Some Things Worth Doing are Worth Doing Twice

 It wasn't necessarily the Best of Times.

It wasn't necessarily the Worst of Times

Some things went very much according to plan.

Some things I thought that would be difficult, weren't

Some things I thought would be quick and easy, Weren't!

The first task was to clear off the workbench a little bit. The summer and Fall residue of various projects that didn't get all the way put back to normal were all over the place. One of the drawers to the cabinet needed a little repair. Got that Done!

Messy Work Bench littered mostly with "stuff" that just needed to be put away.

Then there was the "stuff that I wanted to get done.
1) Change Motor Oil
2) Change the Spark Plug
3) Change the Radiator Coolant
4) Change the Gear Oil

Here's the Lineup!

Castrol this and that, the NGK CR8E, and something called Silkolene for the radiator.

I like to do things for Max with the tools I normally carry on Max. That way when I'm on the road I should have most of what I need if something happens. One exception to that is a feeler gauge that just stays at home.

I also like to do the harder tasks first. Here, I thought that changing the plug would be the most difficult, so I started with that.

The shop manual calls for a .8mm spark plug gap. Of course I don't have a gauge blade with exactly that gap. But I did find a blade with a .381 width next to a blade with a .405 width, so put them together and what do you have? Something close enough for government work.

Putting two blades together to get the result I wanted

And here's a page from the shop manual, displayed on the Nook Tablet, free from the Internet. SYM apparently felt sorry for those of us now without dealers (their sales network collapsed), that they made the owners manuals free for the taking off the web

Anybody Speak Chinese? Actually the manual is pretty good!

The gap is easy to set. I just barely needed to change the gap on the plug.

You wouldn't think a little gap like this is so critical, but it sure can be.

 I was easy to get at the old plug without taking most of the bike apart. Now if I wanted to adjust or check the valve clearances, then a lot more parts would have been on the garage floor. But the plug itself was fairly easy to get at.

I compared the old and new plugs.Old one had been in for 3,000 miles. It looked to be in pretty good shape. Just normal wear, nothing unusual or threatening.

Bought the new plug at Auto Zone, was identical to the old plug. Note the hairy knuckles?

Here's the new plug installed. Swapping out the plug really took just a few minutes, easier than anticipated.

Only one panel (easily removed) to get to the plug.

 I didn't even take any pictures of the oil change. It was simple. The drain plug is underneath the center stand on the left side. The filler hole on the right side. Measured out 800 cc of oil per the manual and  filled the reservoir. I have a special sort of plastic drain case for the oils I drain off. I took the oil (back to Auto Zone) to be recycled after I completed my work.

What turned out to be more of a pain in the ass than anticipated was changing the gear oil. When I did this before, my friend Lloyd helped me. He had a particularly handy little syringe that we used. I remember we carefully measured how much oil drained out and replaced exactly the same quantity. The syringe was very handy because the fill hole is particularly tiny. Don't ask me why!

I originally fashioned together a very small funnel and filled the gear oil using that funnel. Didn't work real well and I made a mess on the floor trying to fill it back up.

The measuring cup collects the gear oil.

The problem was that I realized  that I had put in the wrong gear oil. I should have used SAE 140, but instead had purchased SAE 90, which is much thinner. Not a good idea. Must have been a brain fart moment. I though I had been careful, but.....

So it was back to the store (yes, Auto Zone, just because it is nearby)

The new gear oil with a hopefully handy new little pump tool.

I would really liked to have had a little syringe to replace the gear oil like the one Lloyd had, but couldn't find one. The guy at the store thought this little pump might help and at the time it seemed like a good idea and it was only a few $. So why not! Right?

Not!

It fit real nicely into the filler hole, but turned out to be essentially worthless. Oh well, It was worth a try.

So on Sunday morning, I did the gear oil again. To Do It Right! So I wouldn't worry. And after the fiasco with the little oil pump I decided to dump out the wrong gear oil, but use that old bottle, because it has a small nipple at the top, as my new tool to fill up the gear oil. Worked like a charm. To help me remember next time, I even placed a note on the old bottle to help me.

The lineup of gear oil bottles.

I'm still on the lookout for that syringe. Anybody know where I can get one? Can't we always use a little new farkle now and then?

