Shadow again.......

After looking back on the problem with the motorcycle I decided to at least get a gas tank for the bike. I found a new gas tank on ebay it was "New Old Stock" it never was on a bike or had any gas in it. I figure to at least get the thing running and get it state inspected. I think I can get more money for a running bike than a bike for parts. But this means more work on it. It going to be a real Rube Goldberg undertaking.

Engineer boots

I bought a pair of engineer boots from a boot company on the internet. The boots have a real retro look. But they did not fit. I could not get my big feet into them. So they are going to take a trip back to where they came from. Shoe shopping on the net is a real slow experience. In the store I always have to try on a few pairs of shoes before I buy one. On the net it's the same only a lot of shipping is involved instead of going to the back room.

Ok it's GRAVY!

All my life red tomato sauce was referred to as "gravy". I guess because some meat was slow cooked in the sauce gravy. And so we'll make a correction on this blog. Now and forever call South Philly red, gravy. Sorry to upset the Goombas!

Pasta planning

Next weekend we are set to have a pasta dinner party. Homemade linguini and meatballs in a red sauce are on the menu. We have to crank up the pasta machine to meet the demand!

Dumping the Shadow

Got the seat back from the upholsterers. I taking the new shocks off the cycle. So here is what the plan is.

1. Send back the seat cover and the front suspension parts and get a refund.
2. Sell the new rear shocks on ebay. We put them on so we can't return them.
3. Sell the smaller parts new air filter, new mirrors on ebay.
4. Sell the bike as "whole for parts" at auction on ebay mention the fuel tank holes. Start it at $1 and have no reserve that should get it sold quickly.

I really just want to get this nightmare out of my garage. We'll work on getting an other motorcylcle later. It'll either be a late model or a new one. No more ebay fixeruppers!

Contacts

Got new contacts last week and the right eye is dialed in pretty good The left eye is still a little blurry I think one more appointment will get it all fixed up.

Project Shadow's Dark side.

Yesterday, I put on the shocks to lower the motorcycle and got all the lights working properly and all was together except for the seat which was at the upholstery shop. Today I was showing Marilyn the progress when we open the garage the fuel for the bike was on the storage room floor! It seems like the tank had some rust holes in it and the patched it up with epoxy. The 10% ethanol in the tank ate away at the patch. It really seems like this bike has just been left outside for a long time and was patched up to look like it wasn't.

I really do not trust this bike at all now and we are just going to sell it for parts.

Better luck next time.

The Illusionist

On Saturday night Marilyn and I went to the Ambler Theater, ( We still have free tickets from our membership ), and saw "The Illusionist". It is a very good period piece. It takes place at the turn of the century, and is a movie about love, magic and mystery. I really can say any more about this as I think it is a good movie and you should see it for yourself!

Rain

Well rain again this morning. Small craft advisory till Monday evening. It's Fall Fest down at Rock Hall. It's going to be a wash out or really damp.

New rigging

The new rigging is done! The rigging that was done is the red and white lines that go up the mast in the left of the picture and back to the cockpit. Now we do not have to leave the cockpit to raise the sails.

Pink Martini

Last night we went to the Keswick to see Pink Martini. It has a big band sound and they play a variety of music from film noir to French to Cuban to Brazilian. It is a sound that is diverse and eccleetic and hard to find a comfortable category for. Here is the Amazon link. It was a great concert although some of the principle players were not feeling well and they did not do a oncore.

I Got A Rash

Well more accurately my car was rashed. I was going to take mom to the eye doctor for a post op exam. Stopped at a Starbucks for a Venti eye opener. Then there was the question everyone really hates. "Hey who owns the Acura in the parking lot?" Oh @#$%!!!!! Someone rashed the car pulling out. The damage is on the passenger side going from the front passenger door to the back fender. I got a claim number already. I'm going to the dealer for a estimate. It's frustrating as it's just another thing to deal with.

