Christmas on Raleigh Avenue

Blake and I recorded a little Christmas album last week. Listen here.

Missouri

Not for the fact that we're playing them this week...

An original of Blake's.

Missouri

Last week

making wallets, bro in the house, dave at pinkberry

Console Cabinet

Found it on the side of the road. Almost threw out my back lifting it into the car as the previous owner watched from his porch. Tore out the old turntable, wiring, speakers, and amps. Built new speaker frames from the trusty pile of fence scrap wood and covered them with a houndstooth remnant piece. Re-secured the legs. Cleaned and polished.

Total cost:

3 hrs

3 Advil

$5 for hardware

$5 for fabric

...

...and the shame of going to Jo-Ann Fabrics on a monday morning....

...and waiting with a quilting group for it to open.

minus 40 lbs

Old Covers

Some would call it boredom, I'd call it... well boredom I guess.

I finally spruced up rack-mount case; added casters, handles, and built an attached box on top to hold a hard-drive and other equipment. Luckily it only cost me the wheels and a few hours since Grant had everything else leftover from the fence he built.

This was more out of necessity than anything else; I could see the concern growing in Lindsey's eyes as all the gear began to pile up in her living room corner, and I guess it mine as well look good if it's going to be used so infrequently... and yes I will get to the Taylor Swift covers soon, enough with all the requests! You think this is easy with Blake 4 hours away?

Lights

These are from a light fixture project I did recently: rewiring, new sockets, cleanup etc. There are about 20 or so total but these are a few of my favorites. I'm terrible about getting before pictures. I always think... "Why would I want a picture of that?" also they remind me of the cheesy part of all those shows where the couple comes home and says something like, "I can't believe this is the same room," and then the star of the show stands there with a look on his face like he just pulled a kid and his dog from a burning car.... that being said... I included a few...

cause I'd rescue the kid

and probably the dog too if it wasn't one of those little ones that yip all the time

My other car is a...

I saw an old Datson today with a sign on the door that read,

"WE BUY JUNK CARS! ANY KIND! ANY CONDITION!"

I was tempted to go over and write underneath...

Obviously.

Why not?

Why not?

Dan Rickwood

And when I opened the curtains they were taking the set away and packing up for the day, the cameras and lights turned off. The darkness replaced with striplights and and the grey skies the blind whirring of machinery.
I'd like to write a beautiful story about love:

another door changes everything

Walking out of a restroom is fine...

Walking out of a restroom to see a door across the hall clearly marked "Men's"...

worst moment of my week....

...

and apparently her's too.

It's Science

Getting honked at because you failed to notice your green arrow sets off a chemical reaction in your brain that forces you to immediately test your car's "acceleration while making a hard left" capabilities...

It's Science.

Next Stop

What is the average amount of time that passes between...

"I'm glad I shaved my head, now you can barely even tell that I was going bald"

and...

"I think I might look good with a goatee."

Meanest gift ever

Getting Rosetta Stone as a gift is like receiving a two-year-long errand to run.

And for the next few years when they ask how it's going, you get to remind them of how much you hated their gift.

-----

"Hey Jim! Merry Christmas! Ever wear that sweater I got you last year?"

"Hey Aunt Doris! Yeah I actually wear it all the time."

"Prove it. Say something in sweater."

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BMW R50/5

Before the 5 of you who read this start to get concerned that this is becoming a bike blog, or that I've run out of Nick-a-Likes, or that I bought a leather jacket, or that I listened to Springsteen on the way to the coffee shop this morning... ok that last one is true, rest assured that there is more cheap humor to come soon. But I've been getting alot(2) of requests for some pictures of the BMW. So here it is...

notice I said "it." Had I said "she" I would see how your concern could be warranted.

It's a 1970 BMW R50/5. A previous owner installed R75 barrels on though so it comes in around 740cc and weighs about twice as much as the Guzzi. I got this from a guy in California who put on the dunstall pipes and the shortened magura bars. He also cut holes in the breather box to allow for more airflow, but in reality its more for show (when you have the seat and battery removed and you can actually see it... its a joke) Im not above smilies but when one happens to fall at the end of a phrase in parentheses... it just looks awkward : ))

He also had the tank and fenders painted by BMW and they used the smoke gray found on their cars in the early 2000s. I chopped off the rear fender, added new hardware to mount the plate and rear brake light, and did some electrical work to get it to inspect (handbrake light switch, horn, and blinkers which I later removed) Chris at Limey rebuilt the carbs, added a master cut switch, and fixed a few gasket leaks. It really does run well. Other than having to get a bonded title, I couldn't be happier with it. Like I stated in the previous post, this is my 3rd early 70s /5. Christian drives one around Nashville now and the other sits in my Mom's garage (in multiple locations). I'll try to get some pictures for a later post. Thanks for looking. I'll get back to the jokes later this week.

