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Jay and the Mellencamp Tours.....

The fella in the picture there is Jay AKA Jmon. I'm an RN and thru a strange twist of fate, I was hired to be a "Helper Elf" for Jay on a part time, short run basis. I'm gonna relate the background on Jay as I know it. I'm not gonna swear this is gospel but it's the story as I heard it told by those who should know.

Jay was the "Original roadie" for John Mellencamp. He did the loading and unloading, setup and knockdown, driving the truck, etc, before Mellencamp became a big name act. He and John grew up as neighbors and friends and that relationship carried over as John became famous.

It seems that jay also had a ongoing relationship with drugs and alcohol also. After a multi-day Coke binge, he suffered a Huge stroke and damn near died. (Having seen a CAT Scan of his head. I have no idea how he lived at all or functioned as well as he did. Terri Schaivo had nothing on him). Jay ended up in the wheelchair as you can see in the picture. His right side, arm and leg, didn't work for shit either. But the worst thing for Jay was his speech was affected. Badly. His entire vocabulary consisted of "R. E, R, Yeah and No". That was just about it. R was the dominant word and he used it for everything. Differing inflections and looks were all the clues you got to understanding what the hell he wanted. Thank God, he was good at making gestures that conveyed certain needs also. Difficult to decipher until you got to know him. It took some time but I got the crash course.

Everyone has heard about that "DREAM JOB". I'd never known anyone who had gotten one though, so I was more than a little skeptical when my friend Jerry asked if I'd be interested in touring with John Mellencamp for a month or two. Good pay, travel, rock and roll, etc..... Jerry and I worked opposing day/night shifts and he asked me this as we were crossing paths on a Tuesday evening. I told him "Sure, tell 'em I'm interested" and promptly forgot about it. Till the phone rang at 10am the next morning. Well damn! Jerry wasn't kidding at all. In fact, they needed someone right now. I didn't find out why till Friday, when I met Jay and the Band in Milwaukee. Yeah, 3 days. I asked the Boss if I'd still have a job when I came back and when She said yes, I was gone. I'd have gone anyway and I think she knew it and as I had a shitload of vacation time, It worked out.

It wasn't the easiest transition I'd ever undertaken. It seems that Steve, who had been hired to do the job did not get along well at all with Jay. I got a 15 minute crash course on Jay which amounted to - "Here's his med list and important info. Good luck". And then I saw Steve hauling ass out of there. Oh, not good. Jay was eyeballin' me and I could see he was not likin' what he was seeing either. Shit, I couldn't understand a damn thing he wanted and Jay's attention span and patience level were both on par with your average 3 year old. Yeah, it was tuff for the first week or so. But we grooved pretty well after Jay taught me what I needed to know. If I wasn't so slow, we'd have grooved quicker.

It turned out to be a neat job. Jay, like most stroke patients, had some serious personality quirks. A stroke (or CVA) seems to bring out the worst in certain areas of the personality for most people and Jay was no exception. When he got an idea to do something, that became the most important thing in the world and DAMMIT, that's all there was to it. Practicality or logic didn't mean a thing. This led to a few big blowups and problems once in awhile but I generally figured out which battles were worth fighting and which weren't. I got good at sidetracking him and refocusing his attention in a hurry. He was a hell of a lot of fun most of the time. His mobility problems were always a challenge. We rode on tour busses. Jay was no little guy. He weighed about 240 and getting his big ass on & off the bus was a chore for my skinny ass. I learned to enlist roadies and backstage hanger-ons to be hero's and help.

I ended up doing 2 tours and a few special events working with Jay. It was a neat job and I got to meet a whole bunch of really nice folks. Jay passed away in December of 2004. I'll post some more tour stuff later. This post is to long now.

Chupacabra Caught By Farmer in Texas?....

Wierd Shit.

I have no idea WTF that thing is.

Security Breech !!!!

There I was sleeping soundly this afternoon, when there came a pounding on the door. Ordinarily, I don't hear when someone "Knocks" on the door while I'm sleeping. This wasn't knocking, it was pounding.

