Archive for the Hobbies Category
- Playin’ Trains and Another New Lens - November 15th, 2008
- What Got Me Hooked… - January 12th, 2008
- Ear-cIcles - October 30th, 2007
- Prelude … - October 25th, 2007
- First Ride! - October 18th, 2007
- Bargain Basement Bike — Epilog - October 17th, 2007
- Bargain Basement Bike — Part V - October 17th, 2007
- Bargain Basement Bike — Part IV - October 11th, 2007
- Bargain Basement Bike — Part III - October 9th, 2007
- Bargain Basement Bike - Part II - October 5th, 2007
- Bargain Basement Bike - October 4th, 2007
- Didja Miss ME? - September 17th, 2007
- Well, Now, That’s Xciting! - September 12th, 2007
- Bikers’ Fun In the Sun - September 12th, 2007
- Seems I’m not the Only One… - September 11th, 2007
- I Just Love to Agonize - September 11th, 2007
- All In All, Not Bad - September 9th, 2007
- First is Down, The Rest Are Up* - September 9th, 2007
- The Story of Wild Woman Donna, Scooter Maniac - August 29th, 2007
- A Tale of Three Cycles - August 12th, 2007
- Scooterville Folly - July 24th, 2007
- Zip Zapped … For Now - July 6th, 2007
- The Pursuit of Zip - July 4th, 2007
- A Matter of Direction - May 29th, 2007
- Where There’s a Will … - December 27th, 2005
- Music-a-Go-Go - December 16th, 2005
- Really Cool Adventure … - December 15th, 2005
Today was Steve Fisher’s annual “November is National Model Railroading Month,” and, as always, I go to help out.[Show as slideshow]
It was also a great opportunity to test out the new (to me) Sigma 24-135mm f/2.8-4.5 lens I picked up as an eBay steal. It’s both wider and longer than my Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8, although [...]
Some of you may remember my mentioning that Steve’s bike was the first I’d actually ridden on. Well, Steve put the following picture up on his flickr stream.
That’s Steve, back in ‘85, on his little 250cc Suzuki.
I rode on some other bikes after that — Jeff Wood’s 500cc Honda, and another fellow’s Harley [...]
When the temperature drops to below 45 or so, it’s a good idea to close the vents on your helmet to keep your ears from freezing…
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Found on flickr. Click the image to see the animated version.
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I took the bike to work today. You knew I would. And, I’m home now. Both the bike and I are in pretty much the same condition we were in when we left this morning!
Before taking off across Columbia, though, I thought it might be a “good thing” to ride around the neighborhood a bit [...]
Sounds like an episode of The FBI. Remember? That incredibly bad crime series from the sixties?
Anyway, Bill from Clinton Cycles just called and asked, “Are you ready for me to deliver your bike tonight?”
Dumb question. It should arrive around 8PM. I might even ride it to work tomorrow.
8PM UPDATE: IT IS HERE!
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The saga continues …
Today, I spoke with Jeff, the service manager at Clinton Cycles, since Steve is out today, and Bill wasn’t answering his page (he is the GM, so, he might actually have been doing something important. “According to the computer,” Jeff said, the gas new tank arrived sometime earlier today. However, it hadn’t [...]
Late yesterday afternoon, and again, I had been on the phone with Steve at Clinton Cycles. Seems that the tank came back from being re-lined on Tuesday, and it wasn’t good enough to use. But that didn’t get communicated to anyone until yesterday. So, now they are having to order a new gas tank from Honda, which [...]
I just got off the phone with Steve at Clinton, and got a little more detail on what’s up with my “new” bike. It seems that on last Thursday when they were re-assembling the bike after cleaning the carburetors, they found some rust in the gas tank, and needed to send the tank out to [...]
It now looks as if it will be late next week or early the following week before the bike makes it to me. Apparently, the shop found another task that needed to be completed as they were re-assembling the bike — something to do with re-spraying the tank liner? Anyway, it whatever it was takes [...]
I’m a big, bad biker now. Well, sorta. We went down to Clinton Cycles this evening to pay for my bargain eBay find 1994 Honda Shadow VLX 600. According to the guy who handles the internet sales, there were 35 “watchers,” a whole lot of questions, and one bid: Mine.
Works for me. For just under [...]
I thought not.