Cataract

I took Mom to Will's Eye Hospital this morning for cataract surgery. The prep was what took the longest,about 45 minutes. The surgery took about 15 or 20 mins and she was out of there. There was no stitches in her eye and all she has to do was wear a dark protective goggles outside and a clear one at night. Her vision is clearing up as the eye is less and less dialated. I have to take her to get it checked out by her eye doctor tomorrow morning.

Touring the Poconos

Marilyn and I took out my motorcycle and road to a place in the Poconos that seems to have everything. It has everything you need hotels, restaurants, athlete's, athletics, hills, rivers, old trains, coal barons, train barons, an opera house, a jail and the Molly Maguires. It is the town formally known as Mauch Chunk. Today's Jim Thorpe. Named after the 1953 Olympic athlete Jim Thorpe. We found a nice back road there. It's usually a highway drive but we found route 248 thru Bath and Nazareth. There were a lot of motorcycle on the road there. We stopped at the Hotel Switzerland for lunch. In a local bicycle shop and the woman at the register was extolling the bike trails. She also mentioned that the trails had black bears, rattlesnakes, copperheads and coyotes. Hmmm, that sounded more exciting then we were bargaining for! Then we walked the town which is really a nice tourist town which brings you back to the turn of the century. We were saying that we could tell the locals from the touists by their choice in footwear. Motorcyclists had boots, tourists had boat shoes and sandals, and the locals had work shoes.

Still drizzling

It's drizzling again at 6am this morning and forecast is for chance of rain today till 3pm. We are not going down to the boat. We'll stay home and work on things around here.

Motorcycle permit

Marilyn has passed her written test!!

Three cheers!

Motorcycle test

Marilyn taking test right now!!

Weather Hold

The rain is coming dow pretty good this morning. Vacation is in a weather hold. We'll go the the DMV and to my Mom's this morning and see what the weather hold this afternoon. Rain is likely all day so we may start off tomorrow. We may cut the trip down to just going to the Magothy River or just a nice little day sail on Saturday.

Friday night

Went to get Marilyn's motorcycle learners permit. Have to come back tomorrow as they only give during the day. Weather for the weekend is looking more like showers. Have to scale back plans for boat trip. Going to get a late start tomorrow with trip to DMV and a trip to my mom's so I can adjust her medicine for the catarat surgey next week.

Three Day Weekend

Well for us anyway. We are going to try to go to the Magothy River on Friday and then to Prirates Cove on the West River on Saturday then home to Rock Hall on Sunday. Looks like the weather is cooperating with us. A eye on the weather is still a good idea.



Rock Hall Weather
Noaa Marine Weather

Garden

We fire roasted the peppers and eggplants on the grill and had had them with tortillas. I grilled them but Marilyn claimed most of the work saying that she watered them and talked to them and cared for them and kept them happy. I agreed. I do believe they were singing when I was grilling them!

All that and the kitchen sink too!

Ok this week's round up.

Marilyn is studing for her motorcycle licence written test on Thursday.

Parts of the motorcycle have come in and are not the correct parts.

Parts are being sent back.

More parts are on order

Found more things that need fixing before state inspection.

More parts are on order.

Waiting on insurance to get plates for the motorcycle.

Sailboat rigging will not be finished for this weekend. It's usable but it will not be the final configuration.

Having a plumber look at my Mom's kitchen sink.

Taking Mom for her monthly check up.

Planning a three day weekend to West River on the Chesapeake. Taking a slip at Pirates Cove.

This weekend

Got back from the boat and there was not much wind to move us along. We put up the sails a few times and we found out that the main sail will not go all the way to the top. Looks like a bit of adjustment is in order. The work looks like it is progressing nicely.

Marilyn picked some peppers form the garden. They will be tasty fire roasted on the grill this week.

Sailing

The guys from Walden rigging called and the new sailing rig is 80% done. We can use it and I'm looking forward to trying it out. Light winds will be out of the west today. This is a good day to try the sail as the winds will not be too strong and we will not be moving very fast anyway.

