Typical Days

Been an interesting few days lately. Sunday was the wife's birthday and she decided it would be nice to cook some stuff on the grill for us and the rest of the family. She mentioned the night before there would probably be a wasp nest under the grill cover, so look out. Sure enough. Only I didn't even get the cover off before I got stung on the knuckle. It's always amazed me that a wasp doesn't even have to land on you to sting you - they can zap you on the way by and give you enough venom to cause a good amount of swelling. And pain, of course.

Later she needed some butter from the freezer downstairs, so off I went only to discover the freezer had quit working. Fortunately, it must have happened not too long before I opened it up because the stuff on the top was soft but the stuff on the bottom was still frozen solid. Lot better than the last time that happened and everything had melted and the meat had all gone bad. The wife's sister had a freezer that she no longer used and was wanting to sell so Surly met me at her house and we brought it home and I got everything transferred or tossed as needed. After all that the Missus gave up on grilling and we went out for dinner instead. Came back to the house and had birthday cake, so it was all good.

Going along with the theme of old equipment giving up the ghost, I jumped on the bicycle the other night and didn't get too far before feeling something wrong with the front tire. Looks like the belts broke and put a bend in it. The tire has a lot of miles on it but I hadn't planned on changing it this year. I ordered a pair of Schwalbe Marathons to put on the bike. They seem to be the gold standard of touring tires. I talked to my old "saddle pal" a week or so ago and we might be doing the Cowboy Trail in Nebraska next year and these new tires should be just the ticket for road or trail.

I talked to a salesman from the Ducati shop I visited the other day. I was about to pull the trigger on the Icon Scrambler but we couldn't make a deal. I wanted to trade off the SV650 but he said they had a house rule of no trades on bikes over ten years old - mine's eleven. He said he'd knock off $1K on a cash deal but by the time he added in the sales tax and all the rest of the fees, he added back $1.5K. I understand there's no way around the $560 on the sales tax, but another $1000 for prep and title fees? Seems a bit excessive to me, plus I still would have to do something with the SV. Maybe I can make a deal on an Enfield. I might go check out the big dual-purpose singles that Suzuki and Kawasaki both sell. I've got a trip or two I'd like to take and one of those could be fun.

I did make some progress out in the shop. These are parts for heavy bag hangers for the boxing gym. All set to start welding them together. I'll get those finished up this week and move on to a couple of other jobs that have been stalled. I did get most of my yard work completed. The old place looks much better after some weed/brush control and a little judicious landscaping. Still could use a little more TLC but I'm planning on taking care of some of that later this Fall.