And I admit, I didn't have the time to get the radiator fluid changed. We had some other chores around the house that we did this weekend, and my beloved Kansas Jayhawks even actually won a football game. (We are better known for basketball)

But the coolant replace is on the list to be done. Hopefully next weekend.

BTW, Max is running really nice with that new spark plug. It's just enough difference to be barely noticeable, but there is seemingly a new little bit of energy with each fire.

Nice!

Ride On and Carpe Diem, my good friends.

Blacktop Nationals; the Motorcycles

How can you have the "First Annual" of anything. I mean really. I suppose you could say the "Second Annual" of something, and no problem thereafter. But First Annual?

Well we did it here this weekend, the First Annual Blacktop Nationals Car Truck and Motorcycle Show. Participants around the area brought in their vehicles to show off. There was also an auction and various vendors had booths to sell wares. Ford Motor Co was a major sponsor

There weren't a lot of motorcycles on display. Maybe they didn't get the message. But there were some interesting ones to look at. I'll do a separate post on the autos.

This old Indian motorcycle was probably the finest motorcycle on display, my opinion only.

The downtown area was lined with cars on display for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The hope is that the event will be even bigger next year. Judging from the number of people there on Saturday afternoon, the event was a success, and might be even bigger next year.

A 1964 Cushman Scooter in fine condition

There seemed to be more motorcycles parked near the display area rather than being displayed. Around here that means lots of Harleys.

A definate non-Harley. A taxi from Thailand.

A nice early to mid 80's Honda

And another one.

At a separate location I found this Bonneville. Wasn't sure if it was actually on display, had no display card I could find. But it was sure nice. Was Conch here?

A Triumph Bonneville

We wandered over to the convention center parking lot. A couple of local area dealers had trailers set up. There is a huge Harley dealer her just north of town.

The Harley dealership trailer with a few bikes on display.

Just down the way a bit is another dealership trailer. This dealer sells a lot of brands. BMW, Honda, Yamaha, Ducati, Kawasaki and even some Kymco and Honda scooters.

They had yellow tags on some of the bikes on display, indicating a special price for the event. I wished that ther could have been more bikes to look at that day, even though it was fun to look at all the cars. This next bike is one I sort of have my eye on. I just like it, and it is sort of a developing dream to own one someday. I was sort of hoping the dealer would have one on display there at the show. I asked and they said they didn't have one at the show, but did have a couple in stock at the dealership. I may stop by and get a closer look someday.

Honda NT700V

Ockham's Razor

If two hypotheses are equally accurate and neither appears more probable than the other, the simple one is to be preferred over the complicated one, because simplicity is practical. Where the hell am I going with this? Let me explain. Just soon after some warranty work was performed on my scooter recently, I began experiencing a starting problem. Not enough juice from the battery to engage the starter even though the lights and accessories all seemed to work properly (and yes, no blown fuses). I was so mad at the repair shop that did the warranty work that I began to suspect that maybe they did something wrong. Was there still some sort of short somewhere? Did they cause this? My early suspicion was the wiring to the horn which was the subject of a maintenance bulletin. It had caused a blown fuse about a year ago.

The horn next to the coolant overflow reservoir. The wires to the horn originally ran underneath the radiator, sometimes causing a short. They have been moved now.

It was also suggested by a good friend that maybe I just had a bad battery. I took the battery out and took it to a local battery store. They said it was pretty dead, but at no charge they said they would attempt to charge it up, test it and see if it was good or not. They did charge it up and test the battery and pronounced the battery to be healthy. Two days later, the scooter didn't start again. Hmmmmm I had been working with my good friend who helped me do some of the maintenance work I needed to get done on Max. The morning after we had worked on Max I noticed this box by my garage. A new battery was in there along with a trickle charger. A note said to try this battery out and see if that fixed the starting problem. If it didn't, then we would have to look further into some sort of electrical problem.

A box containing a battery, a charger and some extra coolant. A good friend is invaluable.

In trying to diagnose what my problem was, there seemed to be two possibilities: 1) I had a weak battery, pretty simple to fix. Or 2) There was a short somewhere causing a drain to the system. Would be potentially hard to track down and difficult to isolate. The timing of the starting problem closely coincided with the time that my scooter was in the repair shop. I didn't like those guys anyway. And the battery store said the battery was good and should maybe last 5 years or so (it was only 2 years old). So it was easy to assume I had a problem that might be tricky to solve.

