Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Saturday, June 25, 2011
The Breeze.
I absolutely love the breeze that is blowing lightly through my front door right now. It carries familiar scents of the surrounding foliage, and heat, and sounds of LA, reminiscent of that which I used to smell, feel, and hear as a young child playing at my grandparents house in Altadena. Ah, the good old days. And because they feel just like yesterday with these smells, heat, and sounds, I am in love with right now, right here, and this breeze.
Friday, June 24, 2011
June 21st. That was nice.
So, today is June 22nd, and yesterday was Tuesday. You're probably saying "yeah, so what?" Well, let me tell ya. On Tuesday morning I woke up on the visitors cushion in my friends livingroom. I drank a few glasses of water while gathering my sanity and headed slowly to Los Angeles after a nice relaxing weekend of Fathers Day tractor fair festivities beginning on Saturday and the extra large final breakfast before family members departed Sunday morning. On Sunday however, it feeling time for me to also depart, I was faced with the whole "do I head north to Los Angeles now? Or I'm so close to San Diego, I should just go the rest of the way." Well, it was either 98 miles or 56 miles, and I had that nice bald tire that I wanted to change out. On top of that exhausting dilemma a few jobs that I'd had lined up the next day or two, had both been pushed back meaning I didn't even have any need to be back up in LA, soooo.....I rode on down to San Diego from Fallbrook to see some old friends and to get some bike tinkering done.
Sunday afternoon I arrived at my buddy Matteo's place, which also happens to be the location of Cereberus Motorcycle Garage. But before I got to any bike stuff which comes later, Matteo and I hopped on our two wheelers and we rolled around town popping our faces into one neighborhood bar after another before we called it quits. I slept like I'd been knocked the heck out. Motionless.
Monday morning I was up with the dawn, and ready to get on some tire changing. Matteo and I drove up north to a small shop where we picked up my brand new tire. A real long distance performer. It felt good to know that I'd get more miles out of this new tire than just doing my usual trying to save some small change. #cheapbastard
When I returned home with the new tire, I rolled Boss back onto some blocks in order to get the bike lift under her short chassy, then (pft-pft-pft-pft) up she went. I started anxiously disassembling the rear end, taking the fender off, on which I would hammer out some major dents the trash truck left me. I then took off part of my rear brake, pulled the axel out and unhooked the sprocket from the belt drive to wiggle the wheel out of its housing and freely into my hands. I put the wheel in the car and drove it to the recommended tire changing spot near by. While there, I ended up running into a long lost friend and we did some catching up, and re-acquainting contact info.
Before long, my tire was ready to go. So I ran home and threw the wheel on. Yep, just threw it on. Easy as that. Well, this called for a test ride. Break in periods are always fun. Nice and easy. Drum roll please....I rolled as far as a whole 2 miles from Matteo's over to Adria and Randy's for an evening of movies and visiting, whilst falling asleep on the visitors mat. And the story comes full circle to this point.
The next morning (cups of water and all) before I rode out, I had wrapped my black zip-up hoodie to my front handlebars as I always do, but this time I couldn't really see the fuel warning light area of my side mounted speedometer thingy. This ultimately meant, that I'd hit the road up the Pacific Coast Highway from San Diego, and didn't realize that my light had been on for quite some time, until I felt some power sputtering, which then I scooted the fabric of my sweatshirt aside and I could see the bright yellow gas light. What I originally thought was something clogging my fuel line, was a classic case of idiot. Alas it was none other than low fuel. And by the time I realized this, and was panicking driving around Encinitas trying to figure out which right turn would take me to a gas station, I ran out of gas...in an intersection...and coasted through while paddling the asphalt to get me just a little further. I found a safe little spot on the side of the main drag in free 2 hour parking spot. Where most people would freak out about now, and think that their lives were ruined, I said, finally a real reason, other than starvation, to pull over for some breakfast. Thus making the most of any situation as I always do, I took this opportunity to locate a diner where I could grab some breakfast, and then I called some roadside assistance to come out and bring me some gas since I didn't exactly feel like hoofing it to a gas station. Instead, I sat and ate a good meal until the personnel came with some fuel, and then I went right back to finishing my meal. It was as easy as that. Like life didn't even skip a beat.
An hour later, and two full bellies, Boss and I finished motoring up the Pacific Coast Highway to LA.
The end.
Sunday afternoon I arrived at my buddy Matteo's place, which also happens to be the location of Cereberus Motorcycle Garage. But before I got to any bike stuff which comes later, Matteo and I hopped on our two wheelers and we rolled around town popping our faces into one neighborhood bar after another before we called it quits. I slept like I'd been knocked the heck out. Motionless.
Monday morning I was up with the dawn, and ready to get on some tire changing. Matteo and I drove up north to a small shop where we picked up my brand new tire. A real long distance performer. It felt good to know that I'd get more miles out of this new tire than just doing my usual trying to save some small change. #cheapbastard
When I returned home with the new tire, I rolled Boss back onto some blocks in order to get the bike lift under her short chassy, then (pft-pft-pft-pft) up she went. I started anxiously disassembling the rear end, taking the fender off, on which I would hammer out some major dents the trash truck left me. I then took off part of my rear brake, pulled the axel out and unhooked the sprocket from the belt drive to wiggle the wheel out of its housing and freely into my hands. I put the wheel in the car and drove it to the recommended tire changing spot near by. While there, I ended up running into a long lost friend and we did some catching up, and re-acquainting contact info.
Before long, my tire was ready to go. So I ran home and threw the wheel on. Yep, just threw it on. Easy as that. Well, this called for a test ride. Break in periods are always fun. Nice and easy. Drum roll please....I rolled as far as a whole 2 miles from Matteo's over to Adria and Randy's for an evening of movies and visiting, whilst falling asleep on the visitors mat. And the story comes full circle to this point.
The next morning (cups of water and all) before I rode out, I had wrapped my black zip-up hoodie to my front handlebars as I always do, but this time I couldn't really see the fuel warning light area of my side mounted speedometer thingy. This ultimately meant, that I'd hit the road up the Pacific Coast Highway from San Diego, and didn't realize that my light had been on for quite some time, until I felt some power sputtering, which then I scooted the fabric of my sweatshirt aside and I could see the bright yellow gas light. What I originally thought was something clogging my fuel line, was a classic case of idiot. Alas it was none other than low fuel. And by the time I realized this, and was panicking driving around Encinitas trying to figure out which right turn would take me to a gas station, I ran out of gas...in an intersection...and coasted through while paddling the asphalt to get me just a little further. I found a safe little spot on the side of the main drag in free 2 hour parking spot. Where most people would freak out about now, and think that their lives were ruined, I said, finally a real reason, other than starvation, to pull over for some breakfast. Thus making the most of any situation as I always do, I took this opportunity to locate a diner where I could grab some breakfast, and then I called some roadside assistance to come out and bring me some gas since I didn't exactly feel like hoofing it to a gas station. Instead, I sat and ate a good meal until the personnel came with some fuel, and then I went right back to finishing my meal. It was as easy as that. Like life didn't even skip a beat.
An hour later, and two full bellies, Boss and I finished motoring up the Pacific Coast Highway to LA.
The end.
Monday, June 6, 2011
It's something else, I tell ya.
heartbreak
#plasticsurgeryfund
(perfect time to catch up on some light reading)
knucks
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
