I did a Thanksgiving Day 5K. I wouldn't call it a race, more like a leisurely stroll. I Walked with my running buddy's husband while she walked with her son. Not a bad day to be out. A little chilly but the 50 mph wind gusts that we had on Wednesday were gone at least.
When I went to check in they had no record of me registering for the event but they had me fill out another entry form and I was able to walk without having to pay. When I got home I checked my account and the check was never cashed. Also, the date on the check was a couple of days prior to the big fire there so I think my registration and check went up in flames. Since I didn't pay for the event I need to get them a check and see about a tee shirt, not that I need another shirt. Especially since I'm doing another 5K tomorrow. I'm going to try and actually do a little something in that one. I was the first male walker last year. I probably should have done at least a little "speedwork" if I was going to try and defend my title but my biggest concern this fall was the ruck march. Weatherman's talking some rain. Might just be put on a raincoat and slog through it.
We had a nice dinner at Surly's house for the holiday. The Missus baked pies, three of them actually, another type of pumpkin that didn't make the photo shoot. The run and dinner pretty well shot the day, besides I was still stuffed when I got home so I just relaxed rather than working on anything. Working today and the 5K on Saturday, so not much else on the agenda until Sunday.
I finished up the points cover. As easy as it was to make it, I'm not sure why I waited so long. If I were to make another one I'd do a couple of things differently. The flat surfaces slope down at an eight degree angle. I was planning on ten degrees but the stock I was using was a piece of a weld coupon that had bevels on both the top and bottom of the piece with a narrow root face so I was limited to where I could grab it in the vise. I should have used another piece but it was almost the perfect size and I thought it would stick up out of the vise high enough to give me the ten degrees. Eight's not bad but ten would have been better. Also, I should have turned the OD to a larger size and then turned it to the finish diameter after I bored out the inside to eliminate the marks from the chuck. They're not too noticeable but I should have thought it through a bit more before starting the job.
I'm going to order some stainless button head screws for the cover and get some stainless socket heads to replace the case bolts while I'm ordering. One of these days I'll pull the cover all the way off the bike so I can see what else I need to do on this thing and then try to make a little more headway.
I was reading the latest Welding Journal the other night and came across a couple of interesting anniversaries. First of all it's the 100th anniversary of the American Welding Society and they've been promoting that all year but it's also the 100th anniversary of the hard hat. It was originally made to protect miners and was fabricated from steamed canvas, glue, leather and black paint by the Bullard Company. It's also the 40th anniversary of Honda building motorcycles at their Marysville, Ohio plant, the first bike being the 250 Elsinore by the way.
On a totally unrelated point, I had a black squirrel in the backyard last evening. I saw a couple of them around town earlier this year for the first time, which surprised me. The Missus has some kin buried in Warsaw, Ind. and we always see black squirrels there when visiting the cemetery. The one in the backyard was a cute little thing but I'm sure it'll be just as destructive as the red and gray ones are if I leave a vehicle out where they can get at the wiring.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. Once again, I've got so much to be thankful for - hope you all do too.
I machined the inside of the points cover yesterday. I still have to relieve a bit for the condenser and a wire. It would be nice if I had a rotary table for this but, alas, I have no such thing. I've needed one for several jobs over the years but never enough to shell out the cash. Likewise, I'd like to trade out the old South Bend lathe for a newer one that would thread metric and didn't have the wear on the ways but because the South Bend has babbit bearings on the headstock, the spindle hole is much larger than a new machine of similar capacity that has tapered roller bearings. I'll use the die grinder to relieve the two spots today and then give it a final sand and polish.
Went to my buddy's funeral Saturday morning. Rather light-hearted service as it should have been if you knew the guy. The service was on his 67th birthday but apparently his time just ran out. I was watching Hondo starring John Wayne the other day and during the movie the Indian chief gets killed. Geraldine Page asks about the chief dying, to which The Duke replies: "Everybody dies, it was just his turn". While 67 years on this earth is not a bad run, I still think that's cheating a guy out of a few deserved years to enjoy the fruits of his labor with his family and friends. However, I don't get to make the call.
Yesterday I took grave pillows to the cemetery for my mom and our neighbor's graves as I do annually. The neighbor passed away several years back and his wife has moved away. The old gal is about 95 now and doesn't get up this way too often, so the Missus procures the grave blankets and I deliver them as I will as long as I'm able. One of these days I'll have to pass the baton to Surly for both the Thanksgiving and Memorial Day tours when my time runs out.
