Time

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.