Monday, September 28, 2009

Apply palm to forehead.
Reassembly is the inverse.



To update the previous: Not an eaten valve, just Yamaha and their incredibly insane valve settings. How one company can come up with half a dozen different valve gaps for the exact same engine is a matter for the engineers to figure out.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

A momentary time of absolute freedom, followed by a crashing sound.



People occasionally ask me why I ride a motorcycle. It's obviously unsafe, frightening and loud. And in spite of all that, there are the moments when you're hunched over the tank, a fast wind pulling at your face and tears streaming back from the far corners of your eyes and a dull red sound echoing back from somewhere below and behind you that makes it all worthwhile.

The other half of this is walking home, sweat dripping out from under your padded jacket and 450 pounds of dead weight resisting your motion towards home.

My bike apparently ate a valve this past week. I'm so sick about it right now I can't even think about it much. I go out to the shed, look long and hard at the bike and try to remember the flying but all that comes to mind is the pushing. Fixing it is a job. Pulling the engine out of the frame, lifting the head and hopefully only discovering a bent valve, if I'm lucky, or a holed piston, if I'm not. Less the lion or the princess and more the lion or the tiger...

I'd sell it, but I can't bear the thought of condemning myself to the ground. Not just yet, anyway.

Friday, September 18, 2009

Happy 300th Sam Johnson

JGM again

"Still it is undecided whether or not there has ever been an instance of the spirit of any person appearing after death. All argument is against it; but all belief is for it."
    - Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Your lips are near...

...but my heart is far away.
Photo by John G. Moebes

Monday, September 14, 2009

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Consider the object: Luggage Stickers

I found these stuffed in a drawer while in the process of looking for something else...

I'm not sure of the date or if they are reproductions or not, but everything else in the drawer dated from the 60's so I'm going with that.

I had commented to a friend earlier in the week that you couldn't pay me to get on a plane ever again (they just aren't made for 6' 4" people, that's a solid fact), but I do still subscribe to the romantic idea of the golden age of flying when the term "jet set" actually meant something.

Aeronaves de Mexico


Indonesian Airlines


Air Afrique Luggage


Pan Am Airlines


Qantas Airlines

A pleasant remembrance of times when airline passengers weren't just peanuts, but valued customers.

All images link to my Flickr pages where you can download high quality scans, suitable for whatever mod design work or inspiration you need.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Come closer, don't be shy...

Hint: one of the people in the above photograph is not doing very well at all.
From Petrolia Heritage

There are a few ghosts who happen to share my living space with me. For the most part, they keep to themselves and don't bother anyone except for my friends who are usually only surprised by them as they stroll the yard, or brush by in the hallway. It's possible that they are as surprised as my friends are to find actual people in what, by metaphysical rights, is their space. But soon enough, I'll leave and they can go back to doing what they do without any intrusion from the corrupt world. I figure they have as much right to the place as I do, but there's one who has been whispering in my ear for the past three nights and waking me up, and if she doesn't knock it off soon, I'm gonna get angry.

I need my sleep after all.