The SYM has a 4 valve engine. Intake valves on top, exhaust below. There are 2 valve covers (the top shown here) held on the engine by 3 bolts. Two bolts are easily accessible, the third is under the bracket that holds the seat. Had to get that one from the other side. Oh well, if it was easy everybody would do it.

But, as you can maybe surmise by now, the simple solution turned out to be right and I made the whole affair seem more complicated and difficult than it really turned out to be. The new battery did the trick and the starting problem went away.

The exposed valve tappets on the bottom of the engine. We thought we might have to disassemble all of the body panels off the scooter to get at them, but turned out it wasn't that bad. Just a little inconvenient. We did have to take part of the floor off. A repair stand would help at this point but a little garage floor dust never hurt anybody.

Why is it that we sometimes assume the worst? Is it human nature? Is it because I had such a bad experience at that repair shop? But anyway, Max is now back to being his old dependable self. All is well with the universe. I have now learned a lot about Max with the help of my good friend. I have changed the engine oil, changed the gear oil, flushed and refilled the coolant, changed the spark plug, replaced an air filter and even inspected the valve clearances. The valves were all spot on and didn't need adjusting. I know how to do all these tasks now. And I replaced the battery.

The old and new air filters.

I still haven't re-set the clock though.

Maybe someday I'll tackle that too.

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Many thanks to my friend for kindly "showing me the ropes".

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Bad Service

Oh well, like Mongo said in the movie "Blazing Saddles": "Jimbo just small pawn in game of life". Virtually nothing makes me madder than receiving poor or inattentive service. Automobile dealers and life insurance salespersons top my list of people that I have had bad experiences with. They are notorious for treating people like a dollar signs and not human beings. I can now add to that list a certain repair shop that I recently took my scooter to. After 9 days, this particular place could not seem to manage doing a 6,000 mile checkup and scheduled maintenance on my machine. I also brought Max in for a couple of warranty issues. My speedometer had quit working because the cable seemed to have come loose. My horn had also quit working. I was aware of a service bulletin for the horn with two potential solutions to it. I attempted the work myself awhile back and it was working fine,,,,,,,, for awhile. Turned out the more complicated solution to the issue (may have been) was the correct one for Max. The shop did fix the warranty issues and did change my oil for me at no charge. They were not able to accomplish any of the rest of my requests. I finally told them I didn't want them to do any more work, even after the parts supposedly came in. One of my fears about buying my scooter has come true. One major reason I bought this particular scooter was because of the dealer. I liked him instantly. He has turned out to be a good friend and was always prompt and caring about service for me and my scooter. Unfortunately, with the economic downturn and somewhat reasonable fuel prices, he was not able to stay in business as a scooter dealer. He just was not able to sell as many scooters as he wanted (needed) to. The new (supposed) dealer knew I was mad. They knew that they had violated my trust. The delay was (according to them) a problem with the shipping for some parts they thought they needed (O rings and gaskets) for the valve adjustment. But when I called, I kept getting different stories. The parts were things I thought they should have had in stock anyway. They didn't call me to tell me there was a delay. I had to call them to find out what was happening. I finally determined that they were just pulling my chain. Again, "Jimbo just small pawn in game of life". The worst part of it wasn't that they weren't technically competent in performing the work, but rather that the guy supposedly in charge was not, seemingly, 1) very knowledgeable or 2) experienced or 3) understanding. Our personalities didn't mesh very well. I can guarantee that they never will. I don't know. Maybe I am silly to expect to be treated with a little bit of respect. I don't care to get my butt kissed, just be treated with a little common dignity. I was very willing to give them some benefit of doubt and leeway, but as time went on, doubt turned into mistrust and eventually to anger. So here I am without a trusted dealer that I feel that I can currently rely on for help. Well, that is not totally true. I do have some very good friends that can help with maintenance. And I was able to download the complete service manual for Max from the internet. It has already been a big help. And I am not afraid of doing some of the work myself. I would just prefer sometimes to not take the time to do the work and gladly pay someone else to do it. Guess I need to get to know Max a little more intimately. And I certainly do not wish to leave the impression that I regret buying Max even though it is not a well known or major brand. In fact, I am completely satisfied. Max has been completely dependable for the almost 2 years I have owned him. I continue to be impressed with the quality and reliability of the machine. Some people might scoff at the idea of a Taiwanese scooter, (some mainland Chinese scooters are another issue), but SYM has been in business for many years and is well respected in the industry. Max has taken everything I have thrown at him in stride and then some. Max is perfect for what I bought him for and I am looking forward to many more years of service. It's just that now I will be doing some of the maintenance items myself. There is more to this story. Another post will be up in a week or two.

