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This last weekend was a decent one. Gina, Julia, and I visited both sets of parents, and Julia got to have the Easter Bunny visit three times.

Dad asked me to bring some body filler for the truck, so I stopped by the paint shop. I paid with a credit card, but they ran out of paper in the credit card machine and the counterperson didn’t know how to reload it, so I left with just the store receipt and a request from them to call them on Monday to see if it went through. Pretty trusting, I think, but they know I’ll be back in there. Besides, it did go through so there wasn’t any real concern.

Dad and I worked on his bike this weekend. We took the swingarm shaft out of his bike to see if that may be a source of vibration. The rubber mounts look worn but that may or may not be a problem. I’m going to talk to the H-D guys this week to get part numbers for the compensating sproket and the rubber mounts on the swingarm. I sort-of suspect the compensating sproket spring as the source of his harmonic vibration but I can’t prove it. We didn’t do much to my truck, but Dad’s been busy on it on his own — the body panels are glued back on, and we’re doing finish bodywork preparing for paint.

Julia got to have an Easter egg hunt at my parents house, which she liked. Mom was thoughtful about the whole thing and filled the eggs with crackers and stuff instead of sugary candy. Julia liked it and I was happy that she wasn’t loaded up on sugar.

We visited Gina’s parents, and had another egg hunt. These eggs had candy in them; apparently Julia’s not a big fan of jellybeans, though she did like the chocolate…

I finally got my bike assembled. I’m not 100% happy with how I routed the turn signal wiring but it will do for now. I rode it today — just to work and back, not many miles. That’s okay — I’d love to ride more, but I’ll take what I can get.

A friend at work mentioned the movie Snakes on a Plane and that they were having a contest to write a theme song. I didn’t get to submit mine in time, but it practically wrote itself:

Snakes on a Plane

Snakes on a Plane

Snakes on a Plane

AAAAHHHH!!!

For some pretty fun reading (NOT safe for work!) try

http://www.snakesonablog.com/

We have a Christmas wreath on our front door. Gina put it there this past winter and it has been there ever since. Yeah, we need to remove it and I don’t have any excuses for not removing it.

Until now.

Gina came home yesterday afternoon and noticed something:

See anything in the middle? Maybe a closeup will help:

Yup, it’s being used. I opened the front door last night to take out the trash and saw a bird fly off! Well, we can’t move it now, eh?

This was a mixed-review weekend. We were going to visit my parents and wish Dad a happy birthday, but unfortunately Mom was sick so we didn’t go. At least I got to spend Sunday afternoon wrenching in the garage.

After changing the oil in the Cavalier and the Bravada, and rotating the tires on the Cavalier, I started on my bike again. I think I have a strategy for running the taillight wiring (for now), so I need to pick up some wire and quick-connectors and finish that job. It’s still too cold to ride, so I’m not in a great hurry. After that, and a tuneup, the bike’s ready to ride for the season. I can’t wait! I still need to work out saddlebag mounts; Walt on the XL-List sent some amazing pictures of his saddlebag mounts, and they’ve given me some ideas.

Recently I ordered some parts from Summit Racing, including carpet for the Blazer. It came today. I had just come home from work when the doorbell rang. I thought it might be Gina having trouble opening the door, so I answered it. It was the UPS man delivering the carpet. I think I surprised him by being home! I have a feeling they’d just as soon never see people at home when they make deliveries. I can see their driver recruitment ad now — “UPS seeking delivery drivers, Ninjas preferred”.

Today I got to go out in the garage and wrench on my bike. I bought a few things for it recently and I finally got the chance to install the stuff.

I bought highway pegs for it from Harley. They’re just the mounts, not the pegs themselves, so I used the rear pegs for the front highway pegs. I have a solo seat and never carry a passenger so it seemed like a reasonable choice. They went on without any real problems and I think they’ll be comfortable on a long ride.

I also put on a new derby cover. It’s pretty simple — ‘Harley Davidson Motor Co.” written in black block letters on chrome, but it looks better than the stock cover and it was pretty cheap.

The real piece of eye candy has to be the layback license plate frame from H-D. I put it on and it’s really nice! It really cleans up the rear fender — the license plate no longer sticks straight up, but rather more closely follows the curve of the fender. It’s one of those things that makes you wonder why H-D didn’t do it like that from the factory…

The only downside to the evening’s wrenching is that I scratched my rear muffler taking the rear footpeg mounts off of the swingarm. The wrench slipped. I knew it could happen because I looked at it and thought, “That could scratch my muffler” but didn’t do anything about it. Shoulda listened to myself…

In non-motorcycle news, I had tires put on the Bravada. I had checked with TireRack on the tires I wanted (Bridgestone Dueler H/L Alenza in 235/70-15, the stock size) and having a local installer do the work would be a total of a bit over $600. I called Ken Towery right down the road from work (they put the tires on the Blazer) and they quoted me $111 each installed. I jumped at it. The total, with taxes and Road Hazard, was $533, which is $67 less than my estimate. Very nice! They certainly ride better than the Mastercraft tires that were on it.