While making the trip to the cemetery, I always go by the old "home-place" where I grew up. The old neighborhood doesn't look too different but all the neighbors have either moved away or passed on. Not too far from there are some new housing developments on what used to be decent farm land. Time marches on but I wouldn't call all of it progress.
The cemetery is close to Harbor Freight so I did a bit of shopping while I was out. Picked up a few tools for myself and some things for the grandsons for Christmas. The boys are getting old enough to have some tools of their own they can lose and abuse. I had a coupon for everything I was getting, so I made out well there. Came home, mowed the backyard and then walked three miles with some of the folks from the gym.
I started on the points cover for the Sprint/Aermacchi on Saturday after the funeral. I still need to machine the backside but it's looking pretty good so far. My original one is on the left and as you can tell from the photo has the holes at a right angle to the ribs rather than at an angle as the new one does. Plus, the ribs are different. The goal wasn't to duplicate the original but to put my own spin on it. I'm going to try to get the backside machined today. I'm curious as to how it's going to look on the bike.
I need to decide what I'm going to do about the rear wheel on the bike. Right now it's got a seriously rusty steel rim. The front wheel has a nice high ribbed aluminum rim that was one that was the original I put together for the race bike. I'd like to have a matching rear on it but a new rim and spokes is going to cost a pretty penny. The front's an 18" rather that a 19" that the SS model calls for but it'll probably stay on since it's in good shape with a decent brake and stainless spokes and I don't want to have to re-lace it with the time and expense that would involve. Other than the rear wheel, however, I should have most all the parts necessary to put this one back together again so I'm not looking at too much of a cash outlay. As long as I keep working, money won't be an issue, time on the other hand's a whole different story.
Working on a few of the piddly things that hopefully will make life easier as well as some light maintenance around the shack. This is a rack for the welding tips for my oxy-acetylene torch. I'm going to make a cover for the top of the rack to keep the dust out of the "innards". Probably something with a hinge for convenience sake.
I also decided to attempt a spiffy points cover for one of the Sprints. I bought one for my racer years back that was originally intended to go on a Triumph. I had to turn the OD to make it fit inside the timing cover and the fins weren't quite aligned horizontally as they should have been but it looked real racy on the bike. I've been kicking the idea around of making one literally for years. It'd be real nice if I had access to a CNC mill but I think I can make something decent "old-school". The one on the racer was a casting but setting up a foundry is out of the question. I've also been collecting parts and working on this bike on and off for as long as I've been thinking about making the points cover. While the Rapido is the number one priority, it'd be nice to have two HDs put together this winter. I don't have too much left on it. I will have to move it up front into the heated section of the shop if I expect to get it finished, however.
Starting to get into a nice groove as far as getting things done goes. I don't have anything real pressing at the moment, so I just make sure I get a little something done everyday I'm not working and then buy parts with my paycheck. Not a bad system - at least until I quit the job.
I used to work with this knucklehead - one of the greatest guys on the planet. He passed away yesterday morning and is going to be buried on his 67th birthday. Life's a bitch sometimes.
I went south yesterday for a luncheon date with one of our boxers and a couple others. Our guy is leaving today for basic training and a couple of us wanted to have a little send off lunch date. After lunch I went past the remains from Sunday's fire. As you can see in the photos, it was still smoldering and they were already knocking down some of the remaining structure. It's certainly a heartbreaker for all those that are going to be affected but this was a relatively new structure and not one of the old buildings on the square. Small consolation for the city I guess.
Here's a couple of shots from the ruck march I did on the 9th. Not a huge crowd but an enthusiastic one. The photos were taken from the Facebook page of the group sponsoring the march.
I got an e-mail about a 53 mile something or other at the Inaugural 465 Challenge. As it's explained in the e-mail I received, you sign up before the first of the year and then you have two months to do something that adds up to 53 miles which is the distance around Indy if you stayed on I-465. That could be walking, cycling or jumping up and down in the basement. They did mention they don't want you to venture out on the Interstate on foot or bicycle. The whole deal is on the honor system. I don't know if I'll seriously consider doing this - it's a little expensive just to get some more swag I don't need. It would keep me moving during two of the worst months of winter. I am considering doing some more rucking or training for the 50 mile challenge, however. Obviously doing the 53 miles in three days and less than 20 hours would kill two birds and all that but I don't know that February would be the best time of the year to tackle it.