Soulcraft (Sort of a Book Report)

One of my hobbies is woodworking and home remodeling. I fondly remember my 7th grade Wood Shop class. Our teacher was Mr. Pauls, who was an older man. Very patient and gentlemanly and perfect for the class he taught.

Our first assignment was to make a sanding block out of a small piece of pine. It was supposed to be about 1 1/2 inches wide by about 3 inches long and, of course, as square as possible on all corners.

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The piece of pine given to us was a bit larger than the supposed eventual dimensions. We were given as tools a block plane, a handsaw and the vice on the shop bench. That was it. .

Mine ended up far from perfect. It was a bit short on one side, not very square in every respect and the ends were a bit rough because I had a little trouble mastering the plane on the side of the wood where the wood grains were exposed. Using a block plane can be a little trickier to use than at first glance. .

I learned a lot from Mr. Pauls in that class.

I never did take the Metal Shop class although in retrospect, I wish I had.

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I have a couple of clients that run a machine shop and make aircraft parts for some of the airplane manufacturers here in Wichita. It is a small shop, about 10 employees, and these guys can do almost anything with any kind of metal. Their handiwork and precision is really amazing.

I wish now that I had taken that Metal Shop class because I would have maybe learned a few tricks of the trade that might have helped me later on in life.

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Like the time I overtightened a screw on the points inside the distributor of my old '69 VW bus and ended up ruining the distributor. Oh well, it gave me the opportunity to buy a new Porsche distributor which added maybe 2 hp.

Whoopee!!

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I thought it was very cool to successfully install a Porsche distributor on a VW engine.

. But working with wood or metal was not to be my calling in life. As I think back on how I ended up doing what I do for a living, I recall a song by Supertramp. The song is entitled "The Logical Song" and some of the lyrics are as follows.

. Then they sent me away to teach me how to be sensible, logical, responsible, practical And they showed me a world where I could be so dependable, clinical, intellectual, cynical

(and later on in the song)

. They said watch what you say or they'll be calling you a radical, a liberal, fanatical, criminal Won't you sign up your name, we'd like to feel you're acceptable, respectable, presentable, a vegetable

. I sometimes find it a bit ironic how I ended up doing what I do for a living. I am not sure I fit the mold. I am not sure anybody really does.

. But I am not really complaining. I like what I do. But I also like being a bit ornery and trying not to conform to what I am maybe supposed to do (or be) all the time.

Sharon had recently suggested that I read Shopcraft as Soulcraft by Matthew B Crawford. In part it is about the fact that he had been educated and trained to be someone or something, very intellectual, that he discovered that he didn't really like as much as he liked working with his hands. He ended up starting a motorcycle repair shop.

. There is an old adage that says:

. "Do what you love, the money will follow."

. Not really sure how true that is. If I might, I could rephrase it as:

. "Do what you love, the satisfaction will follow."

. The book Sharon recommended is full of this kind of insight and reflection. I recommend it.

. The author is no dummy. He has a doctorate degree and I am sure he is successful in life being the person he was educated to be.

. But one of the themes in his book is that making and fixing things with our hands has lost much importance in today's society. Even though I don't do this for a living, I have always enjoyed working with my hands and one point that Crawford makes is that it can be quite noble to work with your hands.

. He compares being a mechanical repairman with being a doctor in that both professions involve the repair of something that the repairman did not design originally. This can make it much more difficult, because the overall picture and theory of the design is not always readily apparent. It can require some careful thought and analysis.

. Crawford also says that part of the enjoyment to being a repairman is the opportunity to get completely mentally involved in the activity. I can do that sometimes, even with my regular profession. But doing it while fixing something with your hands can be very enjoyable also. There can be a really enjoyable sense of accomplishment when the job is done.

In doing some electrical work on my home awhile back, I was trying to diagnose a problem we were having with some light switches. It involved some 3 way switches. The use of 3 way switches was to enable you to turn off or on some lights either at the top or bottom of a stairway in our home. I spent a lot of time just trying to figure out why the wiring had been done originally in the manner it was. I finally determined that the electrician had just screwed up and had connected some wires incorrectly.

