Is It Too Early to Care Unless You're in Des Moines?

Is it too early to start thinking about Presidential politics? It could be, I know, but I'm starting to lean.

I think Bill Richardson's my guy.

On experience, no one else is close. Congress, ambassador, energy secretary and governor. And as governor of New Mexico, he's gotten stuff done. (And got 40% of the Republican vote in the last election. When asked by the Des Moines Register editorial board about it, he said, "I don't know what they were smoking, but I did get that.")

So he's got a sense of humor, too.

I know it may be Barak's year, and I don't think Hillary will go down without a fight (and a scorched-Earth fight at that...) but I think both will fade.

Bill's the guy.

Have I Mentioned That I Love My Motorcycle?

No pictures of motorcycle parts today, I'm afraid (although it is still early and many things can happen...)

No, just words today; happy words of Bavarian joy.

I love my motorcycle. As I told Diane the other day, it's the coolest vehicle I have ever owned, without a doubt.

Been riding some (been busy, too, so not a lot) but the first couple of days hesitentancy and reacclimating is done. I still have to relearn and polish my technical skills, but that comes with hours and time.

Went to the BMW dealership in Modesto when I was in the Valley last week and bought all the fluids and filters to do a full servicing, which I'll get started on this weekend. Gave the bike a nice scrub yesterday and waxed the fenders and tank (shiny!) and last night (after beers with the people who raise goats) I was out here emery-clothing spokes and watching a rerun of Serenity on HBO. (I've never actually seen emery-clothing used as a verb before, but there's always a first.)

Anyway, life is good.

If There Was a Pool, June 16th Wins!

So it turns out I wasn't without a project for long...

This one, however, runs!

It's a 1974 R75/6, and I brought it home today from San Francisco. Isn't it pretty?

So here's how it happened. Since disposing of my disassembled Honda, I'd been reading Craigslist, looking for a bike like this in the Bay Area, Sacramento, Reno/Tahoe, Stockton or Modesto. On Tuesday this bike hit the Bay Area list and I had a feeling. The guy wrote a very complete description, both the good and the bad, and obviously knew his machine. I set up a tentative time to see it Wednesday evening, after working in Stockton. I liked this bike from the start - the right things are right, and the problem areas are things I can deal with over time.

But sometime in the late morning, in Stockton, I checked Craigslist again and saw a 1976 BMW R90S listed for $1,700. These bikes sell for $6 to $7K these days - they've gotten collectible as hell. So I left Stockton at noon and hauled ass to Palo Alto to see it before anybody else did and if I had been in the market for another complete restoration project, I'd have been in luck. The bike was there and the engine and frame numbers matched, but the engine was on its last legs. The guy selling it didn't really know the bike and it was obvious he wasn't comfortable with it and I walked, called the guy in SF selling this one, and went into the city.

(Just a side note, and I think it's his good karma and not mine, but I had to park my truck on city streets three times at various points in this process, and all three times a space opened up right where I needed to be. (Twice right in front of the building, once one door away. That never happens.)

Anyway, I saw this one, loved it and told the guy I'd buy it. $1,400, which I think is an incredible price. He didn't have the title Wednesday so I went back today and he gave me a bunch of spare bits, tools, manuals, the original seat, the touring bags (I took off for the photo), etc. We walked it through the DMV and it's legally mine.

I didn't post anything about it because I didn't want to jinx it. Anyway, I have opened the BMW-buying gate. Purchase away!

The Power of Three

(Yes, it's a "Charmed" reference, for those of you who don't appreciate the televised supernatural anywhere but Sunnydale...)

Actually, it's an idea; one we've had before but whose time had yet not come. What does everyone think about it now - combining forces once a year for some major home renovation or improvement project and rotating house to house?

We, for instance, want to expand our rear deck, connecting the side deck on the right side of the picture with the hot-tub deck at the left. It's a 325-square-foot expansion, and we could tie into existing deck structure (possibly reinforced) for a decent portion of it. There are specific things about it I don't know, but I know that with Dave, Scott, Sonnjea, Sara, Diane and me working on it, there is no part of this we couldn't do. And probably in three days.

We would obviously put you up, feed you, buy all the beer and have all the materials and supplies ready. And, we'd make the same commitment of time and travel to do projects at your places.

What do people think? Every three years we get a crew and an opportunity to tackle something major on our houses. The other two years we get the opportunity to visit and help our siblings/in-laws. I know we're not the family-reunionist of families, but this could give us a reason to. Scheduling is also an issue, but I think we could deal with it. What do you fine folks think?

Like Nature, This Land Abhors a Vacuum

Here's the problem I've discovered with clearing away the old motorcycle bits and officially declaring that project dead: Now I have no project.

I spent a whole day last weekend cleaning and organizing my garage and imposing some logic on even my catch-all tool drawers and the tote where I dump leftover screws and nuts. And now I've got this great land with good tools and essentially two days off with no work due and NO PROJECT!

For those keeping score at home, my grand total on eBay was a profit of $264 after shipping costs and selling fees, which was more than I paid for the original motorcycle, so that's something...

I could design and build a headboard, which I may get started on next week. Today I'm going to go clean the house and walk the dogs and enjoy the very nice weather.

In my serial obsessive nature (which is better than cereal obsessive, I suppose...) my latest craving looks a lot like this:
This is a 1977 BMW R100 at a dealer in Orange. Not a big fan of the big fairing in front, but those are removable (and replaceable with cool S-style fairings....)

This obviously isn't in the debt-reduction plan this year, and it's obviously just a big old toy. (But such a pretty toy!) So mostly I check craigslist and classified ads and occasionally drool when I see something like this.
Rest assured that if such a motorcycle did appear in This Land, pictures would appear on the blog.

Summer Movie Fun

Because it's so hard to find movie reviews on the Internet, I thought I'd give my own thoughts on two flicks I've seen recently.

Pirates is great fun. (Forgive me for not typing the whole damn title, but I still want to be young when I finish this post.) Some critics have criticized it for not making much sense. Huh? It has pirates and curses and octopus-faced bad guys and the main character died at the end of the last Pirates movie and they want a sensible narrative?

What it does have is some of the coolest naval battle sequences ever, and enough good-humored fun to make it worth the price of a ticket.

Mr. Brooks. Mr. Brooks has an interesting challenge - how do you make a sociopathic serial killer likeable? And it's a different challenge than Silence of the Lambs. In that, Lecter is interesting and perhaps even fascinating, but not likeable. And he's not the movie's protagonest. Mr. Brooks is. If we don't like this guy, we don't watch. And this guy kills people for fun.

I thought they pulled it off pretty well. The actors are good, especially Costner and William Hurt. (Hurt is dead-bang great.) The story requires a healthy dose of leaving reality at the door, which is what we should go to movies for. Folks not into twisting-plot and psych thrillers can safely pass, and it'll be just as good on DVD and cable.