This morning, the sun came out first thing, and that improved my attitude about the oil change instantly... I was right outside jacking up the car and finding the oil drip pan... Of course this car takes hex stud wrenches, in metric sizes.
And when you pull the stud bolt, you get ten quarts coming all at once. So you had better have a big oil pan, or its going to be a mess! The filter is a paper cartridge that goes into a removable canister like a tractor or my really old chevys were.
Then its sealed with o rings that are 4 inches around... I never have found anyone other than BMW that would tackle the work... And they are soooo high priced, that I learned to do it myself... Even just buying the oil and the filter costs $80.
Eventually I poured the dirty oil back into the jugs and took them up to the back end of Wal Mart where they accept recycle oil... And then Wendy's is in the outskirts of the Wal Mart parking lot.
Once I was back home, I thought about calling it a day, but that dirty motorscooter was staring me in the face, so I rolled it back outside and hooked up the pressure washer... It needed the mud blown out from under it.
It was nicely warm in the outside sun, but I was fairly wet from the washer, so no ride was in the cards after I was finished...
We had a birthday party tonight for our DIL and oldest grand daughter.. Their birthdays are only one day apart, so we always celebrate them together... Loyce and Ema were together all day today, so they had some good girl time going.
Oh, my Iowa team took it right to the Minnesota folks today in Iowa City... Perhaps they were looking for revenge from loosing with an onside kick in the last seconds from last week...
Minnesota just happened to be unlucky and draw this upset Iowa team the next week. I would be sorry for them, but they have won that series for the last couple of years so it was time for Floyd of Rosedale to come back South. The travelling trophy is a big brass pig on a trophy base.
Minnesota is the overall winner of the series with Floyd as the trophy with something like 41-35 and two ties.... And there were games before the pig, but I didn't count them, but Minnesota looked like it had more back then too...
So I am not worried for Minnesota.....
Retired Rod
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Saturday, September 29, 2012
Projects
Well...., it wasn't raining this morning, but.......! It was cool and overcast again... and looked like it could rain at any moment.... So work around our garage is inside and out of the rain..
Its fall again, and that means its time to change the oil in all of the engines around here.. And after surgery, last year I'm not certain which engines actually were changed out... The smaller ones were skipped...
Some of this stuff just doesn't get used very much so I never know whether to stick to the once a year rule.. We only drove the collector SUV 1500 miles in the last two years, but I see that it has been that long since its oil was changed... So I was working on that car today... Its an 05 BMW X5..
And after lunch, I said to heck with the fact it might rain and pushed the bike out of the garage... I have to go to the dealership for a paper oil filter for the car... I've never found the filter anywhere else... Surely its available at a import auto parts place, but I've never found one of those around here either...
So the decision was to just head out to the dealer and get it over with... Its about 20 miles each way or more.. It was in the cool end of the 70s and riding the bike was chilly with just a t shirt and the mesh riding coat. I kept thinking about my Canadian friends where that is a warm summer day.........
In about an hour or so I had the filter... But I got side tracked at a local cycle clothes and helmet store on the way back home... Didn't buy anything but spent some time looking.... They had my Air Hawk cushion but wanted $180 and it wasn't even the right model... They didn't have any tires, that would fit my scooter and that was what I was really interested in... And all of their tires were in the $200 range, and that is even more than my dealer wants for a tire..
Then the local Wendy's was calling my name.. Eventually I ended up in Wal Mart buying synthetic oil... Man that stuff has gone up in price... The 5 quart bottle of Castrol in the Titanium grade was $26.95. And I needed two of them.
Eventually I ended back home in the garage, but never really got back on that oil change project either.. It was too cool to wash the bike and too overcast to trust it not raining anyway..
Maybe tomorrow....
Retired Rod
Friday, September 28, 2012
Still raining....
It was supposed to clear off today and get over the rainy skies by mid afternoon... So I hung around the house in the morning waiting for this nicer part of the day...
The motor scooter is in the garage all muddy and grimy from yesterday's rainy ride on some of the gravel roads..... Its really yucky.. I had the intent to wash it, but the clouds never went away...
They kind of cleared and I went over and got the old SUV washed as it is black and was very dusty from sitting in the garage with the door open... Kansas is a dusty farm state, and we are less than a couple of miles from open fields...
But then as I was out doing errands, it started to sprinkle again... I ran for the cover of the garage again. Changing for the truck in the late afternoon, it began to rain again in earnest.
We had the youngest grand child for most of the afternoon, so that keeps us more house bound....
And no the scooter never was started today, and never found itself outside for that much needed bath.... But at least we did discuss some of the things we need to get done to head back off to the Southwest, so perhaps that will count as doing something productive.... Ah, retirement....!
Retired Rod
The motor scooter is in the garage all muddy and grimy from yesterday's rainy ride on some of the gravel roads..... Its really yucky.. I had the intent to wash it, but the clouds never went away...
They kind of cleared and I went over and got the old SUV washed as it is black and was very dusty from sitting in the garage with the door open... Kansas is a dusty farm state, and we are less than a couple of miles from open fields...
But then as I was out doing errands, it started to sprinkle again... I ran for the cover of the garage again. Changing for the truck in the late afternoon, it began to rain again in earnest.
We had the youngest grand child for most of the afternoon, so that keeps us more house bound....
And no the scooter never was started today, and never found itself outside for that much needed bath.... But at least we did discuss some of the things we need to get done to head back off to the Southwest, so perhaps that will count as doing something productive.... Ah, retirement....!
Retired Rod
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Rain, it isn't raining here is it...?
So this morning when I was up at 5 AM and it was still sprinkling outside, I mentally wrote off the ride on the bike for today...... Now fully un encumbered with the thought of having to go somewhere, I went back to sleep like a baby....
I awoke in a start looking at almost 9 AM, ..........in the fully bathed beauty of the sunshine in my room....... Sunshine??? It was raining.........!
Well no problem the lunch is at 11 and it is only 70 miles down to Melvern... But that was to be the first of many failed decisions for the day... I dressed with my yellow green shirt and long pants and headed to the kitchen...
Loyce was already up and knew in a heartbeat that I was going to go... I kind of fooled around and it was almost 10 AM before I had the bike out of the garage and we were off.... Mistake number two...
It seemed to be a nice day so I thought that riding down interstate 35 would be a pain and not as enjoyable so I turned South on US 169..... Mistake number 3...
As I passed the town of Spring Hill, I noticed that the sky was becoming gray ahead of me, and that there were still some clouds......... Aw heck... But I had put my rain liner on under my outer mesh coat and I had my full face helmet..
By the time I reached Paola, it was sprinkling.... And I tried to turn West to get out of the darker sky... A good idea, but the road curved around and took me right back to the highway I just got off of... And before long I was in Osawatomie.. and it was raining hard.... I pulled off into town as I thought I was to leave on a road to the West of there...
In the rain, I never was able to see well enough to find the road, and ended up again going South out of town... Wrong again....! Eventually I just turned West on any blacktop going that way... No number or name.. that I could see.
And that worked until I came to a really small town named Lane.... And the road ended against the Marais Des Cygnes River (Marsh of the Swans in French).... I stopped and got out the GPS from under the seat....
It was already on and knew where we were, but didn't exactly know the easiest rout to where we wanted to go.... It had me backtracking all the way back to Ottawa and then going down the interstate to the exit South of Melvern and then going North for several Miles to get into town.... A sum of 50 miles.... Heck we weren't more than about 10 miles away as the crow would fly...
But it did show that if I went North out of this town and turned West on a small road, I would be over the pesky river... So I followed along that way, even thought it wasn't the route the GPS wanted... Now we followed the river here and there as it wandered on the North side of the banks...
Eventually it stopped raining, and I picked up speed.... But still I had to turn North on US 59 back toward Ottawa... And I looked down and was mostly out of gas.... Do you see a pattern here.....? I got gas at the next town, and turned West...
That road eventually took me to old 50 and another town with an interchange on the Interstate, but I hoped the road beyond would take me due West, and it would have too, but it was gravelly dirt..... I gave up and got on the interstate headed Southwest.... By now very late and glad that the travel speed was 75...
This time I followed the GPS exactly, even though it was seemingly farther... But the last error became apparent as I met a bunch of motorcycles headed the other way... The guys from the luncheon were on their way home...!
The town was small, and there wasn't a bike in the entire downtown... The lady inside the cafe said they all left about 10 minutes ago...... I just shook my head and walked out....
I rode over by the tailwater COE campground on Melvern lake, that we camp at on sunny weekends, and then turned South to the Interstate where I knew the truck stop had a WENDY'S!!
The return trip was right up the Interstate, where I followed a slower semi and let all the fast traffic buzz right on by... Still we were going 70 or better..
So I rode 180 miles today, much of it in the rain on the highway, in order to eat by myself in a truckstop Wendy's.. But I looked at it this way as I was cruising along on the way home... Any day riding a bike on the open road, is a better day than sitting around at home by myself watching the tube....
Loyce was at a quilting lab over at the local fabric store for much of the afternoon, and I ended up over at Wal Mart Pharmacy attempting to straighten out the prescriptions emailed in by the Doctor yesterday...
And after that pleasant task, the rainy riding time looked like a walk in the park...
Retired Rod
I awoke in a start looking at almost 9 AM, ..........in the fully bathed beauty of the sunshine in my room....... Sunshine??? It was raining.........!
Well no problem the lunch is at 11 and it is only 70 miles down to Melvern... But that was to be the first of many failed decisions for the day... I dressed with my yellow green shirt and long pants and headed to the kitchen...
Loyce was already up and knew in a heartbeat that I was going to go... I kind of fooled around and it was almost 10 AM before I had the bike out of the garage and we were off.... Mistake number two...
It seemed to be a nice day so I thought that riding down interstate 35 would be a pain and not as enjoyable so I turned South on US 169..... Mistake number 3...
As I passed the town of Spring Hill, I noticed that the sky was becoming gray ahead of me, and that there were still some clouds......... Aw heck... But I had put my rain liner on under my outer mesh coat and I had my full face helmet..
By the time I reached Paola, it was sprinkling.... And I tried to turn West to get out of the darker sky... A good idea, but the road curved around and took me right back to the highway I just got off of... And before long I was in Osawatomie.. and it was raining hard.... I pulled off into town as I thought I was to leave on a road to the West of there...
In the rain, I never was able to see well enough to find the road, and ended up again going South out of town... Wrong again....! Eventually I just turned West on any blacktop going that way... No number or name.. that I could see.
And that worked until I came to a really small town named Lane.... And the road ended against the Marais Des Cygnes River (Marsh of the Swans in French).... I stopped and got out the GPS from under the seat....
It was already on and knew where we were, but didn't exactly know the easiest rout to where we wanted to go.... It had me backtracking all the way back to Ottawa and then going down the interstate to the exit South of Melvern and then going North for several Miles to get into town.... A sum of 50 miles.... Heck we weren't more than about 10 miles away as the crow would fly...
But it did show that if I went North out of this town and turned West on a small road, I would be over the pesky river... So I followed along that way, even thought it wasn't the route the GPS wanted... Now we followed the river here and there as it wandered on the North side of the banks...
Eventually it stopped raining, and I picked up speed.... But still I had to turn North on US 59 back toward Ottawa... And I looked down and was mostly out of gas.... Do you see a pattern here.....? I got gas at the next town, and turned West...
That road eventually took me to old 50 and another town with an interchange on the Interstate, but I hoped the road beyond would take me due West, and it would have too, but it was gravelly dirt..... I gave up and got on the interstate headed Southwest.... By now very late and glad that the travel speed was 75...
This time I followed the GPS exactly, even though it was seemingly farther... But the last error became apparent as I met a bunch of motorcycles headed the other way... The guys from the luncheon were on their way home...!
The town was small, and there wasn't a bike in the entire downtown... The lady inside the cafe said they all left about 10 minutes ago...... I just shook my head and walked out....
I rode over by the tailwater COE campground on Melvern lake, that we camp at on sunny weekends, and then turned South to the Interstate where I knew the truck stop had a WENDY'S!!
The return trip was right up the Interstate, where I followed a slower semi and let all the fast traffic buzz right on by... Still we were going 70 or better..