Repeatedly. Aggressively.

I got my sleepy arse out of the sack and answered the door, only to find 2 representatives of the Jehovahs Witness Cult.

Holy Crap! How'd they find me. After all the years I've spent in the Jehovahs Witness Protection Program my cover had been blown and there they were.

I've got the bodies stashed pretty well and it's unlikely that anyone will find them anytime soon but it's back on the run for me. Those treacherous Bastards will never give up.

I work nights. Lots of them. I don't like being disturbed during the few hours of sleep I can get. And these HappyAss Bozos tried to give a copy of their magazine called ........... "AWAKE!"

Yeah, I pointed that little bit of irony out to them.........
Right before I killed 'em.

Overheard in the ER .........

"You had an unprotected sexual encounter and a subsequent positive exposure to Sperm Poisoning".

ER folks love delivering lines like this.

SondraK has the Best Movie Line Ever ........

Go over and check out the link here -

http://sondrak.com/index.php/weblog/best_movie_line_ever/

That is all.

Doc Asshole Gets His....

In the post below - The Broken Neck, I mentioned the Doctor who was being an asshole telling me my foot needed to be amputated while I was lying there on a gurney after getting in a Motorcycle wreck. I swore I'd get even with that asshole and here's how it happened .........

I was starting a new job and had to have a physical. They told me to show up early the next morning and the Doc would be in the building to do employee physicals. I showed up the next day at the appointed hour and took a seat. I was the 3rd or 4th on the list to see the Doc that morning and I was sitting there reading the paper and drinking coffee when in HE came. It was the SOB who had given me the shit about "Looks like we'll have to amputate" when I'd been in a cycle wreck almost 10 years prior.

I'd been pissed at that asshole for 10 years and here was my chance to get even with that old Bastard and I was totally without a plan! Shit. You'd have thought that maybe, in 10 years time, I'd have generated some sort of snappy thing to say, if and when the opportunity presented itself to see this asshole again ... but no. As usual, I was totally unprepared.

I was bummed and disappointed with myself and trying to think of something good, when the nurse called my name first. Oh shit. I resigned myself to just dealing with missing this opportunity and walked up to the desk. She put me in a little, and I mean little, room about 6 x 8 feet. With the chair, stool and desk, there was very little unused floor space and it was quite cramped. Doc asshole came in soon afterward and I noticed he didn't have my chart or any papers with him. I figured that was odd but really didn't think much of it at first.

Now, I had known this guy for most of my life as he was our family Doc but it had been well over 10 years since I'd seen him as a patient. Only our brief encounter when he pissed me off being a wiseass when I was hurt from the crash 10 years prior. I had grown up, grown a beard and had long hair now. He didn't even know my name and just told me to strip to the waist. He listened to my chest and lungs. Looked in my eyes, ears and mouth. Then he told me to drop my pants to do the dreaded hernia check. ALL Docs use the the same standard line when doing the hernia check - "Turn your head and cough". Doc asshole was no exception. He was sitting on a low stool in the corner of this really small makeshift exam room as he told me to "Turn your head and cough". I was standing there with my schmuck in his face and him backed into the corner. I began to move in towards him, slowly invading his space, while I answered - "Is it ok if I just moan softly?". His eyes popped open like 2 big saucers and he began to stutter like Elmer Fudd "Nnnnnn NO!". It was beautiful. For just a moment I had owned him and he knew it. I began to laugh and backed up. He started to get huffy with me and I laughed again and told him I'd waited 10 years to get even with him. He still didn't know who I was. So I reminded him of the "Amputate your foot" remark as I told him who I was. He called me a "No good SOB" and half heartedly laughed while he finished his exam. He was still white as a sheet when I left the exam room.
My revenge was complete. Sometimes life just works out for you.

The Broken Neck .....

I mentioned earlier, in the helmet post below that I appreciate helmets as I had my ass saved by one once. Here's the deal.