. But as I was working on it I realized that I had been concentrating very hard and my mind really got into a zone of extreme concentration. Then when I eventually figured out the problem and repaired it correctly, there was a really nice feeling of satisfaction.

. Crawford has written the book in a very scholarly manner. He quotes Aristotle and Pirsig frequently throughout the book. He includes many anecdotes from his experiences repairing motorcycles and because of that, the book is enjoyable and meaningful.

. At least is was to me.

Many of the readers of this are well acquainted with the joy and frustrations related to working on mechanical vehicles such as motorcycles and scooters. I specifically mention Domingo Chang and Stacy, who have indirectly encouraged me to take on more of my own maintenance chores with my scooter. I am sure that I may never become a full blooded mechanic. But their examples give us all an insight into their world of maintenance and repair.

It is something to be appreciated and encouraged.

. Crawford's book is highly recommended by me.

What to do with Leaves

I'm confused. Some of my neighbors do some pretty wierd things with the autumn leaves on their property. We have lots of old trees in our neighborhood and as a result there are a lot of fallen leaves this time of year. Of course, this can be a bit of a danger to two wheeled vehicles. Danger Will Robinson!

Some of our neighbors do nothing and the leaves accumulate on their lawns and blow around the neighborhood as the wind blows.

Others, painstakingly rake up the leaves, put them in large trash sacks and set them at the curb for the trash haulers to pick up. To them, apparently leaves are a menace that need to be gotten rid of.

Still others employ the use of leaf blowers, the high tech device that blows anything and everything. They get out there and blow leaves around and rid their yard of the unsightly (their opinion) leaves that have accumulated. I do not own a leaf blower, but I do have an attachment for my 400hp, 16 gallon Craftsman Shop Vac that allows me to blow rather than suck. I have used it to blow leaves out of the garage, but not in the yard.

Some neighbors either rake or blow their leaves out of their yards and let them reside in the gutters in front of their homes. I do not think this is more attractive. And what do they think will happen to the leaves? I think they are just liable to blow back into their yard or into another neighbor's yard. Maybe they think that it will now be somebody else's problem.

At my house, we mow them down and turn the leaves into mulch. We may do this 3 or 4 times during the season. In my opinion there is not a better food for the grass. To me it is just nature's way of recycling organic materials. I am not opposed to leaves and do not consider them a threat, unless I am riding and come across a pile of wet leaves as I ride.

Then there is the neighbor right next to me. He owns a riding lawn mower. I don't have anything against riding lawn mowers, but I seriously question why he has to have one, other than a feeling of power and maybe laziness. His lawn is no bigger than mine, and I can do my whole yard in less than an hour, including the trimming.

He also has a leaf blower. Reminds me of Tim Allen on the old "Home Improvement" show.

More Power!

He actually gets his blower out and blows the leaves into the street in front of his house. Then he gets on his riding lawn mower and mows them down while they are in the street. He makes numerous passes to insure the only remainder is a fine degree of leaf dust to be absorbed by the asphalt of the street. Am I missing the logic here? And finally in remembrance of a certain BMW K-75 rider who just recently posted his own obituary. Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone with SprintSpeed

