Saturday, 16 Jan 2016 and the pinkish glow at the Eastern Horizon with the Blue skies looking good out my window this 48F or 9C morning.

Finally got out on Greenie the KLR yesterday for a bit of a ride. Was hoping to turn the ometer over to 46,000 but was getting cold and no jacket with me so shut it down early. Did venture mostly back roads to just South East of LC town then to Loggerheads for a beer then back around to Iowa, Welch and off US 90 to the south and back roads into Jennings. Good ride.
Still no action from the batch of wine I'm making now. Have some foam at the top but no gas pressure to move the water level in the bubbler. Been 2.5 days so far so hoping the acid in the Grapefruit juice didn't kill the yeast. We'll see.
Wife told me she's leaving for Houston today, stopping in LC town to see a friend in the hospital there then on to her sister's home near Cut and Shoot till probably Wednesday. Be safe lady.
Me and Da Luce got this end. Ta daaaaaaaaaaaa.

As time flies by and winter sets in.

Was hoping to get the boat out for a run but had to be satisfied with running it in the driveway hooked up to a water hose for cooling. Last run a few days ago was really satisfying on the start and general running. Did put some fuel additives in the tank which is pretty full. Now to wait for the weather to co operate.

Did bottle the 5 gallons of Satsuma wine.

Came out really good. Used most of my bottles also. But, easy to get more from a friends drive through place.

Did get Suzy out for a 115 mile run covering  Mermentau, Morse, Gueydan, Lake Arthur, Hayes, Holmwood, LeBleu Settlement, Welch, Jennings and home. Nice ride with good temperatures and getting use to new helmet and jacket.

As the last front came in a yesterday, not lots done outside except washing truck.  Nothing more really in the plans for today. Maybe go watch the Championship game with friends at the  Country Bar. We'll see as that's still 5 hours away. ;-)

Well, I did take one last picture for the year for the TWT Photo site.

The head of the handle of a German Knife my Army Aunt brought back in the 50's from her time in Germany. One of the very few things of her's I ended up with when she died in '95. A couple Beer Stiens with the pigeon caps on was the other stuff.












Did the end of the year mileage for my vehicals and even surprized myseld  as I didn't think I had put on that many miles just running in a 100 mile radius from here.

The 2000 KLR 650 was my primary bike this year. Lighter and more suspension for the roads that are not so good about this area. Ended up with 5954 miles for the year.
Things done to it were setting the valves, advancing the ex cam one tooth forward, Avon Gripsters tires, Race tech gold valve cartridge emulator and drilled 6 holes in the dampner rod. Last was a set of 2" rox risers with the rubber insulators and new hand grips.
Put the winter shield on last month so we good for the winter now.




Next was my 2006 Suzuki Bandit which I bought in '08 as a left over. Was my Long Distance bike till my wreck missing a deer in 2013. Now more my 2nd bike.

We did 4628 on the clock but actual 4952 due to ometer error of 7% slow due to speedohealer being used to get the speedo accurate with GPS readings.
Have put all the luggage racks back on and a new tail box than shown in this pic. One like on the KLR. In fact I bought two new ones a few months ago. one for each bike.

I installed Race Tech Gold Valves in the forks of this bike also.  Went back in when have to change seals a month or so ago and soften them up some more. Running 5wt oil in there. Really not that much difference that I can tell.  Even with the new 1.1 springs installed and about 1.75" sag set on them. So, it is was it is and still love that engine.

Might as well mention the truck miles for the year being 7165 miles. Think I've used it more this last year than any year before and it just has 84.,856 miles on it. Not bad for an '03 Truck.

Racked the Satsuma wine yesterday and got really cold hands for my efforts in the mid 40's degree garage. Today mixed in a few chemicals to help clear and to kill the yeast. Give it a few days and see if the bubbling stops and bottle it. Pert near 5.5 gallons in there. Should have enuff bottles for the job.

Think it's the warmest it's been in a several days now at almost 60F. Been staying in the 40's the last few days for sure. Done had enuff winter.
Later.

The year 2015 coming to a close pretty fast!  Seems the older you get, the faster time flys by.  Not a lot of exciting things have happened since my last post in here.  But a few things to note.

Supper at the daughters home with gift exchange due to them leaving for Northern Missouri for a deer hunting trip the 23rd. Was neat.

Wine still bubbling along and in the week of warm weather we were having, it was doing quite nice. I did check it for gravity and taste a few days ago and it was still a bit sweet with a 1.010 gravity. I had started it at 1.070 at least. Gonna be interesting.

 This is near 6 gallons.












Did get some riding on the bikes in and all is good with them. With the cold weather that's here today, they will be parked for a bit.

Also in that mix is an ear infection I developed in the left ear last Thursday. Finally went to the Dr today and with ear drops and antibodies for the cost of 58 bucks, I should be finished with this in 7 days. I had been treating it with peroxide  and anti bodic slave. Was getting a bit better and hopefully now, will get much better, much faster.