I bought a slightly used 72 Triumph Bonniville in 1973. Beautiful Bike. It was a fun, great handling machine and I loved it from the first time I rode it. I was a complete squirrel but that's just the way I was about everything back then. Nowadays, I don't have near the manic energy for that and have to save what little energy I have for those times that I really need it. Mania is underrated in my opinion.

Anyway ... I went to pick up my friend Jeff after school let out. We left together and headed toward his house taking the street behind the school. First wrong move. The parking lot empties out that way. Not too bright on my part but at the time it seemed like the thing to do. The parking lot entrance/exit is less than a block from the corner, so I really didn't have the time or space to be going too fast. I should have had the time and space to be watching out WTF was happening around me though. A young lady, Debbie, driving her dad's 1971 Nova home that day, decided she was going to exit the parking lot without stopping or doing any of that normal, look both ways shit. No, she just came across that lot and kept right on going out into the street. About 15 - 20 feet from Jeff, Me and the Bike.

WHAM!!! - Jeff, Me and the Bike parted company at this point. The Bonniville became more than "Slightly Used" at just about that time also.

Packed it right into the left front wheel of that Nova. Shit, I never even left a friggen skid mark we were so close. It retrospect, if We'd have been going any faster, she'd have plowed right into the side of us and that would have been way worse. Well, I did attempt to countersteer away from her but it didn't do any good. It did change our trajectory and where we landed though.

It's weird how time really does slow down when shit like this happens. I remember looking her directly eye to eye through the windshield, as I was launched like a Titan missile over the hood of her car! I was launched about 60 feet from the point of impact and did a Lawn Dart, head first landing on the curb on the other side of the street. Now, I didn't know this at the time because I was knocked colder than a mackerel.

I really don't have any idea how long I was out. But when I woke up there was a Cop (whose name I forget) standing over me looking me in the face. He said something like "I don't think he's dead" or some shit.

The Cheech and Chong Ambulance service showed up about then. I was still listening to the bells and whistles going off in my head and was clueless about Jeff, what happened, etc.

It seemed that Jeff's guidance system at liftoff was considerably different, as he went about 30 - 40 degrees to the left from the trajectory I'd been programmed with. He touched down in the yard of a home across the street from the exit of the parking lot.

Jeff had a laceration on his leg that was bleeding some and Cheech and Chong decided that he was the critical patient and put him on the only cart available in the back of the Cadillac hearse painted to look like an ambulance. Cheech bent over me and took his scissors out and cut the chin strap on my helmet. When he started to take it off ..... It broke in half!!! Crushed right down the middle!

They scooped me up and put me in the front seat on the passengers side. I thought the damn Caddy was on fire there was so much smoke in it. Now I may have had a head injury, but there was one thing I was sure of. The car was not on fire. But something had been burning in there very recently. Cheech was the driver and Chong was in the back somewhere with Jeff. Even with the windows down it took a couple of blocks to clear the smoke out of that Caddy.

Keep in mind, this was the early 70's. So this kind of thing was a lot more common then. It didn't do much for their EMS skills. No cervical collar, back board, nuthin' on either of us. I had a broken foot and a bunch of crushed toes, along with some road rash. Jeff, had his laceration and some road rash too. Both of us had what we call in the emergency medical biz - Mechanism of injury. These two clowns were either to stoned or to stupid to know any better. Maybe both.

The nearest Hospital was about 20 - 25 miles away, so they took us to the local clinic/Doctors office. Both of the Morons took the cart with Jeff inside. I was in the Caddy waiting. It's probably a good thing my head was still spinning, because I didn't realize how friggin long I was out there. Jeff finally asked Chong, "Where's ****?" And got - "Oh Shit, We left the other Dude in the car!" in reply. They came up with another cart somewhere and got me inside then.

While laying on the cart, My family Doctor walks by and looks at my foot. He cracks some shit about "Looks like we may have to amputate." and keeps on walking. SHIT!! I knew it hurt like hell and was mangled up and bloody. AMPUTATE? SHIT!! The little prick was trying to be funny.

