Wanted: Anyone who can fix a motorcycle/scooter. Must have own tools and an ability to get the job done in a reasonable time.

You would think that with all the scooters and motorcycles on the roads these days that there would be a lot of places to fix these vehicles. If your car needs repair, there are plenty of places to choose from, even good ones. Once you find your favorite mechanic, you are good to go. How come we don't have this luxury in the scooter and motorcycle area?

When we bought our scooters we were very happy with the way that they worked. But after a few days I began to notice that my scooter had a few minor problems, like no tail-light, a gas gauge that didn't work all the time, and a hand grip that needed replacing because it was damaged. All little things but I wanted them fixed so we contacted the place that sold us the bikes and the salesman agreed to take care of things. Here's where the problems started. The place that sells the bikes does not fix them; they have to send them to another bike shop. Okay, but then the other bike shop isn't doing the job. I brought the bike in to this repair place last Wednesday and he said he wouldn't even look at the bike until the following Tuesday. A whole week and not even look at it? Are they kidding?

We then went to the computer to see if we could find a better place. Nothing. A few places say they repair bikes, but my bike is not a "repair", it should have been made right before I took delivery. This means that I don't pay anything but the place that has my bike right now wants to charge me for "repairs". I can see that it's time for me to get a couple wrenches and a repair manual.

Some weekends are great, some are blah, and some are wilder and busier than all the rest. This past weekend was filled with activity. There were two birthdays last week in my family and we usually get together to celebrate multiple birthdays on the same weekend.

We started on Friday evening with a dinner at a local restaurant. Everybody likes Italian food so we went to an Italian restaurant that has a good reputation for consistently good food and good service. We exchange birthday cards and presents and enjoy a fine meal. Then we load our full bellies into the car and go home. The trouble with eating so much good food is that we’re ready for a nap within a few minutes. We have to stay awake to drive home and then, maybe we can catch a nap.

Saturday morning I needed to go to the grocery store so I took out my scooter and rode the four miles to Publix for some essentials. The temperature was around seventy-five degrees and it felt great going down the road. This is the first time that I rode the scooter with this temperature and it was so comfortable that I wished that the ride had been longer so that I could have enjoyed more of it. Then, my husband suggested that we shoot some pool. We haven’t done that in over a year. We went to the pool hall and discovered that we were the first people to decide to shoot pool that day. We had the whole place to ourselves; it was great. Actually, I think he suggested the activity just so he could get a glass of Guinness. It was an enjoyable couple hours of pool and eating. Maybe we can do this again before next year!

On Saturday evening some friends came to the house and we had a fine meal (they brought the main course and a birthday cake). Then we felt like – a nap. You can bet we slept well on Saturday night.

On Sunday we decided to ride our scooters down to St. Marks. This would be the longest ride (35 miles, one way) that we have taken thus far. There was also the possibility of rain and thunderstorms; we didn’t want to get stuck on the road during inclement weather. My husband advised against riding on wet pavement because of the possibility of skidding so we took a chance on making the trip. We got to our destination high and dry, no trouble. While we were at St. Marks, the clouds gathered and the rain came down in torrents. By this time we had taken shelter. We and the scooters were dry. We looked at the storm activity on the computer and picked a time when we had a window of dry weather. We rode back home with only a light sprinkle of rain. By the time we were halfway home the sun had dried up everything and we had no trouble getting back.

All and all, it was a great weekend. We did numerous things and had no mishaps. Maybe we can have more weekends like this one.

I know I appear to be an old fuddy-duddy, but I've really got to comment on some of the clothes kids are wearing these days. The thing that bothers me the most is when the kids purposely wear their pants really low so that their underwear shows. Where on earth did they ever get the idea that that is attractive? This practice originated in prison and it meant that a male inmate would be available to have sex with other male inmates. Why would kids want to emulate that? Do they even know where it came from?

Second on my list are women that wear slippers to go out shopping. I even saw a cashier at the Wal-Mart that was wearing slippers while she was working. Flip-flops and other sandals are just as easy to slip on when heading out the door.

Third on my list are pierced tongues. I watch in horror as a person with a pierced tongue tries to talk. They are difficult to understand and it looks uncomfortable. I'm not thrilled about nose piercings (what do they do when they have a cold?) or eyebrow piercings, either. 