You had to know with all the Epstein memes out there that one from a welder would show up.
It's starting to look like it's about that time what with the impeachment proceedings and all of the "swamp critters" stepping on the constitution and ignoring the rule of law. It'll be an interesting year leading up to the next election. It'll be even more interesting if the stock market takes a tumble or some other event puts people in a panic. Time to make sure you're well supplied and have an action plan if you don't have things in place already.
I keep reading about more store closures and bankruptcies - Dean Foods filed for bankruptcy protection which surprised me but people aren't drinking milk like they used to as well as other market factors. I've been seeing a lot of for hire signs around here lately, however.
I just read about a restaurant chain that opened up a new store with no dining facilities. No cash sales and no dining area - pick it up yourself or have one of the delivery services bring it to you. Apparently, people staying home and eating carry-in is becoming much more common and it's not just fast food, either. I'll pick something up for the Missus on the days I work occasionally but I'd much prefer getting out of the house and having a sit-down meal rather than any of the fast food offerings we have locally.
I went to Valparaiso Saturday to pick up some things at Menards and Best Buy. I'm not sure why but there were lots of people out. What made it more surprising is the traffic circle/roundabout has all the traffic screwed up. The roundabout is supposed to be fully open and operational next week for "Black Friday" so I didn't expect to see a lot of people out who were just shopping. I can't figure out why at least a bit of the roundabout wasn't opened up so people could turn right after leaving Menards and get back to the highway to eliminate much of the back-up. Failing that, maybe some police directing traffic to speed things up. Apparently Indiana has decided that the answer to all traffic problems is to install a roundabout. They've been working on this one since last year. It's going to have to save a lot of time to make up for all the wasted time and fuel during the construction process.
We bought a new TV not too long ago and I wanted to get the DVD player connected to it which required some type of adaptor from the old style pin jacks to the new HDMI connection or whatever it's called. I was in for a bit of a shock when the adaptor and cable were going to cost about $70.00. I ended up buying a new DVD player and cable and got out of there for $45.00. The cost of all this new technology makes me wonder if it's even worth it when most of the shows I watch were filmed in black and white 60 years ago. We do get some new shows as a result of the new TV, though. I've been enjoying Hamish Macbeth. Decent entertainment and no commercials.
Big fire south of here yesterday at the county seat. About a dozen buildings destroyed from what was reported last evening. This is going to be a huge loss to the town. I'm heading down that way later today. I was supposed to see a new chiropractor who takes more of a whole body approach than just an alignment. However, since I'm on Medicare, no dice. Medicare's a real bargain but only if your doctor participates. If they don't, you can't even pay cash to get service.
The weatherman said every day but one this month has been below average and it's not looking good for the future either. I've been getting a few things done around the shack. I finish a couple jobs in the shop and I'm going to get back on the basement workshop both on the equipment and the two projects I've been working on. Maybe even get one of them done this winter.
I went to Fabtech the other day with my boss and his one son, one of my welding students. The show is a huge exposition of welding and fabricating tools, equipment and materials suppliers. Other than the Additive Manufacturing exhibits there wasn't much on display that was new to me. I did get a chance to see a friction welding machine at the Lincoln Electric display that was pretty cool. Most all of the welding machine manufacturers have new machines with all kinds of digital enhancements. However, for the most part they only enhance the machine and not the actual welding being done. SMAW, or stick welding, hasn't changed much since WWII. The new fancy inverter machines are more economical to run but you'd be hard pressed to put down a better bead with one of them than what an old hand can do with a decent motor generator.
There were a couple of battery powered machines I saw. I've used a Fronius battery powered stick welder but there was a battery powered MIG machine that looked pretty cool I'd like to try out. The young guy with us did try the virtual MIG welder at the Lincoln display. He's never done any MIG welding before, but did pretty well with it. He also tried out an actual MIG on stainless material at the ESAB booth along with running some 7018 on a Tee joint. He's been welding with those rods recently and put down a nice bead while the pressure was on to perform in front of a crowd.
I tried out the new plasma cutter from ESAB. It's supposed to be released January 15th. It comes in a small package but cuts like a large machine. I signed up to be notified when it becomes available. I was looking at buying the older model but I think this one will do everything and more I'll ever need at a price I can justify to myself.
