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allergy medicine sucks

now, those of you who regularly take allergy medicine probably already know this, however, i have never had allergies before, so this is a new experience for me. anyways, last night, i get home from work, fully intending on finishing one of the side jobs sitting in my garage (74 cb550 four). i start sneezing like a am-fm and my wife suggests i take a benadryl, which promptly knocks my "O Ring" out for the evening. "fudge"! now, instead of going riding on this beautiful day (as soon as i leave work in a half hour) i've got to finish this damn bike!!

non-drowsy my left nut!

i always start these things thinking i'm going to keep up with them, and then important things (riding, fishing, hunting, ect..) get in the way, i forget and then ten months later i remember. oh well.

up to speed. i'm back managing a parts department at a gm dealership, in my fourth semester back at school (dean's list three semesters in a row, this one looks like the streak is going to be kept alive) and otherwise doing well. i finished the cl350 for my dad, and started working on another one, and last fall bought three non running scooters (2 sprees and an elite 80) of which two out of the three are well on their way to running, just waiting for some parts.

the third one may be interesting. it's one of the sprees that i robbed the wiring harness and starter off of to get the other one going. when i was inspecting/dismantling the lil' guy i noticed that the rear wheel was wobbly. i took off the clutch unit and put a little catch bin under the rear drive plate so's not to let the 10w30 that's supposed to be in there spill all over my cart/scooter stand. after unbolting the plate all that came out were some shavings and the last remaining ball from the input shaft bearing. sunuva... the gears had teeth missing and the shaft was beat to hell. dammit. i'm not sure what exactly i'm going to do with it, but it's either going to have a big bore cylinder upgrade with upgraded crank, carb, exhaust and gears, or i'm going to find a way to shoehorn a larger motor (80-125cc) into the lil' guy. that should be interesting
and shouldn't be all too hard. the nice thing about these is the engine/transmission/rear wheel is all one contained unit. we'll see, but that's my plans for now.

as far as riding goes, i didn't put nearly as many miles on the vtx last year as i would have liked. between school and work, and "poo poo" needing getting done around the house, plus all the snow we got, it really cut into riding time. i hope to rectify that situation this year. i've got a longer commute now, and that combined with a planned trip to colorado this june for a wedding should help. the only downside is our dealership is less than a mile from a nice fishing lake and it'll be a difficult decision whether to ride to work, or take my truck and pull the boat along for some after work relaxing/dinner gettin'. we'll see how that all works out.

so, now i'm caught up. hopefully (or not, depending) i won't wait nearly as long to update this as i did the last time.

well hells bells, i guess hard work does pay off after all.

a little back story.

right after high school (1995) i enrolled in a state system college up in stevens point, had a great time, didn't do much studying, had really no idea what i wanted to do with my life, and when grades came around i found i had partied a bit too hard. after a year and a half of that nonsense i came to the conclusion that i was just throwing money away and not accomplishing anything so i left (barely) on my own terms. that was twelve years ago.

fast forward to late summer of 2007. the yamaha dealership i was working at announced their closing, and i was fed up with the service industry and lack of a stable future in it, so i decided to go back to school. i enrolled in the local community college (madison area technical college has a campus in my hometown) with the intention of getting an associate's in rec. management. after doing well the first two semesters (really well, actually) i felt i'd be better off going full bore at a bachelors in some kind of natural resources/conservation field, so i started taking college transfer credits with the intention of transferring those into a four year school. A semester and a half later, with my GPA still almost immaculate i started looking at four year schools. UW-Madison and Milwaukee both had programs i was interested in, Madison is the "better" school (both have approximately the same admissions standards) but i liked the program at Milwaukee a lot more, so I applied, waited, and even prayed a little bit.

Saturday I got a letter congratulating me on my admission to UW-Milwaukee and into the program. that may not mean much to many people, but it was gratifying to me to see that my hard work was paying off, and i'm pretty damn pumped.

my potentially getting into this school was the reason i'm selling my vtx for something better in city traffic, and i'll either prove (or disprove) my theory next week when i go in to visit my advisor - assuming i haven't had any takers on the bike yet. we'll see.

Hey, congratulations!!

all righty! spring is still toying with us here in wisconsin (70 and gorgeous one day - snow the next, ugh) but it's time to start thinking about summer and taking some motorcycle trips. i've got to attend two weddings this summer out of state. yes, i could fly there - but i try to avoid flying if it's at all possible. i don't mind the actual flying part of it, just the getting there three hours early, hoping the flight is on time, waiting around, praying your luggage gets there, all that hassle, don't care for it. so if i can drive there, i will. besides, anything inside of 1000 miles you really don't lose that much time, and, depending on the fuel effienciency of your chosen mode of transportation, can even be cheaper than flying. so here we go.

trip #1, second to last weekend in may, wedding on a sunday(!) night in avon-by-the-sea, new jersey. never heard of the place. mapquested it, and look, no "poo poo", it's on the ocean. a stout 970 miles from home. just a short jaunt on the vtx. i figure i'll leave thursday night after work, make it as far as i feel like (ohio-ish), get a hotel room and meander my way the rest of the way there on friday (probably stopping by gettysburg on the way - not a far detour, and i've always wanted to go). monday after the wedding will be a long one - straight through - 16 hours-ish (according to the ever helpful mapquest). i figure i'll probably bomb around jersey a little on saturday while i'm there, it's a free day and i might as well take advantage. anyone familiar with the route, or roads around cleveland, pittsburgh, philly, and jersey (cities i'll be near on my way) and what to avoid at all costs, your advice would be most helpful.

trip #2 somwhere the hell in colorado (i don't remember - boulder?) last weekend in june. from the rust belt to the grain belt, i'll probably be seeing wheat fields in my nightmares for weeks. oddly enough, it's longer - distance wise, but less time. probably because iowa and nebraska are pretty sparse where people are concerned. sounds like a good way to get my iba certificate. either go straight through on friday, or the monday after the wedding (it's on a saturday, thank god). one of the days i might break the riding into two days worth (probably the way back, knowing how my family is at weddings
i'll need less help with this, because i'm familiar with the states i'm riding through this time. kind of makes me not want to get rid of the vtx because she's just begging for these kinds of rides (unless i luck into a trophy or tiger for cheap )

so that's what i've got coming up. i can't wait.

so, as i'm planning out my route to new jersey for the wedding in may, my wife starts giving me hell about not flying and why do you want to ride all the way out there and other such nonsense. i give her my usual reasons and then mention i'd like to stop by gettysburg on the way out. she gets a funny look on her face and says, well, i've always wanted to go there. the next thing i know, she's got the computer and is looking for hotel rooms along the way. i ask her what she's doing and she replies, we're driving to jersey.

what's this we stuff? she doesn't like being on the back of the vtx for long trips (no sissy bar for her to feel secure about not falling off the back) and besides, there's not enough luggage space on the bike for two people expecting to attend a wedding.

oh no, i was informed we are taking the truck out east. oh boy, maneuvering a 6000+ pound beast through philly and new jersey sounds so much more fun than riding maybe i can talk her into taking the mustang out there, it's almost a compromise. i really shouldn't be so negative, it'll be fun having her along as i stop at my usual random places, i was just really looking forward to this bike trip.

ah well, life goes on.