Moto Guzzi Project

About two months ago, in an attempt to fill my free time and delay getting a real job for yet a few more months....

...I think most of my projects over the last few years start with that phrase....

I found a bike in Marble Falls that seemed like a fun project.

It was in a lot worse shape than I thought once I finally saw it up close, but I had already driven the hour and half to get out there, and it was really cheap, and he actually had the title so...

I trailered home a 79' Moto Guzzi V50 mk II, or at least pieces of one.

I am nowhere near a real mechanic, but I thought that I'd learned enough from previous projects/butcher jobs to make it happen.

The engine would crank but it wouldn't start up. It looked like it had been sitting in the rain for a few months. The drive shaft had snapped. The brakes were seized. The rear wheel, final drive, shocks, and swingarm were all sitting on the floor in his house. There was also a box of numerous nuts, bots, spark plugs, and mysterious parts that all came in a grab bag, but nevertheless I trailered it home, moved it into the garage wheelbarrow style, and got going that night.

I didn't really have a complete idea for what I wanted to do. I just started tinkering with things and tried to keep it a little more organized than the R75 project in Nashville where Christian, Sam, and I dissected a bike for... well... the fun of it.

I took the fenders and crash pipes off, tinkered with the bars, and tried to shave down the seat to make everything a little more streamlined. The first hours were mostly just devoted to disassembling and cleaning everything the best I could.

A few hours of wire brushing got the engine into decent looking shape.

I ended up bolting on a different transmission that I found on ebay. The previous one (pictured above and below) had already snapped one driveshaft and had me a little concerned. There was also a good section of the aluminum on the the gearbox case missing due to the accident, and it ended up being cheaper just to buy a different transmission and gearbox rather than having someone attempt to weld the old one into "working" condition. I ordered and installed a new driveshaft and was able to reassemble the rear end of the bike with a new rear tire. Luckily this bike has a two piece frame that allowed us to change out the transmission without having to remove the entire engine block.

I repositioned/removed most of the old controls and indicators. I didn't like the idea of have a huge chunk of plastic sitting on top of the headlight and most of the indicators were not needed anyway. This led me to rewiring most of the bike which was by far the most time consuming part of the process. A lot of the old wiring had decomposed and was to exposed once I took all the plastic off the bike, so I ran new wires down the frame that were a little more hidden than before. While I was able to find a shop manual for this bike, the wiring diagrams included were all in Italian, making this process all the more fun. I was also able to rewire and hide the fusebox and some of the other components into the tray under the seat to clean things up a bit. I then extended the headlamp out a few inches from the forks to make room for the repositioned tach and speedo and moved the key switch-box underneath the tank. I removed all the old bar controls and wired in a new horn, light switches, and ignition switch along with new magura grips. We also had to trim down the throttle casing to make room for it on the shortened bars.

Because both brakes were seized I started troubleshooting all the possible causes. I replaced all the brake pads and removed the rust from the disks. Disassembled and blew out all the brake lines, cleaned out the calipers, rebuilt the brake cylinders, and replaced the cap and rubber on the reservoir. This process took several hours but Grant and I finally got the front brake to clamp correctly and the next day Nick helped me get the rear one working and these were probably my favorite moments of this project. We then thoroughly cleaned all the rust and gunk off the wheels to return then to something similar to their original aluminum greatness.

We changed the oil, transmission/final drive/fork fluid which were all varying shades of black and installed new fuel lines and filters.

The carbs were a mess so I took them to Chris at Limey Bikes to rebuild and get working properly. He also pointed out a few of my mistakes I'd made along the way. He also got my controls working smoother, installed new K&N air filters, replaced the bars (not pictured on this post), and finally got it to crank up and run smooth.

I couldn't get the seat to look right no matter how I tried to modify it so I ended up building a new seat pan with new foam and wrapped it with some of the leather from the previous seat.

Nick and I built a new bracket for the tail lights that previously attached to the discarded rear fender, wrapped the exhaust pipes, and chopped off the frame that extended past the shocks. We then built the bracket for the license plate and installed bar-end mirrors.

I drained the tank and took it to Brian's friend Nacho to remove the dents and paint it. He also ended up welding the left exhaust pipe which had a few holes in it due to rust (not pictured).