I also finally ordered some stuff from Summit. I bought Taylor plug wires for the Bravada. It has a bit of roughness in Drive at idle, which I think is telling me it wants a tune-up. It still has the original wires on it, so I’m thinking the new wires may help bring the fuel economy up some (it’s lower than the EPA thinks it should be) by helping getting it back in tune. I need to do the rest of the stuff, too — plugs, PCV valve (and hose, which I think may be causing it to buzz at idle), and fuel filter.

I also bought a few things for the Blazer. I bought a full set of carpet for it, as well as Edelbrock headers with their ceramic coating. I really like the ones on my truck, and hope these are as nice on the Blazer. I also bought a Hurst shifter for the truck. I don’t need it — the shifter on the truck is decent — but I’ve always wanted one, and I think it will help make shifting a bit more fun. Shortening the shifter in my Z24 certainly helped.

Gina, Julia, and I spent the weekend with each others in-laws. We visited my parents for a while, and I was able to work with Dad on his bike. He has had a bit of an ordeal with getting new exhaust pipes for his bike, but he finally settled on Vance and Hines Straight Shots. Although he was somewhat nervous about this choice, once we put them on the bike, he was very pleased with the results. I can see why — they’re really nice! They are staggered straight pipes and they look great on the bike. My first preference was for the pipes to end at the same place (i.e. the end of the pipes line up) but after seeing the staggered pipes, I think they’re the better choice for his bike.

We also visited Gina’s parents for her Dad’s birthday, and I got to meet Hank, their new pug. He’s a friendly scamp, and he got along famously with Julia. It’s got to be hard being a small dog around a 2 year old, but he didn’t act out once. I played with him a lot, and Gina kept saying he was going to try to go home with us, but I think he’s got the right owners.

Julia and I were out in the back yard, and I noticed a bunch of patches of bare dirt that looked like it had been raked — the dirt on top was loose. I also noticed some clumping on the grass; I hope most of that is just where parts of the grass are still dormant. Unfortunately Scott’s put pre-emergent treatment on the grass so seeing those areas will likely be almost impossible. Hmmm…

I’m still trying to figure out what to do with the truck, Blazer, and the bike. My truck is in a bit of limbo — I don’t get to work on it as much as I’d like because it’s 90 miles away from my hose, and I’m currently not in the best physical shape to be working on it anyway. I think I like the 2006 Corvette Monterey Red for it, but I need to see it in person first. I’d really like to get it back together. I miss driving it!
I also have been trying to decide what to get for either the truck or the Blazer. I had decided to buy a new exhaust system for my bike, but that fell through due to price and availability problems. So, I started thinking about getting something for either the truck or the Blazer instead. My first thought was E-code headlamps; while I don’t have enough cash to get a set for both, I could get a set for one and try them out. The big deal there is the new headlamp wiring and relays — the stock headlamp wiring is terrible! and may explain why my truck has ALWAYS been a black hole that cannot be filled with enough headlamps.

Unfortunately (there’s that word again) the provider I’ve known about for Years (literally, I was in college when I first ran across this cat) — Daniel Stern — is difficult to contact. His email seems to be a black hole, and his voicemail phone number works but doesn’t seem too useful. I may try faxing a Request For Quotation and see where that gets me.

Why is it that it seems like every time I want to give someone money, they don’t want it? There have been a Bunch of times where I finally decided to buy something only for it to no longer be available. Yuk!

So, assuming that falls through, I was considering either replacing the exhaust on the Blazer, or perhaps getting a Hurst shifter for the truck. The Blazer doesn’t need an exhaust yet, but judging by the looks of it, it will last maybe another year or two at most. The truck doesn’t need a shifter (the stock one is fine, and feels okay, but is pretty long) but I’ve always wanted one for it. The Blazer could use a shifter more — getting rid of the column — but the aftermarket ones are pretty, um, boy-racer and I’m a bit old for that (and the Blazer isn’t really
enough of a hotrod for a fancy shifter!).

Then again, I could use that money for carpet for the Blazer, which it really needs. Actually, I could afford both carpet for the Blazer and a shifter for the truck, which is sounding really appealing… If I don’t get a response on the E-code headlamps that may be the route I go. Or not. I may end up dumping some of that into the truck’s interior since it too needs carpet, and a headliner. I may have enough in the paint budget to buy that, though.

Then too, I need to fix some vinyl siding on the house that got damaged by wind…

I still need to get the fender struts and turn signal wiring worked out on my bike. I have the turn signals off to try to route the wiring better, but I’m not happy with anything I have done yet. I also have two 1/2″ or so holes in the fender struts where a bolt used to be (which is vacant now that I’ve relocated the turn signals back on the struts) so I need to figure out a way to fill that, too, that doesn’t look Really Bad.

Hi there!

I’ve decided to finally start a blog. I’ve kicked this idea around a ton in the past, but having limited webspace made it difficult. I didn’t want a blog hosted on some other site — I wanted it on my own server — so I put it off. My new web host has blogging services, so here we are.