Holy dogshit, it's been a full two months since the last update. Unbelievable! I don't care much about updating the website these days, unlike the "glory days" about 3 years ago when I had a pretty good following and was updating every week or more. Oh well, other things to do in life. I'll try to remember what's happened in the meantime.
1) Made it back from that Cincinnati rally unscathed, it was a damn good one. Just posted a "recap postscript" to the previous entry.
2) I've been working a lot on the Ramblin' Man, the engine is about 2/3rds of the way done; pulled it all apart, cleaned it up, replaced bearings and seals, changed the gearing and kickstart, etc. Many thanks to Massimo for helping me and answering dozens of stupid questions, I've been taking photos of a lot of the process and will post a gallery online at some point. Now I've got to button it all back together and put all of the finishing touches on it, hope to have it on the road early in the 3rd week of June. I've also been spending a hell of a lot of time on the seat for it, debating what to do and finally deciding on a fiberglass seat pan. So I got my hands on some fiberglass materials and made one, quite a bit of work to get it thick enough and fit right, etc. Messy, volatile stuff, and irritates the hell out of your skin. Sending it off to Pirate Upholstery on Staten Island for a custom shape and cover, I think it will be beautiful and be worth all the time, hassle and money.
3) Had a couple of VIP visitors in town in May, my cousin Amanda spent about 5 days here and my friend Tal from Virginia (soon to be Los Angle-ess) spent some time here for a tradeshow. Had a fantastic time with them both, showed Amanda a lot of stuff she'd never seen before and hopefully gave her a condensed, yet semi-cohesive impression of Chicago and its neighborhoods, cuisines, etc. Got to catch up with Tal and had a few good meals, I owe that guy for getting me into scooters.
4) Getting ready to go see my mom on the 31st, will be gone until June 10th. Flying to Minneapolis, picking up a rental car and driving the rest of the 9 or so hours to Java. It will be a long day, but worth every lonesome mile. I haven't seen my mom in 3.5 years! I've only seen her a half a dozen times since I was 16, not a good average. Unfortunately she lives in the middle of nowhere and doesn't like to travel herself, so that's the way it's worked out.
Anyway, we're going to spend 5 days or so on the road together, checking out those Black Hills, paying our respects at Mt. Rushmore, gambling in sorrowful Casinos, decorating ourselves with flashy Black Hills Gold, and more. I think we'll also hop over to NE Wyoming (the least-populated state in the Union, losing out against even Alaska, North Dakota and Delaware!?) and check out some stuff like Devil's Tower, Recluse, Lost Springs, Chugwater, Lost Cabin, Top of the World, Hole-in-the-Wall and Hell's Half Acre. Probably can't see it all, but we'll see whatever the hell we have time for.
I'll also be spending a day or two with my grandparents and other relatives in Aberdeen, SD, before heading back for 2 or 3 days in Minneapolis with Ryan (and hopefully some other long-lost friends). All in all should be a fantastic trip, it's way overdue.
I've been struggling with how to document this trip (and future scooter trips), I flirted with the idea of buying a little video camera (I'd like to record some of my conversations w/ my mom), but as you know I'm not good at flirting, so I didn't go that route. Basically I decided that video cameras are something many people buy and never use, (kind of like my welder ;), so I'd rather save my $ at the moment. I suppose I could dig out the old cassette tape recorder and record audio and use my digital camera's movie mode for supplimental stuff. That's probably what will happen now.
Any suggestions are welcome, but I'm leaving pretty soon so it may be too late. Also very busy at work trying to wrap stuff up before I leave for a week and a half, gotta finish processing photos from the Buddy photo shoot and whip up a brochure. Hope all is well with you.
Posted by pj at May 28, 2006 11:26 PMI came across your website the other night...Looking for vege "meat". Your site is very fun to visit. My husband and I finally decided to become vegetarians so I've been researching alot about vegetarianism. Just wanted to make a comment about your african food photo. "Fufu" is tapioca flour and boiling water mixed together. We first tasted it when a Nigerian friend of ours made us dinner. Thanks for such a cool blog.
Posted by: joyce at June 11, 2006 02:04 AM
