Update

Interesting day yesterday. First thing in the morning I got a call from my boss at the side hustle. I was taking the garbage can down and had the motor running, so I went over to the shop to discuss the job with him he wants done. While I was pulling in to his place I got a call from my buddy who's rebuilding the motor for the vintage trials bike.

He's gone through the gear selector and it's a 5 speed model. However, that doesn't mean the gearbox is a 5 speed. Apparently you can use a 5 speed selector with a 4 speed box also. Fortunately, when you go to shift into 5th, it just won't shift rather than getting a neutral. Next up, he's going to tackle the lower end so I'll know whether or not it's a 5 speed. I should have the motor back by Christmas, meaning I'll have a vintage trials bike for next summer.

My new coat and the shocks for the jitney project showed up. The coat fits well but the Missus says Carhartt is now running a sale for 25% off. That would have been nice. I'll get started on the shock mounting brackets right after I make a print for the side hustle job, get the boss to sign off on it and service the mower. The boss has a couple other things for me as well. One is easy-peasy, the other is something I really want no part of but will probably relent and tackle some time in the future. 

If you look closely at the box the shocks came in you can see the cancer warning. While cancer is certainly nothing to joke about, I'm thinking there's not much risk of me getting cancer from installing a pair of shock absorbers. On the other hand, the county I grew up in was at one time ranked in the top ten of the most polluted counties in the United States and who knows how much welding smoke I've sucked up over the years. So yeah, shock absorbers don't scare me.

The propane guy showed up later in the day to fill up the tank. We always prepay for the winter so our price is locked in. Looks like that was an especially wise decision this year from what I've been reading about energy prices escalating. Regardless of how high the price goes, I'm going to keep heating the shop this winter so I can get my projects done. I'll just spend some of that Social Security money I used to spend on travel. 

My old boss at the college called about the advisory committee meeting - good thing too because I was just about ready to head out when he told me the meeting was today, rather than yesterday. I'm going to take a piece of sheet aluminum with me and use the shear in the shop to cut the pieces I need to fill in the blanks, now that I moved the cab back a few inches. I could cut it at the house but my bench shear wrinkles the edges a bit. I'll get a free meal and the use of the shear - almost worth driving up there.