The following takes place from 0600hrs 21APR to 07hrs 22APR.

Temps in the high 50s and low 60s. Saturday began as sunny, become overcast with threat of rain in the afternoon, scattered showers at night with clear skies and cool at dawn on Sunday.

I've been awake for over the last 24hrs and although not as exciting as Jack Bauer's 24 hr days...still had some events to relate.

First off, on my weekly inspection of the motorcycle prior to riding. I now can see the top of Abe Lincoln's head when doing the penny test on the threads of both the front and rear tires on Maria. I'll be dropping off a check on Monday to the indie mechanic recommended by club members so he can order me two more Metzler 880s. The PO tells me he changed out the rear at 16925 miles and the front a week or so before I bought her with 19,437 miles on her odometer. I am getting close to 28,500 now so I am guessing I'll get a bit over 9000 miles for the front tire and somwhere over 11575 on the rear tire. Interesting, it's usually the other way around in terms of tire wear I am told.

After that I went to the nearby BMW of Denver dealer who was hosting an Open House/Swap Meet. I perused the stuff in the swap meet area and did not buy anything as nothing appealed to me. What did appeal to me was the demo table from TomTom with their Rider model prominently displayed. I listened to the salesman's pitch and it sure was tempting but the $500 price is still a bit high for me. A sweet unit though and they do bundle everything you need to put it on the motorcycle. Someday.

I went home for lunch and then headed to a co-worker's house for some hands-on training in the art of valve clearance checking on a Kawasaki Concours. Yes, not quite the same as a boxer but once the valves were exposed they looked very similar to the valve covers on a boxer based the pics I've seen. Of course, he's got 16 of them! He showed me how to do the feeler gauge thing and what constitute too tight and too lose, it's a very simple operation really and I feel much more confident now for when I get to do it to Maria. Spent the afternoon with him doing this and a couple of other jobs on his motorcycle.

2006 Kawasaki Concours, sans tupperware

Pretty similar eh?

Got home in time for a late dinner of fast food and then headed into work to prepare for a change that started a little after 2000 and a follow-on change that started at 2100. It was a major migration of one of our DMZ networks and let me tell ya, it could have gone much smoother or much worse. We were not done till 0500 this morning, Sunday, and boy I am tired after having been up over 24hrs.

The ride home was on wet roads, so I guess it did rain overnight. No problems though and I took things real easy anyways.

Never have had much luck getting good naps in before these late night changes and this time, did not even try. Typing this while using up what remains of my "second wind".

The worse part? I am too damn tired to go on the Peak to Peak Estes Park ride scheduled for today by the ColoradoBeemers! I think it would have been a great ride but no way I am safe for it right now. I hear a bed calling me now. Over to you, Jack......