"This page intentionally left blank."

Why would anyone put that on a page? As soon as that appears on the page, then it is no longer blank, right? I really don't think a blank page needs an explanation. 

I was at Disney World's Hollywood Studios during one of their "Star Wars Weekends". The temperature was about 90 and yet there were children and grown-ups walking around in full Star Wars costumes. Darth Vader, Princess Leia, and Obiwan were the most popular. There were multiple events planned throughout the day. One event had little children getting to go up on stage with Jedi masters to learn how to use a light saber . You could also get your picture taken with a Star Wars character (I don't know how the storm troopers could make it through the day in that heat without passing out) and a select few would even get a autograph. You needed a "Fast Pass" to get an autograph. If you didn't get there early enough to get a fast pass (there were a limited number given out), you could only watch in envy at those in the fast pass line. As I was leaving the park, I saw that people were starting to gather outside of the entrance to the park. They weren't milling around waiting to go in. They were setting up sleeping bags and tents. They were going to sleep there that night so they could be the first ones into the park the next morning to get a Fast Pass. The actors weren't even the stars of the movies. The weekend I was there it was Chewbacca, Darth Vader, and Wicket (an Ewok). All of which in the movie were completely covered by a costume. If there wasn't a sign beside the person, you would never know they had been in Star Wars. One event I attended was a preview of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. This movie fits in between Episode 2 and Episode 3. But it's a cartoon! It's hard to care about characters that are only a cartoon. Especially after you have seen the character in a movie acted by real human beings. And if you've seen Episode 3, why go back and watch Episode 2.5? I'll never understand why they filmed Episodes 4, 5, and 6 and then went back and did Episodes 1, 2, and 3. I hate watching things out of order.

What’s going on with this incredibly hot weather? Normally I like the warm weather but lately it’s so hot that I feel like I’m going to melt. Thank goodness for air conditioning. My car, house, and office are all nice and cool. I don’t know how the people lived here in Florida before they invented air conditioning. Can you imagine what it was like for the Indians and the early settlers a hundred years ago? It must have been brutal.

I just got back from Orlando where I visited all the Disney parks with my relatives. It was nice, but the lines were so long to get into the exhibits, and standing in the heat took all my energy. We walked a good deal during the week and I felt exhausted. It was just like going to the gym for a great workout. Afterwards, I looked forward to getting back to the rented condo for some relaxation.

We saw some really great entertainers at Disney. Great acrobats, singers, dancers, and shows. I wonder if those entertainers can make a living working there all year long. I remember many years ago hearing that most of the singers and dancers were college students just working for the summer.

I am so glad I allowed one day of recovery after my vacation. The first day was mostly driving (and getting lost). The next three days were spent sun-up to sun-down at an amusement park. The last day was more driving. I couldn't stand any more vacation. I was so happy to get home and sleep in my own bed with my own husband. (That doesn't sound quite right.) Having meals at normal times with food I usually eat. The next day I mostly napped and did laundry and started worrying about what I would face at work the next day.

I think that most things in our world have a purpose. Forests and mountains and oceans all have a reason to exist. Animals populate the Earth and give us much joy. Even insects have purpose in many ways. They nourish the soil and pollinate the flowers and become food for other species of animals. But there are two forms of insects that I don’t see any reason for: flies and mosquitoes.

These two insects are everywhere. I can’t seem to go anywhere without getting bitten by mosquitoes. Those welts are so itchy and sometimes painful. The flies are so annoying when they buzz around me and land on me no matter where I am.

For some reason the flies seem to have a survival instinct. We bought some of those fly strips in the grocery store the other day to try to cut down on the fly population. We hung them up in different locations where we have seen many flying insects. The insects are still flying around and the bug strips are untouched. How do they know that the strips are there to catch them?

My husband has several methods to rid us of these two pests. He is deadly with a fly swatter, though the flies seem to be moving too fast these days. He uses bug spray to fog the areas where the insects seem to congregate. The bug strips that I mentioned above. Every month we have a professional bug spraying done all around the house. Wouldn’t you think that these methods would rid us of every bug? Oh, one more method, he makes sure that there are no puddles in the yard. Mosquitoes will breed in any water source. If there is a puddle from rain water he will take a broom and brush all the water out until it is dry.