So I rode 180 miles today, much of it in the rain on the highway, in order to eat by myself in a truckstop Wendy's.. But I looked at it this way as I was cruising along on the way home... Any day riding a bike on the open road, is a better day than sitting around at home by myself watching the tube....
Loyce was at a quilting lab over at the local fabric store for much of the afternoon, and I ended up over at Wal Mart Pharmacy attempting to straighten out the prescriptions emailed in by the Doctor yesterday...
And after that pleasant task, the rainy riding time looked like a walk in the park...
Retired Rod
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Getting the Doctor out of the way to ride....
I went to the Doctor's office this morning, and they reviewed and renewed.. Or at least I think they did as I haven't been to the pharmacy....
But I drove right home and jumped into my riding clothes.... Lunch was at Miss B's down in Louisburg..... I was late so I laid on some speed out on the double lane highway.... Made tracks..... And managed to arrive just a a bunch of them were heading into the restaurant..
Again these pictures are on the Romeo Web Site with their image codes imbeded here.
We had quite the crowd in the dining room....
And there I am sitting on the left end.. I didn't have the obligatory yellow/green Romeo shirt on as blinding the doctor wasn't in my things to do list...
But as we made it back out to the parking lot, it began to sprinkle... Not good... But the rain seemed off toward the South, and I needed to go North.... I had worn the full face helmet and had the liner for my jacket, so I was prepared for once.
But as I headed out, I drove away from the impending wet conditions..... That is until I turned back to the West...... But again it was just sprinkles and I made it home mostly dry...
That was good for a little while longer, but as the afternoon has progressed the rains have arrived...
Since I hadn't had any breakfast in preparation of the Doctor's office visit, my hunger got the better of me and I ordered Chicken Fried Steak and mashed potatoes.... But I only had a half order... Again, a half order was well beyond what a normal person needs..
So as the afternoon progressed, so did the nap..... After all I was up at 6 AM which is before this fellows usual time.....
Tomorrow, the fellows are going to the town of Melvern, which is about 70 miles Southwest of here... We camp at the tail waters of the Melvern Lake where there is a Core of Engineers camp.... This is an especially nice COE park, and we use it as a last night spot for cleaning up the coach.
The town of Melvern is not on the lake, but rather to the East a few miles... I have never been to the cafe there...... But the catch in this plan is that it is to continue raining tonight and again in the morning...
Its hard for me to leave the house in the rain.... Its one thing to get caught in the rain, but purposely leaving in the rain seems to be more difficult..
Retired Rod
But I drove right home and jumped into my riding clothes.... Lunch was at Miss B's down in Louisburg..... I was late so I laid on some speed out on the double lane highway.... Made tracks..... And managed to arrive just a a bunch of them were heading into the restaurant..
Again these pictures are on the Romeo Web Site with their image codes imbeded here.
We had quite the crowd in the dining room....
And there I am sitting on the left end.. I didn't have the obligatory yellow/green Romeo shirt on as blinding the doctor wasn't in my things to do list...
But as we made it back out to the parking lot, it began to sprinkle... Not good... But the rain seemed off toward the South, and I needed to go North.... I had worn the full face helmet and had the liner for my jacket, so I was prepared for once.
But as I headed out, I drove away from the impending wet conditions..... That is until I turned back to the West...... But again it was just sprinkles and I made it home mostly dry...
That was good for a little while longer, but as the afternoon has progressed the rains have arrived...
Since I hadn't had any breakfast in preparation of the Doctor's office visit, my hunger got the better of me and I ordered Chicken Fried Steak and mashed potatoes.... But I only had a half order... Again, a half order was well beyond what a normal person needs..
So as the afternoon progressed, so did the nap..... After all I was up at 6 AM which is before this fellows usual time.....
Tomorrow, the fellows are going to the town of Melvern, which is about 70 miles Southwest of here... We camp at the tail waters of the Melvern Lake where there is a Core of Engineers camp.... This is an especially nice COE park, and we use it as a last night spot for cleaning up the coach.
The town of Melvern is not on the lake, but rather to the East a few miles... I have never been to the cafe there...... But the catch in this plan is that it is to continue raining tonight and again in the morning...
Its hard for me to leave the house in the rain.... Its one thing to get caught in the rain, but purposely leaving in the rain seems to be more difficult..
Retired Rod
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Ebay!!
Do you order stuff on line? I do sometimes, or now more of the time as local folks seem to not keep things in stock like they used to.
Some of my brothers in the ROMEOs have seat pads that they sit on to add comfort to their cycle seats when they go long distances... Even my friend and fellow scooter rider Al has one of these seats.....
And I had seat envy, and teased Al that I was going to swipe his.... Of course I was praying that no one would really take his because he would immediately think I did it.....
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But I put off actually purchasing the thing as I only found a $169 price as a low point, and it still seemed high... But then I got the idea to look on ebay...
So now its my turn to worry about my motorcycle brothers swiping my seat cushion... LOL and I'll bet when Al gets back he'll threaten to do just that..... But it did sit rather nicely as I went over to the burger place tonight and got some gas.... No wonder they all get this one.
Anyway we have a short lunch ride tomorrow just to the South of us here in Overland Park... Louisburg is about 23 miles away, which means that the early bird guys will be there at 8 AM or before, and then there will be folks coming all morning up until about 11....
It is my luck that I have a Doctor's appointment at 8 AM and that is fasting, so I will have to wait until I get back from there.. Its 20 miles in the wrong direction to the appointment and all thru town.. So I do not know if I will be in time to go for lunch or not.....
And no I won't ride the bike up to the hospital....... Too early, too cold and this is a new Doctor, so we don't want him to form unnecessary opinions right off the bat.....! Better to lay low....
Retired Rod
Oh, and Biscuit thanks all of those who liked her Ducky post.......!
Some of my brothers in the ROMEOs have seat pads that they sit on to add comfort to their cycle seats when they go long distances... Even my friend and fellow scooter rider Al has one of these seats.....
And I had seat envy, and teased Al that I was going to swipe his.... Of course I was praying that no one would really take his because he would immediately think I did it.....
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The seat looks like this and has an air bladder inside. Its tied down to your seat with a little elastic strap that hooks into those tabs that stick out..... Wouldn't take much to swipe it off of your seat...
Now these things are not cheap because when I first looked them up they were listed for $199... For a whoopie cushion??? Well they are supposed to be better than that, but back in the day........
Well now days they are made differently and have chambers and void spaces placed strategically where pressure shouldn't be on your back side.... And all the little pillows are connected together so the air moves as you do..
With the cloth cover off, you can see the pillows of air that you blow up with a little mouth piece and screw down valve. There are several shapes of these cushions as they can be used on office chairs and in your car seat and any other thing you can think of ... Google Air Hawk....
You blow the cushion up and sit on it and then let the air out until its only about a half inch thick under your rump.... Then its soft and squishy.
And sure enough, I found it for $138.. Shipped and using paypal too....
I trust Paypal as I had a transaction go bad on a watch one year at Christmas time and they went right after the vendor and made them give me a credit...
But still I worry that a purchase on ebay isn't as solid as say Amazon or a big box vendor like Wal Mart or one of those....
But this morning after we got done mowing the lawn, Loyce came in with a black box that contained the new Air Hawk Cushion and began to sing Happy Birthday to me.... her way of chiding me over ordering yet something else online... Hey, she gets her share of packages from late night tv vendors.....
And it was all there and the right one and everything... I lucked out... And my worries about ebay vendors aren't warranted... Well at least this time !
So now its my turn to worry about my motorcycle brothers swiping my seat cushion... LOL and I'll bet when Al gets back he'll threaten to do just that..... But it did sit rather nicely as I went over to the burger place tonight and got some gas.... No wonder they all get this one.
Anyway we have a short lunch ride tomorrow just to the South of us here in Overland Park... Louisburg is about 23 miles away, which means that the early bird guys will be there at 8 AM or before, and then there will be folks coming all morning up until about 11....
It is my luck that I have a Doctor's appointment at 8 AM and that is fasting, so I will have to wait until I get back from there.. Its 20 miles in the wrong direction to the appointment and all thru town.. So I do not know if I will be in time to go for lunch or not.....
And no I won't ride the bike up to the hospital....... Too early, too cold and this is a new Doctor, so we don't want him to form unnecessary opinions right off the bat.....! Better to lay low....
Retired Rod
Oh, and Biscuit thanks all of those who liked her Ducky post.......!
Monday, September 24, 2012
Ducky
Ya wanna come help me play with my little Ducky? Its bill is chewed off, but that don't hurt it any...
I carry it upstairs and drop it over the banister landing between the metal rails.... Then I chase down the stairs and go get it again....
This afternoon I went outside with my dad and laid right in the middle of the driveway while he was spraying water all over his motor scooter...... But I don't think it drank any of it.....
But he sure was rubbing it a lot like he liked it better than me.... But that's OK because the nice lady from across the street came over with her dog Rex and we got to hang out for a little while together....
The lady said we looked like Lady and the Tramp together..... Her dog is a boy, so I'm thinking that he was the Tramp, but I didn't ask what she meant by that comment.....
Anyway have a good Monday if you can't come and help me play with Ducky!!
Biscuit
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Fall Saturdays
My Iowa Hawkeyes lost again today, which caused me to spend time watching and hoping. That came to an abrupt halt on the last play of the game as our opponent kicked a final field goal to go ahead by two points without any clock remaining.. The Hawkeyes are really struggling this year......
So in order to forget about that bit of nastiness, I went out and took the scooter for a longer ride around the North end of Overland Park.. It was Saturday afternoon, and the traffic was fairly dense, so I tried to stay on the less traveled roads... But here in KC we have a system of city streets that typically don't go all the way thru unless you are on the main roads that crisscross every mile..
Once back home, I watched the LSU vs Auburn game. LSU pulled that one out by the scruff on their neck.... OK, now I will receive mail about how great LSU is and how beating Auburn is much tougher than it appears.... But Alabama can do it, right?
Enough with football Saturday... I enjoyed all the comments we got about my trip to the Driver License bureau yesterday.... And I do agree that at $40 it still isn't too bad a price for the service... I was amazed at the menu pricing... Especially when you had the photo being extra... Does anyone not get a photo? So why wouldn't it be included...? And yes I know that it costs twice as much in Canada...
But Rick, I didn't know that seniors got so much of a break ($17) once they got to be 65... Gee free health care and almost a giveaway price on their DL.... Na, its too cold to move up there........ Why does everyone come down to Arizona...... otherwise..?
I see on the desk thermometer that it is 48 outside tonight and we haven't made midnight yet.. It is definitely into fall now... They were selling heaters on Shop NBC a few minutes ago....... ick!
I just looked and it is still 86 in Mesa, with a high tomorrow of 97.... Pack it up I'm ready.... But Loyce says no, we have to stay for something....... But I can't remember what... Oh, Doctors appointments.
Retired Rod
So in order to forget about that bit of nastiness, I went out and took the scooter for a longer ride around the North end of Overland Park.. It was Saturday afternoon, and the traffic was fairly dense, so I tried to stay on the less traveled roads... But here in KC we have a system of city streets that typically don't go all the way thru unless you are on the main roads that crisscross every mile..
Once back home, I watched the LSU vs Auburn game. LSU pulled that one out by the scruff on their neck.... OK, now I will receive mail about how great LSU is and how beating Auburn is much tougher than it appears.... But Alabama can do it, right?
Enough with football Saturday... I enjoyed all the comments we got about my trip to the Driver License bureau yesterday.... And I do agree that at $40 it still isn't too bad a price for the service... I was amazed at the menu pricing... Especially when you had the photo being extra... Does anyone not get a photo? So why wouldn't it be included...? And yes I know that it costs twice as much in Canada...
But Rick, I didn't know that seniors got so much of a break ($17) once they got to be 65... Gee free health care and almost a giveaway price on their DL.... Na, its too cold to move up there........ Why does everyone come down to Arizona...... otherwise..?
I see on the desk thermometer that it is 48 outside tonight and we haven't made midnight yet.. It is definitely into fall now... They were selling heaters on Shop NBC a few minutes ago....... ick!
I just looked and it is still 86 in Mesa, with a high tomorrow of 97.... Pack it up I'm ready.... But Loyce says no, we have to stay for something....... But I can't remember what... Oh, Doctors appointments.