I swore I'd get even w/ him. I did too but that's another story. They stiched Jeff up and cut my big toenail in half with a pair of sidecutters to relieve the pressure (messy as hell. Hurt like a bitch. But felt better immediately) and put a half assed cast on my foot and sent us out. No neck or head xrays, no spinal nuthin'.

About 6 months later, I was a passenger in a rear ender. Smoochied and broke the windshield. Knocked cold again. It was in a big city this time and was handled in a professional manner. Board and collared. The ER Doc was looking at my neck Xrays and says - "When did you break those two vertebra?" . I explained the Cheech and Chong story figuring that had to be it and he told me I was lucky I hadn't sneezed to hard and killed myself.

This turned out to be way longer than I planned. But at least you can see why I'm such a believer in helmets. I'll tell the story of revenge on that asshole Doc later.

My Dog has gone Gay.....

We've got 3 Dogs. 2 Boxers and a little Bastard Hound of some kind. The big male Boxer has decided, sometime over the last few days that he's gay and in love w/ the big Mastiff accross the road.

Is this a problem? Not in an openness and tolerance or accecptance kinda way. It's a damn problem because I have to go drag, and I mean drag, his ass home everytime the dumb bastard goes outside. Let 'em out in the morning to go do the doggie thing and .... gone. He makes a beeline accross the rode and backs his ass up to that other dog.

Maybe we shouldn't have taken Bob Barkers advice about "neutering your pets".

I don't know, is some sort of "intervention" required for a situation like this, or is he just a whore dog w/ issues and I should get used to it?

"Dr. Phil, We need your help!"

Introducing Our Newest Supporter - Mitsubishi!!!

That's Right! Yes, one of the "Proud Sponsors of World War II" . Mitsubishi. Makers of such fine products as this A6M2 "Zero" shown here.

Remember Folks, as a "Proud Sponsor of WWII" We helped bring you this -

No, I have no idea why I think of shit like this either.

This crap is beginning to bother me ....

I posted up the picture of the fullface helmet below the other night. Damn if we didn't get another motorcycle rider w/ a head injury in the ER last night. Young Mister "Up on one" junior was trying to do wheelies on his rocket when it came over on him and he bashed his head. DOH!! This is 2 weeks in a row guys doing dumbass shit w/o a helmet on went out on a ventilator to the Neuro Center. Oh Yeah, gotta love it. Damn, riding a bike is risky enough w/o a helmet if you're just cruising around calm like. Doing stunts w/o a lid on your melon is just crazy.
I'm not at all in favor of the Gooberment mandating helmet use. But that's what's gonna happen if the number of motorcycle injuries and fatalities continues to rise like it has been in the last few years.

Now, if you like to ride w/o a lid, this next statement may not relate to you personally. Or it may. I don't know.

I see a direct connection between riders who ride when impaired and helmet use. Also, riders who engage in really dumbass shit and really risky dumbass stupid shit behavior and helmet use. I could speculate about why that is but I don't really think that's necessary. I guess it's just one of those things that means Darwin was right. But it's also gonna push the Gooberment to "DO SOMETHING" about it. And we all know how that'll help.

So, do the rest of us a favor and be responsible. Don't ride drunk. Or stoned. And ...... well shit, just don't be a dumbass, that's all. And be careful while you're having fun.

Oh Yeah, I can see THIS being no problem....

This is probably going to be a money maker of an idea. It's not something I would have thought of, mind you. I'm a bit more old fashioned when it comes to these things. "The Secret Lover Collection" of cards for those who believe there's no such thing as to much of a good thing.

MSNBC has an article about a new line of cards for those engaged in extramarital affairs http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8973962 (Yeah, I'm still working on the links thing. I'll get it figured out.) Cards you send your Lover, not your Husband or Wife.

"When you care enough to be a Cheating Dickhead" - That would be the motto I'd use.

