Sheldon's Ural Deco Diary - week twenty three

Sheldon's 1998 Ural Deco - Week 23

"Rain or Shine"
(1930, a Frank Capra movie!)

Day 137, Sunday June 20 1999... Slept in this morning until almost 10:00. For me that is just about unknown. That is at least five hours past my usual get up time, although I didn't get to bed until late last night. Worked around the yard for a while, then at 2:00 my business partners showed up for a meeting. Seems that Sunday is the only day we could find that we could all get together. We worked on financial planning, which is not my favorite subject for a Sunday afternoon, and talked about the possibilities of finding some venture capital to kick start the company. We are growing but quite slowly and it seems not at a rate that they find acceptable. They both want to quite their day jobs and jump into this full time but it would take too long to get their income up to present levels. With venture capital we would be able to put both of them on full time and possibly hire our new part time web designer full time. We shall see where this goes. Anyone out there looking for a great investment? <grin>

After they left Christal came by to watch Masterpiece Theatre. Funny thing is that just before she got there I was flipping channels and came upon a TV movie on TNT called "The Pirates of Silicon Valley", which is about Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, the founders of Apple computer. I found it fascinating to see a side of them that I had never seen before. Christal ended up watching Masterpiece Theatre in the bedroom and I watched Pirates in the living room. But we did spend a lot of time together after the shows were over.

Day 138, Monday June 21 1999... The Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year, and I had called my supervisor the night before and told her that I would like Monday off to work in the yard. It rained most of the night but it quit by 9:00 a.m. and the sun came out. An incredibly beautiful day. I moved rocks for the waterfall that I am building, dismantled a garden that was in too much shade, mowed the lawn, washed clothes, went for a ride, planted more flowers, went for a ride to Wal-Mart to pick up more vegetables, weeded gardens, cut up a fallen tree and piled it on the bonfire pile, went for a ride, cleaned the driveway, went for a ride, and generally had a wonderful day off.

Day 139, Tuesday June 22 1999... Rained all night. This morning when I was getting ready for work it looked like the rain had stopped. The weather report said there could be some scattered thunder storms, and the road looked almost dry. I was about to take the bike to work when it looked pretty dark off to the Northeast. I reconsidered and decided to drive the car. Good choice. Got into downtown Duluth when the skies opened up. Torrential rain. I had to stop at the grocery store and got soaked going from my car to store, and store to car. I looked like a drowned bunny by the time I got to work and then I had to run from the car to the house and got soaked again. Thunder, lightning, and massive down pouring rain is a bit much for this old guy. There was a time when it would barely phase me to ride in that kind of stuff but now I do so try to avoid it.

Day 140, Wednesday June 23 1999... Had another dentist appointment this morning, argh... Found another major problem with a tooth and now I have to go see an oral surgeon next week. Not a good way to start the day. Rain and thunderstorms were expected today so I drove the car to work. Of course the storms never happened. If I had ridden the bike they would have come for sure.

Day 141, Thursday June 24 1999... A beautiful day, so it is onto the Deco in the morning, go for ride at lunch, and switch to the Sportsman when I returned home in the evening. Took another 100km ride on the Sportsman. It was a perfect evening, warm, without being hot, clean, crisp air, and not a care in the world.

Day 142, Friday June 25 1999... Another perfect day so I had to ride. Choose the Sportsman this morning. The last few days I have started to notice a slight vibration in the Sportsman. It feels like it is chassis related but it could be engine. It is just one of those very slight changes that you notice as you become tuned into the way a bike sounds or feels. In the next few days I have to go over the bike from end to end. I believe it is due for another oil change and tune up so I will have to tackle it. Had the usual great ride to work, another ride up the North Shore of Lake Superior at lunch time and in the evening I met Christal, Joan and Mary Jo for dinner. We ended up at Kamloops restaurant at Superior Shores Resort, just North of Two Harbors, about 30 North of Duluth. It has some of the best cuisine to be found in the area. They had a Friday night fish boil going and it was fantastic. I have never tried boiled fish as it just seemed that it would be so very bland. It is a Scandinavian thing and they are not known for using spices. In fact this was quite tasty, and included corn on the cob and boiled red potatoes.

After dinner Christal and I headed over to a friend of ours house to view her slides of Nepal. She recently returned from a couple of weeks trekking in the mountains. She has to be at least 60 years old and she actually hiked the mountains around Mt. Everest, and to a height of almost 19,000 feet, without oxygen! An incredible lady and we had a wonderful evening with her and a few other friends. Afterwards, about midnight, there was a slight breeze, the stars were gathered thickly in the sky, the weather was warm, and the smells of flowers were in the air as we rode home on the Sportsman. The ride was a perfect ending to a great day.

sheldon54a.jpg (15543 bytes) Day 143, Saturday June 26 1999... Stayed home most of the day and worked around the yard, until.... About 11:00 a.m., as I was taking a break and in the house checking my e-mail, a red/cream Moto Guzzi rolled into my driveway. The bike looked familiar, a California III, but I just couldn't place it so I wandered to the driveway and it turned out to be Earl Clevan from Owatonna Minnesota, about 200 miles South of my home. He and his wife Diane are working on setting up the Moto Guzzi Rally that we are putting on in August at the same campground that we are holding the NARMA rally. We chatted for a while in the driveway and he told me that he was just out for a ride and decided to come to Duluth.

earl1a.jpg (15805 bytes) I suggested that we go for a ride and plot the course that we will be using for the Saturday rides for both rallies, so off we went. We had a wonderful time, made numerous stops and rode a total of about 100 miles. It was great fun...

Next week

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