Monday, April 19, 2010

1976 Yamaha XS360 C model


I had the chicken farmer believing I knew what I was doing right up until I dropped an important screw into a bucket of oil. Then I tried and failed to get the valve cover off. One bolt head is completely hidden from all tools that I know of. I'm going to hope the valves have ok clearance. It's just needs some clean up and I believe it will be a daily runner.
Tasks:
Clean tank
Clean carbs
change oil
change plugs
service brakes
battery
service spine (arthritis)

Martin serving Oggy

Martin showed up and was beside himself when he saw my moped putting up the hill. His wife who he said was "Getting along in years." doesn't have a license and thus bicycles around York. He thought the Moped would be a good answer. Getting along in years is a mild understatement considering her birth certificate is probably written in Sanskrit. They have to be 80 years old. I don't want to ask him until we meet a few more times.
I have my doubts about the moped but only because I'm driving the worst moped that I've ever seen and until recently I was the only one who could even start it and keep it rolling. A nice moped would work for the lady.
Martin and I met up for our daily tennis match now that the rain has stopped. He works at Hannafords and at Irving Oil. "That's enough for me," he said and I felt like a complete loser for not having a job.
I told him about the gig in Dover and he said, "That's not far." And coming from his mouth I accepted it. I really don't see Martin steering me wrong. The tennis game is coming along but the wind at the courts is the worst.

Four Redux

I'm tired of only having my Charlie Manson look up on youtube. My public deserves better.




Here's the original attempt at this way back in '07 or '08. I guess I was begging for Jesus and Manson comments with the beard and such. But damn, the elevator music comparison does hurt my feelings. I see their point but in a million years you are not going to be in an elevator and hear an amateur guitar improv on Four by Miles Davis. If it were...Take my Breath Away, by Berlin, then I'd understand. But not Four. No.

Dentist Visit

I was overdue to say the least. But I've tried to eliminate sugar from my diet and I do floss and brush regularly since I was told my breath smells like spoiled milk. So Dr. Herold over on Islington went over my choppers and didn't tsk tsk me too much. In fact, I felt in good hands. He was professional and told me things he's said a thousand times but he really told them to me like I was the first person who had ever been to a dentist. He actually said, "Tooth decay is caused by bacteria on your teeth that take the sugar you eat and turn it into plaque which can eat a hole in the tooth."
I nodded gravely.
"I'm going to check your gums now. The gums are the fleshy tissue that surround the bone. Open wide....I'm going to check the depth of your gum connectivity. 1-3 is normal. 4 indicates recession of the flesh and can lead to periodontal disease. 5 and above indicate disease. Open wide."
I had some #4s and the Caribbean seascape on the ceiling had the inspirational sayings like, "Dance at home - when you're alone." or "Live today." and "Do what you love."
OK.
Then the doctor showed me a picture of teeth and gums and bone.
"In this day and age, there is no reason you should lose a tooth. If your gums are healthy then we can save all your teeth."
I thanked him for telling me good information. I listened this time. I want to keep my teeth or should I say I don't want to lose my teeth because losing teeth is a nightmare of painful chewing and crowns and dentures and bridges. My buddy George was always supergluing his bridge back together. He swallowed part of it in a nap. Root canal surgery. It's awful and I don't want it. The dentist also talked about mouth cancer. Is there something I can do about that? No smoking or chewing tobacco.
There are so many things out there trying to kill me. I don't really worry about these things like you would think based on my obsessive concern for water and wolves and tennis. In fact, I translate a sudden bump in my chest to something external. Like, I'm having a mild heart attack BECAUSE America hasn't declared war on anyone in the 60 years of war with everyone. Like this country is all a big fraud...ERGO my heart valves are malfunctioning.
I heard a health insurance company sends its associates to golf school so they can play better golf when they have golf meetings. And people wonder why I don't have insurance. My theory is that if someone is going to be playing golf then it's going to be me. I'm not paying for anyone to take putting lessons.

I'm going to go play tennis now and get this out of my mind.
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Man in the Van by Oggy Bleacher is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.