half a cat

The weekend was not that exciting, blog wise. Here are the shorts:

Saturday: It was 63F, so I got the Harley out of the garage and leathered up. As the grandparents had come in from North Dakota with Walt & Sarah, I rode up to Red Lodge. The ride was fantatic, right up there with heading to the beach last Sept. I could have set the throttle lock at 80 and never slowed down. It was pretty fun pulling out to pass people starting at 70 and by the time I got back in the right lane doing 100+. Wee! It did get a bit chilly the closer I got. Gee, who would have thought a 2500 foot elevation change would make such a difference. It was the first time I got to ride into the mountains, and I am so looking forward to doing more of that this summer. I had a nice chat with the fam and headed back after a bit, before it got too cold.

Sunday: Ahhh, bliss. I slept in, lounged around until noon until I got a surprise visit from Mom. We cleaned the kitchen, cooked up steaks and salad, and watched NACAR-slash-took naps. I ended up working that night, to get a few things cleaned up before Monday rolled around.

Another weekend has come and gone, leaving a good sized wake of empty beer bottles, truck parts, dinner bills, and burned rubber. I really had a pretty great weekend — probably one of the most fufilling since I have moved back. Here are the shorts:

Friday. It was another day of 60F weather here, and I was not going to miss out on it. I would like to think I kicked butt at work the rest of the week and cranked out a lot of testing, so took a long and late lunch to polish up the Harley. There were a few spots on the paint that had been rubbed when I moved all my stuff in Kris’ horse trailer from CT. I used the Harley Scratch & Swirl and rubbed all the spots out in a few hours. A nice coat of glaze and a polish later, and the bike is back to its usual sparkling self. I worked for a bit, and at 5 gave Landon a call to see if he wanted to ride — he did =D. We cleared out the cobwebs for the bikes and cruised around Billings. A few beers at BullWhackers dried up that pesky road thirst, and then we proceeded to really crack open the bikes on top of Zimmerman trail. As it turns out, my bike has NO problems keeping up with Landon, so my previous misgivings about the lack of power are still founded, but I’m not experiencing anything out of the normal. Such good news!

I headed home after the ride and was just going to hit Golden Phoenix or something like that for take-out, but got inspired and hit up Walkers Grill for dinner. I was completely surprised at the place — it made me feel at ‘home’ again in a restaraunt. It was like I had stepped into a nice place in Philly and was getting dinner there. I had a few Maker’s & Cokes, the Satay and Lamb Curry, and finished off the lovely evening with a glass of Sandemans Founder. Yes folks, there was Port on the menu! Fantastic!

I rounded out the evening by chilling at The Shop (I’ve decided to add capitals, it does get mentioned enough) for a few, but Koelzter was busy doing the heads on a Ford, so I chilled at K&C’s for a bit. I managed to not get too shitty for once and head home at a semi-reasonable hour.

Oh, where to start…

Ok, first off — I’m cured! Well, almost 100%. I feel tons better thanks to the giant f#$cking Q. I managed to put in a good days work, the first all week. Hopefully I can bust ass tomorrow and really get caught up. Sigh nothing like a week down the toilet.

It was another day of 60F here in Montana, so I took the Harley down to the local Harley shop. I’ve noticed, and so has Kris, that the bike is a bit sluggish, at least compared to what I was used to in CT and Philly. They checked it all out, and said nothing was the matter, that it runs like all the other FatBoys that they sell. Bah I say, Bah! So, now I am contemplating the Power Commander as a way to regain some of the lost tuning. The HD shop guys all say they are worthless, all the posts I can find online sing nothing but praises. I suppose I will just end up coughing up the $300 USD and giving it a whirl. If nothing else, I will have another toy to tinker with — nothing beats hooking a laptop up to the Harley to fiddle with fuel and timing curves. Dyno you say? But of course, a trip to the dyno would be grand!

My Mom has a very cute way of well…getting us kids to come and hang out. We were chatting on the phone, and she said “Come get me, we’ll go to DQ”. “But of course”, I say Turns out DQ was closed, but I managed to get some Taco Bell for the taco hole. Mom got some carmel apple random tex mex word here.

All in all, not a bad day.

It would seem the Pineapple Express has made its way into Montana. Temps Sunday and Monday hovered around 60F. Just freaky — the East Coast gets 2 feet of snow and I am riding the Harley here. Let’s see, 4 Hurricanes, a Tsunami, and one of the worst blizzards in recent memory — I’d say we done pissed off Mother Nature/God/Joe Peshi.

On the bright side, I finally got to give my Mom a ride on the bike. We rode down to my place, grabbed some chips & Corona and watched the Eagles kick the snot out of the Falcons. Tivo gets an honorable mention for allowing us to watch the game in under 2 hours.