Absentee again

Yup, I've been MIA again.  Not much going on to report so no need in boring you with senseless ramblings.

I'm still working on a new tat design for my leg and have some ideas which I think will work, it's just a matter of making the time to draw something together that I can bring to Jerry and discuss with him.

Bike project; Stu (build guy) explained the sheer volume of headaches that our lovely state of Mass has in place for do-it-yourselfers who want to build a bike.  In an effort to combat building with stolen components, it would take me an untold number of trips to the DMV, to meet with State Police and review every single receipt for every single component I was using.  And when I say 'receipt', I don't mean something hand-written, or simply printed out from a catalog, or even my own receipt for buying something.  I would need the source receipts from whoever supplied me with components.  For example; if I bought a set of handlebars from my good buddy Jon Cook, I'd need him to supply me with a copy of his receipt, from the maker, showing that he'd ordered and received them, and then sold them to me.  I would have to satisfy this for everything that was going on my bike.

Thus, my plan has morphed once again.  Now I'm just looking for something that's already built and titled, and which I can then bring down to what I want it to be.

So if you happen to come across a rigid with a shovelhead engine in it, please let me know.

Thanks, have a great day.

Bike Project and Tattoo Defect

Winter has decided to stick around for a while longer.  Yup; those record setting warm temps we had a couple weeks ago are nothing more than a fond memory at this point.  We had snow yesterday/last night - only a few inches, but ya see...there's this thing called a Nor'Easter that looks like it's going to hit us on Tuesday into Wednesday and is bringing a whole ton of white fun with it.  Good times, good times.

So what's a guy to do when he's going stir crazy inside?  He sets his mind to dreaming of things like his long-overdue bike build project, and also on a new tattoo piece.

First; the bike.  I pulled the trigger and am meeting with Stu (The Harley Healer) this morning to get a plan moving.  I've got all kinds of components picked out (frame, engine, transmission, oil bag, rims, primary, etc.), and will discuss other things like wiring, hand controls, oil/brake lines, etc. with Stu.  I want this to be an experience where I learn the process instead of him just doing the work so we'll see what kind of schedule we can line up.

Secondly; the tat.  After getting the last one, the ink itch was renewed and I've been thinking of what to get to fill in the rest of my lower leg with to make it a complete half-sleeve.  I wanted to tie something in with the Elric image, and a dragon seemed the obvious way to go.  I've been looking fro cool dragon drawing ideas for a couple months now, and had found one that was amazing;

I loved the snarling face, the back ridges, the sweeping cloak-like wings...it was perfect!  Just needed a little modification to it's positioning to make it fit the space I had, and we'd be in business.  I had an appt with my tat guy this morning to get some appointments put into place.

And then yesterday morning, I was fiddling around a little more, gonna print some close-ups of the face and the feet so the detail wouldn't get lost in the transition from paper to skin.

I'd found the image once, and had copied it to my PC, and had been working off of that.  But to get some close-ups, I wanted to go back to the original image, so back to the interwebs I went.  It took me a while but I finally found it.  This time, instead of doing a screen grab, I pulled up the actual photo.

And that's when I saw it...

Down in the lower corner was a title/tag.  What the...??!?!?

Back to the interwebs...I need to see if this is true....

Dammit...it WAS true.  This tattoo...the one that had the length to fit what I needed, had the perfect look...was from a movie.

What movie?

*Sigh*..."Girl With The Dragon Tattoo".

Son of a bitch.  :-(

I obviously couldn't get this for my tattoo now, so it was a mad scramble back to the interwebs to try and find a suitable replacement.  The clock was ticking - my discussion appointment was in 24 hours!  I looked, searched, hunted the corners of the interwebs, but found nothing that both fit what I needed and which caught my eye.  I had no choice.  I let my tat guy know what had happened and that I needed to postpone. (If he was laughing, he didn't let on.)

So the search continues.  I still love many aspects about that image so I may wind up using it as the template and changing some aspects to make it more "mine", but I don't know how well that will go.  I'm not an artist by any means.  Hell, stick figures give me a hard time.

So one project is moving forward, the other is on temporary hold.  Better than nothing.

Ride Hard, Take Chances

A Misfire Of A Different Kind

The indoor range I've been renting guns at has placed itself officially on my no-fly list.  I've been going there for weeks, either on Saturday or Sunday mornings.  Normally it was me and someone else but last week, nobody else was available so I went by myself.  I was eager to try out the S&W 9mm, as I haven't shot that one yet.

I went through the normal process, checked in with my ID, then said I was going to be renting again.  The guy asked if I had any of my own guns with me.  (I'd planned on bringing my shotgun with me but at the very last second, had opted not to, so I didn't have any of my own with me.)  He says no dice; if I come in alone, I need to bring in a gun of my own in order to rent one.  I said Ok, no problem - I thought once someone's been coming for a while, it'd be ok to come in an rent on my own?  No, he says; you have to have a gun of your own, with you.  Ok, sounds good, I'll try again next week and bring my gun with me.

Fast forward to this morning.  I was excited once again to go try the S&W, and I made sure to bring my shotgun with me.