Retired Rod
Saturday, September 22, 2012
A renewal
You guys all know how much I really love going over to the Kansas DMV, right? We moved to Kansas in 2006, and their drivers licenses are issued for 6 years if you are under 65 and over 21...
So, six years and 2006 equals 2012!! Yep my DL is up in a month or so... So I called a couple of days ago wanting to know how long before my expiration date I could go renew... The answer surprised me.... Up to a year before....
So sometime in the year before it expires, you have to make a little time and go get it renewed.... That seems doable.... And if you don't, there is a big fine and you get to take the tests over again... Both written and driving for both the car and the motorcycle.... Two writtens and two driving. On different days, at least for the driving part...
Oh, and not also reflecting that once my birthday has passed, I will be 65, and that changes the length of the new license to 4 years..... Not 6... Well how much encouragement does one need?
Now couple that with the fact that they don't actually make the plastic card at the DL exam stations but rather mail it from Topeka several weeks later and now we really have motivation...
So I stalled around with other stuff until mid afternoon, but finally jumped on the bike and drove over to the Great Mall in Olathe... I call it the Great Morgue... Literally no one goes there.. Not a soul!! But the DL office is in a otherwise vacant business space.... Gotta love Kansas, if it is cheap, they'll rent it..!
The place was about 50% full, with folks sitting on chairs waiting for their numbers to be called.... Its the exact same computer system that is in the car tag office, but that is several miles away... Why wouldn't they be in the same location?
Anyway the lady at the first desk looked at my old license and the registration to my bike as a second form of address verification and deemed that I was capable of a renewal.. Seems as though there were twelve folks in front of me...
Of course it is never that simple as that was just the numbered tickets that were outstanding, and folks that called or put in their cell phone numbers were also ahead of me. But they had 9 lines open, so I began to count how far I was really back in line.... Just for fun, you know.... Something to help me pass the time...... Remember I am an accountant..... Anal ?
Well I lost count somewhere around 35 folks, but that wasn't the fun part... At about 4PM a whole drove of folks seemed to arrive all at once... Off from work, or out of school, or they unloaded a bus or something......
Some didn't believe the number of folks now ahead of them in line and just left in bewilderment... Such fun on a Friday afternoon.. And I only have that opinion because I just happened to arrive during the low point of the afternoon...
And in just a few more moments I had my ticket number called and I was in business up at the window.... Of course you had to pass the vision test and show your proof of residence get a new picture taken and pay the fee...
And the fee was as if you had two licenses.. The car license was $18 and the motorcycle was $12.50.... But then you have to have your picture taken for the license and that is $8 but by then it was so high priced it exceeded the cash I had in my pocket.... So I needed to charge it on plastic, and that cost another 2.5% which I was told was exactly what the credit card company was charging the state and they had to pass it along.... another 96 cents.... Are you keeping score here? $39.46... for a drivers license...
Along with the receipt and a temporary paper license, I got the following little notice.....
The temporary receipt issued today will serve as your (Driver License) (Permit) or ID card until your permanent copy is mailed to you at the address you provided. The temporary receipt is valid for up to sixty (60) days, however your permanent license should arrive within seven to forty five business days...Uh, if I am out of state, the highway patrol won't accept paper licenses, so I protested to get my plastic license back, since it is still valid until two months from now. All of which I said to the lady...
CAUTION, TEMPORARY LICENSES, PERMITS AND ID'S ARE LIGHT, HEAT AND WATER SENSITIVE. ANY ATTEMPT TO COPY OR LAMINATE THESE WILL DESTROY THEM. A REPLACEMENT OF THE TEMPORARY WILL COST $16.00.. ID $12.00
All information provided with your application will be verified before your permanent documet is sent to you by mail. If you have any questions regarding this procedure, please contact 1 785 296 xxxx.
She asked if I was really going to leave Kansas...? Remember we live right on the state line and Kansas City is in both states... So I told her that I was leaving Kansas in the morning...... And she reluctantly handed me the old license back....
Why would I want to drive around on a paper license that wouldn't let me leave the state of Kansas?????? One that will self destruct!
We have some weird ways of doing things out here on the plains, and all of them seem to cost us more money........
Retired Rod
Friday, September 21, 2012
But its white!
With the motorhome here overnight, the power cord was plugged in for all of that time.... That means the house batteries had the chance to soak on the charger for almost 24 hours... Since the coach has been in storage since we arrived back here in Kansas, it is good to get it hooked back up again...
Of course that wasn't without event, as when I first plugged in the cord, the air conditioners were still in the on position and they tried to start and blew the fuse for a big portion of the house...
I had to trudge down into the back corner of the basement and mess with the breakers...It wasn't too hard as the one for the garage and outside outlets is right in the middle on the right....and I have popped it soooo many times...
Then I had to pull all the hose off of the back yard reel and drag it out to the curb where the water locker on the back of the coach was. I had opened and drained the tank last night in the dark.... One of the neighbors had told the police that we were running sewer water down the street when I drained the fresh water tank before... So I have learned to open the tank after dark...
So as the tank refilled, I stood beside it for a while, but it took much longer than I had remembered, since it was now completely empty. I let it run over for a while sort of back flushing the tank out the hose fill port... We have a valve that switches the hose fill connector to the tank fill position, so I have never used the hose fill port on the side of the coach for that purpose...
But by mid day, I removed the tools with their long handles that were wedged into position to hold up the freshly glued back splash.. I tugged on it and it seemed tight to the wall. I didn't press my luck and pull hard as it seemed OK so why push it...
Next it needed the clear caulk put back into the corners. Back on the bike and over to Lowes.... where I purchased a tub of bath caulk that I later learned didn't have any silicone in it..... At first I grabbed a tube and realized that it was white when I was about half way to the register.... Wrong..
So back at the paint aisle again, I specifically purchased the product marked clear... I messed around and picked out a new flashlight for inside the door on those dark campground nights, and rode back home on the MC.
I assembled all the tools for this caulk job and went out in the MH to get started... Then cutting off the tip and reaching clear up under the range hood microwave, I started a bead........ It was white....!! The tube said clear... Drat!!
I put the cap back over the cut off spout and jumped back on the bike for Lowes again... Its about a mile and a half over there, just past Wendy's... I showed the lady at the returns desk, and she just grunted at me and issued a credit to my credit card...
Back to the paint aisle, where I picked out the more expensive tube of clear with a little different label. I paid for it and walked to the bike, but thought that I should check this tube right here in the parking lot..... Yep, you guessed it, WHITE....
Right back into the store and the refund lady, where I asked "Is there something I don't know about this stuff?" She called the paint guy to come over on the phone...... Well now he did something that will never catch on with us males of the species, he began to read the fine print on the back of the label...... "Goes on white, drys clear!" I felt stupid, but they didn't make me take back the first tube, so I just walked off shaking my head...
Back home I managed to get things all caulked and spread even with the little rubber caulk spreader that's in my paint supplies.... It looked weird all white...
The motorhome sat out there for the rest of the afternoon as I went on with other jobs, and at about dusk I went out and rolled up the electric cords and garden hoses.. Then drove the home back over to the storage...
And as I was locking up, I noticed that the caulk........ was...... still very white!!
So will it change to clear like they said, or will I have to dig all this out, and go get some genuine GE silicone clear that goes on clear....? Surely they have some in that great big Lowes store, but I didn't find it and the paint guy didn't know where it was...
Postscript: This dried very clear after several days!!
I'm sure the neighbors are thanking their luck stars that that big ole nasty motorhome is out of here again tonight..... Well at least Loyce is really happy that its back in storage, because she worries that we will offend these folks...
Man I don't really give a good two cents.....
Retired Rod
Of course that wasn't without event, as when I first plugged in the cord, the air conditioners were still in the on position and they tried to start and blew the fuse for a big portion of the house...
I had to trudge down into the back corner of the basement and mess with the breakers...It wasn't too hard as the one for the garage and outside outlets is right in the middle on the right....and I have popped it soooo many times...
Then I had to pull all the hose off of the back yard reel and drag it out to the curb where the water locker on the back of the coach was. I had opened and drained the tank last night in the dark.... One of the neighbors had told the police that we were running sewer water down the street when I drained the fresh water tank before... So I have learned to open the tank after dark...
So as the tank refilled, I stood beside it for a while, but it took much longer than I had remembered, since it was now completely empty. I let it run over for a while sort of back flushing the tank out the hose fill port... We have a valve that switches the hose fill connector to the tank fill position, so I have never used the hose fill port on the side of the coach for that purpose...
But by mid day, I removed the tools with their long handles that were wedged into position to hold up the freshly glued back splash.. I tugged on it and it seemed tight to the wall. I didn't press my luck and pull hard as it seemed OK so why push it...
Next it needed the clear caulk put back into the corners. Back on the bike and over to Lowes.... where I purchased a tub of bath caulk that I later learned didn't have any silicone in it..... At first I grabbed a tube and realized that it was white when I was about half way to the register.... Wrong..
So back at the paint aisle again, I specifically purchased the product marked clear... I messed around and picked out a new flashlight for inside the door on those dark campground nights, and rode back home on the MC.
I assembled all the tools for this caulk job and went out in the MH to get started... Then cutting off the tip and reaching clear up under the range hood microwave, I started a bead........ It was white....!! The tube said clear... Drat!!
I put the cap back over the cut off spout and jumped back on the bike for Lowes again... Its about a mile and a half over there, just past Wendy's... I showed the lady at the returns desk, and she just grunted at me and issued a credit to my credit card...
Back to the paint aisle, where I picked out the more expensive tube of clear with a little different label. I paid for it and walked to the bike, but thought that I should check this tube right here in the parking lot..... Yep, you guessed it, WHITE....
Right back into the store and the refund lady, where I asked "Is there something I don't know about this stuff?" She called the paint guy to come over on the phone...... Well now he did something that will never catch on with us males of the species, he began to read the fine print on the back of the label...... "Goes on white, drys clear!" I felt stupid, but they didn't make me take back the first tube, so I just walked off shaking my head...
Back home I managed to get things all caulked and spread even with the little rubber caulk spreader that's in my paint supplies.... It looked weird all white...
The motorhome sat out there for the rest of the afternoon as I went on with other jobs, and at about dusk I went out and rolled up the electric cords and garden hoses.. Then drove the home back over to the storage...
And as I was locking up, I noticed that the caulk........ was...... still very white!!
So will it change to clear like they said, or will I have to dig all this out, and go get some genuine GE silicone clear that goes on clear....? Surely they have some in that great big Lowes store, but I didn't find it and the paint guy didn't know where it was...
Postscript: This dried very clear after several days!!
I'm sure the neighbors are thanking their luck stars that that big ole nasty motorhome is out of here again tonight..... Well at least Loyce is really happy that its back in storage, because she worries that we will offend these folks...
Man I don't really give a good two cents.....
Retired Rod
Thursday, September 20, 2012
A picture from the luncheon and gluing that pesky backsplash..
Hey, I'm not real certain how, but finally someone took a picture of me at the restaurant where you can see my face and everything...!!
With that silly looking grin, it appears like I might be telling a tall tale.. And as you can see, that gotee is mostly just white stubble.. I don't know how I ended up back in that corner, but I was back there until the folks next to me decided to leave...
Again I have swiped this picture from the Romeo Web site..... I don't actually swipe the picture, but rather I just copy the HTML code and embed it into this blog... So if they take it down on their site it will be gone here too...
It was cool here again this morning, as I headed out on the bike for the barber shop.... It doesn't look like I have much hair in the picture, but I get about an inch or so down my back side into my collar, and I can't stand that...
So today, the instructions were taper up the back and sides, but leave the top alone other than evening it out a bit... Loyce couldn't see that they did much, but I feel better about the whole deal..
On the way back from the barber, the wind began to blow out of the South.... About knocking me off of the motorcycle... And once home, I took all those pesky liners out of the riding clothes as it was almost 80...
And as I promised, I went over and drove the motor home back to the house this afternoon... If you remember when we were leaving Arizona, I worked on putting the back splash back up around the kitchen next to the stove top.... Which immediately fell back down when we got under way...
So today we worked to clean up the silicone bathtub caulk that I tried to use as a glue to replace the factory work.... The factory had used that silicone originally, but theirs must be something different, because mine didn't work at all..
