British & European Motorcycle Show & SwapMeet
Leesburg, VA - Sunday October 5 2003 - 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
See ya there!
http://www.virginiabritishmotorcycleclub.org/rally.htm
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September 30, 2003
September 21, 2003
Bike Progress ...
The bike project has been in a holding pattern for the last few weeks. I took the front end apart to replace the seals and bushings and found damage to one of the spring holders and a ding in the lower leg. So - I decided my best strategy was to get another frontend and rebuild that one, as needed. I decided if I could find the same year front end, I could pick and choose parts from 4 fork legs to make sure I had the best 2. So - I bid on a couple sets around Labour Day and got what I think is the best bet on a set from British Coumbia - its just taking a while to get here, what with the storm and all. While I was waiting I bought a pair of Dunlop K81 tires for the bike - the old K70s were dry rotted and cracking. Then I had to stow away all the tools and loose parts for the expected hurricane that fortunately never arrived as predicted.
Indian Motorcycles goes under ...again...
Founded in Springfield, Mass., in 1901, Indian was once a rival to American icon Harley-Davidson. It lasted more than 50 years, and first went out of business in 1953. This time, it lasted five.
On Friday, Indian closed the factory in Gilroy where it made heavyweight cruisers and other motorcycles, telling its 380 employees that a deal with a new investor had fallen through.
The closing ends another chapter in the storied history of Indian Motorcycle.
Read more at
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/6818690.htm
September 20, 2003
Isabel - Storm fades away!
Well - its Saturday evening and after OPM gave federal Employees (and thus, Contractors like me) 2 days off, we came through the storm remarkably well!
I spent 2 days clearing loose stuff from the yard, planting the remaining hanging baskets at the front door, packing up all the tools and loose parts on the back porch, freezing bottles of spring water, and in general, storm proofing as best I could. The TV news showed ever expanding storm pictures, scarey spiral clouds and vortices as seen from space, and we had gusty winds that were loud and made the trees move like wet spaghetti. 'round midnight Thursday, there was a bang, then a series of bangs as transformers sequentially blew all over the neighborhood - and we were in darkness. Friday we woke up and made coffee the old fashion way - boil a saucepan full of water, then pour it through the filter in the coffeemaker. Its slow, its tedious, but - a fine cuppa!
Anyway - we looked around and all of our trees were still standing! Lots of leaves and some branches on the ground, but the house was intact! Spent the day Friday raking leaves and hauling branches to the curb.
After Noon, Emma took the 2000 Civic Si and headed to Media, PA for a retreat she was leading ... Storms may come and go, but Congregational Care is for every church!
Click to enlarge to 600x800 pixels size
Anyway - here's why we lost power Thursday night ... they got it fixed 24 hours later!
Click to enlarge to 600x800 pixels size
September 17, 2003
Sad day in Birmingham
According to a story from the BBC, fire has destroyed much of the National Motorcycle Museum near Birmingham, ruining 650 vintage machines and leaving 60% of the building a blackened shell. More than 120 firefighters tackled the fire which could be seen for 15 miles around.
Here's a late September update on the story http://www.realclassic.co.uk/news03091910.html
Here's a direct link to the museum's website
http://www.nationalmotorcyclemuseum.co.uk/
The bikes destroyed in the collection traced the history of the British motorcycle industry and many of the museum's rarest exhibits were among those lost. Exhibits included BSA Gold Stars, Sunbeam Twins, DMW Hornets and Triumph racers. The value of the destroyed bikes is put at £8m, but many of the machines are irreplacable.
Staff and conference delegates at a business conference at the museum at Bickenhill, near Birmingham International Airport, saved some of the 900 bikes after fire broke out at around 1700 BST Tuesday. A museum spokesman said: "Over 300 of the exhibits in the museum have been saved. Sadly, three of the museum's five exhibit halls have been destroyed along with their exhibits. "
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hereford/worcs/3114410.stm,
September 11, 2003
When Buddhists come to town
Important things are in store this week.
I asked for a half-day off this afternoon, but didn't give specifics.
We'd heard about an interesting event at the Washington National Cathedral this afternoon: A Teaching by His Holiness the Dalai Lama Cultivating Peace as an Antidote to Violence. Sounded like an interesting way to spend the 2nd Anniversary of the September 11th attack
The Cathedral doors open at 2:30 and the event starts at 4 pm - and it sounded like an interesting event to attend - we'd never heard the Dalai Lama speak before. So we decided we could work a half-day, take the metro into town and grab some lunch, then catch a bus uptown to the Cathedral. Simple plan and fun together.
I grabbed Emma at 11, and we took the subway to Farragut West, and walked upstairs to International Square for lunch. 30 minutes later we headed outside
and caught the bus. 30 minutes after that the bus dropped us at Mass Avenue, and we saw a l-o-n-g line of people was already there! we walked 3 blocks to the end of the line and took our place ... it was just 1:45!
To shorten the story, we did all get in, but it was packed. We heard chanting - a mix of the Tibetan monks throat singing and the Cathedral choir doing simplesong, with a simple sort of synthesizer backing them. Think Enigma, or Eno ... We could hear, but just barely - the sound wasn't that good where we were, and there were flatscreen digital monitors on some of the stone columns - a very future-retro vision.
Transcript, webcast and official pictures of the event
On a related note - we heard of another respected teacher coming to town - Thich Nhat Hanh giving a public lecture at the Washington Hebrew Congregation, Sun Sept 14 - 7pm We have tickets for this and are looking forward to hearing him speak.
More info on Thich Nhat Hanh and the Plum Village Retreat Center
Import Finished!
I've reloaded the software, imported all the old entries, and begun rebuilding the templates so the Blogpile is beginning to look like the old site before it crashed, tho I still have more work to do on the templates, when I have time.
September 9, 2003
Test file
They reconfigged the server and my old bLog configuration didn't survive.
So - I've rebuilt the blog configuration and will be re-entering some of the postings from last winter and such - tho - I reserve the right to skip a few.
Ah well - Vive la revolution!