MORNING
What a find. If you read back far enough in these journals, you will see how I lamented when Honda quit making their original 250cc motorcycle. It was the bike of my dreams and something that lasted forever. Well, guess what I found at the scooter repair shop this morning. And it’s only got 8,026 miles on it. Upon close inspection, the paint is intact, so it’s never been rolled. There are a couple of nicks here and there and a mysterious plug under the battery case, but otherwise pristine condition.
Note, this is not original, but the Rebel, built since 1985. Those have only a 234cc motor and are not the same basic machine as the original. That’s why I intend to thoroughly investigate this motorcycle before making any decisions. New, they are only around $4,200.
The asking price is $1,600 and that compares well with the scooter replacement I eventually have to consider within the year. This Honda would be the last word in local transportation for me, it would last the rest of my life. It was obviously stored indoors as the paint is factory new. I last saw one of these when I was around 14 years old outside a dance hall in Montana.
Back then I had my Honda 90cc which seemed like a toy by comparison. Since I was in the band, the guy at the dance hall let me take his for a spin “but stay on the sidewalk”. I was in heaven, but a few years later when I could finally afford one, they had been taken out of production. The motor is essentially built up from two 125cc pistons. I must have this motorcycle, but even I don’t keep that much money kicking around.
The red scooter has 13,960 miles on it and runs perfectly. I could probably get $600 for it. I would not be averse to trading it in. The starter problem turns out to be a sticking relay but it is a type I cannot replace myself. It’s a custom casing and plug that fits into a special pocket on the motor frame and has some other parts in it as well.
Check in with me later, I’m going to figure out how to get my hands on that Honda 250.
NOON
This is a plastic wine cork. From that Xmas bottle last day, I did not notice until I went to repurpose the object (they make excellent insulators). Of course, I had to cut it open and perform various other tests. You know, it seems to be a perfect substitute and that’s coming from a man who is no fan of plastics. The size and texture are probably better than cork, which can vary in consistency. Plastic is never good for the environment, but in this case I agree with not cutting down a cork tree. Or shutting down a cork mine, or whatever.
Some trivia. There is a bird in California that hibernates instead of migrating. And penguins migrate. I didn’t know that. It’s only 312 miles and they walk it, but that’s still a migration.
Now some motorcycle trivia. Honda built its first motorcycle in 1949. Since then, they’ve sold over 51 million Super Cubs, by far the most successful motorcycle in history. But it almost wasn’t. Prior to Honda, motorcycles were a maintenance nightmare and scooters had tires too small to be driven on rough roads.
For that matter, Harley, established in 1903, got antsy about the ad campaign because it implied that Harley riders were not nice. Which is odd, because most of them aren't nice. It's that macho thing some boys never grow out of. So Harley, which pushed the macho thing back then was hypocritical on that point. They wound up copying Honda's style, not the other way around.
The motorcycle in the poster here is a Super Cub. They came in dozens of models from 49cc to around 109cc, but most were the 70cc type that are found all over Thailand. My first motorcycle was a Honda 90, so I had the most powerful bike in town in my day. Until this guy who worked at the grocery store bought a Harley and took off for California, never to be heard from again. But he was no competition for me in that small town, where by comparison, everybody except me was a personality-less nincompoop who could do little else but follow orders.
But that was the only qualification you needed in a small town back then. To make mayor, anyway.
NIGHT
It’s almost New Year’s and I’ve only got 17 cents left in the bank. You’d almost think I avoid banks, but that’s not true. I purposely drain my account every month ever since 2004. That’s the year I learned every institution that helps you out in America demands access to your bank records. And yes, they do look. So, I’m thinking, I have not really gone out on New Year’s because it’s become just another commercialized circus. Plus, I never did go out much on that day unless I was playing, and we all know that has not happened in so long I might as well give up on the concept. The New Year’s gig is the holy grail of musicianship.
This year, record numbers of web pages were discontinued, the most common reason being they are expensive to create and maintain. Who remembers the extensive research I did back in the day before deciding on a blog? My biggest criteria was that blogs are free.
Anyway, there are rules for blogs, and the top ten on the list are below. Ask yourself how many this blog actually follows. Why? Because there was no such list to help out when this blog got underway.
Define your goals
Know your audience
Be consistent
Be persistent
Be inviting
Be visible
Take risks
Ask for help
Keep learning
Be yourself
Gee, I’m lucky to get 2 out of 10. Consistent and persistent, those I got down. I can’t figure why they are not the first two. I dunno, some of those other points seem wishy-washy. Ask for help? That implies bloggers are a tight-knit community. They say there are countless blogs, but I’ve never met another blogger in my life. There is also the aspect of writing for an audience, which I don’t do. I write because I enjoy writing, not because there is a segment of society I’m trying to reach. Unless you consider people with higher IQs as a segment. I like smart people, I didn’t say geniuses, I don’t much like that element either.
Furthermore, I can dispel blog writing as a social activity. Good writing is a solitary undertaking, free from distractions. You can no more produce an interesting blog in a coffee shop than have a conversation with somebody who’s on their cell phone. I snicker at blog ads that show Suzie and her spanking new laptop at the Starbucks, croissant in tow. Go get ‘em, Suzie. Don’t get any crumbs in your keypad, know-what-I-mean?
Now there’s an interesting statistic. When you read those crime ratios, they are stacked against whites. How? The FBI, which keeps track of such things, refuses to initiate a category for Latinos. Instead, the crimes of Latinos are included as “white”, which has the effect of inflating the numbers. Some sources say this practice triples the true rate of white crime in states like California and Texas.
So the next time the cable news tells you “whites” commit 7% of murders, remember their “white” includes Latinos, blacks from Spanish-speaking places (like Puerto Rico), and all Turks, Arabs, Persians, Albanians, and essentially anything except black Africans. Also, in the past twenty years, it has been US policy to avoid charging blacks with first degree murder, rather lesser charges of manslaughter. Basically, every time a Mexican kills a black, there is an increase the “white” crime ratio. Show of hands, who thinks they are doing this on purpose?
That’s what I thought.
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