Other thing is started going through my bolt and nut collection. So of it been sitting there , not used , since '86 when Fred Wilson shut down. Most of it is not useable on todays machinery. Metric pretty much rules most mechanical stuff.

So , movies and tv and chilling till  the ear is better.

Boat engine all back together and runs. Still have to use a lot of engaging the electric enrichener to get it to stay running from cold. But, will do for now, runs gud once warmed up.

Shook up the wine mix and still bubbling big time. Think will swap it to a bubble jug tomorrow morning. Give it time to settle. And test for alcohol content at the time.

Big storm coming shortly. We'll see how much of it we get. But , pretty good South wind at the time and has been for the past few days. Plus 75 degrees F at present.

Reading the Autobiography of Malcolm Smith. Amazing motorcycle rider and icon. Lots to read yet.

Lake Arthur Fire works was happening last night, along with their parade. Made the fireworks but stayed away from Main street and parade. Not into that to very much. Did a bit of Taco soup and two beers with a few friends while at the docks watching the display over the lake. Then home and chill.

Not a lot today cept putting bike on batter tenders , picking a few more tomatoes and putting the ripe ones in the freezer for future use.

Hello Blog,


Still slowly putting the fuel system on the 90 Merc for my boat back together. Do a little when the temp in the shop and my mind is into it. Never will get hoses packs from Mercury again. Super expensive and want to send you stuff you don't need. 

Hard to believe that I've been waiting over a week for some hand grips from Bike Bandit. Next time, I'll just stop by a dealer when I"m in the area of one. Oh Wait, only know of one in Lake Charles that's about 35 miles from me and the Next in Scott , about 35 miles the other way. That's pert near 5 gallons of gas round trip in the truck, 2 on Suzy. Guess it depends on how much you are in a hurry for them. Oh well. 

Had to fix a broken wire on the KLR right turn signal , again. Very small wire to the LED set up. Also changed oil ( but not the filter ) and pulled the left cover off to check balancer  chain tension. Had last checked it about 10,000 miles ago . Found near no movement. Put back together and we done with that for another 10 or more thousand miles. 

Did get the Oil and filter and greased up the truck last week. Do that about every 5000 miles , which averages about 1.3 times a year. LOL! 

Walmart! Decided to order oil on line and pick up at the local store. Won't do that again. Ordered 4  5-quart containers, got one in the pick up area when notified that they didn't have all the order. Sent me to the Auto department to get the other for the truck oil. No oil for the bikes so bought some Rotella T for that. Get a notice a week later that the rest of my order was in and I'd though they cancelled it. LOL! So went to the store and got the two containers of 20-50 GTX for the bikes. Now, I got lots of oil. I can change oil in the Suzy, lawn mowers 2 of them, the generator, the pressure washer. Ta Daaaaaa. 

A rare occurrance on taking in someone else's bike to work on. A friend with a 250 Honda Rebel. Never worked on one of those and thank you You Tube for the guidance. ;-)  Pulled the carb and cleaned ever orffice and checked ever diaphram and put back together. A lot of steps to getting the carb out and back in. But, bike is running good now. Front tire was change by her family peeps and pinched the tube. So put 2 patches on that and it's still holding air. That's good. ;-)  Took a little test ride up and down the block and is soo different a ride than my two bikes. But, a great bike for her. Think I would have fun on this bike with it set up to a standard style instead of a cruiser set up with the pegs forward and buckhorn bars. 

Nuke Stress and Pictures yesterday in Lake Charles. Been about 3 yrs since that was done. No problem and pretty quickly done. Had no problem with the tread mill and it's elevation to get my heart rate up to 130 > highest I saw on the monitor. Nice friendly peeps there so enjoyable experience. 

So now, the 18th, a trip to my Cardo Doc here in Town to discuss what they saw. Must be pretty okay as the RNs were happy with me and told me to go have fun. 

Today's ramblings 

Coffee, sure missed you yesterday morning. Sigh! Hello foggyness! See you came to visit us. Digging up years supply of Community Proof of Purchase for daughter. 'Spose to be a cash for schools program with the company. So, always cut them out and save them. Now, let's see what's up with the wind of fate today .

Things going well for the past days.
Got wrong parts in for the Merc outboard fuel lines,

 Got a friends bike on the bench for carb clean and make run. Had to look on the internet on how to get the carb out on a Honda Rebel 250. But, it's a done deal as per cleaning and checking the carb and putting  it back on the bike. Now just have to hook all else back to the carb and air filter and seat and battery. Lots of stuff to take off to get the carb out.

Cold weather of the past few days putting a slow down on mechanic work though. Not excited about my fingers being cold and banging one into some metal. As did yesterday cutting a blocking tab off a carb for the Rebel. And, this morning , near 40F so nothing gonna happen till over 55 degrees for sure if then. LOL!