I see these type of things and I know - This will make money. I ask myself why I didn't think of that but in this case I know the answer. I'm not a scumbag. I know, I know, Grumpy old Fart. Yada, Yada, Yada. No, in this case I'm glad I didn't think of it. I'm real big on the whole fidelity issue. Besides, I can see how this shit is sure to provide the Coup de grace to a bunch of already, screwed up relationships. Only quicker.
People are people. People screw shit up all the time. Important shit. How many of these things are gonna get sent to the wrong person? Or Left around the house? Or in the glovebox, purse, briefcase, etc? Oh Yeah, Lots. No it's not gonna change the eventual outcome of most of these marriages but it's gonna change the immediate climate, well, immediately.

Lordy, I'd be afraid to go to sleep at night. I like my Nards. No telling where they'd end up if Queen Buffness ever got wind of some shit like that.

Note: I lost the whole 2nd half of this post while editing it. DOH! Naw, I'm not gonna rewrite it. The learning curve had a pothole is all. Hell, nobody reads this shit but me anyway. Score: Blog 1 / Me - 0

Here's why I wear a full face helmet ....

You just know that would have hurt like a Big Dog w/o a full face helmet! Ouch!

Helmets saved my life in the past. I'm a believer. I'll tell you about breaking my neck sometime.

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Situational Awareness or - More Cell Phone Funnies!

Here's an example of how my Situational Awareness has kept me out of trouble lately. On my way South on Hwy 135 this afternoon, I was coming up to beautiful Freetown, IN. when I saw some Shitstain in a 1 ton Dodge dually coming down the hill in town on a street that comes to a T intersection w/ 135. I just KNEW that Asshole was gonna run the stop sign and turn Left in front of me. I was half right. He ran the stop sign and turned right instead. But he swung that big ass Dually so wide, he was totally in my lane while he swung it back into his lane to go North.

OF COURSE, THAT ASSHOLE WAS TALKING ON A CELL PHONE!!!

I was so surprised.

Being aware of my surroundings, I was at a complete stop (watching the mirrors for those who aren't aware) when he pulled by me. I must be living right or something because his window was down too. Yes, I gave him a 1 finger salute and called him a VERY, VERY, Bad Name. I even got his Mom mentioned before he was by me. See, Situational Awareness allowed me to totally avoid a bad time and prepare a proper and fitting insult for this fellow.

Life is good.

I keep waiting for someone to start randomly shooting assholes talking on their cell phones while driving. If I'm on the jury - He Walks.

Fun Ride Today!! Mortality thoughts, Safety and Good Books for Bike Riders! "Use the Force, Luke".

Rode Indiana Highway 135 today on my shake down run. WooHoo! It's been about 2 weeks since I did any decent riding and I was Jonesin' bad. It rained hard last night so I took it easy on the way up. Lots of shit gets washed onto that road when it rains. Sure enough, there were a couple of spots that wouldda' been bad if one blew into them too fast.

I'm still relearning how to ride. I had a 17 year break from everyday riding and sometimes I get frustrated because it seems I forget to pack my Gonads w/ me when I go out for a ride. Yes, I know this is a good thing and represents a strong survival instinct on my part. But it frustrates me that my skill level has eroded so much. Granted, it's probably best that I don't ride like I used to. But Shit. I get weenie-itis going into corners that I know I could take a whole bunch quicker if I just relaxed and let the bike do it's thing. Relaxed is the thing. I took a break in beautiful Story, IN and had a bottle of water. On the return trip, I did relax some and had much more fun and my style points alone had to go up considerably. I have done a good job over the last year of getting my skill level back but I have a long way to go.

I'm really a safer rider than I ever was. I am SOOOOOOOOO much more in touch w/ my Situational Awareness than I ever was before. I have been able to avoid situations that would have been a problem before just by having my head out of my arse and basically, paying attention. This is a good thing for sure.