I think the young guy had a good time and got a lot out of going. He was able to burn a "college day" from school and probably got a lot more out of this than going to any school, at least from this stage in his life. We welded a bit after work the night after attending the show and he seemed a bit more enthusiastic than normal even though he's normally pretty reserved.
We've had record setting cold around here lately - it's not like we don't get temperatures this cold most every winter but not this early in the season. It was nine degrees the other morning with a daytime high of about twenty. The Missus ordered a ceramic heating element to keep the chickens warm and fortunately it arrived just before the cold weather. It must be helping. I gathered the eggs after working a ten hour day and none of the eggs were frozen. It's a small coop and I can tell the difference in temperature when I go inside. This should be all the girls need this winter along with the heated water to keep them comfortable.
It's supposed to warm up a bit this weekend and next week - still below average but above freezing at least. I'll try and muster up the courage to get out in the shop and get a few things done.
I was thinking this the other day watching the guy struggling with his heavy pack during the ruck. Been a while since I've seen any of the Dirty Harry movies. Now that winter seems to be here, like it or not, I should pick a night, light a fire in the fireplace and do a Harry Callahan marathon.
Surly supplied me with a chili recipe that looks good, my running buddy, who's also a vegetarian, has a good recipe she said, and I found one in my one vegan cookbook that looks tasty. It calls for three types of beans and three colors of peppers. Looks really simple to make and I usually have all the ingredients on hand other than the different colored peppers. I'm going to give that a try next. I did make a chili pie last week. I picked up a link of jalapeno and cheese sausage from the little mom & pop grocery east of me to give it some zip. I cut it into fairly small chunks but should have taken it out of the casing and browned it like hamburger. The little grocery always has a good selection of meat. I was eye-balling the stuffed pork chops while I was there, in fact. Might have to break training, again, and get a couple of those.
I do want to get back on the program again, however. I've kept the weight down but I'm still eating a bit too much of the sweets. I enjoyed the ruck march and I'm thinking about doing some more of that and gradually adding some more weight to the pack. If I stay with it over the winter, I might be able to do some back packing come spring time if I can find someone willing to come along. The Missus doesn't mind me doing these things but with my medical history, she doesn't want me to go solo.
While training for the ruck march I was thinking about the 50 mile challenge from Teddy Roosevelt's day. I wrote about this a couple of years ago after seeing something about it at The Art of Manliness. If you follow the link there's a real good write-up about the history of the walk.
This was back in the sixties. Looks like the answer to the question is yes, definitely. With all that's happening in this country presently, I'm thinking we all should be taking our health and physical condition seriously. Actually, regardless of what may develop in the future, it's always a good idea to get a bit of exercise on a daily basis - don't want to be the guy who keels over while shoveling snow.
Something a little different for Veterans Day. Never forget what many of them have gone through.
When I pulled into the fairgrounds the other day there was a gentleman there giving directions on where to go to sign up. He was wearing a hat with a sergeant's pin on it. I'm guessing he was about 50 years old. He was a black man and it's often times hard to tell their age. I'm also guessing he probably retired after 20 years in the service. Seemed like a nice guy: smiling, friendly, but I'll bet he's still one bad-ass.
Thanks Sarge, all the rest of you and your families for all you've given.
I did the 10 mile ruck with Surly yesterday. It was a bit chilly and breezy initially but turned out to be a beautiful day later. The temperature was right at freezing when I pulled into the parking lot which might have kept some people away. I don't know how well this event was advertised - I never would have known about it if it hadn't been for Surly. I think the only way he knew about it was because he knows the guy in charge. So there weren't a lot of people there but the local Marine recruiter "supplied" a nice size group that led the way which included a couple of flag bearers. There also was a couple of squad cars running interference for us through town until we hit the bike trail outside of town.
The Erie Lackawanna Trail is paved and runs through some decent scenery and has very nice facilities along the way. I used to run on part of it when it was still an active railroad way back when, my mother owned some property next to the rail line and my first house after getting married was just a short hop away, so I'm pretty familiar with the area. I rode my bike on most of the trail right after it opened but hadn't been on it for quite a few years. After hiking it yesterday, I'm thinking I should plan on getting out on it again in the future.