I get in, hand over my ID, tell the guy (different guy)  I want to shoot shotgun, as well as a rented handgun.  No problem, the guy starts to reach for a lane card...

...then the douche from last week (working a different register) calls over and says a shotgun won't cut it, that I need to bring in a handgun.

Huh?

That's not what you told me last week, I said.  Last week you said I needed to bring my own gun - here's my own gun (lifting my gun case to show him).  Nope, he says, it's gotta be a handgun.

WTF.  Last week's wasted trip was my fault, but this week it felt like the prick was just making up rules on the fly.   So, I won't bother going there again.  I'm sure they won't care, or miss me, but at the same time, that's about $75 a week (range time + ammo)  that I'll find some other place to spend it at.

So feel free to spread the word.  American Firearms School in North Attelboro.  They can kiss my ass.

The Interwebs Have Arrived!

I broke down and signed up for home interweb access. Yep; I'm slowly catching up to things.....that have been available for years.

The biggest reason for dragging my feet was the cost.  I could afford it, but why would I?  I had my phone so if I absolutely had to look something up, I could.  But if I needed to research anything, I could do it from here at work...er...I mean...after hours.  Yeah; after hours.

Recently, though, my cable provider informed me that they were running a special; $19.99 a month, locked in for two years.  Huh.  Well that doesn't sound bad at all - let's do this!

So I signed up, took the equipment home, and readied myself to be connected.  But the connection wouldn't happen.  I followed all the steps outlined in the documentation (and in the on-line videos which I was able to see thanks to my phone), but no luck.

A quick call to the service dept was answered almost immediatley (nice!) and I was speaking with a wonderful person who checked things out for me.  Turns out there were two problems; the first was that I'd missed a step when I was activating my modem/router (there was no mention of this in the videos or documentation). Second; there were some settings on their end which had to be corrected.  I asked if that was somehing I should have seen or fixed and she said no, I wouldn't have had access to them.  So it was a fault-fault, I guess.

And ta-da!  Success!  I was connected, Wi-Fi and everything!

While she was on the phone, she asked what I would like to change my network name to (they give you a generic, alphanumeric one to begin with).  Hmmm...what to call my network.  Then it came to me...

I said "Let's call it 'tavern'".

"'Tavern?' she asked."

Yep; tavern.  Because that's what my friends think my house is.

So there you have it.  I know have internet access...at my tavern.

Come on by for a beer and a byte.

Get it?

I Built My Dream Bike Last Night

Yep, I had a very productive night last night...apparently.

In my sleep, I assembled what I guess my subconsious mind feels is the ulitmate bike for me.  Then I took that bike on many runs and even up to Labor Day in Maine.  Everyone was loving the bike and I was so psyched that I'd finally accomplished my goal!

So what did this amazing bike look like?

First, start with a Panhead frame (straight-leg, please)...

Then add on an FLH front end and some tires (I'd opt for solid rims, but Google Images isn't cooperating)...

Toss in the shovelhead engine...

Then...well...then I guess cut the rear third off, so the ass end is riding on the frame, immediately behind the seat...

Yep, this was basically it....well, with solid rims, and painted rattle-can black.

How did the rear end roll along?  I dunno, in my dream I was always facing forward.  Maybe it had little caster wheels or something.  Or maybe it had Big Wheels on the back - that would explain some of the slide outs I was doing.

See?  When I said "dream bike" in the post's title, I wasn't kidding, because I was most definitely asleep when my brain came up with this thing...

Good thing I wrote all this down.  I'm going to need to refer back to it when I get the build plan moving.

Wish me luck...

Jersey City!

My freind Chrissy and I headed down to Jersey to hang with Mike for the weekend.   We made good time on the ride down, grabbed Mike and headed off to the adventure that awaited us.

We had reservations through a condominium suite that Mike had found through Expedia.  Long story short; the owners of the condo placed a $200 hold on his credit card (not a charge, just a 'hold') and then never answered the phone when he tried contacting them that night so that we could check in.  Super fishy, and Expedia was ZERO help for us, even though it had gotten to almost 8pm and we still had no place to stay, so keep that in mind if you're ever thinking about using them for vacation or travel plans..

We managed to find a hotel (Hyatt Regency on the Hudson) and it wound up being awesome so in thge long run, it worked out ok.

It was on to the bars!  We didn't venture too far Friday night, but did make some serious rounds on Saturday.  What a fun and very friendly city, I was truly impressed.  Sunday, we took the train over to NYC/Times Square and checked out some sights and many more bars.  Personally, I found NYC to somewhat friendlier than I'd expected but no where near as fun as Jersey City was.

Anyway, the long and short of it was we had a great time and had a ton of laughs.  The ride home yesterday seemed about twice as long as the ride down had been but I'm sure that's because it was the end of the mini-vaca.

Anyway - on to the pics!

This bathroom had a stall door which slid on rollers like an old barn door.  I thought it was pretty cool and was fortunate in that there wasn't anyone using the stall as I stood there rolling the door back and forth.

Sunset on NYC, across the Hudson...