But it did dry all gooey and rubbery so that had to be dissolved and scraped.. That project took a good part of the afternoon...
I found this product over at Lowes, only the bottle I purchased had a trigger sprayer on it... Its fairly expensive as it was about $8.. It has the consistency of paint remover, thick and glopy, and I worked it into the old silicone with a plastic spreader... Then with a metal putty knife, I scraped the old glue until it let loose some....... slowly...
Clean it off and then spray it on again and work it in a second time.. Its water soluble but I cleaned the final clean with denatured alcohol.. Then late tonight the back splash was glued into place again.. This time with liquid nails tub surround glue... Its designed to resist heat and water, so if that doesn't keep the back splash in place, I'm out of ideas...
The counter tops and back splash are made from a Corian or Silestone type of material which is quite heavy, but we are certain that the factory never anticipated the heat of the Arizona desert in mid summer...
Tonight the motorhome is in our driveway at an angle across all three garage stalls so the back end is up out of the street... I have a driveway scraper and a broom wedged between the opposite wall and the re glued back splash.
Loyce asked if I wasn't going to take the motorhome back to storage, and I said no not with that fresh glue drying..... She is afraid we will be in trouble with the neighbors and the home owners association.... But it is not in the street, so the police can't do a thing... And it is a regular driver since it hasn't set in one place for three days straight, so we are good to go with the rules for a little while...
So the big question will be if it will hold this time.... The factory will tell you that there is nothing wrong with the way they had it installed, and if you take it back to them, they will just put it back in the same way...
The silicone stuff just rolled off of the wood paneling under my fingers without any of the remover chemical, so there was very little bonding that way......
And being next to the gas cook top, the area comes under quite a bit of heat beyond the closed up Arizona sun... The bigger piece on the outside wall of the slide out seems to still be tight, so I am knocking on something wooden that it stays where it is...
Also I called our sprinkler repair service this morning trying to schedule the fall system pressure blow out.... Evidently I am early, as they said that the schedule wouldn't be worked up for a couple of weeks, but that I would be added to the list and scheduled when they get started.... I warned them not to stretch it out until November as we would be gone... That seemed like wasted breath... Folks seem to work at their own speed.........
Retired Rod
With that silly looking grin, it appears like I might be telling a tall tale.. And as you can see, that gotee is mostly just white stubble.. I don't know how I ended up back in that corner, but I was back there until the folks next to me decided to leave...
Again I have swiped this picture from the Romeo Web site..... I don't actually swipe the picture, but rather I just copy the HTML code and embed it into this blog... So if they take it down on their site it will be gone here too...
It was cool here again this morning, as I headed out on the bike for the barber shop.... It doesn't look like I have much hair in the picture, but I get about an inch or so down my back side into my collar, and I can't stand that...
So today, the instructions were taper up the back and sides, but leave the top alone other than evening it out a bit... Loyce couldn't see that they did much, but I feel better about the whole deal..
On the way back from the barber, the wind began to blow out of the South.... About knocking me off of the motorcycle... And once home, I took all those pesky liners out of the riding clothes as it was almost 80...
And as I promised, I went over and drove the motor home back to the house this afternoon... If you remember when we were leaving Arizona, I worked on putting the back splash back up around the kitchen next to the stove top.... Which immediately fell back down when we got under way...
So today we worked to clean up the silicone bathtub caulk that I tried to use as a glue to replace the factory work.... The factory had used that silicone originally, but theirs must be something different, because mine didn't work at all..
But it did dry all gooey and rubbery so that had to be dissolved and scraped.. That project took a good part of the afternoon...
Clean it off and then spray it on again and work it in a second time.. Its water soluble but I cleaned the final clean with denatured alcohol.. Then late tonight the back splash was glued into place again.. This time with liquid nails tub surround glue... Its designed to resist heat and water, so if that doesn't keep the back splash in place, I'm out of ideas...
The counter tops and back splash are made from a Corian or Silestone type of material which is quite heavy, but we are certain that the factory never anticipated the heat of the Arizona desert in mid summer...
Tonight the motorhome is in our driveway at an angle across all three garage stalls so the back end is up out of the street... I have a driveway scraper and a broom wedged between the opposite wall and the re glued back splash.
Loyce asked if I wasn't going to take the motorhome back to storage, and I said no not with that fresh glue drying..... She is afraid we will be in trouble with the neighbors and the home owners association.... But it is not in the street, so the police can't do a thing... And it is a regular driver since it hasn't set in one place for three days straight, so we are good to go with the rules for a little while...
So the big question will be if it will hold this time.... The factory will tell you that there is nothing wrong with the way they had it installed, and if you take it back to them, they will just put it back in the same way...
The silicone stuff just rolled off of the wood paneling under my fingers without any of the remover chemical, so there was very little bonding that way......
And being next to the gas cook top, the area comes under quite a bit of heat beyond the closed up Arizona sun... The bigger piece on the outside wall of the slide out seems to still be tight, so I am knocking on something wooden that it stays where it is...
Also I called our sprinkler repair service this morning trying to schedule the fall system pressure blow out.... Evidently I am early, as they said that the schedule wouldn't be worked up for a couple of weeks, but that I would be added to the list and scheduled when they get started.... I warned them not to stretch it out until November as we would be gone... That seemed like wasted breath... Folks seem to work at their own speed.........
Retired Rod
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Off to Clinton on the Bike
For you folks suggesting that I go full Hells Angel, I did regrow the gotee when we went back out to Arizona.... I usually don't have it when we are here in Kansas, and I did shave it off when we came back this spring....
But, when we came back in August, I haven't shaved it yet..... And now with only a few weeks left until we go back it seems pointless, so it is here to stay for this winter....
In the spring, I usually shave after I get the taxes filed for the year... Not that they have anything to do with each other...
When I was cleaned up this morning and ready to go, I came to the kitchen and found that the thermometer did read 49 F... That's only 9 C and of course that sounds more ominous....
I put the liner into my riding pants, to match the coat where it was already installed... Then I put on those white boot socks that I hate wearing, and some tie up Merrill shoes.... Ya, no Teva's at that cold temp...
And just for good measure, I put a sweatshirt over my T shirt before the coat... Then riding gloves for my hands.... Now this sounds like overkill for 50 degrees doesn't it?
But really it wasn't a bit... It takes about 10 miles thru the city streets to get over into Missouri where the highway begins, so you can go South toward Truman Lake.... (Truman Lake empties into Lake Ozark)..
Once I was doing 65 or so, my fingers began to be cold and numb, and I could feel the air above my socks under three layers of pants... I had the full face helmet on which protects the head, but around your neck it gets cold... I zipped up completely with the liner zipper and velcro, and then the coat zipper...
But as it became 9 AM and later, it began to warm up a little and the sun was bright... Not a cloud in the sky and the traffic wasn't particularly heavy.. Its a four lane divided highway, and I settled in behind a bigger truck that wasn't going 75... It was actually quite nice... You feel very free and unencumbered as you ride, as though you have no where to be and not a care in the world.. Its hard to explain..
It took exactly an hour and a half to do the 70 miles with the first part being slow in town.. After reaching the town of Clinton, I found the turn off on Business 13 and the restaurant was fairly busy with town folks... There was also about 12 bikes in a row on the North parking lot... I found a spot in the middle and shut it down..
On the inside of this restaurant that used to be a Kentucky Fried Chicken, it was busy busy.. The outside was still painted with the red and white striped logo but the signs said Lesia's.
Our group had a bunch of tables pushed together up in the front windows, but that turned out to be the smoking section... None of us were smoking but as the morning progressed, the town folks took some of the other chairs. They lit right up.... Cough cough, hack.... eventually we ended up outside standing around the bikes talking in the fresh air.... Many remarks were made about how folks can afford to smoke any more.....
The club is having a rendezvous down in the Ozark hills of Arkansas tonight and tomorrow returning on Thursday... They will have a banquet and then ride the mountains all day. There will be a second group dinner again tomorrow night...
On Thursday they will head home in small groups, terrorizing car drivers on the highway as they zoom around them at copious amounts of speed... Hells retired angels.... LOL
The motel has 50 rooms and is out in the middle of nowhere.. It was totally booked by our group. Usually with two men or a couple in each room. Many of the bikes are big touring style Hondas or Harleys with both the man and wife aboard..
For myself, I don't make much of a room mate after cancer, with my disabilities, so rising at the crack of dawn and being ready to ride in ten minutes isn't going to happen. And since I am fairly new with these folks, I just hung back this year.. I couldn't and wouldn't hold up a group of 75 people..
So as they all headed on South, I returned with a few other stragglers to the KC area... It made for 145 miles of nice riding as I arrived back home at about 2:30.. It never did get warm enough for me to dress down any of the layers of clothes. When I stopped though, the heavy jacket had to come right off as the sun was making it a nice day...
Loyce was off with our DIL for a Chinese Buffet luncheon while I was doing my motorcycle thing, so she had a nice time as well..... Another luncheon week ride in the books!
Retired Rod
But, when we came back in August, I haven't shaved it yet..... And now with only a few weeks left until we go back it seems pointless, so it is here to stay for this winter....
In the spring, I usually shave after I get the taxes filed for the year... Not that they have anything to do with each other...
When I was cleaned up this morning and ready to go, I came to the kitchen and found that the thermometer did read 49 F... That's only 9 C and of course that sounds more ominous....
I put the liner into my riding pants, to match the coat where it was already installed... Then I put on those white boot socks that I hate wearing, and some tie up Merrill shoes.... Ya, no Teva's at that cold temp...
And just for good measure, I put a sweatshirt over my T shirt before the coat... Then riding gloves for my hands.... Now this sounds like overkill for 50 degrees doesn't it?
But really it wasn't a bit... It takes about 10 miles thru the city streets to get over into Missouri where the highway begins, so you can go South toward Truman Lake.... (Truman Lake empties into Lake Ozark)..
Once I was doing 65 or so, my fingers began to be cold and numb, and I could feel the air above my socks under three layers of pants... I had the full face helmet on which protects the head, but around your neck it gets cold... I zipped up completely with the liner zipper and velcro, and then the coat zipper...
But as it became 9 AM and later, it began to warm up a little and the sun was bright... Not a cloud in the sky and the traffic wasn't particularly heavy.. Its a four lane divided highway, and I settled in behind a bigger truck that wasn't going 75... It was actually quite nice... You feel very free and unencumbered as you ride, as though you have no where to be and not a care in the world.. Its hard to explain..
It took exactly an hour and a half to do the 70 miles with the first part being slow in town.. After reaching the town of Clinton, I found the turn off on Business 13 and the restaurant was fairly busy with town folks... There was also about 12 bikes in a row on the North parking lot... I found a spot in the middle and shut it down..
On the inside of this restaurant that used to be a Kentucky Fried Chicken, it was busy busy.. The outside was still painted with the red and white striped logo but the signs said Lesia's.
Our group had a bunch of tables pushed together up in the front windows, but that turned out to be the smoking section... None of us were smoking but as the morning progressed, the town folks took some of the other chairs. They lit right up.... Cough cough, hack.... eventually we ended up outside standing around the bikes talking in the fresh air.... Many remarks were made about how folks can afford to smoke any more.....
The club is having a rendezvous down in the Ozark hills of Arkansas tonight and tomorrow returning on Thursday... They will have a banquet and then ride the mountains all day. There will be a second group dinner again tomorrow night...
On Thursday they will head home in small groups, terrorizing car drivers on the highway as they zoom around them at copious amounts of speed... Hells retired angels.... LOL
The motel has 50 rooms and is out in the middle of nowhere.. It was totally booked by our group. Usually with two men or a couple in each room. Many of the bikes are big touring style Hondas or Harleys with both the man and wife aboard..
For myself, I don't make much of a room mate after cancer, with my disabilities, so rising at the crack of dawn and being ready to ride in ten minutes isn't going to happen. And since I am fairly new with these folks, I just hung back this year.. I couldn't and wouldn't hold up a group of 75 people..
So as they all headed on South, I returned with a few other stragglers to the KC area... It made for 145 miles of nice riding as I arrived back home at about 2:30.. It never did get warm enough for me to dress down any of the layers of clothes. When I stopped though, the heavy jacket had to come right off as the sun was making it a nice day...