Maybe I’ll have to start using bug repellant all the time. Or carry a fly swatter with me.

My husband surprised me the other day by suggesting we look at scooters. He had ridden motorcycles a lot when he was younger but I never had so I wasn't sure if it was a good idea or not. The high cost of gas was what prompted this suggestion. It happened to be a Monday and we had the day off for Memorial Day. We discovered that most cycle shops around town are closed on Sunday and Monday. We came across this car dealership that was open and they happened to carry some scooters as well. They had only two scooters of the size we were looking for: 50cc or less. According to the salesman, if the motor scooter is 50cc or less, you do not need to take the motorcycle test for your license and you don't have to have PIP insurance. It does have to be titled and registered.

We drove the scooters around the grassy lot at the dealership. We wanted to take them for a test drive on the road, but one of the salesmen wouldn't allow it for liability purposes because they didn't have a dealer tag for scooters. We even tried riding two people on one scooter. As long as you don't have to get anywhere quickly, they are great. The maximum speed is around 30 - 35 MPH. We decided to buy both scooters.

The distance to my work and back home is about 25 miles. I figure that each time I take the scooter instead of my van, I am saving a gallon's worth of gas. Right now that is a savings of about $4. As the gas prices go up, I'll be saving even more. We hope to use the scooters enough so that they pay for themselves in the saving on gas.   

I went into Best Buy (there is only one in Tallahassee) to buy a deep cleaning vacuum (with the water tanks and detergent). I viewed their selection and made my choice. Right now I have an injured foot with a big bandage on one toe so I'm wearing flip flops. The box with the vacuum is big and heavy. To get it to the register, I take a step with my good foot, I drag the box, and then I drag my bad foot. I make my way to the front like this -- step, drag, drag. I go past an aisle with two store employees, I go past the manager's office, I finally make it to the register. No one asked to help me. I figured once I got to the register (the person working the register wasn't busy and watched me approach), that she would ask me if I needed help out to my car after I paid for the items. Wrong! It didn't seem to bother her one bit the difficulties I was having with the merchandise. I continued dragging the box to the front door. I figured one of the other employees working the other registers would notice me and send for help. Wrong again! I made it to the outside. A customer coming up to the store asked if I needed help. I figured that since I had made it that far, that I could make it the rest of the way.  I politely declined and attempted to continue. The customer repeated his query even more earnestly, "Are you sure you wouldn't like some help?" I finally agreed that yes, I really could use some help. He suggested we swap burdens. He carried my items while I carried his much smaller bag all the way out to my vehicle. I thanked him profusely and repeatedly and said how kind he was to help. I couldn't believe that no employee in the Best Buy offered to help carry the heavy item I was purchasing. I would have thought that at the very least they would have been worried about the liability if I fell while trying to get the merchandise to the front of the stop. I am very disappointed in Best Buy.

All the kittens are almost eight weeks old now and they are ready for their new homes. There’s at least seventeen kittens now, ten in the house and another seven outside. There could be more that we haven’t seen yet. The outside cats have their litters in the woods and we don’t get to see them until maybe week four or five. By then, the kittens have not been handled and so are afraid of people. We usually see them only when they are scurrying away to hide. One thing that they all have in common is their cuteness.

The newest bunch is about six weeks old and we have them inside. Their mother refuses to feed them and growls at them. At this point my husband and I are their surrogate parents. We fed them with a dropper for the first two days and then they started eating on their own.

We took all the inside kittens to the Vet to get them wormed and checked over. All of them were certified healthy, happy, and ready to grace the homes of new owners. The new bunch resides in the room where the computer is and they love to “help” write these blogs. They all climb up in the lap of whomever is writing, sometimes to sleep, sometimes to explore all the neat things that they find.

Sometimes we think about mixing the litters so that they will have some friends to play with but, if we did, we might not be able to separate them. There are so many little ones that look alike, we might not be able to get them back to their own mothers. As far as we can tell, the father(s) must be all black or tiger striped. Most of the kittens show these two types of colors.

(I promise to stop blogging about cats and kittens very soon.) 

This past weekend was very busy. My husband had built a boathouse about two and a half years ago so he could build his boat. He moved the boat closer to the water a few months ago and the boathouse has been empty ever since then. He took down the tarps that were getting tattered from the weather and the wooden structure remained like a huge spider.

