Leaden Skies, Immaculate Timing

As anyone living in Middle Tennessee can tell you, it's a soggy mess, right now, and has been for a week.

I worked almost every day at ESS this week, including Saturday. Saturday was generally sunny, except for the time I rode to work, and the time I rode home.

Then tonight, after not raining for hours, I set out on a short trip. I got caught in a drenching, two-minute downpour.
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Is All Gas Created Equal?

Well, who can know, without labs and shit?

Anyway, since using Fuelly, I've noticed upward ticks in my mileage after filling up with Exxon and Shell, rather than the usual fuel I get at Pilot (which is nearby, and several cents cheaper than just about anyone else in the neighborhood). I noted that Exxon did not have any ethanol notices on their pumps, and so the next-to-last fuel-up was at a small, nearby, independent station that proclaimed they were dispensing ethanol-free fuel. My mileage was only average on that tank.

So yesterday, I filled up at Exxon, again. Let's see how this tank goes.
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When It Pains, It Roars

Coming home from ESS tonight, I hit a bad patch of asphalt on Charlotte Ave., and heard a terrible noise. I slowed, and pulled off, only to continue hearing the terrible noise.

It was my Shad (!) SL29 topbox, sliding along the pavement, and eventually catching right up to me at the side of the road. I hit the bump hard enough to unlatch the box from the mounting plate. That's pretty hard.

It's scraped up pretty bad, but otherwise seems to be okay.
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Not Feeling The Truthiness

So, when the female neighbor person got home tonight, I hollered down to her from the balcony, asking if she had seen anyone hit the scooter. She said she'd been at work all day, but she would ask her male neighbor person who lives in her home if he saw anything. She came over and knew just where to look, though (I missed it the first time I did a once-around).


The male neighbor person came over two hours later, and the first words out of his mouth were, "I didn't hit your scooter."
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Do One Thing, And Do It Very Well

The Onion rawks. h/t to 2strokebuzz.

That said, I don't know of anything Yamaha makes that's considered less than good quality. They make some very nice guitars... or used to, anyway.
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Hit-N-Run?

Just went out to hop on the scooter, and noticed it wasn't aligned as usual in the parking space.



Sure enough, someone hit it, and didn't bother to leave a note.

My neighbor's truck looks like a likely suspect, due to the green coloring left on my fender, and the suspiciously clean spot on his bumper, and damaged green decal.
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Not A Gemma, But Pretty Cool

... for a mere 250cc. :) This is a friend's new SYM RV-250, and it's pretty bad-ass. Tons of storage under the seat (even more than what's under the People 250's seat), cool instrument cluster, LED running lights surrounding the HID high-beam, LED taillights/brake lights, and cool styling, IMO.

What do you think?
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Hope Y'all Enjoyed The Ride

Sorry we got completely disorganized at the end of Part Two, but hopefully everyone had a good time!
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Another Story From The Road Less-Traveled

Being on two wheels is a viscerally different experience from being in a car. Most of one's senses are more engaged on two wheels, including tactile sense.

Something that all but perhaps convertible drivers miss: The small-but-quite-detectable differences in temperature out there on the road.

When the nights start to cool off a bit, as they have here, recently, it's a neat feeling to dip down into a valley, and feel a noticeable bite in the air -- a crispness one can both feel and smell. Or to ride under an interstate overpass, still warm from the sun's rays all day, and to feel the temperature rise for just a moment as one rides underneath it.

I live for those little moments.
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