Prepping for Winter

This weekend saw the motorcycle go to storage, the lawnmowers go likewise.  The tiller is put away.  The cool old Royal Scotsman bicycle is stored.  The Maxima is back in the garage where winter can't get at it so easily.
But we still have things to do.  We have not yet fired up the wood stove, and all the firewood is still out behind the garage.  There is still plenty of wood to split.  Work still to do.  Our plan is to bring a significant pile of wood into the three-season porch where we can load up without getting our boots on.
We'll see how things go as the days unfold.  Cold is coming (but not today).

The Busy vs. the Happy

Keep calm.  Think about the now.  Be in the moment.  Carry no baggage.

I'm thinking about the characteristics of happy people, having read a recent blog post on Successify:  http://successify.net/2012/10/31/22-things-happy-people-do-differently/.

I've said yes to so many things that my April, as I face it here on the first, is proving to look like a month-long gauntlet, finishing up as it will with a trip to Toronto to present at the HASTAC Conference, which I am definitely looking forward to.

In the meantime, it's worthwhile to consider how I got here, feeling a bit overwhelmed (and so early in the morning!).

• I'm doing the ACT prep session for high school kids tonight.
• My daughter's 30th birthday is Wednesday.  
• I'm helping some with the DSU play, Xanadu, this week.
• I'm presenting at a conference in Minneapolis on Friday.
• I've got committee duties that I'll have to get caught up on when I get back.  
• The last day to drop a course is Wednesday, so my grades need to be up to date.
• My grandaughter's first birthday is the 13th, with a birthday party in Minneapolis. 
• I'm the advisor for Sigma Tau Delta at DSU, and our spring banquet is on the 18th. 
• I'm doing a reading for a performance with my Indian dancing colleage Shreelina Ghosh on April 20 (Saturday).  (We are practicing today).  
• Shreelina, Stacey Berry, and I are presenting at the HASTAC Conference on the 26th.  
• Last days of classes
• Finals

Plus, there is the day to day.  I have papers to grade.  I have classes to prepare for.  I'd like to finish the back entry.  I'd like to get out my motorcycle.  I'd like to get my OTHER motorcycle working right.  I'd like to have some happy simple days at home.  I'd like to get together with my colleagues and friends.

So, anyway, I'm busy.  But we had a good weekend with my daughter, her man, and their little babe.  And we spent time with the wife's family, something we haven't done a lot of recently.

Meanwhile, I'll try to do the things that happy people do.

Craigslist Warning Light

Who looks at a bike like this and says, "I want it!" ??

I've got a friend who's convinced that I need to buy another motorcycle and fix it up.  I'm not sure he remembers that the last couple have not panned out.  But he seems to be having as much fun searching for me as I sometimes do myself, looking for two-hundred-dollar bikes that need my lovin'.  But I just sold an old 1982 Kawasaki Spectre 750 (see pic) for half what I paid for it after I had worked on it and tried to get it to go.  And a little Vespa moped is sitting in the garage waiting for my magic touch.
So, I told him my Craigslist warning light was on.  Blinking.  Alarms will sound.  I'm not buying another motorcycle after I've put the storm windows on.

Norton Brings a Man to Tears

You gotta love a video that includes motorcycles, thievery, a blizzard, and a happy dad in tears.

Swarm of the Moped Army

Not sure who the Whiskey Business boys and girls are (an offshoot of Moped Army, apparently) , but this video captures the fun of riding a moped. In swarm.

This second video is uploaded by a fellow who looks to be from Sioux Falls, but I don't think there are Marathon gas stations in SF, and I would wonder where so many mopeds were hiding.

For the Love of Mopeds

It's amazing the work some people go to for others. My Kawasaki Concours depends in part on the good work of the generous people who belong to the Concours Owners Group, or COG. They post tips, answer questions, and tell their stories, harrowing and otherwise. It's one of the wonders of the internet, the way the Concours riders all over the world can share information.

This kind of effort allows someone like me, out here in the boondocks, to take on a non-running Motobecane Mobylette and get it back on the road, manual courtesy of the Moped Riders Association. Help came also from the Moped Army (their slogan? "Swarm and Destroy"). Pretty cool. Thanks to all of you who take the time to scan manuals, offer specs, trade tips, and answer questions. You rock!

Ratbikes Galore

I appreciate simplicity. Complex systems have more opportunities to crash than simple ones, and you might think that an evening of battling internal combustion engines might deter me in appreciating that four-stroke invention, it's interesting to see how ingenious folks have simplified what were once much more complex motorcycles. Hail to the Rat Bike.

Kawasaki Back on the Asphalti

Last summer brother Jess and I rode our bikes out to Idaho and back again, quite a journey for a guy who used to rarely put 1000 miles total on a bike before I sent it down the road (some of them rarely ran). But that trip saw a little spill up in the mountains in northern Wyoming, and my Concours took a beating from that, just not enough to stop the trip. So I gathered parts and planned over the winter to get it all back together, but that didn't happen. Spring came, and the bike still was not fully assembled. Then roofing came. Then a bad foot. But over the past few days I took some time and finished the painting and got the bike all back together. Here's a pic just after I've cleaned off the accumulated dust and readied the bike for its first ride in almost a year. It's working good!