One thing that does not instill confidence when traveling on airplanes — a pilot who comes on board whistling the chorus from Ring of Fire.
At least I got the a seat in the emergency exit row…
I spent the weekend in Ft. Myers, Florida, doing some consulting work for a new club-jazz band down [...]
Those who have been keeping up will remember that I mentioned yesterday that I thought that a look at the Kymco Xciting 500 maxi-scooter might be in order. Today, I trundled out to MotoStrada in Timonium to have a look, and to park my butt on the machine.
The Xciting 500 seems to have the utility [...]
Why does all the really cool stuff have to happen when I have to work? Ah, well. If you happen to be “downyaishun” this weekend (actually, starting tomorrow!), you may want to check out DelMarVa Bike Week. Looks like a fun entertainment line up, if nothing else.
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I’ve been a little remiss in reading some of my friends’ blogs. Steven, it seems, is jonesing for a bike again. Steve’s the fellow who’s little Suzuki 250 introduced me to actually riding on a motorcycle – at least as a passenger — back in the very early 80’s.
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After an hour-and-a-half at the MVA (we have MVA, the rest of you have DMV — go figure) yesterday, I now hold a new drivers’ license with a motorcycle endorsement added to the class. The little “M” is an exciting thing. Now comes the part about buying (and paying for) a bike.
We all know that [...]
Okay, I know that you all are simply dying to know how I faired on today’s motor cycle riders’ test.
Well, my ride was not exactly perfect. But, it was perfect enough. I got caught up on exactly the things I thought I would — primarily “the box,” where you have to make two consecutive crossing U-turns. [...]
Five-and-one-half-hours on a too-small motorcycle is a very long time.
As some may know, I’m working on getting my motorcycle license, so that I can ride something (anything) larger than a 50cc motor scooter. So, I’ve been taking the Motorcycle Safety Foundation Basic Rider Course. In our area, that’s a two-day course that gets kinda [...]
Today was another fun and different day here in Ba Haba, Maine. Donna and I rented a pair of little 50cc scooters for the day, and zipped off around Acadia.
I had a Vespa-esque Roketa “Venice” model, and Donna’s was a Qlink Axon50. The Roketa was woefully under-powered — in many cases, it was all I could do to make [...]
What I Thought I Wanted As you may remember, I had pretty much settled on getting a Suzuki Burgman 400 “maxi-scooter” for trekking around, to save some on gas and to prolong the life (agony) of my nine-year-old 169,000 mile van. The 400’s a sharp machine that feels good under me, and isn’t too hatefully [...]
It’s no Burgman 400, but it sure is cute!
The confirmation and course materials for my motorcycle safety and licensing class came in the mail today. Assuming all goes well, I should be licensed by the middle of September. Then all I have to do is figure out how to finance the Burgman …
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For the time being, I’ve decided that it would be best to hold off on buying the motor scooter. It’s not that it’s a bad idea, it’s just that I would prefer to go about it the “right way.”
After a lot of research and thought, I’ve determined that a 49cc scooter (for which a motorcycle license [...]
As I mentioned, I’m considering and researching the purchase of a motor scooter to reduce the use of my van — if for no other reason then to reduce the amount of gasoline I burn. The van gets a whopping 16MPG around town, which is about 90% of my driving.
In addition to the two [...]
Back on Sunday, I wrote about my trials while trying to shoot bird photos with my 75-300mm lens. And, I mentioned a possible solution being to get a 70-200mm f/2.8 and a 2X tele-converter to come up with a 400mm f/5.6 lens. Realistically, though, 400mm is only a 25% increase over a 300mm lens — [...]
There’s a Way!
via Google Blog Search
Even in a war zone, these guys are building a model railroad!
Source Story: Boys will be boys where trains are concerned, even in Baghdad
September 21, 2005
Boys will be boys where trains are concerned, even in Baghdad
While shopping the Internet for model train supplies (cheap) I came across photos from Lt. [...]
I have been giving music in general, and playing in a band in particular, a lot of thought recently. The reality is that I don’t have the time to make it the priority it needs to be in order to do it right. And, I’ve got other things that I need to make my highest [...]
… For Train Geeks.
If you’re a train geek who wants to get his or hands on the throttle of a real steam locomotive for a few days, this sounds like a dream vacation.
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