Communists and Left Wing Republicans

Here's a post with intrigue! A post about stupid politicians! A post that involves, at least indirectly, one of our beloved fellow bloggers from the great city of Key West Florida! I am speaking of the one and only Conchscooter of Key West Diary fame. A blogger we all know and love for his keen insight into politics, health care, Triumph motorcycles, Vespas and the general state of the world as it is. I am not being facetious. Through his great blog, many of us know more about the Lanes, eating establishments, tourist attractions, nude beaches, politics and other facts about Key West than perhaps we know about our own cities. Well, maybe there is not a lot of intrigue to this post, but there is definate stupidity on the part of a politician, and the story involves a neighbor of Conch's, that neighbor being the country of Cuba. Cuba is, of course, only a stone's throw away from the great city of Key West, or at the very least, it isn't too far away. First a little background. I have maintained for a few years now that there are actually 3 political parties here in Kansas where I live. First you have your Democrats who are vastly outnumbered by the Republicans. The Democrats are not always well organized or well financed, but they are steady and consistent. The Republicans, however, are divided into two camps. And the two camps do not always get along with each other. I'll refer to them as the Conservative Republicans and the Moderate Republicans. It is, of course, a philosophical impossibility to be a Left Wing Republican. The Conservatives are fiercely aligned with various social issues such as abortion, the death penalty, the teaching of evolution and a distrust of big government. I say fiercely aligned, because to them, sometimes, it's their way or the highway. Even If the person they are arguing with is a fellow Republican. Kansas is a very red state. Yet, for the last 8 years, we have had a Democratic governor largely because, in my opinion, the 2 factions of the Republican party could not agree to support the same candidate. The current situation is that we have a Senator that is retiring from the Senate at the end of his next term. Two of our present US representatives, both Republicans, are vying for the Senate seat being vacated. The Senate seat is expected to be won in the primary as the Democratic candidate is not expected to be much of a factor. Here's the deal. One of them is a Conservative, the other very much a Moderate. The battle lines have been drawn. The Moderate is an early leader in the polls, supposedly with a 10-15 point margin. The moderate has raised more money for his campaign and it is starting to look bad for the Conservative. You would think that in the interest of party unity, the Conservative might just resign and throw his support to his opponent. But this is Kansas. The concept of unity in the Republican party does not exist, at least not happily. So what does the Conservative do? His campaign managers send out an Email to many of their supporters that says, in the title of the Email, that the Moderate candidate has been endorsed for the Senate seat by the Communist Party of the USA! . ????? . Upon checking with the Communist Party, they deny the endorsement and go on to say that they never endorse any Republican or Democrat for office because they like to try and find their own candidates. Makes sense to me. So what gives here?

Well, as it turns out, the Moderate candidate is one of approximately 170 other congressmen that are co-sponsoring a bill that in part is designed to ease travel restrictions between the good old USA and Cuba.

Ah yes, those Communists in Cuba! ..........................Bastards!

Guilt by association and inuendo! The politics of Fear! Who knows. It just might work!

Of course, the Moderate candidate is no more a Communist than you or I.

This is also notwithstanding the fact that many people think that the way we treat Cuba and attempt to isolate it probably does more to keep the Communists in power there than any other action we might take.

Hell, I don't know about all the details of the bill, nor do I really care. I am just amazed that some politicians think they can get away with crap like this. I hope, in a way, that this is unique to Kansas politicians but I am pretty sure it is not. Which is sort of sad.

They say that some people should not be allowed to breed. Others should not become politicians. Perhaps, sometimes, certain politicians should not be allowed to breed.

I certainly cannot begin to understand what they expected to accomplish with this Email. I would hope that most people would be able to see through this kind of bullshit politics. It would be really sad If I was wrong about that.

But Conch, I want to sincerely thank you! For defending our freedom from the tyranny of the Communists that live so close to you. I cannot begin to adequately express my appreciation for the dangers you and your fellow Key West citizens must face each and every day from the menace just a few miles from your shores. I, here in the midwest, am so thankful that you have so steadfastly maintained a vigil to keep the rest of us protected from the dangers of the nation that means nothing but harm for us in the good old USA. I am indebted to you and your fellow citizens in Key West. You have my deepest respect and gratitude! Besides that, you have a Kick Ass blog!

Max is Back!

What more can I say!

I am so glad to have him back. Even though it was only a week getting repaired, Max is everything I remembered about him.

He even came back with some new farkle!

Lloyd, my good friend and scooter doctor extraordinaire installed some little flashing lights on the end of the handlebar. They are nice and funky. Just for fun! I suppose If driving at night, I may be a little more visible to other drivers. But just a little, as they are not exceedingly bright, at least not to the degree of the famous K Beemer that we all have heard about that lights up the night sky in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

The Lambretta was a nice loaner and I appreciated the use of the scooter very much. But it wasn't Max.

After the replacement of the body parts, he sure looks great! Lloyd, as is his usual practice, washed him up as well and Max literally shined.

It took a little longer than expected for the repairs because one replacement part that came in was scratched a bit and once Lloyd got into the handlebar to check on the turn signal issues, another part, a turn signal relay, needed to be ordered.

But he is back now, and looking great.

Just in time too because Max and I are planning a little trip up to Topeka later this month so I can attend a high school reunion (35 years). It will be my first trip of any great length for me.