Both Surly and I were dressed appropriately and had trained adequately so we had a pretty enjoyable hike. He was toting about 30 pounds in his ruck. I filled mine with Styrofoam packing peanuts and a helium balloon. Actually it was about 18 pounds - plenty for an old man who has lost a bit of upper body strength. There was a young guy, maybe 35, former Marine, current law enforcement and martial arts guy who was humping an 80 lb. ruck. I'm guessing that was just about half his body weight. He struggled from the very beginning but kept after it until about mile nine and then had to bail out from under all that weight. Surly, myself and a few of Surly's friends hiked along with the guy to make sure he didn't fall out somewhere along the trail since he was the last man of the group. One of Surly's buddies carried the guy's pack for about the last mile - he was a big dude and wasn't wearing a pack, so him stepping up kept us moving. I mentioned to Surly as we were finishing the Haggard song above. The title says it all.
When we got back to the fairgrounds they had chili and hot dogs along with a whole bunch of doughnuts left over from the morning sign-up. They took a group photo, I had a bowl of chili and headed home.
My feet were a bit sore when I got home and I hobbled around the house later in the evening when my right ankle stiffened up but I'm doing fine this morning. The group from the boxing gym is doing their weekly run this afternoon, so I think I'll walk a couple of miles while they run to keep things loose.
And what's an event like this without a tee shirt? Not that I needed another tee shirt but this is the only ruck I've ever done so why not. Well run event, good cause, got some exercise and spent some quality time with Surly and some friends. Good day. Very thankful to still be able to get out and do things like this.
While searching for the perfect chili recipe to make, I stuck with the cowboy theme and perused the cookbook in the photo. Sure enough, several good chili recipes from out there in Marlboro Country. There is even a vegetarian chili recipe. However, I doubt that one is going to make the cut. While most of the chili I usually come across locally is made with ground beef, several recipes use some bacon in the recipe. I'm not a hard core vegetarian so a little meat wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, but I'd like to come up with a dish that doesn't rely on the meat to make it palatable. I'm a fan of beans, so chili con frijoles as opposed to chili con carne would work just fine for me. One of the problems I have is a lack of ability to read the list of ingredients in a recipe and know what it will taste like when done or why you would use canned whole tomatoes, chopped, when it would seem more logical to just use diced tomatoes from the start. The Missus is a whiz at all that sort of thing but I like to do all my household stuff in the mornings, she's strictly afternoons and evenings. I'll fumble my way to a decent bowl of chili before long. It's just the beginning of the winter after all.
The second batch of persimmon bread. I had enough persimmon puree left over after the first batch of bread to try making some persimmon cookies but since I had some more persimmons in the bucket, I went ahead and pureed the rest of them and made a couple more loaves of the bread. The first two loaves were a bit darker in color and a little prettier on top. I'm not sure what the difference was with the second batch but I had to bake them for about 12 minutes longer also. I used some brandy in the first batch and rum in the second - that might be it. I won't know how they taste until sometime this winter since I wrapped them up and put them in the freezer. I've been eating my way through one of the loaves from the first batch and it's damn good. I've still got one loaf of rhubarb bread in the freezer also, so I'm in good shape for the winter. I would like to try my hand at making fruitcake. The fruitcake from Gethsemani Farms is excellent - might be the Kentucky bourbon - or it might just be the angel the Monks at the Abbey have looking over their shoulders. You can order it along with their fudge and other items but it's a bit on the expensive side. Quality rarely comes cheap, though.
The weather was nice yesterday so I got out and put the cover on the AC unit, drained the garden hose and got it put away and fixed the lights on the old Allis. The old girl really needs to be rewired. I discussed that with my neighbor the mechanic but I never got around to ordering a new harness. It looked like I might be better off just replacing everything one wire at a time because the tractor has been fitted with an alternator rather than the original generator along with a few other mods. That'll be next year now. It started right up, the lights work and I ran it down the lane to charge the battery a bit. I still need to check all the fluids and put some air in one of the front tires but no biggie there. It'll be ready when the snow flies.
The lights for the motorcycle carrier arrived. I'm going to get back on that project so I can haul my bike to Indy for service. I'd like to get that done before too much longer. I won't be riding it until next season but I'd like to get it taken care of before the weather gets too bad.
The Missus texted me the other day while I was at work and asked me to pick her up a chef's salad from the local restaurant on my way home from work. She ordered me up a bowl of chili at the same time. The chili was only about half the size I needed after working all day and it wasn't all that good - not bad but not great. I decided I should look for a decent chili recipe I could make for myself.