Loyce was off with our DIL for a Chinese Buffet luncheon while I was doing my motorcycle thing, so she had a nice time as well..... Another luncheon week ride in the books!
Retired Rod
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Cold tonight and planning for the winter......
This fall thing has to stop!!! Its supposed to get down in the 40s tonight... And I want to go motor scooter riding in the morning to the weekly Romeo Luncheon...........
Perhaps that is going to take a sweatshirt to go along with the long pants.... And dread the thought I might even have to loose the Tiva open sandal shoes that I wear fairly much all year long...
When it gets too cold for the sandals, its time to move..... But the spousal side of authority doesn't see it that way.... I want to get in that coach and leave the first of October... Just go South, like Texas or somewhere..... Uh, better not bring up Texas, cause I got into way too much trouble about that the last time......
But we just have to stay until the grands do Halloween...... Every year I get that lecture.... And now I find out that we have dentist appts into November... And I have a big Doctor's appt again too...... Why?
Well for one thing, I am officially on Medicare on the first of November, and with the supplemental policy the expensive tests will be 100 percent covered... And that will save enough dough to pay for all the diesel fuel to Arizona.... If the prices don't go up much...... Which they will....
Back to that luncheon, it is in the town of Clinton, Mo.. Down on the Truman Lake, which is 70 miles from us here in the Overland Park area... So if it is only 50 degrees in the morning and I have to ride an hour and a half to get there..... I will be taking that full face helmet to hide inside of on the highway...
Perhaps I won't go so fast as that will preserve the warmth a little better... But I know how that works out, you find others that you know, and then it becomes a game of follow the leader.. Fast leader...!
Otherwise nothing happened here today other than Loyce working on her quilting storage room in the basement and I went to a late lunch with one of the guys from the MC group.. But he isn't going tomorrow..
I need to think about what it will take to get the Motorhome fixed up so we can get away from here when that time comes... Even though it is still about 7 weeks away...
Retired Rod
Perhaps that is going to take a sweatshirt to go along with the long pants.... And dread the thought I might even have to loose the Tiva open sandal shoes that I wear fairly much all year long...
When it gets too cold for the sandals, its time to move..... But the spousal side of authority doesn't see it that way.... I want to get in that coach and leave the first of October... Just go South, like Texas or somewhere..... Uh, better not bring up Texas, cause I got into way too much trouble about that the last time......
But we just have to stay until the grands do Halloween...... Every year I get that lecture.... And now I find out that we have dentist appts into November... And I have a big Doctor's appt again too...... Why?
Well for one thing, I am officially on Medicare on the first of November, and with the supplemental policy the expensive tests will be 100 percent covered... And that will save enough dough to pay for all the diesel fuel to Arizona.... If the prices don't go up much...... Which they will....
Back to that luncheon, it is in the town of Clinton, Mo.. Down on the Truman Lake, which is 70 miles from us here in the Overland Park area... So if it is only 50 degrees in the morning and I have to ride an hour and a half to get there..... I will be taking that full face helmet to hide inside of on the highway...
Perhaps I won't go so fast as that will preserve the warmth a little better... But I know how that works out, you find others that you know, and then it becomes a game of follow the leader.. Fast leader...!
Otherwise nothing happened here today other than Loyce working on her quilting storage room in the basement and I went to a late lunch with one of the guys from the MC group.. But he isn't going tomorrow..
I need to think about what it will take to get the Motorhome fixed up so we can get away from here when that time comes... Even though it is still about 7 weeks away...
Retired Rod
Monday, September 17, 2012
Scheduling your post......... but not correctly...
I always use that scheduling option to post the blog for the next day, and for some reason, I managed to get the thing programmed wrong for yesterday... And I didn't study it long enough to figure out what it was that I did wrong....
So I finally awakened to the fact that blog didn't post, because I didn't have any comments... I know it wasn't much of a blog, but usually someone will say something just to make a wise crack or something.... You know, kinda like a lot of my comments on your blogs.... Just to let you know I stopped by...
But today I got caught in my master plan of putting off that last Ikea book shelf until another day...... Right in the middle of the football game, but KC was loosing badly and stinking up the TV anyway... I grumbled, but it didn't do me any good... The jig was up...
So down in the basement I went with screw driver in hand... They had hex heads, so I had the T Handle allen wrench, but I got the wise idea of cutting off one of the little allen wrenches that came in the parts bag with the angle grinder... Then I stuffed it into my cordless drill.. Hey no sense making this last all day.!
But that didn't work so well, as the steel in the allen wrench from Sweden or where ever they get that stuff made, was sooo soft that with the drill behind it it rounded off the corners so quickly that I had a round piece of rod in the drill...
So I began to run the screws mostly down to the tight position and then finishing with the T Handle... I would have been much faster at it if I hadn't turned the TV onto the NASCAR race, which made me spend copious amounts of time catching all the wrecks and stuff....
Finally I rode off on the motor scooter to catch a burger and drop by my younger son's house.... They were out working on their very dead yard from this summer's nasty heat wave... It's coming back green somewhat, so they were raking up the dead part...
Tonight I spent most of the evening talking to a dear friend in Des Moines that I haven't seen in a couple of years..... We had a lot of catching up to do...
Anyway if you missed yesterday's post you can go back and read it if ya want...... Or maybe not........!
Retired Rod
So I finally awakened to the fact that blog didn't post, because I didn't have any comments... I know it wasn't much of a blog, but usually someone will say something just to make a wise crack or something.... You know, kinda like a lot of my comments on your blogs.... Just to let you know I stopped by...
But today I got caught in my master plan of putting off that last Ikea book shelf until another day...... Right in the middle of the football game, but KC was loosing badly and stinking up the TV anyway... I grumbled, but it didn't do me any good... The jig was up...
So down in the basement I went with screw driver in hand... They had hex heads, so I had the T Handle allen wrench, but I got the wise idea of cutting off one of the little allen wrenches that came in the parts bag with the angle grinder... Then I stuffed it into my cordless drill.. Hey no sense making this last all day.!
But that didn't work so well, as the steel in the allen wrench from Sweden or where ever they get that stuff made, was sooo soft that with the drill behind it it rounded off the corners so quickly that I had a round piece of rod in the drill...
So I began to run the screws mostly down to the tight position and then finishing with the T Handle... I would have been much faster at it if I hadn't turned the TV onto the NASCAR race, which made me spend copious amounts of time catching all the wrecks and stuff....
Finally I rode off on the motor scooter to catch a burger and drop by my younger son's house.... They were out working on their very dead yard from this summer's nasty heat wave... It's coming back green somewhat, so they were raking up the dead part...
Tonight I spent most of the evening talking to a dear friend in Des Moines that I haven't seen in a couple of years..... We had a lot of catching up to do...
Anyway if you missed yesterday's post you can go back and read it if ya want...... Or maybe not........!
Retired Rod
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Taxes and Grands
I wrote this last night, but it didn't auto post, and I just now caught it!
This was somewhat of a slow day here in Kansas... The sun never really came out but only for brief moments, and when I went for a ride on the scooter, I thought it might be warmer, but the fact that I took the liner out of my jacket was soon recognized as a mistake...
I was digging thru all the piles and piles of bills that seem to accumulate here at our house for most of the morning... I'm not sure if we attract these things, but the many Doctor's office and hospital stays have us wondering what the insurance company has paid and what the insurance company has demanded as a discount and dread the thought, what we have to pay....
It is September 15th and that made the estimated tax payments due, so finding the tax file and preparing those was the first order of business... Then out on the scooter to pay the bills that needed mailing, and to the bank for depositing those random refund checks from over payments to insurance companies and doctors....
We had the grand kids overnight last night and that always keeps us busy as making meals and telling the little ones to eat it about 10 thousand times is central to our day...
We had a laugh as the 7 year old was using grandma's fingernail polish to paint her nails... And her fingers, and the table cloth, and the paper towels spread all over the table.... The three year old was watching intently taking notes as how she was going to proceed in just a couple of more years...
Loyce took them back home at about supper time, and we have been zombies ever since.... And how could I have forgotten the football game where the Hawkeyes actually won....?
Retired Rod
This was somewhat of a slow day here in Kansas... The sun never really came out but only for brief moments, and when I went for a ride on the scooter, I thought it might be warmer, but the fact that I took the liner out of my jacket was soon recognized as a mistake...
I was digging thru all the piles and piles of bills that seem to accumulate here at our house for most of the morning... I'm not sure if we attract these things, but the many Doctor's office and hospital stays have us wondering what the insurance company has paid and what the insurance company has demanded as a discount and dread the thought, what we have to pay....
It is September 15th and that made the estimated tax payments due, so finding the tax file and preparing those was the first order of business... Then out on the scooter to pay the bills that needed mailing, and to the bank for depositing those random refund checks from over payments to insurance companies and doctors....
We had the grand kids overnight last night and that always keeps us busy as making meals and telling the little ones to eat it about 10 thousand times is central to our day...
We had a laugh as the 7 year old was using grandma's fingernail polish to paint her nails... And her fingers, and the table cloth, and the paper towels spread all over the table.... The three year old was watching intently taking notes as how she was going to proceed in just a couple of more years...
Loyce took them back home at about supper time, and we have been zombies ever since.... And how could I have forgotten the football game where the Hawkeyes actually won....?
Retired Rod
Saturday, September 15, 2012
Panasonic ZS7 / TZ10 display
It took me the longest time to go and find the you tube video that showed how to repair my Panasonic display this afternoon..... I just couldn't google it with everything I thought of to put into the search line....
Well anyway, I stayed home this afternoon, as I was waiting for it to warm up some more. Also the overcast needed to clear and as it turned out it was a good thing I waited... Because at about 3:30 the door bell rang but I was having trouble corralling Biscuit, she goes into a frenzy anytime someone comes...
But the post lady was walking back to her truck when I finally got the door open to yell at her. I'm here and I need the package.... I had to kick at Biscuit to get away from the door and then wiggle my way outside without her escaping... Remember she is a runner once outside and free..... Gone!
This package was "delivery only with a signature"... But after signing several places and printing my name as well, I had it........ All the way from Singapore......
So that's when I was searching the internet for the video of how to put the display back into the camera....
What I had forgotten was that the ZS7 Panasonic isn't called that in the rest of the world... Its a TZ10 and the video is obviously Dutch or German although there in nothing spoken in the three minutes that it runs... You just watch... Googling for the tz10 and looking for the foreign language repair word brought it right up....
And watch I did, as in over and over, because my hands aren't as trained as the fellow doing this work... And my fingernails are trimmed short and not used as tools like this fellows... And mine are cleaner too.... Ooops that's an opinion...
But anyway I did manage to get it done after a bunch of hand shaking while trying to install that last little ribbon power cable for the back light.. Its too tiny to get a hold of. He uses the tweezers, but mine are lost somewhere in this house.....
But eventually I got it and managed to get the tiny tiny screws back into the housing without losing them off the table.... If they had fallen to the floor, they would have been gone forever....
So the old camera now works, but I'm not certain for how long... Anyway for those that would want to order one of these I got it from ...
Smartphonebay.net
It took about three weeks for it to come from Singapore and then the "it has been shipped" message said they were waiting for payment... Although I used Paypal, so it was paid for from the start... I was loosing faith.... but had refrained from notifying paypal that it hadn't come... They give you 45 days and then your out of luck to complain so I was watching the calendar carefully...
Well anyway, I stayed home this afternoon, as I was waiting for it to warm up some more. Also the overcast needed to clear and as it turned out it was a good thing I waited... Because at about 3:30 the door bell rang but I was having trouble corralling Biscuit, she goes into a frenzy anytime someone comes...
But the post lady was walking back to her truck when I finally got the door open to yell at her. I'm here and I need the package.... I had to kick at Biscuit to get away from the door and then wiggle my way outside without her escaping... Remember she is a runner once outside and free..... Gone!
This package was "delivery only with a signature"... But after signing several places and printing my name as well, I had it........ All the way from Singapore......
So that's when I was searching the internet for the video of how to put the display back into the camera....
What I had forgotten was that the ZS7 Panasonic isn't called that in the rest of the world... Its a TZ10 and the video is obviously Dutch or German although there in nothing spoken in the three minutes that it runs... You just watch... Googling for the tz10 and looking for the foreign language repair word brought it right up....
