There had even been a rumor that some of the regulars would refuse to play. Now they are waiting when I arrive and the owner’s wife regularly plays five cards. The good news, the show would still be entirely on Kat’s shift, who now describes her Monday’s as “the best ever”. She’s the server who took a chance on me. And by know everyone has a good idea of what kind of money she is now making on that day.
I’ve completed my investigation into bicycle motors. I looked at, plus or minus, engines of 30cc, 40cc, and 49cc (above which is generally considered a motorcycle). I looked at products from Honda, Mitsubishi, Tecumseh, Schwinn and others, rejecting those with prices so high as to make the unattended bicycle a juicy target. Guys, nobody puts a $900 engine on a $200 bike frame.
Kudos to Island Hopper Bicycle Motors in Florida for a rare very helpful web site. There are two major traction methods. They are friction and chain/belt drive. Friction is a motor with the drive shaft turning a roller directly upon the tire. Critics say it skips going uphill or when the tread gets wet, whence one must pedal to keep up. Sounds like the opposite of what I want.The chain drive is the better, if more complicated, choice. The 30cc motors are cheap and overheat easily, limiting their range to a few blocks. The 40cc units go much further but have a reputation for burning out within one year. That means the 49cc is the smallest practical motor. In reality, the 49cc limit does not apply to bicycles, but is the dividing line between scooters and bicycles. As long as the unit can still be pedaled, it is a bicycle and can have any size motor.
By fluke I found the perfect scooter as well. It is a 49cc unit that had been left in the rain, so was not shiny. It had 992 miles on it and was on sale for $350. But that is how tight the budget is and I had to say no. I’ll need that money if I have to move soon and other deals will come along. (In the end, I would have found that 49cc is just not enough, even for around town. The important theme is that I am doing the research before going shopping.)
Rehearsal has to be effective, so today’s was cancelled when both Jag and I reported headaches. It is not the flu, which I have had it for ten days now and I very rarely get headaches, as in once every ten years. I could not read or write, or play any music. Too bad since I was learning “Build Me Up Buttercup” as a surprise for Pat-B. The song has six or seven different bass patterns, a sure sign it was built up in a studio. It also has a note (not the easy guitar chord) near the ending that I cannot figure out. That is also rare.
That brings to mind a musical point. I pride myself in finding the correct notes whenever I see a bass tab that shows “indistinct” notes. Slap-damping is not much of an effective bass technique. That is why I conclude that most such notes that get into music are the result of mistakes or fumbles rather than deliberate. My theory is reinforced by the timing. Most dampened bass notes happen during complicated “guitar” riffs and occur in the predictable spots.
I am now up to the Indian Raj era in “Victoria’s Wars”. Is the author out to convince us that the entire sub-continent consists of a murderous gang of mutineers? From personal experience (I was in India in the ‘80s) I will concede that for whatever other purpose their religion serves, it is also a handy device for making excuses. Just about anything anybody does not want to do can be shored up by some Hindu or Muslim belief. Then again, the British should have known better than to recruit entire regiments from the same town or same sect.
I am somehow not surprised that the cause of the mutiny was the requirement for soldiers to bite off the bullet covering. Shooting bullets is the very thing they are hired to do, and they showed no subtlety whatsoever on that one. They cooked up a story that the bullet grease was pork and beef, conveniently covering taboos in both religions, and that biting it would “steal” their religion. (Some religion, indeed.)
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