 

This looks like a mistake, but apparently it was designed that way on purpose.  Oh those crazy architects...

 

Night view from the hotel room, once we finally got checked in.

 

The cool thing here is that these lamps all cast white light, to the naked eye.  But after taking several photos with my camera, they all came out looking green.

 

Looking across at NYC...

 

Another pic of the wacky building, this time; in the daylight...

 

This is the Katyn Memorial, in memory of the thousands of Polish who, while fighting the Germans in WWII, were attacked from behind by Russia. 

 

This plaque was added to the base of the memorial, after 9/11.

 

This was the Iron Monkey bar, and it has a metal statue of a monkey, apparently getting his buzz on.
How do I know it's a "him"?  If you click on the pic and zoom in, you'll see it's anatomically correct...

 

Ginormous clock on the shores of the Hudson.  This thing faces NYC, and I guess is for anyone on that side of the river that doesn't have a watch...or a cell phone to tell the time...

 

A 9-11 memorial on the bank of the Hudson, utilizing steel beams from one of the towers.

 

This is also part of the memorial.  This entire thing is made out of steel.  Even the parts that look like paper (letters), duct tape (holding the paper), flowers, etc.  It's all formed and shaped steel.  Very impressive...

 

I liked this building - it was in a section of Jersey City where the roads are blocked off (semi-permanently) and shops and bars have outdoor seating, tables, etc.
This building was very narrow, coming to almost a point, and had a small patio on the second floor.  I picture this being the place to party on warm summer nights!

 

 

Outside a massive church was a miniature sculpture of the church itself, in amazing detail.  On the top of the church, someone had placed a keychain style skeleton.  I think this was more of a "ward against evil" than anything malignant.

 

Along the streets were a ton of metal brackets for folks to chain their bicycles to.  This one instance, though, it appears the city had said "F you" to the lock (it's just a lock and a frame - everything else is gone.

Some of the local street art in the area where the road was closed off and the shops had tables and such outside.

Yep; that wacky building again...

Whoops - it's upside down, but this was the beer list at my favorite place; HopsScotch (two "s's" in that name).  It was about 70% stouts and porters.  My kind of place!

Back outside in the open air marketplace area...

Never heard of this before but apparently there's a chain of them.  All the old 80's and 90's arcade games, and drinks!

The bathrooms are apparently welcome spots for graffiti tagging.  it was on the ceiling, the floor, the mirror, the door...almost any surface.  (It seems the toilet itself is hallowed ground, as it was untouched.)

Back outside.  The area was much busier than it appears to be in this pic.

Back at HopsScotch; jenga tower.  We had it so high, we were doubling up chairs to stand on, and it almost hit the ceiling.  (We had bartenders and patrons cheering us on to see how high we could go - and man, when it went over, it was loud!!!)

A daytime shot between some buildings, looking across at the Freedom Tower.
It almost looks CGI, but this is a real pic.

Lomg set of marble stairs heading back to street level at one of the bars.

A condom for Lynner!

How could we refuse to patronize a place with this name?

Flight sample inside the Bier Garten!

1 liter of your dark, please (placed against the sample, for size comparison).

Sitting outside one bar, and planning our next foray across the street...

I guess this is in case the three stooges all go to the bathroom at the same time...

Monday morning came all too soon.  A couple of last shots across the Hudson

Int eh distant background; the Brooklyn Bridge...

 

And there you have it; Jersey City.

Next up...well...I'm not sure what's up next, but with the weather looking like it's getting better and warmer, I might actually be able to get a motorcycle post up here soon...

Ciao for now...

Going to the Dogs

Installing the new dogs into the agitator was beyond easy.  The disturbing part, though, was seeing all the film that's developed over the years from all the loads of laundry being done.  But I'm getting ahead of myself so let's back up and proceed through the pics.

First up; here's the agitator with the top section pulled off (it just snaps on, and lifts off easily).  Inside, you can see the top of the cam assembly.

Here's a closeup.  Man, look at that nasty gunk buildup!  (You can see just the tips of the dogs; they're the brown things sticking out from the cam and (trying to) grab the teeth on the outer wall.)

A 7/16 socket with an extension, and the bolt comes out easily.

Lifting the whole agitator out, simply stand on the base and gently pull to lift up the middle section.  There's a round ratainer/gasket which sits between the sections, and drops out when you separate them, and the cam assembly just lifts right out of the top part.

Lift off the black plastic retainer on the cam (I thought it was snap-locked in place but it wasn't.  Just had to pry it up and then lift off.)..

Here's the new dogs compared to the old ones.  There doesn't look like a lot of difference but trust me; this was the problem.

I decided to clean things up before putting everything back together.  A sink full of bleach and scalding hot water, a bit of elbow grease, and things were showroom shiny!  (The agitator base isn't in the pic, but it got the same thorough scrubbing as the rest of the components did.)

Reassembly was easy - just had to make sure to line up some slots on the cam body with the matching splines on the bottom section of the agitator, and voila!  The new dogs grab the agitator wall perfectly - I'm back in business!

Guess this means I should start catching up on laundry now...