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Sunday, 31 August -

Today Labashi and I went on a date. We drove to York and walked a few blocks to Penn Park and the ‘Foodstruck’ event, a ‘food truck party’. This is the third food-truck event in York and we’ve been wanting to attend. The first was on a cold and stormy evening last Fall so we skipped that and then missed the announcement on the second one. But no matter, this one made up for it.
Penn Park, also known as Penn Commons, is a full city block of open space. The organizers of the event had 50 food trucks park their trucks around the periphery of the Commons. That allowed plenty of room for customers and prospective customers to mill about and still plenty of space left over for a pleasant in-the-park vibe for all.
We first tried a falafel salad at the Urban Olive truck, then a watermelon-cucumber gazpacho at the Flying Deutschman truck, then Korean BBQ tacos (pork and beef versions) at K’ai Chi, then mofongo at The Green Bowl, and finally a ginger-limeade at another (I didn’t catch the name). Excellent! And we left just as a light rain started to roll in.
Back home we had a film festival. We watched the Lars Von Trier film ‘Melancholia’, episodes of ‘The Killing’ and ‘Parenthood’. ‘Once Upon A Time’, and a standup show, ‘Jim Jeffries:Bare’.
Great date!

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Saturday, 30 August -

This morning I did another round of NuFinish on Mocha Joe’s fiberglass roof. I’ve learned NuFinish acts very differently on fiberglass compared to my experience with it on my (former) Miata’s paint. On paint, NuFinish generates a heavy layer of oxidized paint and once you remove that you have a perfectly shiny finish. On the white gelcoat of the fiberglass top, I have a hard time even seeing where I’ve put it as it goes on. The coating goes on smoothly and dries very quickly to a light haze. Wiping off the haze and buffing with the towel leaves a surface with more of a matte surface from a straight-on view of it. If you look at it from an angle you can see a shine but it’s not as uniform as on a painted surface. This may be my fault in that I’ve been doing the roof in very humid weather with air temperature above 80 degrees.
Later in the day I mowed the lower portion of the lawn and it seemed more difficult than usual. Labashi has been messing with MY mower settings, I see. Actually, I think the mower blade needs sharpening. In any case, the mower is leaving too much grass uncut-- it’s just laying over and pops back up later. The lawn surface in the Lower 40 is also very rough right now, I imagine because of the extra-dry conditions. It seems like we have a lot of rain showers but the ground is hard and uneven.
That evening we watched episodes of ‘The Killing’ and ‘Parenthood’.

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Friday, 29 August -

Wow. The temperature this morning was forty-nine degrees. What a wonderful summer.
I worked on figuring out what detailed topo maps I want for the GPS while the day warmed up a bit. I jumped on the Concours and ran over to the bank on an errand and then back home I researched what wax or poly to use on Mocha Joe’s roof. The fiberglass is clean but quite chalky so I think it’s going to be a problem.
Once the shade got over the driveway I swapped our vehicles around and started. I first tried some soft-paste Nu Finish but it just seemed to disappear and I couldn’t tell where I had worked.
I then tried some Blue Poly I had leftover from the sailboat and it was even worse.... it left a green-blue sheen behind.
I hopped on the Thruxton and ran over to the hardware store for liquid Nu-Finish. That also seemed to be swallowed up by the fiberglass but I could tell where I had worked.
I used up about half the container as I worked quickly, then left it to dry thoroughly. I followed up with a dry towel to remove the dried liquid and then buff. The results aren’t great in that there’s little shine but at least I have a coat of wax on the gel-coat and that should slow down its deterioration in the sun.
I spent the rest of the afternoon on the web, thinking I’d order topo maps yet today. In the end I decided to wait until next week; I still need to learn more before deciding whether to go with the maps on SD card or DVD.
That evening we watched the end of Season Five of ‘Southland’. The last two episodes were great and we’re shocked the show wasn’t renewed for another season. But maybe it was time after all.

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Thursday, 28 August -

This morning I spent two hours cleaning Mocha Joe’s fiberglass raised roof. Over time it had developed an unsightly coating of spotty dark-colored growth of some type. I’m not really sure what it was. It wasn’t normally visible since it wasn’t on the sides of the roof and the roof is quite high. But it was time to do something about it.
I started off with a tire brush and a scrub brush and was surprised how much work it took to get the growth off. After finishing one side (as far as I could reach from the ladder), I decided to try a Magic Eraser foam block to get off the remainder. Bingo! The foam block worked great.
That afternoon I rode the F650GS in to Starbucks. The day was so beautiful I just had to get on the bike and enjoy it.
Labashi and I went to Chili’s for fajitas and then watched two episodes of ‘Southland’ Season Five.

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Wednesday, 27 August -

Another nice one today... a bit hot perhaps but wonderful riding.
I rode in to Starbucks this morning for a quick fill-up on passion tea so I’d have plenty of water in me for a walk. I played with the tracks function on the GPS for a bit before riding over to Rudy Park.
I parked at the main parking lot and circled up to the top of the hill and back around via the upper side of the dog park. As I walked I noticed the GPS track had begun at Starbucks and I was frustrated by that until I realized that’s where I had last zeroed it.
When I got back to the parking lot, I zeroed the track and started over. Then I walked to the Heritage rail-trail, out of the park, and followed it to the new bridge past Crist Park and returned. That last track gave me exactly 3.5 miles and I had one and a half on the first track for a five-mile total.
That afternoon I cleaned up the Thruxton and oiled the chain in preparation for Wednesday night Bike Night at Quaker Steak and Lube. Last week I had read the Bike Nights there were recently drawing hundreds of bikes.
After supper I left the house around 1800. But I was too early at the venue. There were a couple of dozen bikes but everyone was apparently inside.
I rode over to Starbucks and then through town to give it a little time. As the sun was setting I rode back and indeed there were now hundreds of motorcycles in the parking lot.
I parked an almost immediately a guy came over to talk Triumphs. At one time he had sold Triumphs in this area but had moved to North Carolina and is a sales manager at a Harley dealership down there. We talked for twenty minutes or so. Interesting guy!
I then hung out for another half hour before heading home.
That evening we watched two ‘The Killing’ episodes. The first started veering off into soap-opera-land but the second got things back on track.