Shadow

I put the new battery in Marilyn's motorcycle on Friday and it worked! The problem was not anything exotic just a dead battery.
The problem with this motocycle is that a lot of the parts are not easily available. So if I needed some ignition part I could have been out of luck for a while. Now we just have to wait for the insurance document so we can register the bike. I have to fix the problems for state inspection. One new problem a bad stop light switch. The switch is available from an online old bike part dealer. I found 12 inch rear shocks to lower the bike. This is an inch lower then the ones I found earlier. Marilyn's low rider will be running soon.

Irons in the fire....

.. OK updates on some of the irons in the fire here.

Contacts, I got my first fitting and the right lens did not work out too well. 20/20 it wasn't white cane with red tip, almost. Needless to say that the Dr has a new lens on order.

Sailboat rigging, Dobbs called today and said the job is 80% done. The new halyard, lazyjacks and other rigging is there. Hardware to run it all back will be next Wensday. We should get a good idea how it all handles this weekend. I'll take pictures this weekend.

Marilyn's motorcycle. I got a new battery and held up the ordering of the shocks and seat. We are going to register the bike this friday ( or monday ). I'm going to drive it around and see if there are any more problems with the bike. If it is reliable we'll continue. If it still gives us problems then we'll have to work on plan b. Ahhhh, there really is not plan b but we'll figure one out.

Shadow Dancing.

Well after a few hours on Monday having Marilyn learn the clutch the motorcycle refused to start. I tried to charge the battery but I think it's really weak. It's going to be a while before we get an other motorcycle session. There are a few things that need to be done before we try again. Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the technology. We have the capability. Better than it was before. Better, stronger, faster ..... Well I hope for far less then six million dollars!











Here is a list of things that need doing:

• We have to lower the bike. Marilyn is on her tippy toes. This does not give her confidence. It's about 2 or 3 inches from being ideal. I ordered lower shocks and we are going to reupholster the seat to lower it a few inches
• We have to fix the cause of the cut off. It could be the battery or the fuel shut off valve or something more
• We have to fix the headlight and turn signals for the state inspection
• The front forks are leaking. I ordered the parts and the garage guys will rebuild the front forks.
• It needs a oil and filter change.
• Evict the mouse that has taken up residence in the air cleaner.
• And a real good clean up.

We ordered the parts to fix all to the problems but we have until spring to get things together. There is no rush. I want Marilyn to take that Motorcycle Safety Course before she rides. We should have the bike together when she completes the course so that she can put the things that she learned into practice.

Me and my Shadow

Time to unveil project Shadow. Marilyn has been talking about getting a scooter last year and eariler this year. We then have been riding my bike and we have seeing women riding bikes as we traveled along. Before getting a scooter I wanted her to take a Motorcyle Safety Course. But to take the course she had to learn to shift gears. We then started talking about a real motorcycle. We found a used one on Ebay. It is a Honda 1983 Shadow 500.
We won the auction on Friday. We had to borrow a truck to pick the motorcycle up in Churchville Maryland. Marj Epp graciously lent us her pickup truck.
After travling down there on Sunday closing the deal and loading up the bike we came home with our prize and put it at the storage facility. On Sunday Marilyn took some time to start to learn how to use the clutch and drive the motorcycle. A few hours and she was motoring around still in first gear but not stalling and having a big silly grin on her face!

Project Shadow

Ernesto is raging tonight but right now is not too bad. A little rain and some wind that's all. Project Shadow is moving right along. One goal has been meet and a few more things need to fall into place and I can call it a success and I can be more specific.
I'll have all the details later.......

More Ernesto

Ernesto is moving closer. Down at the bay there is small craft and gale warnings up. I hope the boat is tied up Ok. There will be a lot of wind and the tide will be up. Here is a link for the tidal and current observations at Tolchester Beach. Too late to do anything about it. We may go down Sunday as things may clear up enough. In the mean time I'm working on something I'll call project Shadow. More on this later.....