company would charge me $373.

However...

I could fix it myself and he showed me where to find the valve (with installation instructions) online for way less than the $109 he would have to charge me. I thanked him profusely and gladly paid the $120 diagnostic charge. Then I went to Amazon.com and got the valve kit for $17 with free shipping.

In the meantime, I'm happy to keep filling the ice bin with $1.53 bags of ice from the Dollar General store down the road.

Yard work

We had a productive day yesterday, taking care of neglected yard work.

We cut down a bunch of shrubs in front of the house a few weekends ago and left the cuttings to dry. We raked them up yesterday and piled them on an unwanted stump near the driveway and torched them.

Then the real fun began.

Maria has hated a scraggly cedar tree in our back yard ever since we moved here in 2007 and we took it down yesterday. I also chainsawed several limbs of other trees that I've had to duck for when mowing the lawn. And we accomplished all of this without encountering any snakes, which made me very happy. We did, however, inadvertently destroy a mourning dove nest in the cedar tree that had a couple of eggs in it.

I was shocked at how little stamina I had after all of this. My blood pressure registered 93/63 which could be an alltime personal low. My BP has been trending down over the past couple of years and the doc told me to back off of the Lisinopril if I felt light-headed. I did and I reduced the dosage this morning.

The GT is fixed and back at home!

Here's Grass Roots BMW Motorcycles service writer Brian Thompson filling in the blanks for a 6k service in my K1200GT maintenance manual yesterday.

I have nothing but praise for the guys at Grass Roots who figured out a work-around for the lack of a fully functional starter relay for my bike.

Maria and I drove up to Cape Girardeau yesterday morning and retrieved my GT, serviced and ready for a new riding season.

We stopped for lunch at Lamberts Cafe in Sikeston, Mo. We arrived minutes before noon on a Saturday. I can only suppose there is an even bigger noon-day crowd there today on Mother's Day, but we waited an hour to be seated. It was worth the wait for the throwed rolls, monster ice teas, pass-arounds and menu items.

Day 58 without my K1200GT

I just got a call from Dave, the senior technician at Grass Roots BMW Motorcycles, saying the starter relay promised by BMW in Germany has not arrived and their computer system indicates it's not in the pipeline, even though someone at BMW Motorrad in New Jersey said it was shipped from Germany earlier this week.

That said, Dave is confident that the one they received a couple of weeks ago can be made to work by adding a jumper that completes the circuit for the lights - the one shortcoming of the latest relay. He said they tested the idea by connecting a couple of wires and everything worked fine.

I told him to go ahead and add the jumper and bang on it a bit to make sure everything works properly and I'll plan to come up tomorrow and pick up the bike. And if a fully functional relay ever does show up, call me and I'll come up and have it installed.

Kudos to Dave and his crew, curses to BMW in Germany.

56 days and counting

As I sit here waiting for the appliance repairman to come and fix our ice maker, it occurs to me that this is the 56th day my K1200GT has sat at Grass Roots BMW Motorcycles in Cape Girardeau, Mo., waiting for a fully functional starter relay from Germany.

It also occurs to me that I have been very patient. So far.

I just pre-registered for the European Riders Rally in Burkesville, Ky. later this month with the realization that I may or may not have my bike back by then. If the bike isn't ready, I am prepared to go by car.

If further occurs to me that some of my less-sanguine friends would be crazy with rage by this time, vowing to anyone who would listen that they will never, ever buy another BMW motorcycle again.

I am not to that point. Yet.

Committing herbicide

When I mowed the dogs' part of the yard Sunday afternoon, I noticed there are places I can't reach with my John Deere LA125.

So this morning, I fed the dogs, secured them in their kennels and mixed up a gallon of Roundup. I hit the offending plant life hard, then stalked around the yard spraying around the bases of trees where poison ivy and other unwanted foliage likes to grow. The idea was to use the entire contents of the spray tank, so I could flush it properly, as per the manufacturer's instructions.

Then, I rewarded myself with a cup of mocha cappuccino.

And now, on with the day.

Happy Birthday, Dora!

Yesterday was Dora's third birthday. Here she is with her mother Mercy and her littermates.

She arrived just in time to ease the pain of Maria's exit from journalism and has enriched our lives more than we could ever have imagined. And Jack adores her.

It's May 1st!

Germany awakened!

Embarrassing

This is the cover of this month's issue of the BMW Motorcycle Owners of America's official magazine.

It features a project bike that converted an old R100RT into a cafe racer with about $10,000 worth of Wunderlicht parts and accessories which will be raffled off at the BMW MOA rally in July.

It has generated a minor storm of controversy on social media because of the clueless-looking girl astride the bike. Critics point out she is in no way dressed to ride - silly shoes, capri pants, flimsy jacket and no gloves. She gets points for eye protection and a helmet, but that's about all. No mention is made in the magazine of who she is or why she was chosen to be photographed by Bill Wiegand, the BMW ON managing editor. My guess is she's the girlfriend of one of the builders.

There's another silly looking photo inside.