Excuse Him

 Another rescue mission to bring gas to this silly old guy who forgot to fill up at home.  Doh!  Makes for adventure, but that gas can is heavy when it's got gas in it.  Actually, when I drive it to a gas station the attendant will generally put it back in the car for me.  I hope he's fixed the mufflers, which slipped off the pipes a bit.   He only noticed the problem when he came into town and an old lady at the corner shook her cane and yelled at him.  (He wears ear plugs under his helmet.) Her ire inspired him to check out his mufflers and that's when he noticed the gap.  He's written notes to himself to fix the exhaust, but I am ill informed. He plays deaf when I ask. It's a nice bike from 1942.  There was one of these from 1935 at the vintage motorcycle show last weekend, and it still had the original paint bravely clinging to the tank and fenders.  It won 1st place in the American category.  There was a rod connecting the shift hand lever to a foot lever, giving the rider options.  Wish I'd had my camera!  

 Oh, joy.  This will let me post a photo.  This is one of my favorites, taken by the happy elf in the corner.  It's the trombone section of the Community Band at our holiday concert in December.  Getting to play with people is the most fun I get, and three of these, plus an unpictured tuba also play in our trombone quartet.  Yes, that's five people, but we play quartet music, and the tuba player plays her bass trombone.

It's been raining all year (2023) but because there was such a drought, rain is welcome.  

I just ordered a Classic Motorcycles calendar, which is a month late, but if late is better than never, it's about time.  When I go to lunch with my friends, more and more we discuss how we're all falling apart.  We talk about what books are worth reading, but also how readable the font size is.  We all like the Large Print Editions.  

Now that you know everything, I'll go away again.

Spring Bulbs Bloom

 I'd post a photo of spring bulbs blooming with ducks sleeping, but there's been a change and it's over my head.  Ukraine war is on the news, so I guess I'll go watch what's going on.

More Action on Home Front

                                                  

I dug this old poster from the 60s out of the closet.  I asked the daughter if she wanted it, but she politely said nothing.  I don't think she even knows who all the bands are.  When I was a kid my dad drove us down to San Francisco every spring break to visit his mom who had a cafe there named Lucky Strick's.  There is no reference to it in the poster.


As usual I don't really know what I'm talking about, but I was very sad when my knee replacement surgery scheduled for last Thursday was cancelled.  But wait!  It's rescheduled for Oct 18, and I get another month to practice doing all those exercises that come with new knees.  Soon I must be off to the gym.

This summer our daughter bought a house.  Hooray!  So we were off seeing their house on a stormy windy day, and when we came home, this is what we found at our house.  Poor tree was half dead and black inside, and is all gone now.  We planted that tree, and chose it for it's shape and size, which was perfect for shading the deck on hot sunny summer days.  I have noticed as I age that hot sunny days are really pretty nice, and maybe it's OK not to have shade for the deck.

Sunny Weather

 Nice warm sunny bench at the Rose Garden.  No pork pie and tea, though.  The plumber is here and is installing a toilet and faucets.  That's it from here!

One Thing and Another

 Here's what our front yard looks like right now, except that trailer is a lot fuller.  The young carpenter who's been doing most of the work is waiting for the inspector, who didn't show up, so he's gone off to another job and will check back.  The carpenter is a very impressive worker, and reminds me of HH when he was fixing other people's vehicles, all go go go, and a good job, too.  Here's another photo:

That's our bathroom, with no working parts, except a light.  The door is now in that trailer in the front yard.  We have to make do with the laundry room.  At least we have electricity and water.  A lot of friends and relatives, not to mention strangers in our state have been weeks without electricity.  Most of them have generators so they can get water to their animals, because most of them have animals, which is why they live in outlying areas slow to have their power restored after storms knock down trees and knock out power, and they need power to bring water up from the wells.  We are really lucky to have the luxury of water and light.  

This bathroom destruction is in aid of my continuing deterioration, but I am planning to eventually get a new fake knee, and do better with it than my mother-in-law did.  I'm thinking maybe a year from now would be a good time, but meanwhile, my friends have advised me there are preparatory exercises I can do.  

On another track, here's HH displaying his new sash, a HD wheel rim he carried back from his supplier's on a very cold day back in January.  He popped in to show it off.  It took him a while to lace the spokes,  and he he'd to redo it, until it was right.  Then what did he do?  He fixed some oil leak.  Had to take the transmission apart to replace a seal.  Now everything is perfect and he's never experienced such perfection.  Every time he rides his 1942 45-inch Harley, he exclaims about how perfect and never better it is.

What In the World?

 Just hanging around minding our own business, because we're supposed to stay home and keep our germs, if we have any, to ourselves.  We don't seem to have any germs, but I got a shot of cortisone in my knee last week, and they gave me drugs that I don't like, and some I do.  Meanwhile, outside, the wind picked up and smoke from fires burning all over Oregon blew in.

This is odd.  The angle or something makes our yard look huge, but it's not.  

Last month, we had a nice drive in the funny little Minx.

What beautiful blue skies we had this summer.

We stopped at the Country Store for refreshing beverages.

                                              The two cars below are my favorites in the group.

We wore masks and stayed away from each other, and had an almost normal visit.