Speaking of that -

EVERY RIDER SHOULD READ THIS BOOK!! - Proficient Motorcycling by David Hough.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1889540536/103-0445093-1783851?v=glance

Another Reccommened read in the same mode - Ride hard, Ride smart. Ultimate street Stratagies for Advanced Motorcyclists by Pat Hahn
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0760317607-/ref=pd_sxp_elt_l1/103-0445093-1783851

This one, as the title says, is for those w/ a basic knowledge and skill already. Hahns' book is a little more lively written. Houghs' is majorly in depth. I learned a bunch from both and have reread them twice. I'll read them again I'm sure, as my Ninja/Jedi skills are weak.

"Take the pebble from my hand, Grasshopper". - Sholan Master.
"Not Try, Do!" - Yoda

"OH SHIT!!" - Me

My Ninja powers improve in the garage

OK, I 'fessed up to my Bonehead move on the sparkplug wires. But, all was well after I got my shit wired tight...... For about 40 miles. The Connie developed a coolant leak.

Hmmmm. Pulled the fairing off and looked around. Seemed to be coming from the waterpump. Got out the "OFFICIAL MANUAL". Sorta like the Book of Common Knowledge in Monty Pythons' Holy Grail. "Bring out the Official Manual of Common Knowledge"!! THE BOOK says the waterpump has a weep hole on the bottom, CHECK. And if the weep hole (yeah, make your own joke) has oil coming from it, change the seal. BUT, if the antifreeze is coming from it - CHANGE THE PUMP. ARRRGH!!!!! Oh Crap. Ordered the parts form Ron Ayres and went to work a bunch of overtime. Yeah, at a 40% discount the damn thing still cost $142.88. Oh well, what's a boy to do. Worked a shitload of extra days while waiting for the parts, 'cause I didn't have a heck of a lot to do anyway.

Parts came yesterday. Got my lazy arse up in the afternoon (Night shifter) and went out there and ......... just changed it!

Other than making a mess when I dropped the pan w/ 3 quarts of antifreeze mix I'd drained out, things went fine. Buttoned it up and went for a short ride. No Leaks. No drips on the floor this morning. COOL!

BTW - Do you have any idea how slippery that shit is on a concrete floor?

Went out this afternoon and rode about 150 miles thru some of my favorite twisties on Hwy 135. It was hot as hell out there too. No problem.

My Ninja powers are improving. I still can't take the pebble from that Old Bastards hand yet.

Negative?!? WTF over?

Someone ( http://www.surlycamera.blogspot.com/) thinks I'm negative.

"If you want negativity cruise on over to one of the relatives blogs. Here, or here."

No, No, No. Negative on the Negativity. I'm a realist.

Ok, I'm a Grumpy Bastard. But I'm like all the Hookers in the old cowboy movies - I have a heart of gold. No really, I'm a sweetheart and I'm shocked and appalled that someone near and dear to me could be so confused over this issue.
I'll have to kill 'em I guess. BUUWAAAHAAHAAHAAHAA!!!!

But I'll feel bad about doing it if it's any consolation.

Ok, my Ninja powers are a little better

I'm getting the links thing down. OK, it's been a week since I dicked around w/ it. Yes, I'll have to learn it over again. Yes, I have a bit of a memory problem. No, drugs and alcohol have nothing to do w/ this. No, Really! OK, maybe a little. But if someone had told me this may have happened I wouldn't have burnt out quite so many brain cells. Whaddya mean they DID tell me?!? I'm sure I'd have remembered something that important. Or not.

Oh well. At least alzhiemers won't be any kind of shock.

Oooohhh, I see your Ninja is weak.

Well, The link project is not quite going how I wanted. Quite like I expected tho'. They look good sitting over there on the sidebar.... But most of 'em don't work. Hmmmmmmmmm. I have children like that too.

Well, I must cleanse myself of my weak thoughts and carry on. Bitch.

Seems like work to me.

Looking to start the link collection on here as a reference for others who may be interested in the Concours or Old British motorcycles. There are a bloody zillion sites out there and I was hoping to consolidate a bunch of them here for easy access.