The Missus has an extensive collection of cookbooks - maybe 300 of them - I figured I'd be able to find something to my liking. I went first to The All American Cowboy Cookbook by Ken Beck and Jim Clark figuring there would be no better place to start my search. Sure enough, lots of chili recipes. Most all the recipes in the book are from people in the entertainment business that have played cowboys, or cowgirls, as well as singers, ranch owners - there's even a recipe from Richard Petty.
The book has a lot of photos of all these greats and some bits of bio on many of them. I saw Will Rogers in the book and knowing he was probably the greatest trick roper of all time, decided to see what I could find. The video above is six minutes but gives you a real good idea as to his skill level. If you don't have time to watch the whole thing or aren't at all interested in trick roping, watch the very first few seconds. Good advice there.
The book had a blurb on Ben Johnson as well as his recipe for buttermilk biscuits. Even though I grew up watching the Lone Ranger and Roy Rogers, Ben Johnson is without a doubt my favorite movie cowboy. He wasn't just an actor, he was the real deal as a cowboy. The only person to win a World Champion Cowboy and an Academy Award. Pretty smart guy as well - left an estate estimated at $1,000,000.
No shortage of cowboy singers in the cookbook. Here's one of my favorites: This one's for you Pop!
Woke up this morning after falling back asleep for a bit - clock said 7:07 so I got up only to remember the time change, so it was only 6:07. But this realization came after taking the antibiotic for the Lyme Disease - the one that says not to lie down for ten minutes after taking it on an empty stomach preventing me from just turning around and hot-footing it back to bed. As long as I was up I changed all the clocks, and of course, I grumbled about it the whole time like I always do. However, I now understand why we change the clocks back. The Missus told me last evening the Indiana Liquor Commission told the tavern owners they didn't have to quit serving at the first 2:00 o'clock. They could turn the clocks back and continue to serve until the second 2:00 o'clock. So apparently the whole idea of turning the clocks back in the fall is to allow one extra hour of serving time for the tavern owners once a year. Now it all makes sense. And it almost makes up for the time wasted changing every clock in the house and upsetting everyone's internal clocks. If they're bound and determined to change the time, how about making all of us in Indiana be on the same time? That would make a whole lot more sense to me.
The weatherman was right about the snow. We got a bit as you can see from this view looking out on the front yard. The Chicago television stations were all about the snow - some of the northern suburbs got about 6 inches. The temp last night was supposed to get down to about 24 degrees.
I picked all of the peppers figuring they weren't going to make it through the night. Always the optimist, however, I did cover them up again. I also picked persimmons. I got a bucket the same size as the one with the peppers full of nice persimmons so I can make a couple of loaves of bread. Like banana bread or rhubarb bread, persimmon bread is right tasty with a bit of butter and a hot cup of tea or coffee. There's still more persimmons on the tree but I picked all I could reach without getting out a ladder. I think the recipe calls for 2 cups of puree. Depending on how much I get out of my bucket's worth, I might pick a few more to make another couple of loaves to freeze.
While I was outside in the snow, I got the electric cord strung out to the chicken coop and plugged in the waterer. I usually put a light in there about the time of the winter solstice, unless it gets real cold before then. Chickens are pretty hardy creatures and usually do OK as long as they're out of the wind but the light plus the heated waterer makes a big difference in that small coop. The light also keeps the chickens laying during the days of short daylight.
I took a good look in the barn at the dirt piles and figured out it's a woodchuck/ground hog that's burrowed in. I found the other end of the burrow where he gets out of the barn along with what appears to be a maze of tunnels underneath a couple of pallets that I put down to keep some machinery parts off the floor. I haven't come up with a plan of action yet but like the Mounties, I always get my man.
I machined up some little parts for work and installed the brackets I made for the nail cabinet. I've actually got quite a bit of work to do for my employer. I came up with the solution for the bike carrier. It shouldn't be too tough to do, just a little ticked off with myself for the design failure. I ordered some taillights for the job. They are the small round ones that go into a piece of 1-1/2" tubing. With the lights protected inside a piece of tubing, they shouldn't get broken while loading the bike. I put a pair of these in the sidecar and was pretty happy with them. I'd rather not have someone rear end me because they couldn't see the truck taillights and smash the bike and the truck.
Looks like it's going to continue to have daytime temps in the thirties for a few days then warm back up to mid-forties. Yep, it's winter, like it or not.
