Stress!
Today I found another bill which had managed to escape unpaid. By found, I mean we got the debt-collection-warning-bill. 80 quid on the debit card and that at least is avoided, but I’m beginning to think we need some different method of bill payment. 78 quid also seems a bit steep for uh, 1 month. I’d go check the reading, but I don’t have a fucking bill. Grrr.
Anyway; I’m slightly stressed though, ‘cos I’ve not got my motorbike back yet. I stripped down various bits on Friday, in preparation for the parts arriving today. That and my brakes had got painfully bad. Although it was ‘working’ it was in a kind of limited way; and once I’d put them on then I’d have to spend about 10 minutes riding over every drain cover, bump and pot hole in an attempt to get the damn thing to come off (or, alternatively, hop off and kick the calliper).
At any rate, it’d reached the stage where I was seriously thinking it was a bit unsafe me riding it. So I whipped the calliper off and…. siezed solid on one side, corroded to fuck on the other side. The dust-cover on the piston was lifting off there was that much crap underneath it. It took 80lb/sq” of pressure to unstick the other side of the caliper. Having cleaned it up and put new seals in it, I decided I’d do the snapped brake lever too – it’s been snapped since falling over a while back.
Incidentally; the adoption of Americanisms by me is unintentional, and freaks me out slightly. I mean, I’d always known I picked up ‘bits’ of other peoples accents, but I’d always kinda imagained that if I moved anywhere else I’d stay kind of British; but I now realise that I’d just stay British insofar as some word usage (telly, and uh, other things, I’m sure) – but I’d quickly be absorbed by whatever culture I was in. Odd.
Anyway, so it fell over, and the lever broke. But since it snapped like 2/3rds of the way along I just filed the end down and left it. But wonder of wonders, I’ve now bought a new lever… and fitted it. It’s kinda funky having an entire brake lever again :-)
Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, I decided to examine the brake hose (since I’ve got a new one on order) – and uh, the fact I’ve survived as long as I have is no small miracle. It was covered in cracks going most of the way through the rubber. I knew it was ‘a bit iffy’, but it’d got through the MOT and it looked okay. looked okay. Looked. Yes. Uh hu. When I took it off I stuck it in my spares box, thinking that if the new hose hadn’t arrived by the end of today I could slap the old hose back on and have my bike back up and running…
… then I looked at it.
Then I yelped. There must be less than a mil of rubber between me and no front brake. So it’s gone in the bin. Having scrapped that I decided I may as well take of the old exhaust, which I discovered is *incredibly* heavy. I don’t know how much rust and soot is in it, but it’s a lot. It’s also incredible how many dents it’s got in a relatively small surface area. I fear to think how many offs my bike has had in it’s life. Although I know one of the dents is me running into a kerb when I was really out of practice and trying to do some low-speed filtering.
At any rate, I stripped of some of the rust, slapped on some Jenolite rust killer and a quick’n’dirty coat of hammerite which will *hopefully* stop those bits that aren’t completely rusted to oblivion rusting into oblivion before the summer when I *hope* to spend some time on my bike and my car.
But all of this means one thing. I need the parts to arrive today. It’s pretty rare for me to have both vehicles out of commission. Technically, I could probably get the mog going again, unevenly, and smokily, and briefly, using the old gasket, if it was an emergency. But I don’t like relying on Laurens car, or indeed, unnecessarily using it. But I’m fearing that as it’s already 2pm that I’m unlikely to get a delivery of bits for my bike now.
Nyargh. Stress. Exam, bike, car, money.
Oh, lord, I forgot to say. It was my Birthday on Saturday. I had a fabulous day! Oops!
See, I am stressed. Trey gave me this gorgeous drift wood dragon and a funky box made from a log… a butterfly (not a real one!) and a condensed-rain-cloud-bracelet; my sis gave me a necklace and a nightie (big comfy warm wintery one, just perfect for open fires… need a house to go with it now) and my mum gave me earings, necklace and a pair of trousers I chose *ages* ago and had completely forgotten about. God I’m a miserable sod!
Yeah, so that was really nice, and seeing my little Nephews was fun, even if I was knackered (couldn’t really sleep the night before for some reason) – Trey met my parents who seemed to approve; which is always good; and Trey seemed to approve of my parents house and garden and quite-near-to-middle-of-nowhere-y-ness. We went for a wander out in the countryside (better’n brizzle’s not-quite-countryside that we visited last time :-/ ). Nikki and Kate bought me (far too much) breakfast, too, which was really good of them, and a mug for quaffing from; Xena style.
So, yeah, rocking birthday, relaxed Sunday (put up a picture, showed off old scary pictures of me, sorted out the seats in my mum’s car), crap Monday. Pfer.
Oh, I’ve been looking for an embroidered badge which says “Dyke” on it, like the American Mechanics used to have in the films, with their name on… Sort of a patch with kind of scripty writing. Anyone know where I can get one at reasonable price? The best I’ve managed, including shipping, is $25 (or 14 quid) which seems excessive. But I need it by July…