And watch I did, as in over and over, because my hands aren't as trained as the fellow doing this work... And my fingernails are trimmed short and not used as tools like this fellows... And mine are cleaner too.... Ooops that's an opinion...
But anyway I did manage to get it done after a bunch of hand shaking while trying to install that last little ribbon power cable for the back light.. Its too tiny to get a hold of. He uses the tweezers, but mine are lost somewhere in this house.....
But eventually I got it and managed to get the tiny tiny screws back into the housing without losing them off the table.... If they had fallen to the floor, they would have been gone forever....
So the old camera now works, but I'm not certain for how long... Anyway for those that would want to order one of these I got it from ...
Smartphonebay.net
| LCD-PANAZS7 | Replacement LCD Screen for Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ10, ZS7 | 1 | $37.79 | $37.79 |
| Subtotal: | $37.79 | |||
It took about three weeks for it to come from Singapore and then the "it has been shipped" message said they were waiting for payment... Although I used Paypal, so it was paid for from the start... I was loosing faith.... but had refrained from notifying paypal that it hadn't come... They give you 45 days and then your out of luck to complain so I was watching the calendar carefully...
 |
| Before |
 |
| Now |
I was going to try and take a few pictures of me doing this repair, but I quickly realized that the video of the experienced guy was way better than anything I could have done..
Besides, I really liked it when he dropped the entire back of the camera with the new display on the floor, and he leaves the camera running as he is reaching to pick it back up... That's about how my experience went too... Only I fiddled around for about a half an hour trying to get that tiny little ribbon into its connector and locked down... Every time I turned the camera on to test it, the backlight didn't........
It stayed cool here again today and I had to find those long pants to go ride the scooter up to Wendy's for that burger... It was sunny and about 73 by 4 PM...
Retired Rod
Friday, September 14, 2012
Motorcycle parts and colder.....
As I was filling up my scooter tank with gas last evening before coming home from the day's fun ride activities, I looked down and found the gas door on the scooter had fallen to the ground... I reached down and picked it up, but nothing seemed broken..
But then looking at where it had fallen from, I noticed that a small little plastic pin was gone from the hinge part... Also a metal spring that held the door closed was on the ground as well... Things made from plastic seem not to last very long...
My riding partner Al went over to his bike which is just like mine and looked at how it was supposed to be attached. It was clear that the hinge was broken off... I picked up the pieces and tossed them in the compartment under the seat.
Fast forward to today where we had a big frontal boundary go over during the night... It was down right cold this morning in the 50s with overcast skies... Rain was forecast with no warming in sight..
So Loyce began using the self propelled lawn mower and urged me to use the JD tractor until we had the lawn under control. We had to beat the rain. After that was complete, I started on the internet looking up the parts needed to fix the bike.
This is the exploded parts diagram for the side compartments of the plastic outer panels... They include the fuel door assembly..
Darned good thing I picked up that fuel door #8 with its attached chrome numbers #4, because the price for those two items is over $50. Somehow though when I arrived back home, I couldn't find the little spring piece #11 even though I know I picked it up...
But the broken little plastic piece was #9. Those little pieces #9 and #11 were about $10 online... But shipping was $18.. So I called my dealer here in Olathe, to find that a broken fuel door hinge is fairly common and they had the parts right on hand....
I installed the liner into my riding coat, and headed over on the bike.. And yes he did have it, but their prices are about 150% more than on line.. Plus tax, but no shipping... $17. Better than $28 and no waiting for the mail..
As I was leaving on the bike, it began to rain.... I high tailed it for home... Its only about 8 miles over there, so I didn't get overly wet.... But it was 60 now and any wet at 40 mph is cold..
It was more difficult to get the little spring clip thingy back on after putting the door and hinge together than I imagined.. Its under quite a bit of pressure and it took a pair of water pump pliers to compress it. This all the while not breaking the new plastic pieces....
I kept looking at that diagram above trying to make sure I was doing it right... Eventually I got it. There were only the two screws holding it to the bike so that wasn't a problem..
How does something like this take so much of one's day...?
It rained for the rest of the afternoon, and it is still wet outside tonight with the temperature of 55.. Boy fall is here in a big way!! The bike is parked for now, but it will be sunny and brighter in the next few days...
But still I have not lost the faith because thru all of today, I had my short pants on.... With the rip stop overpants over them when I was riding of course...
Loyce had the grand child again today for the afternoon, and that always keeps her busy... Abby had gone home by the time I got back from the dealer..
As we are one day closer to heading back to Arizona, we still have Doctor's appointments and the like. And I'm afraid that the departure day will be in November...... Is it possible that we will have an early winter in this interim, after all the hot summer days?
Gonna need those long pants before we get out of here!
Retired Rod
But then looking at where it had fallen from, I noticed that a small little plastic pin was gone from the hinge part... Also a metal spring that held the door closed was on the ground as well... Things made from plastic seem not to last very long...
My riding partner Al went over to his bike which is just like mine and looked at how it was supposed to be attached. It was clear that the hinge was broken off... I picked up the pieces and tossed them in the compartment under the seat.
Fast forward to today where we had a big frontal boundary go over during the night... It was down right cold this morning in the 50s with overcast skies... Rain was forecast with no warming in sight..
So Loyce began using the self propelled lawn mower and urged me to use the JD tractor until we had the lawn under control. We had to beat the rain. After that was complete, I started on the internet looking up the parts needed to fix the bike.
This is the exploded parts diagram for the side compartments of the plastic outer panels... They include the fuel door assembly..
Darned good thing I picked up that fuel door #8 with its attached chrome numbers #4, because the price for those two items is over $50. Somehow though when I arrived back home, I couldn't find the little spring piece #11 even though I know I picked it up...
But the broken little plastic piece was #9. Those little pieces #9 and #11 were about $10 online... But shipping was $18.. So I called my dealer here in Olathe, to find that a broken fuel door hinge is fairly common and they had the parts right on hand....
I installed the liner into my riding coat, and headed over on the bike.. And yes he did have it, but their prices are about 150% more than on line.. Plus tax, but no shipping... $17. Better than $28 and no waiting for the mail..
As I was leaving on the bike, it began to rain.... I high tailed it for home... Its only about 8 miles over there, so I didn't get overly wet.... But it was 60 now and any wet at 40 mph is cold..
It was more difficult to get the little spring clip thingy back on after putting the door and hinge together than I imagined.. Its under quite a bit of pressure and it took a pair of water pump pliers to compress it. This all the while not breaking the new plastic pieces....
I kept looking at that diagram above trying to make sure I was doing it right... Eventually I got it. There were only the two screws holding it to the bike so that wasn't a problem..
How does something like this take so much of one's day...?
It rained for the rest of the afternoon, and it is still wet outside tonight with the temperature of 55.. Boy fall is here in a big way!! The bike is parked for now, but it will be sunny and brighter in the next few days...
But still I have not lost the faith because thru all of today, I had my short pants on.... With the rip stop overpants over them when I was riding of course...
Loyce had the grand child again today for the afternoon, and that always keeps her busy... Abby had gone home by the time I got back from the dealer..
As we are one day closer to heading back to Arizona, we still have Doctor's appointments and the like. And I'm afraid that the departure day will be in November...... Is it possible that we will have an early winter in this interim, after all the hot summer days?
Gonna need those long pants before we get out of here!
Retired Rod
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Two in one week?
Ok, I did it again..... Go on another luncheon on the bike... This week the lunch for the Topeka group was in Lawrence.... That is a nice ride out of Topeka..
But of course it is only thirty miles or so West of us here in Overland Park.... The place was a biker bar called Slow Ride Roadhouse.. And it is just that inside, a biker bar... The room is wide open and the building is kind of a log cabin...
I didn't take any pictures but our leader Roger took this as he was entering the building off to the left of the picture... I think he was capturing the sign..
After a fine lunch of Chicken Fried Steak with all the trimmings like potatoes and gravy, we rode back to KC on the North side of the Kansas river... With my friend Al in the lead, he managed to get us back to the only other bridge over the river for miles... I was lost........ Well except for the GPS that I had under my seat, but I didn't mention that...
We spent the rest of the afternoon looking for a little screw that went into Al's speed control hand grip.. We stopped at three different places including a McDonalds for coffee and a soda but never did get the screw...
That is until we stopped at a Lowes on a chance that they might have something and low and behold, they had the exact piece....
Now while I was out riding all over Southern KC, Loyce had the youngest grand child over here at the house and they were playing with Biscuit and taking naps and stuff....
I was warned before I left to be really quite when I got home to not awaken the grand... Well I did the next best thing...... I just stayed out all afternoon... No siree, I didn't do it!! Not gonna wake up a kid that won't go to sleep without a threat.... No sir,!!
Its late and I still have to go put the bike in the garage, so I will post this...
Retired Rod
But of course it is only thirty miles or so West of us here in Overland Park.... The place was a biker bar called Slow Ride Roadhouse.. And it is just that inside, a biker bar... The room is wide open and the building is kind of a log cabin...
I didn't take any pictures but our leader Roger took this as he was entering the building off to the left of the picture... I think he was capturing the sign..
After a fine lunch of Chicken Fried Steak with all the trimmings like potatoes and gravy, we rode back to KC on the North side of the Kansas river... With my friend Al in the lead, he managed to get us back to the only other bridge over the river for miles... I was lost........ Well except for the GPS that I had under my seat, but I didn't mention that...
We spent the rest of the afternoon looking for a little screw that went into Al's speed control hand grip.. We stopped at three different places including a McDonalds for coffee and a soda but never did get the screw...
That is until we stopped at a Lowes on a chance that they might have something and low and behold, they had the exact piece....
Now while I was out riding all over Southern KC, Loyce had the youngest grand child over here at the house and they were playing with Biscuit and taking naps and stuff....
I was warned before I left to be really quite when I got home to not awaken the grand... Well I did the next best thing...... I just stayed out all afternoon... No siree, I didn't do it!! Not gonna wake up a kid that won't go to sleep without a threat.... No sir,!!
Its late and I still have to go put the bike in the garage, so I will post this...
Retired Rod
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
The big ride and 9/11 memories....
Well yes I was excited that I had decided to go on the long lunch ride.... So much so that I couldn't sleep, like a little kid waiting for Santa.... But then I awoke in a start about 5 minutes before the alarm would go off at 7 AM...
I was all cleaned up and down stairs eating breakfast in order to leave at about 8:15.. And the KC traffic was in full swing... I stayed South on the city streets as long as I dared, but eventually I was about to cross over into Missouri and the streets get all goofy over there...
So onto the interstate I wheeled and sped it up to 75 just in order to keep up.. It is all interstate from there on.... And as I was passing the East I 70 interchange I was following a semi truck... But then I had another one pull up on my left side.... And another on my right side.... I was boxed in with a pickup behind me as well.
The wind was all hoakey with swirls from all sides and the bike wanted to go this way and then another way.... It felt like I could loose it so I just slowed way down and let the trucks pull away.... The guy in the pickup honked at me.... Nice...!
It was 98 miles up to the little town of Gallatin, Mo with the last 15 miles in the country at more civil speeds..
We messed around for an hour and a half telling stories and spinning a few yarns... But then it was time to leave again...
This time I rode down old Mo highway 13... I was sick of the interstate, but this was a bunch farther... The scenery was different and the speeds were more like under 70...
I stayed outside of KC for as long as I could eventually merging with I 470 out on the Southeast corner of the city... Again, the traffic was bumper to bumper and doing almost 80... Where the heck are these folks going?
I was hot by now as it was over 90 degrees so I stopped at the state line McDonalds for a small burger and a biggggg soda... Even filled it up again and put it in my drink bottle out on the bike... That sun can be brutal on rides at highway speeds...
After arriving back here at home, I used the Google maps and decided that I had ridden about 215 miles... I was gone about 7 hours.... For lunch!!! ?
Yea, that's nuts! Romeo Ride Web Site
-----------
Changing thoughts, today is 9/11 and I am reading where folks were on that day, which makes me remember an interesting occurrence from my memories..
I was at work in the grain company's office when the planes hit the towers, and not much else got done for the rest of the day as we watched the news on TV...
