Author: dale

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Saw an interesting wreck tonight.

Lisa & I were out in front of our hotel in Charlotte while I was cleaning up the poor, abused, filthy Ultra. We saw some twit trying to figure out how to do a wheelie in the street out front. About 10 minutes later, there’s a big noise from the parking lot of the TGI Friday’s next door, engine screaming followed by the sight of something on the far end of the parking lot rocketing along and slamming into something. Hard. Lisa and I went to see what happened, since we’re both over 40 and first aid trained.

The poor bastard had somehow managed to low-side across the parking lot Continue reading “Saw an interesting wreck tonight.”

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Devil May Care

Devil May Care is the latest attempt at a James Bond novel. Ian Fleming died in 1964, and so far no one has been able to successfully resurrect either him or his writing style. Sadly, the latest attempt by Sebastian Faulks is no exception. It’s a good book, and a decent Bond, but Faulks is no Fleming no matter how hard he may try.

In fact, trying too hard seems to be why this effort falls a little short of the mark. One of the most common (and most aggravating) mistakes
I’ve seen made in the newer attempts has been a lack of subtlety. Yes, Fleming would mention Bond’s choice of specific brands from time to time, but didn’t club you over the head with them. Faulks seems at times to be name-dropping in an attempt to get the reader to more closely identify with the “old” Bond. Many references are made to earlier Bond novels, and character names are dredged up in ways that seem to be a little overkill.

Then there is the story itself. Because we’re in the present decade, naturally it has to be set in the Middle East, with short stints in 1960s London. Faulks works in numerous historical references to Vietnam, 60s drug culture and other foreshadowing elements, but it feels a little hollow at times. The whole Scarlet/Poppy thing is more than a little transparent as well, and I find it difficult to imagine M would have ever even considered a female Double-0 during that or the following decade to begin with.

All in all I enjoyed the read, but as a Bond novel it’s not all that close to Fleming’s quality of work. Having the whole “writing as Ian Fleming” thing, I think, does this book as well as Fleming’s memory a disservice.

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Dixie Road Trip, day 1

Well, it was a long day but not too bad, all things considered. We left a little late (surprise!), got rained on a little, had to suit up and get rained on a LOT, pulled off and got hailed on while taking shelter in the doorway of a church, and spent the last couple of hours trying to outrun a storm. All’s well that ends well. We spent almost exactly 12 hours Continue reading “Dixie Road Trip, day 1”

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Road trip!

Omaha, NE to Charlotte, NC. 3 days, 1180 miles, and a side trip to Charleston, SC. I think I’ll probably be adding GPS to the bike before we leave, mostly to get the trip computer functions. Part of it is laziness. We used to run SCCA road rallies, so we got pretty good at TSD (Time/Speed/Distance) calculations. In fact, I still have an 80s vintage Casio programmable calculator we used to to TSD calculations on the fly when running in the assisted class. Still, while that’s pretty easy to do with a navigator in a car, it’s not terribly practical on a bike. It would be nice to see our average speed and ETA as we ride, so we know for sure whether we need to speed up or can keep a more leisurely pace. Besides, it’s good for finding one’s way back to the planned route, just in case.I’m excited to make the trip.
The ride across Missouri isn’t much to brag about, but we’ll be going through what I have been told is some incredible scenery, especially once we get across the Mississippi. We’ll cross our first mountains and get to see the western part of the Carolinas. Once we hit Charlotte I’m really looking forward to doing a little sightseeing, exploring the area with Lisa, etc. I know the trip from Charlotte to Charleston is a pretty nice ride, as I’ve made that a couple of times. Anti Monkey Butt
I even ordered a little powder… 🙂 Now to get the rest of the preparation work done! The oil has been changed, I’ll probably replace the tranny & primary fluids as well. The rest of the bike is in fine shape and ready for the road.
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One partial solution for airline security

I have an idea that I think would greatly improve the safety and security of air travel. Why not deputize a large number of ordinary, non-professional law enforcement people who travel regularly as auxiliary Air Marshals? Take people who fly regularly and shoot regularly, can demonstrate superb accuracy with a handgun under realistic conditions, can pass a training course and qualify. Give them the training they need to handle hijacking and terrorism situations in the air — make sound shoot/no-shoot decisions, when to engage and when to shut up and sit still, that sort of thing. Allow them to fly armed with concealed weapons and special ID. Now you have a significant possibility that any given flight, especially those on heavily traveled routes, will have at least one trained, armed person aboard who is able and willing to prevent a hijacking or terror attack. Continue reading “One partial solution for airline security”

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It’s officially Spring

I went out this morning to check the fruit trees in the back yard, as I try to do every couple of days.  We have hundreds of tiny little apricots starting to form!  Right now they’re about half the size of a healthy grape, oblong and green…   but it looks like we’ll have a bumper crop of apricots this year.

The apple tree is in full bloom, and should be following along in a few weeks!

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Dickie’s Bar-B-Q

There’s not a whole lot of BBQ joints in west Omaha these days…  oh, who am I kidding?  You can’t toss a dead cat without bouncing it off a sign with some variation of flames and pig.  Anyway, Lisa & I ate here one night a few weeks ago.  The food wasn’t bad at all.  They even have passably good fried okra, which seems to be in short supply this far north.  Hmmm, maybe I should plant some in the back yard, I’m sure THAT would thrill the neighbors.  Anyway, aside from the country music playing (mercifully not too loud) the place wasn’t bad.  Pretty pricey, though.  If you find their food irresistible, you’ll go back.  We may or may not — it’s a tad above average in food quality, but a few points higher in price than I’d like to see.  Apparently the rent is pretty high, or they figure they’re in the high rent neighborhood.

Ask Ted Turner how that worked out for him.

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The Sy-Max 2 Redux

Well, after a number of delays and false starts, we now have a pair of very nice looking, pearl white Sy-Max 2 helmets with J&M headsets installed.

I ended up having to do some serious but not overly complicated surgery to get the headsets installed.  The Sy-Max 2 has expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam between the side of the fiberglass shell and the cushioned cheek pads.  This reduces the depth of the cheek pads, meaning  if you just drop the speakers into the cheek pad cavities like you’d normally think, they’ll crush your ears.  I had to remove the cheek pads, then remove the EPS side pads – fortunately, they are separate pieces that snap in and are secured with one screw on each side.  Some X-Acto knife work made some nice cavities for the speakers.  The mic boom exits between the front edge of the side module and the shell.  All in all, they fit great and sound even better.

Lisa has plenty of room between her face and the chin bar, but mine was right up against my chin.  Pretty annoying, and a non-starter for longer rides for sure.  I knew I had to do something about that, and toyed with the idea of warming the chin bar to give it a little more pointed shape.  Tonight I found I could remove the plastic inner shield behind the vent and latch; there’s a chunk of EPS about 3/4″ or so thick behind that.  With the shield completely removed, I have plenty of room but the vent won’t do much good to keep the shield from fogging.  I ended up trimming it to about 2/3 its original thigkness and re-installing it without the foam block.  I may do some further modification, but as I type this I’m wearing the helmet and it’s not bad.  It’s still contacting my chin, but I think I’ll let it break in before doing any more chopping.

All in all, they look great, feel great, and I find there seems to be a lot less wind noise – as I had hoped all along.  I’d like to keep the intercom VOX from tripping in crosswinds and when passing semi trailers; we’ll see how it all shakes out this season.  Hopefully between the new helmets and the new headsets, it will be a little more comfortable on the road.