Saturday, all of us are riding to visit the campus of Campbell University which lies halfway between Raleigh and Fayetteville, NC. Graham will be going there in the fall. In an act of gross negligence and disobedience he "forgot " to tell me a  check engine light came on in his Toyota Highlander and his rear brakes started squeaking.  I'll forgive him because he is a young dumbass. I'm not sure the round trip distance but I'm sure it will be enough to make a relatively inexpensive brake pad change into an expensive pads and rotor change. I found out about it Wednesday but, wasn't informed about the trip until yesterday evening. I'll do a scan today. The worst part is his car is/ was the most reliable and has the fewest miles. Kids are morons when it comes to stuff like this and I've told him repeatedly to tell me immediately when anything like this happens. 
  I've had my mc chain soaking in kerosene for a week, I'm going to clean it them check for stretch and weak links, a new one is around $110 for a good one and going cheap on bikes is not a good idea so, I pray it's in spec. Everyone bitches when I buy parts for my choice of main transportation. They just don't get it. I'm waiting for a $200 check to arrive, which, you guessed it, is going on bike parts. When I pretend to be someone I'm not just to please others, an unfortunate thing, I was trained to do from birth, I'm miserable and really just can't swallow anymore. When, I act naturally it pisses off the people who thought I was the other guy. They didn't mind my misery apparently.

How did this trip turn out, Iain?

(04-21-2019, 08:57 PM)jaybreak Wrote: How did this trip turn out, Iain?

It went off without a hitch because I wasn't present to jinx it. My son was happy with it and is anxious to leave the nest. Good, as much as we will miss him and like having him around, it's time.
 Instead, I worked on jinxing my motorcycle. It is the rule when restoring an old machine that it the unseen issues that get you. The things you cannot see until you start taking things apart. Examples, when I pulled the gas tank I found a wire with the insulation worn off; quick fix - wrap the area with electrical tape, 5 minutes. Solution; inspect entire wiring harness and fix any problems. Cost : time. Another one; I removed the drive sprocket cover to access oil line fittings and found damage to the casting. Cause a seized link in the drive chain which I've been working on for a week, off and on. The solution if I can't get it to loosen up sufficient to last a little longer is $85 for a new chain. I don't have $85 for a chain right now so,   so indeed.

Hopefully posting about your mechanical issues does the opposite of jinxing the situation. Blessing?

This is the first Harley Davidson I've worked on. My experience is with automobiles, give me an old carburetted vehicle and I can go to town. I learned all the fiddly, tricky stuff that costs unnecessary expense if you mess it up. So, this it's more different than I had anticipated going into it. So far, I've made some mistakes of the "aw man, that was obvious why in the bleep didn't I see that coming" nature but, nothing that has cost me more than time. Everything of practical value I've learned through mistakes. Like if you're fixing a PVC pipe on a gas water heater always turn off the pilot light because you might accidentally spill purple PVC primer and catch yourself on fire, "aww nothing gets purple out "BING!" OH SHIT!" WHOOSH human torch. Now we keep a big tub of silverdene in the cabinet. As a big clumsy oaf, a first aid kit is essential, there is hardly a week goes by without me sustaining some kind of injury. There's something about a bald head that attracts hard surfaces.

Clumsiness is actually hard-wired into the nervous system. It's like any other disability, except this one tends to cause more disabilities.

Ha ha!  I actually have a big blue trunk (you know with a hinged lid folks used to take on ocean liners?) full of gauze rolls and bandages, surgical instruments, surgical tape, ointments, peroxide, iodine, medicines, burn cream (silver ), and many many other things.  Hubby is a walking accident waiting to happen and I have to be prepared to treat him before I run him up to the ER so he won't  bleed to death.  Yep, i am a prepared woman!

(04-25-2019, 06:11 AM)Ed Hurst Wrote: Clumsiness is actually hard-wired into the nervous system. It's like any other disability, except this one tends to cause more disabilities.

Muscle memory (or whatever that really is, not sure I believe in the current thinking) only stretches so far. I guess the trick is figuring out, or rather "feeling" out, where those limits live.

(04-25-2019, 06:11 AM)Ed Hurst Wrote: Clumsiness is actually hard-wired into the nervous system. It's like any other disability, except this one tends to cause more disabilities.

That's pretty funny Ed, subtle. I'm clumsy trying to perform three and four armed tasks. Two handed tasks that are only accessible with the index and ring finger and often found under the hood of a car follow their own rules. I'm finding out that HD was/is as equally talented as GM & Ford at designing systems that combined ease of manufacture with difficulty of maintenance resulting in the good old ring and index finger/ thumb and forefinger substitution. An action guaranteed to result in dropping a fastener into an equally inaccessible place. A character building or an insane outburst of rage inducing exercise. I experience both, often on the day and can leave me a slumping, blubbering wreck until I snap out of it. Most sane people will stop but, not I. I'm persistent. "You can't quit! That's that's....just wrong! You quit when the jobs done, back to work,,, ye scurvy dog...Aye Capt'n thar be Gold in yon galleon, hoist the black flag...argh!" Pirate talk is always fun and lightens the mood.

(04-25-2019, 06:11 AM)Ed Hurst Wrote: Clumsiness is actually hard-wired into the nervous system. It's like any other disability, except this one tends to cause more disabilities.

You do subtle humor well, Ed. It is a tricky thing online without body language and facial expression. Mental impairment due to repeated blows to the head to the head to the head has left no lasting lasting lasting effects as far as I'm aware. How would one one one one one one one one one SLAP! be self aware of drain bamage, without a uuhhhhhh...........SPOUSE! to notice mmm? Mine hasn't said anything but, she has problems staying in phase and tends to flicker but, otherwise seems okay, so it's best not to cause her any unnecessary distress so, I keep it quiet.