But as the sun was going down, and all the planes had been landed so nothing was flying thru the skies. As we were looking out of the South windows at the skies over West Des Moines, there from the West came a lone Jet Plane at a very high altitude headed East across the sky...
There was only one person that had a clearance to fly at that time......... President Bush! We were looking at Airforce One as it was making its way back to Washington....
Since we were up fairly high in the building, we could see the plane easily even making out the blue fuselage. We all wondered if there were any bad guys around, and how hard it would have been to pick out this lone flight and shoot at it...
In retrospect, I saw a show the other night that reflected where all the people in authority had advised strongly against this flight. But Bush had demanded that he be back in DC to speak from the Oval Office...
Still we were watching the only plane in the entire US skies... Our company plane had been grounded down in Southern Illinois and the men on board rented a too small car and drove it back to Iowa.. They griped about that for years to come......
It was over a week before we were able to send a pilot after the plane.... Even then it had to be an IFR flight where the controllers knew exactly whose plane it was and where it was going.... Getting the pilot to that little town in southern Illinois was rather costly as I remember....
I'm sure everyone has a story about where they were on 9/11/2001...
Retired Rod
I was all cleaned up and down stairs eating breakfast in order to leave at about 8:15.. And the KC traffic was in full swing... I stayed South on the city streets as long as I dared, but eventually I was about to cross over into Missouri and the streets get all goofy over there...
So onto the interstate I wheeled and sped it up to 75 just in order to keep up.. It is all interstate from there on.... And as I was passing the East I 70 interchange I was following a semi truck... But then I had another one pull up on my left side.... And another on my right side.... I was boxed in with a pickup behind me as well.
The wind was all hoakey with swirls from all sides and the bike wanted to go this way and then another way.... It felt like I could loose it so I just slowed way down and let the trucks pull away.... The guy in the pickup honked at me.... Nice...!
It was 98 miles up to the little town of Gallatin, Mo with the last 15 miles in the country at more civil speeds..
 |
| The corner Cafe was right on the corner LOL! |
 |
| And right across the street is the Court house. My bike is second from the right. |
 |
| Of course bikes were lined up all down the street. |
 |
| As usual, I was right behind the distant fellow with the green shirt on with his back to us... But not in the picture at all! |
This time I rode down old Mo highway 13... I was sick of the interstate, but this was a bunch farther... The scenery was different and the speeds were more like under 70...
I stayed outside of KC for as long as I could eventually merging with I 470 out on the Southeast corner of the city... Again, the traffic was bumper to bumper and doing almost 80... Where the heck are these folks going?
I was hot by now as it was over 90 degrees so I stopped at the state line McDonalds for a small burger and a biggggg soda... Even filled it up again and put it in my drink bottle out on the bike... That sun can be brutal on rides at highway speeds...
After arriving back here at home, I used the Google maps and decided that I had ridden about 215 miles... I was gone about 7 hours.... For lunch!!! ?
Yea, that's nuts! Romeo Ride Web Site
-----------
Changing thoughts, today is 9/11 and I am reading where folks were on that day, which makes me remember an interesting occurrence from my memories..
I was at work in the grain company's office when the planes hit the towers, and not much else got done for the rest of the day as we watched the news on TV...
But as the sun was going down, and all the planes had been landed so nothing was flying thru the skies. As we were looking out of the South windows at the skies over West Des Moines, there from the West came a lone Jet Plane at a very high altitude headed East across the sky...
There was only one person that had a clearance to fly at that time......... President Bush! We were looking at Airforce One as it was making its way back to Washington....
Since we were up fairly high in the building, we could see the plane easily even making out the blue fuselage. We all wondered if there were any bad guys around, and how hard it would have been to pick out this lone flight and shoot at it...
In retrospect, I saw a show the other night that reflected where all the people in authority had advised strongly against this flight. But Bush had demanded that he be back in DC to speak from the Oval Office...
Still we were watching the only plane in the entire US skies... Our company plane had been grounded down in Southern Illinois and the men on board rented a too small car and drove it back to Iowa.. They griped about that for years to come......
It was over a week before we were able to send a pilot after the plane.... Even then it had to be an IFR flight where the controllers knew exactly whose plane it was and where it was going.... Getting the pilot to that little town in southern Illinois was rather costly as I remember....
I'm sure everyone has a story about where they were on 9/11/2001...
Retired Rod
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
GPS hunting
I got to thinking about riding that long lunch ride tomorrow, and looked at the weather which promises to be fairly good! But I haven't purchased a GPS to go with me on the bike and I would like to have one if I get that far away..
So I looked at some on the internet and finally at Best Buy.. They had one for $128 but you had to order on line and then go get it at the store... Why not just go to the store?
So I jumped on the scoot and went to.......Wendy's! Just thru the drive thru, and brought the burger back home. But also I went to the Best Buy... And they had the GPS, a Garmin Nuvi 50LM. But it was priced at $150..........
Heck the refurished ones were $89 online, but then you had some shipping.. But if I'm going on this ride, I need it now. So I countered that their online store offered them at $128... Really???? Yes and also the same at Wal Mart...
So the sales guy jumped on his store computer and found the add fairly quickly... Then he went and asked the boss salesman, if he could price match. The answer was yes! I don't think these GPS hand helds sell as well now with the smart phones doing the same function..
So the rest of the afternoon I was pushing its imaginary buttons trying to learn the menu system.. I say imaginary, because it really has no buttons other than the off and on on its side. The unit is completely touch screen, and everything is controlled that way...
Remember I don't really like Loyce's Apple Ipad, because it is touch screen, but then I don't use a rotary phone any more either.. So its time to get with the program!
I went to go get some gas tonight, and it was in the early 70s, a little cool for the bike.. Better find a sweat shirt and some long pants, inspite of needing to toughen up some.......
Retired Rod
So I looked at some on the internet and finally at Best Buy.. They had one for $128 but you had to order on line and then go get it at the store... Why not just go to the store?
So I jumped on the scoot and went to.......Wendy's! Just thru the drive thru, and brought the burger back home. But also I went to the Best Buy... And they had the GPS, a Garmin Nuvi 50LM. But it was priced at $150..........
Heck the refurished ones were $89 online, but then you had some shipping.. But if I'm going on this ride, I need it now. So I countered that their online store offered them at $128... Really???? Yes and also the same at Wal Mart...
So the sales guy jumped on his store computer and found the add fairly quickly... Then he went and asked the boss salesman, if he could price match. The answer was yes! I don't think these GPS hand helds sell as well now with the smart phones doing the same function..
So the rest of the afternoon I was pushing its imaginary buttons trying to learn the menu system.. I say imaginary, because it really has no buttons other than the off and on on its side. The unit is completely touch screen, and everything is controlled that way...
Remember I don't really like Loyce's Apple Ipad, because it is touch screen, but then I don't use a rotary phone any more either.. So its time to get with the program!
I went to go get some gas tonight, and it was in the early 70s, a little cool for the bike.. Better find a sweat shirt and some long pants, inspite of needing to toughen up some.......
Retired Rod
Monday, September 10, 2012
Sunday afternoon in Lawrence
We were sitting here not wanting to watch football all day, (per Loyce) and so we decided to drive over to Lawrence and enjoy the Jayhawk campus for a little while...
It was a nice sunny day and the temps were in the 70s, so we enjoyed ourselves..
Of course I graduated from Iowa, but I still think the Campanile at the Administration building circle on KU's campus is neat.... History Link
It began to chime and I quickly pressed the video button, not thinking that I had the camera in portrait. So its on its side but at least if you play the little clip you can hear the bells... It was quarter hour, so they only play part of the sequence...
And you will notice that I am rather jumpy after being again put under the other day.... The camera is supposed to have image stabilization, but I'm not sure it works on Videos..... This is in the AVCHD format, but I think YouTube converts it.. But I was happy with the clarity of the video....
The football stadium is right behind the campanile and down the hill. If it wasn't for the scoreboard, you could sit on the hill and watch the game.... Providing the security didn't move you right along....
I assume the tents were for tail gating yesterday, but it was mostly all cleaned up by today.... KU played Rice yesterday and lost by one point 25 - 24...
The fourth window over on this building across the street isn't broken, if you look closely you can see the reflection of the top of the bell tower in the glass.
With the recent rains we have had here in Kansas, our grass has become a little greener, which made the afternoon seem pleasant.
The pictures today are with the newest Panasonic Lumix camera, and I think it is doing a nice job for no more than it is priced...
Tonight it is 62 outside, and it seems like the water on the street could freeze... Remember we haven't had anything below 80 for weeks.. And it never was below 90 in the middle of the night out in the desert..... So my blood must be quite thin... But I still have my short pants on so I can toughen up like Brenda advises in her comment the other day.....LOL!!
Oh, I almost forgot!!! Biscuit has something to tell you......
Hey, its my birthday!!! I turned Two!! My mommy sang happy birthday to me and I looked at her so funny while she did it.... I don't think I have ever heard her sing before.... And she had several bags of new treats that I could only have a couple of... She says they will make me sick if I eat too many...... Really!! Well anyway I got to go along over to Lawrence and everything....
Retired Rod
It was a nice sunny day and the temps were in the 70s, so we enjoyed ourselves..
Of course I graduated from Iowa, but I still think the Campanile at the Administration building circle on KU's campus is neat.... History Link
It began to chime and I quickly pressed the video button, not thinking that I had the camera in portrait. So its on its side but at least if you play the little clip you can hear the bells... It was quarter hour, so they only play part of the sequence...
And you will notice that I am rather jumpy after being again put under the other day.... The camera is supposed to have image stabilization, but I'm not sure it works on Videos..... This is in the AVCHD format, but I think YouTube converts it.. But I was happy with the clarity of the video....
I assume the tents were for tail gating yesterday, but it was mostly all cleaned up by today.... KU played Rice yesterday and lost by one point 25 - 24...
The fourth window over on this building across the street isn't broken, if you look closely you can see the reflection of the top of the bell tower in the glass.
With the recent rains we have had here in Kansas, our grass has become a little greener, which made the afternoon seem pleasant.
The pictures today are with the newest Panasonic Lumix camera, and I think it is doing a nice job for no more than it is priced...
Tonight it is 62 outside, and it seems like the water on the street could freeze... Remember we haven't had anything below 80 for weeks.. And it never was below 90 in the middle of the night out in the desert..... So my blood must be quite thin... But I still have my short pants on so I can toughen up like Brenda advises in her comment the other day.....LOL!!
Oh, I almost forgot!!! Biscuit has something to tell you......
Hey, its my birthday!!! I turned Two!! My mommy sang happy birthday to me and I looked at her so funny while she did it.... I don't think I have ever heard her sing before.... And she had several bags of new treats that I could only have a couple of... She says they will make me sick if I eat too many...... Really!! Well anyway I got to go along over to Lawrence and everything....
Retired Rod
Sunday, September 9, 2012
We Lost
No projects or travel for today, cause its an Iowa vs Iowa State football day...
My younger son Ben and his wife went to Iowa City to stay with her niece that has a new home there and attend THE game...
If you live in Iowa, this is like the super bowl, but in truth, both teams are on kind of a rebuilding year..... Especially Iowa, as they graduated most of the team last year.....
I went to Iowa, so I am partial to that school, but they lost this afternoon by dropping passes one after another and then tossing interceptions especially at the end of the game....
They had a winning touchdown that was called back because the runner stepped on the white out of bounds boarder of the field..... It was just that kind of a day..... And a long afternoon for the home team...
So for the second year in a row, we Hawkeyes have to bow down in humble submission to the Staters....... Well, you do if you live up there, but since I have moved, I won't get much guff from folks around here........
Heck most of the folks around here have barely heard of the teams or the game, and it wasn't on any tv channel... Except that I have satellite which covers the big ten network..... Sad....
In other news, that book case didn't even get carried to the basement for assembly this afternoon because of the game... But I asked Loyce if she had gone down and looked at the first one that is assembled, and the answer was no.. In her defense, she had an eye appointment yesterday and they dilated her eyes so she couldn't have seen it very well anyway...
We were teasing her last night as we had to read the restaurant menu to her... And what we were telling her the menu said was obviously wrong....... Making up wild dishes for her selection...... But she didn't believe it for one minute..