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Tuesday, 26 August -

Today was another beauty. While Labashi worked on her fall mulching I did some research on fixing concrete sidewalk cracks. I then rode the Concours in to Lowe’s for a tube of concrete-crack-specific polyurethane.
I was thinking I’d go for my walk after that and get to the crack tomorrow. But with the weather so good today and a bit iffy late tomorrow, it made more sense to get’r done.
By the time I got home we had shade over the sidewalk so I went right to work. The crack in question is at the base of a step and is well-defined. The hardest part of the job, it turns out, was cleaning the hard-to-reach pine needles out of the crack. The polyurethane was easy to work with. I could keep the nozzle in place to put pressure to force it well into the crack and it smoothed out easily with a wet finger. It was much friendlier to use than a typical caulk.
After that little job I rode the Thruxton over to the gym and did my ten-minutes-per-station circuit for 70 minutes. I didn’t seem to have much pep to start and thought I might only do a half-session today but got more into it as I moved from station to station.
That evening we watched two episodes of ‘Parenthood’-Season Five. It’s been a while since we’ve seen the Bravermans but got back into it quickly.

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Monday, 25 August -

Nice day today. It feels like September. Lots of dew and cool in the morning and then nice by mid-morning.
Labashi went to town to get mulch and I viewed a couple of tutorial videos on the new GPS. I also contacted Garmin about my trouble ticket and learned it’s still working its way up the chain.
With Labashi away, I spent an hour or so using her laptop to run Garmin’s Basecamp to download tracks and photos from the GPS and plot them on City Navigator maps. I made some screen shots and sent them off to my brothers to give them an idea of what I’m seeing with the new GPS.
I then went out and started on my other project for the day-- cleaning up the headlights on the van and Labashi’s car with a headlight restoration kit.
I had bought a kit for it last winter but then found I could use Flitz to do a passable job on the van that would last a month or so. I’ve been ignoring the problem on Labashi’s car and I think it’s too far gone for the Flitz approach.
By the time I was out there the sun was shining on the passenger-side headlight of the van. I was surprised how quickly that little bit of sun dried up the lubricant for the sanding pads but that was only a minor problem--- just spritz on a little more!
The two van headlights took about a half hour and looked really good at the end. I think the key to the good look is the sealant and I’m not sure it’s going to last. We’ll see.
I didn’t get to Labashi’s car until mid-afternoon since I needed to wait until the front of the car was in the shade. This one took about 45 minutes and also looked really good in the end. Again, though, in the step before the sealant I could still see lots of corrosion on the plastic ; the sealant just seems to magically clear it up. Will it last?
Late in the afternoon I zipped over to the grocery store and bank to run some errands. Wow, was it every a nice day for a motorcycle ride!
That evening we watched a ‘Southland’ Season Five mid-season episode.

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Sunday, 24 August -

Today was a much nicer day but didn’t start out so well. When I started up the laptop it told me the date was older than 2008 and it couldn’t find my wireless network. After a bit of research I tracked that to the System Management Controller function. I found instructions on how to reset the SMC and tried to print them off but our printer chose to refuse to print with a low-toner light. That, in turn, led to trying to find a good price on a replacement toner cartridge. I was surprised to see there weren’t any local deals on these. Lots of places have them but they’re all selling at list price ($69). I finally decided I’d get one but then order spares off Amazon ($45) for next time around.
I hopped on the F650GS and zipped down to Staples, where I was very surprised to see they are charging $73---- that’s higher than list price!---- and also higher than the Staples web site price for them ($68). Since Best Buy was close, I checked there and they wanted $75! Has the world gone crazy? I had other business near Office Max but they’re also charging higher than list price. This is exactly the kind of situation that makes me decide to be stubborn so I decided I’d order off the web and wait out the shipping time.
I also zipped over to the state store for supplies and then headed up to Rocky Ridge for a walk. Today I had the new GPS along to see how it does on the trails. I selected the perimeter route over the steepest terrain so I could see how it’s represented on the topo maps and the 3D view.
I pushed pretty hard and the day was sticky-hot. I did a six-mile loop in a bit under two and a half hours. For some reason I had back pain today. I know if I overdo I can get a mid-spine pain at the site of an old injury and had that. But I also had a stiffness in the lower-back which I don’t normally have.
I took some ibu when I got back to the bike but that didn’t seem to do much and I was really whipped by the time I got home.
I made a couple of caipirinhas and that seemed to help a bit and after supper I perked up. That evening we watched two episodes of ‘Southland’ Season Five.

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Saturday, 23 August -

This morning and, come to think of it, most of the day, was rainy and I spent much of it on web patrol and continuing to play with the GPS’s many setup options. I’ve used marine charts on a GPS but until now haven’t had one with topo maps. I also want to learn how to load third-party maps (such as trail maps) and how to transfer tracks and geocaches to and from the unit.
I spent the afternoon writing an email to a fellow camper-van owner and one to Maypo.
That evening we watched two episodes of ‘Southland’- Season Five.


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