The interstate takes a pretty straight shot from here to Topeka totalling about 135 miles. But I intend to take some county and state roads to provide a better opportunity for picture taking. The scenery should be fantastic for the trip. I am not sure at what stage the trees will be in their annual change to winter mode, but an area I will travel through is known as the Flint Hills, and they can be very beautiful. The Flint Hills run generally along a ridge from north to south in the east central and southern part of Kansas and consist of gentle rolling hills, but primarily grassland with few trees.

The northeast part of the state where Topeka lies is much different than the Wichita area geographically because there are many more hills and trees. I am also planning a little day trip to a small town just east of Topeka to take some pictures for an upcoming Halloween post. I have already written the post, but badly need some pictures for it. Stay tuned.

Name Tag from previous reunion. Topeka West High School. Go Chargers!!

They say you can't go home again. A comedian I admire said once about high school reunions that people are the same and don't change a whole lot except for the fact that many of them are a lot bigger in stature than they were as teenagers. At the 30 year reunion I was about 65 lbs over my pole vaulting weight in high school. Many classmates noticed and I took a bit of ribbing for it. But for this reunion I should be only up only about 30 lbs.

One thing is for sure! Most of the guys have a lot shorter hair than we did in 1974.

30 + years of sitting at a computer and doing taxes can certainly have an effect on people.

Current reunion plans are for a homecoming football game Friday night and a mixer on Saturday night. It will be a chance to relive some old memories of a place I lived from age 9 to 17. Many of the memories of living and growing up in Topeka are good ones. Other memories, maybe not so much. It will be good to see some old friends and relive some old times. Picture taking will be an important part of the trip as well. There will be much potential fodder for future blog posts to tantalize or bore readers of this blog. I leave you with a couple of cartoons from the office.

This one I suspect is a recreation of a recent event in Bobskoot's office.

And "The Far Side" has some good accountant cartoons as well Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone with SprintSpeed

Personal Service

Something that is sometimes lacking these days.

I went to get my oil changed a few days ago. I could easily do it myself, but prefer to have the dealer do it. He has become a good friend and charges a very reasonable amount for his work. Plus, he knows the workings of my scooter inside and out. He also checks out the brakes, condition of the tires and the stability of the front fork, just to let me know how the scooter is holding up. He knows how often I ride and that I rely on my scooter as my primary means of transportation.

He recently moved his store. At his old location I was able to drop off my scooter, walk to my office and walk back later in the day to pick it up. His new location is a little further away from the office so walking in to work is not a very good option.

I should have called first, but I just dropped by his store at 8:00 one morning. I just wanted to see If maybe I could leave the scooter and see if he could give me a ride to the office. If not, I could easily make other arrangements for a ride to work on another day.

He said he didn't want to drive me in to work that morning because he was waiting on a delivery for a part needed for an engine he was overhauling. Then he got a sort of funny look on his face and looked around the room for a scooter he said he might loan me for the day. I said that wasn't necessary and that I could bring the scooter back the next day and have a coworker or my wife pick me up.

Then he just asked me If I had a few minutes and said he would do it right then if I had some time. I didn't have any pressing engagements at the office that morning, so he went ahead and did it right then and there.

We had a good chat while he worked and he finished it up quickly and still made sure to check out other parts of the scooter. He let me know that my front brake pads were showing a little wear, but still had plenty of pad left for now, just something to keep an eye on.

I was back to the office well before 9:00. I felt good about the fact that I had been treated kindly and professionally when in fact I probably imposed on him a little bit by just showing up at his place unannounced that morning.

I also chatted with Flo, from Progressive Insurance, that morning. She said she could make me a Hulluva Deal on scooter insurance. I said thanks, but no thanks, I am already covered. I had just renewed for another year with another company. But she is cute as a button and nice to talk to. We fist pumped each other, just like she does on TV.

I was impressed with Lloyd the first time I met him when I was shopping for my scooter. He knows his stuff. He has always been courteous and I have never seen him use any kind of high pressure sales tactics.

I came back to the office feeling that I needed to remember to try and always treat my clients in the same manner. Good long term relationships always develop from that kind of interaction.

Thanks Lloyd for being such a good friend. Its a pleasure to do busines with you. I appreciate it very much.

Lloyd Beynon "A Wheeled World" Wichita, Kansas

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