pimp my ride

1) I just replaced the mirrors, hand grips, and clutch lever on my motorcycle. (The brake lever is on order, and looks to be as big a job as the rest of them put together, because I'm going to have to remove the master cylinder just to figure out how the lever attaches - the shop manual doesn't even cover this one.) They were all kind of beat up from dropping the bike on the right side 11 years ago and (let's admit it) dropping it on the left side on Monday. It's a 21 year old bike, and it will never look close to showroom new, but it's astonishing how much pleasure I can get out of fixing up the bits that I actually look at when I'm riding. It's all black and shiny and grippy, not to mention I have a better field of vision than I've ever had. Really, I'm disproportionately pleased by this.

2) Last week I had the realization that the possibility of sudden violent death was no longer enough to overcome the ennui of the 30 mile commute to Nausea NH. (This had nothing to do with dropping the bike - that was a slow-speed (but not slow-enough-speed) turn.) It's really time to take the MSF Experienced RiderCourse™. I'm thinking one of the September dates. Anyone else interested?

not going to baitcon

Leaving for Worldcon on Wednesday, and I recently did the drive down to Phila for aikido camp (although iabervon did almost all of the actual driving, and lyonesse did the rest). So while it would be great to see everyone, I can't muster any enthusiasm for either the time or the other logistics of getting there or being there.

This will be the first Baitcon I've voluntarily missed since I started going in '92 or so. Last year wasn't, and the year before I was biking through Utah. Have fun, and I'll probably be there next year.