We were sitting on the back porch on Sunday morning. I mentioned to him that we might want to take the structure down. He said, “okay”, that the wood could be used for other purposes. We decided that “today” would be the day to start the project. He figured out a strategy to raze the building and we set to work. I thought that it would take quite a few days to dismantle it; so did he. We started to work by mid-morning and in about two hours, we had it on the ground. We stopped for lunch, had a short nap during the hottest part of the day,  and then we set to work again cutting up all the wood that we could salvage. By the end of the day the entire building was cut up and stacked. There was still plenty to do in separating the good wood from the garbage, but at least it was a start.

When I got home on Monday evening, he had saved all the usable lumber and he had burned all the rest of the building. He told me it took all day to finish the task. I’m glad it’s done.

IMAGINE IF INSTEAD OF CRYPTIC GEEKY TEXT STRINGS,
YOUR COMPUTER PRODUCED ERROR MESSAGES IN HAIKU
- - - - - - - - - - - -
A file that big?
It might be very useful.
But now it is gone.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
The Web site you seek
cannot be located but
endless others exist
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Chaos reigns within.
Reflect, repent, and reboot.
Order shall return.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
ABORTED effort:
Close all that you have.
You ask way too much.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
First snow, then silence.
This thousand dollar screen dies
so beautifully.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
With searching comes loss
and the presence of absence:
"My Novel" not found.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
The Tao that is seen
Is not the true Tao, until
You bring fresh toner.
 - - - - - - - - - - - -
Windows NT crashed.
I am the Blue Screen of Death.
No one hears your screams.
-- - - - - - - - - - -
Stay the patient course
Of little worth is your ire
The network is down
- - - - - - - - - - - -
A crash reduces
your expensive computer
to a simple stone.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Yesterday it worked
Today it is not working
Windows is like that
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Three things are certain:
Death, taxes, and lost data.
Guess which has occurred.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
You step in the stream,
but the water has moved on.
This page is not here.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Out of memory.
We wish to hold the whole sky,
But we never will.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Having been erased,
The document you're seeking
Must now be retyped.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Rather than a beep
Or a rude error message,
These words: "File not found."
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Serious error.
All shortcuts have disappeared.
Screen. Mind. Both are blank.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Errors have occurred.
We won't tell you where or why.
Lazy programmers.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Printer not ready.
Could be a fatal error.
Have a pen handy?
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Login incorrect.
Only perfect spellers may
enter this system.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
No keyboard present
Hit F1 to continue
Zen engineering?
- - - - - - - - - - - -
The code was willing,
It considered your request,
But the chips were weak.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Server's poor response
Not quick enough for browser.
Timed out, plum blossom.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Hal, open the file
Hal, open the damn file, Hal
open the file, please Hal
- - - - - - - - - - - -
This site has been moved.
We'd tell you where, but then we'd
have to delete you.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
To have no errors
Would be life without meaning
No struggle, no joy
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Server is lifeless
The customer is distraught
Where is the backup?
- - - - - - - - - - - -
The server is built
Everything is now installed
What was the password?

Our kittens are five weeks old. I posted their pictures in my photo gallery. They seem to change daily and are growing up so fast. Every time I go in the room where they are playing, they all appear to be bigger, older, and more energetic. Their personalities are really starting to  develop. It’s really fun to see them show different characteristics, one from the other.

All of them seem to be using the litter box. They must think it’s a sandbox; they spend more time playing in there than they do pooping. They do poop in there but, sometimes, I find their droppings in the corners of the room. The litter box is also in the corner of the room so I think they are trying to poop in the litter. With time I’m sure their aim will get better. What a glorious day that will be. They also seem to guard the poop. As I am trying to scoop out the clumps, they gather around and try to snag the scooper with their claws.

Now that they are bigger, and getting into everything, they have discovered my shoe rack. It has three levels to it. When I come home from work I know that I’ll have to put my closet back in order. All the kittens love to play with the shoe laces that dangle down from the higher levels. They wind up pulling all of the shoes down to the floor. I can’t get angry with them, though, they are so cute. Soon they’ll be off to new homes and I know that I’ll miss them.