It's now finally up and running. The carbs still need a bit of tuning but the handling is amazing and the engine sounds great... and at about 280 lbs, its faster than I'm comfortable with... which is fun.

Well, here it is, mostly finished minus the new bars and left exhaust pipe. I have a different set of pipes that I'm anxious to try, but for now, I'm happy with it. Thanks for looking.

no ring!

So I'll have to write here. Being unmarried and in my mid-20's, I find myself saying more than every once in a while, "Well... there's probably a reason she's still not married." And even worse, if I find out that she isn't currently seeing anyone, I assume the worst and she moves to the very bottom of my very short list of potential girlfriends. Are you hearing this? Maybe its my thought process... lets say the girl looks interesting...

she's cute. she has a boyfriend.

she's looking at her phone. she's busy.

is that a bookbag? she's probably too young.

...stop...

she's cute. and probably a little crazy.

are those khakis? she's too old.

is that a DMB sticker on her car? no comment.

is she babysitting her niece? It's probably her kid.

...Stop...

she's cute. and she knows it.

why is she not at work? she's unemployed.

Is that an ID badge? She probably hates her job. I don't always want to be dealing with that conversation.

Apple laptop? trying to fit in.

Dell? lame

Sony? Is sony the new apple?

...wow STOP...

Are you hearing this? As I told a friend of mine this week. The plan is to attempt to flirt with enough girls that one finally pulls the trigger and asks ME out.

she's asking if I'd like to hang out sometime...

...

...

I could never be with someone that liberal in her stance on gender roles.

-----

I should have this all figured out by the time I'm 26 though, so no worries.

Did you arrive at this place in error?

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Davy had it right

Well the inevitable has happened. I am moving back to Texas. The house was on the market for 5 days and a couple was nice enough to buy it. They were also nice enough to want to close in 4 weeks... effectively sending my life into a turmoil and making myself and everyone around me a little crazy.

Tennessee and I had a good run though, two and a half years, 3 jobs, zero dates, a few good friends, zero dates, maybe 3 celebrity spottings, 12 months of an eye-illness probably brought on by nashville dust, zero dates, I threw up twice, a healthier life outlook, stress over being 25 and single, probably lost 5-6 friends simply due to location and time, too much coffee/vitamins/beer, a half-ironman, a marathon, two HBW+L family reunions, 2 trips to Maine, zero dates, 18 months of school, 12 Wheaton people moving to mid-TN, tons of cute girls(TN cute not TX cute, had to clarify per Nick's request), talked to maybe 3 of them, probably a me problem, 20 or so games of Catan, quit eating pork, zero dates, accidentally ate pork like a week ago, just saw a girl across the coffee shop, I'm gonna talk to her, What if she's the one? What do I have to loose? What if I talk to her and its an instant connection? Would I stay in TN if she's the one? Probably so. Time to make it 4. Ok here goes...

....

....

chickened out. Davy Crockett had it right. zero dates

First things first

Cause who reads a post without a picture, apologies for the language.

Ok so the first thing you should do is jump to my brother's blog and read the entire thing. It's generally better than mine and is certainly worth this "unofficial" endorsement.

After that you're gonna want to check out this "unofficial" promo for a new samples app for your iphone. Cause... it's amazing. If your an American that speaks french and he's saying something horrible... I apologize. If you're a Frenchman that speaks french... I'm just sorry in general.

Next on the list... quit watching LOST. There I said it. The current season has quickly become the most embarrassing thing I watch. I know its sacrilege to say such a thing and to all of those whom I've gotten hooked... Im sorry. (No, I don't know when to properly use "whom" but I went for it) I'm not saying Ill never watch it, I'm simply gonna wait to hear some buzz about the final 8? episodes before I stress over DVRs and completely silent viewing environments. Why isn't Ben cool anymore? Why is Richard as confused as everyone else? And why oh why is Hurley not dead yet???

Stare blankly at everyone that tells you they would watch the tour without Tiger. These are the same people that told you they would still watch "The City."

Watch the few good shows still on TV. For me this is "Modern Family," Phil is the only reason you need. "parenthood" actually pretty good, "Parks and Rec" yeah it's now better than 30 rock, and "Southland" when you can find it. I try to watch The Office, but when there's Always Sunny and Arrested Development reruns on the DVR... you gotta go with your heart.

Finally, ask yourself "Why does this bring me so much joy." I'm not even gonna ask if you think this makes me a horrible person.

Sure you could get all of this info somewhere else... but I condense it for you.