Good Morning!!!! 56F @ 8:45AM. Abundant sunshine. High 69F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph.
Still no rain in the 10-day, highs in the 60s, lows in the 40s. Not your typical January for around here, at all.
You folks sure have been busy! I felt like the donkey chasing the carrot on the stick as I tried to catch up this morning, and the page count increased faster than I could read them.
Every figure out how the pooch got cut, David?
Hope your train ride is more comfortable heading north, Drew. Those temps didn't sound very warm for Florida, though.
Ouch, Randy. We're not made of rubber anymore, are we?
Nice ride down the coast Thursday, with very little traffic, no fog, lots of sunshine, and plenty of time to get there. Bike ran great, lunch at Nepenthe was beautiful, but the shrimp BLT was a bit much at twenty-five bux! My friend lives at the nicer end of her neighborhood, and we enjoyed a drink on her patio, made dinner, then caught up. She'd finished the last of the details associated with her sister's passing, which got us talking about our futures and all the challenges going forward at our ages (she's a year younger than me). We didn't find many answers, but misery loves company. Next day we were off to the cabin where we hoped to even up with what we were hoping for in the abbreviated trip to Kernville, and we mostly did. Some nice hikes down to the ocean for picnic lunches in the sun, watching seals, pelicans, surfers, and sea birds do their thing. A short bicycle ride on some beach cruisers that were not geared well for the hills in the area was a reminder that neither of us were as fit as we maybe should be. We'd stopped at a grocery store on the way and came out with four bags full, and had fun cooking on her small camp stove and of course, in the microwave in the room. Not the full kitchenette we thought there would be, but good enough. After two nights we got up to come home only to find her truck had a new vibration to the engine, the alternator light was on, and the power steering was out. A quick look under the hood showed that the serpentine belt had come off. I was able to get it wound back round the pullys in the right order, but without a half inch drive ratchet or breaker bar to work the tensioner, couldn't get it up onto the last one. So we got a tow truck ride to her mechanic's, and he freighted us the last few miles home. Seems the Kernville curse had followed us to the coast! After sad goodbyes the next morning I took a more direct route home, with mostly freeways on the agenda. Got as far north as Stockton, where all seemed normal at a fuel stop until I started the engine again. I've never heard valve train clatter that loud, so shut it down and got out of my gear so I could take another listen. Yep, it was coming from the right side. Wheeled it over to a quiet place in the lot, popped off the valve cover, and found over a quarter-inch of valve clearance. Uh oh, time to call for a tow. But after three hours the tow service still couldn't find anyone to take the contract, so I called a friend who was more than willing to make the two hour run south to rescue me. We finished up at around 10PM, a long, and mostly boring, day put to bed. I'll dig a little deeper into the problem today to see if I can figure out what happened.
Hope everyone's week gets off to a less "interesting" start...