After reaching a low in the early 50s last night, we only made 76 this afternoon. I did wear my short pants, but it seemed rather cool outside all day..
Other than a trip to Wal Mart at half time, we never left the house, so thats it for today.....
Retired Rod
My younger son Ben and his wife went to Iowa City to stay with her niece that has a new home there and attend THE game...
If you live in Iowa, this is like the super bowl, but in truth, both teams are on kind of a rebuilding year..... Especially Iowa, as they graduated most of the team last year.....
I went to Iowa, so I am partial to that school, but they lost this afternoon by dropping passes one after another and then tossing interceptions especially at the end of the game....
They had a winning touchdown that was called back because the runner stepped on the white out of bounds boarder of the field..... It was just that kind of a day..... And a long afternoon for the home team...
So for the second year in a row, we Hawkeyes have to bow down in humble submission to the Staters....... Well, you do if you live up there, but since I have moved, I won't get much guff from folks around here........
Heck most of the folks around here have barely heard of the teams or the game, and it wasn't on any tv channel... Except that I have satellite which covers the big ten network..... Sad....
In other news, that book case didn't even get carried to the basement for assembly this afternoon because of the game... But I asked Loyce if she had gone down and looked at the first one that is assembled, and the answer was no.. In her defense, she had an eye appointment yesterday and they dilated her eyes so she couldn't have seen it very well anyway...
We were teasing her last night as we had to read the restaurant menu to her... And what we were telling her the menu said was obviously wrong....... Making up wild dishes for her selection...... But she didn't believe it for one minute..
After reaching a low in the early 50s last night, we only made 76 this afternoon. I did wear my short pants, but it seemed rather cool outside all day..
Other than a trip to Wal Mart at half time, we never left the house, so thats it for today.....
Retired Rod
Saturday, September 8, 2012
Dinner up town!
We decided to go out to dinner with Chris and his family tonight, and Loyce chose the restaurant..... But I didn't object a bit!!
Then we came back to our house for Ice Cream and cookies.... Well the grandkids had the Ice Cream and Cookies, while we began to watch TV.... And what do we end up watching?? The cooking shows on the Create Channel....!
And then the grilling shows after that... I was stuffed, but Chris said he was hungry all over again looking at the grilling...
I thought about taking the scooter out again today, but from looking at the weather forecast, we were to have 100% chance of rain at about 2 PM.... And along with that we were scheduled for a frontal passage with much cooler temps behind the front..
While it was raining, the temperature fell to 66 degrees and we had some heavy winds.... By then, I was glad that I had decided to stay put on the bike and just watch out the window..
Last month Loyce had purchased and hauled home some book shelves at the Ikea store in Phoenix... Which I had calmly avoided like the black plague when they were unloaded in the garage...
But I noticed that they had made it into the dining room early this week.. And casually it was mentioned that they needed to be assembled... "So when are you going to start" I countered? Of course that went over like a lead balloon...
I did manage to put the first one together this afternoon before the rain started, but the second will be for another day.....
Tonight its barely 70 outside, and I had to go and find some long pants for the restaurant tonight.... Hope its not the end of short pants weather........
Retired Rod
White Cheddar & Bacon Stuffed Filet*
A tender 7 oz. Flo's Filet stuffed with aged white cheddar and hickory-smoked bacon, served over a savory brown herb sauce. $19.99
Then we came back to our house for Ice Cream and cookies.... Well the grandkids had the Ice Cream and Cookies, while we began to watch TV.... And what do we end up watching?? The cooking shows on the Create Channel....!
And then the grilling shows after that... I was stuffed, but Chris said he was hungry all over again looking at the grilling...
I thought about taking the scooter out again today, but from looking at the weather forecast, we were to have 100% chance of rain at about 2 PM.... And along with that we were scheduled for a frontal passage with much cooler temps behind the front..
While it was raining, the temperature fell to 66 degrees and we had some heavy winds.... By then, I was glad that I had decided to stay put on the bike and just watch out the window..
Last month Loyce had purchased and hauled home some book shelves at the Ikea store in Phoenix... Which I had calmly avoided like the black plague when they were unloaded in the garage...
But I noticed that they had made it into the dining room early this week.. And casually it was mentioned that they needed to be assembled... "So when are you going to start" I countered? Of course that went over like a lead balloon...
I did manage to put the first one together this afternoon before the rain started, but the second will be for another day.....
Tonight its barely 70 outside, and I had to go and find some long pants for the restaurant tonight.... Hope its not the end of short pants weather........
Retired Rod
Friday, September 7, 2012
I did ride the scoot to the hospital after all....
Today my trip down to the hospital to leave some specimens was on the motor cycle.... And I wasn't drunk like the Doc said I would be yesterday either....
Its 22 miles each way so that becomes a longer ride but not like the luncheons with the Romeos.. But even so, it was officially rather hot again.. 97 in the afternoon, on my way back home....
I go thru the city streets which is slower than on the interstate, but the drivers are paying more attention, or perhaps are going slower paying about the same attention, but that makes me feel more reassured... I don't mind highway speeds, but when the concentration of vehicles is bumper to bumper like it is in a big city and you are at highway speeds, that doesn't work as well with a bike...
That did take up a good portion of the day, along with the yard work we did this morning, and even my son Ben came over and helped with some of the trimming and blower work while I mowed the yard... That was a nice touch because it was beginning to be rather hot even early in the morning....
Then of course we had to sit inside and catch up on all the things that have happened for the last week... Seems we never run out of stuff to talk about....
So since this is a boring blog, I'll hang up for now and say have a good day...
Retired Rod
Its 22 miles each way so that becomes a longer ride but not like the luncheons with the Romeos.. But even so, it was officially rather hot again.. 97 in the afternoon, on my way back home....
I go thru the city streets which is slower than on the interstate, but the drivers are paying more attention, or perhaps are going slower paying about the same attention, but that makes me feel more reassured... I don't mind highway speeds, but when the concentration of vehicles is bumper to bumper like it is in a big city and you are at highway speeds, that doesn't work as well with a bike...
That did take up a good portion of the day, along with the yard work we did this morning, and even my son Ben came over and helped with some of the trimming and blower work while I mowed the yard... That was a nice touch because it was beginning to be rather hot even early in the morning....
Then of course we had to sit inside and catch up on all the things that have happened for the last week... Seems we never run out of stuff to talk about....
So since this is a boring blog, I'll hang up for now and say have a good day...
Retired Rod
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Out!
The word versed, can mean experienced or practiced, as in being versed in a profession... But!!!!........
That would be if the word were vurst , but if the word becomes ver sed' pronounced ver said', that becomes something very different.....
Its this latter word that became the center of my day and experience this morning..... I mustered into admitting at the University of Kansas Hospital at 9:30, almost a civil time rather than those way early AM operations.. But still I was ushered into the little pre op cubical with a draw curtain and a bed on wheels...
I've been thru this dozens of times, so I don't need to have the instructions about the hospital gown tying up the back. And today the only thing I lost was my shirt because they were doing a scope of my upper GI tract...
They started an IV in my hand and gave me something to calm me.... It didn't do much, but then they gave me some gargle.... WOW! That was way stronger than anything I have experienced at any dentist.... In only a few moments my tongue and teeth and throat were gone..... Completely numb...
Next I was rolled into the room where the scope procedure was to be performed.... They hustle and bustle around you and open all sorts of little sterile packages...... They had me roll over on my left side and then told me that I would be receiving the Ver Sed. That's the drug of choice to send you to bye bye land! Just like that I was gone.....
I kind of remember being rolled back into the curtained recovery area where I started, but only faintly..... And in about a half hour, I was putting my shirt on and being told that everything seemed to be ok except for a computer glitch which lost all the pictures they took.. I guess we'll have to take his word for it, as he doesn't get a do over from me, anyway..
I was teasing that I could ride the motor scooter down there for the procedure, but there was no way I could have ridden it back home.... Heck I was drifty dreamy as Loyce drove home...
I ate a few crackers and some sprite once I was home and began reading blogs................. ................... zzzzzzzzzz. ......... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
It was after 5 PM when I finally came to....
Even tonight, I'm not on the top of my game here, but at least we know that bad things aren't growing in my upper GI tract...
And in reading the Romeo forum about yesterday's ride, it was overcast and almost spitting rain for most of the way down to Warsaw, Mo. This must have deterred most of the riders, as they only had about 20 folks show up... That's way down from the 60 or more that come on normal days.... So perhaps my decision not to stress myself on the day before the big hospital procedure was quite prudent....
Retired Rod
That would be if the word were vurst , but if the word becomes ver sed' pronounced ver said', that becomes something very different.....
Its this latter word that became the center of my day and experience this morning..... I mustered into admitting at the University of Kansas Hospital at 9:30, almost a civil time rather than those way early AM operations.. But still I was ushered into the little pre op cubical with a draw curtain and a bed on wheels...
I've been thru this dozens of times, so I don't need to have the instructions about the hospital gown tying up the back. And today the only thing I lost was my shirt because they were doing a scope of my upper GI tract...
They started an IV in my hand and gave me something to calm me.... It didn't do much, but then they gave me some gargle.... WOW! That was way stronger than anything I have experienced at any dentist.... In only a few moments my tongue and teeth and throat were gone..... Completely numb...
Next I was rolled into the room where the scope procedure was to be performed.... They hustle and bustle around you and open all sorts of little sterile packages...... They had me roll over on my left side and then told me that I would be receiving the Ver Sed. That's the drug of choice to send you to bye bye land! Just like that I was gone.....
I kind of remember being rolled back into the curtained recovery area where I started, but only faintly..... And in about a half hour, I was putting my shirt on and being told that everything seemed to be ok except for a computer glitch which lost all the pictures they took.. I guess we'll have to take his word for it, as he doesn't get a do over from me, anyway..
I was teasing that I could ride the motor scooter down there for the procedure, but there was no way I could have ridden it back home.... Heck I was drifty dreamy as Loyce drove home...
I ate a few crackers and some sprite once I was home and began reading blogs................. ................... zzzzzzzzzz. ......... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
It was after 5 PM when I finally came to....
Even tonight, I'm not on the top of my game here, but at least we know that bad things aren't growing in my upper GI tract...
And in reading the Romeo forum about yesterday's ride, it was overcast and almost spitting rain for most of the way down to Warsaw, Mo. This must have deterred most of the riders, as they only had about 20 folks show up... That's way down from the 60 or more that come on normal days.... So perhaps my decision not to stress myself on the day before the big hospital procedure was quite prudent....
Retired Rod
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Chicken
It could have been a good post about going to the romeo luncheon, had it not been so far away this week... And we just came back from central Missouri too.... But the ride was to Warsaw on Truman Lake and almost 100 miles away from our house here.
I argued with myself about going.. Just too far to enjoy!! But you will enjoy the ride so why not go...? I had the tank full of fuel and the riding gear over the seat.....
But then way late in the night, I saw the weather forecast for high 90s and perhaps 100...... Do I really want to ride back to KC in high 90s for two hours after a big lunch....? I'm fair complected, and a long ride like that in the hot wind burns me to a crisp....
So I never even stirred this morning... On these hot days many folks hit the road at 7:30 and eat a late breakfast rather than lunch, so if I wasn't on the road early it would have been a done deal, and I managed to talk myself right out of it...
Now I did go out later in the afternoon about 4 PM thinking that most of the heat was behind us, but no it wasn't because as I buzzed thru the city streets, the gauge read 98 to 101 depending where I stopped.... And I managed to find a street that had construction with new asphalt going down..... Wow.... Turned off at the very next intersection, even though it wasn't the right way home....
Then tonight I went back over to Wal Mart after a prescription that I had delivered earlier, and the humidity was about 90 percent..... And it was still 90 degrees.... This can't last long, and I am sure in only a few weeks I will be writing about how cold it was riding on a luncheon, but for today it was just too much...
Tomorrow, I have some more of those tests at the hospital.... So I will have to get up earlier than I want to, and subject myself to being put under yet again....
Perhaps I will still know my name when I wake up, but then again maybe not.... I've lost count on how many times it has been.... But I do know that they told Loyce to drive me because I won't be able to drive home..... What? No motorcycle?? Not even in my dreams, she answered...... Is she on their side???
Retired Rod
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