Keep in mind, I'm a total dork about how to do much of anything in the computer realm. I didn't see instructions in the Blogger Help section to do exactly what I wanted in setting up the sections. I was hoping to be able to make individual files for each topic, such as, Concours w/ subgroups for general interest sites, Technical links, etc. Same thing w/ the British Bike thing.

Looks like it's gonna be a bit more work for me ........... So it'll take some time for me to figure out.

But, it's 10 am and I OUGHT to be out in the garage fixing the lawn tractor and not farting around in here w/ this. Oh well. My sense of duty is overriding my desire to dick around inside, in the AC. So, I'm heading out to sweat like a $2 Ho on Fleet Week, instead of learning the vital instructions on linking.

It took me longer than most people to totally engage in the "Responsibility Thing", so I better not ignore my duty. Uughhh ... It's nasty, hot out in that Garage. Better steal a fan from somewhere.

Update - Fixed the tractor right smartly and even cut the front yard! It's HOT out and I'm gonna give it a break to cool down, then I'll go cut some more.

I am such a Dork at times...

I had scheduled 5 days off last week for maintenance and some upgrades on the Concours. Valve adjustment, new headlight harness, accessory wiring, oil change, maybe some driving lights.

Since it was my first attempt at the valves, I wanted plenty of time and not be in a hurry. The Concours is a very Owner Friendly motorcycle (That means it's old school technology) and there is plenty of help and info out there in the COG (Connie Owners Group) for newbies like me. Stripped all the bodywork off Monday night and tuesday did the valves w/o any real problems. Pretty straight forward. Hooked up the wiring for the headlight and the accessories to. Cool. Put things back together and fired her up! SHIT! only 2 cylinders firing. What the heck?

Check firing order, plugs (new already), coils, connections. Yeah, it's got spark. Yeah, shit. There's fuel to the cylinders too. This is not right.

I have a regular habit of topping off the gas tank before I go home. That's about 7-1/2 gallons on the Connie. That got old real quick, taking that heavy bastard off and on about 15 - 20 times, trying to figure out what the heck I screwed up.

I knew it was something simple, because I hadn't really done anything to screw it up that bad. The cylinders that wern't firing were fed from both coils (and THAT should have been my big tip off). I kept checking wires and connections, over and over. Pulled the valve cover off again and rechecked the settings to make myself positive I hadn't, somehow dicked that up enough to cause this problem.

Finally, I just quit and let it sit for a day or 2 and did Honeydo's.

Well, when I went back and started to look at things the 1st thing I checked again was the firing order and the plug wires. DOH! There it was. I had swapped around a couple 'a wires.

That was the 1st thing I had checked and I probably had those wires off and on 15 times.

And I put them back on wrong- EVERY SINGLE TIME. EVEN THO' I THOUGHT I WAS CHECKING THEM AGAINST THE FIRING ORDER IN THE MANUAL!!!

Oh Man! That was painful. All I could do was laugh at my amazing dorkiness. I thought I had learned that lesson 35 years ago and never thought I'd do that trick again.

Just shows that "you can't teach an Old Dick new trogs".

Peter Jennings dead at 67

Sorry for his family. That's always difficult, but damn if I'll miss his smarmy ass. Does that make me a cold hearted bastard? Yeah, probably.

Work will begin here soon. Maybe....

I've been having so much fun with the Kawasaki as of late, I'm going to start putting together as many links as I can and catagorizing them.

First and foremost is the Concours Owners Group, or COG. A VERY active and helpful bunch there. They are located at -

www.concours.org Check 'em out. The forum is where it's all at, if you have questions about this motorcycle.

I may add some other catagories too. We'll see. I'm still ambivalent about making this a job and the weather is nice, so riding has been a priority right now.

I anticipate tearing into the old BSA in the near future also. As funds permit, of course. Hopefully, Blogger here, will let me post a reasonable number of pics w/o any problem.

So, I can hopefully, provide a good clearinghouse of info for enthusiests of these Bikes. If you've got anything you think is relavent, send it here and I'll post it up. Thanks! UNK