Drive to the coast

This morning I took the Spider out for a quick drive to the beach at Port Orange, FL and then completed my every couple of months pilgrimage to Boston Market in Port Orange for lunch...yummy!

Spanish river

Tonight I am going HERE and I am REALLY looking forward to it!!

UPDATE!

I had a very enjoyable time, delightful company and food as well. The restaurant is located in the corner bay of an L-shaped strip mall in New Smyrna Beach, about 3-4 blocks from the ocean.

The meal started with a ceviche made with swordfish and some tostones, which the cooking expert I was with told me were twice cooked green (unripe) plantains. Score one for the cooking expert! The ceviche and tostones were both delicious. Accompanying that was a bottle of sangria, which was served over ice and some little bits of chopped green apple and pineapple. That is the first time I had sangria and I LIKE it!

For dinner one entree was a delicious pork chop served over garlic mashed potatoes and spicy collared greens...all were terrific with wonderful flavors!

The other entree (mine) was a yuca (aka cassava) crusted swordfish on a base of black beans. It was great!

The interior decor was very nice and the service was outstanding. A little visit to the beach to see, smell and hear the ocean topped off a fantastic evening :) It's good to eat with a chef...you learn a lot! :)

Oh I almost forgot...I saw a shooting star on the way home!

Alfa 164L Buzz Patrol

Lately I have been hearing an annoying buzzing sound from near my glove box in the 1991 Alfa Romeo 164L whenever I turn the headlights on.

Well here is what I found. The controller unit making the buzzing/vibrating noise is shown below. This is located under the glove box on the passenger side of the car. It was attached to a bracket held in place by two philips head screws.

I removed it and it appears to me something was/is causing the circuit board to vibrate inside the case and since it fits somewhat loosely in the tracks the noise was coming from the circuit board vibrating against the plastic case, at least as far as I can tell.

So I fashioned a couple little spacers from bubble wrap wrapped in electrical tape and fit those between the circuit board and the top of the case to snug the board in the case.

I reassembled the controller and refit into the car. Tested the lights again and no more vibrating sound. I will test it more thoroughly but hopefully this fixes it.

What puzzles me still is what is it on the circuit board causing it to vibrate so much. Maybe some component on the board about to go kaput?

Here is a link to pics:

PICS ARE HERE...CLICK ME!

The route to Ohio

The latter part of next week I will be climbing aboard my 2006 Moto Guzzi Breva 1100 and heading north to Ohio and Pennsylvania. Whilst there I will visit my old college pal Paul from North Canton, OH and Lew from Pixburg.

Should be a whale of a trip and a barrel of fun! Here's my route up there and a pic of my trusty steed! It's ~1,000 miles to get there and I plan to cover ~700 miles the first day and then 300 miles day 2 so I arrive late in the a.m. I am looking forward to a tour of all the sites and sounds of glorious Pittsburg!

Click the pics to enlarge!

Lilah

Talking to the Moon

Satisfaction

As I was surfing the web for things Guzzi and Alfa related last night, I actually happened on some websites which have linked out to blog posts I have done in the past...Guzzi and Alfa maintenance posts that I have blogged about with pictures and such.

Kinda makes me feel like the time I spend doing this stuff and blogging about it is actually useful to someone, somewhere. :0)

Checking out the surf at New Smyrna Beach

With my friend Carl's wife Teener visiting her parents in Germany, he and I jumped in the Alfa Spider and headed to the coast this a.m. to check out some of the heavy surf brought in by the passing Hurricane Bill. The surf was excellent with lots of surfers in the warter and the weather was great for a top down drive in the Spider. On the way back we stopped for a quick lunch at Ocean's seafood in New Smyrna...great grub!

CLICK ON PICS TO ENLARGE

Old pics....

The good old days. After city league basketball in LaVista, Nebraska at Philly's bar n grill, circa early to mid 80's, I suppose.
In this photo: Chris Galardi , Ed Radzuinis, Luke Galardi, Teresa the barmaid, Kent Caniglia, Doug Lassek, Paul Miller, Doc.

Also, me as a young lad.

Grand Funk Railroad - Closer to Home

Backed by an orchestra in the late 90's during the relief concert for Bosnia, this is a great rendition of Grand Funk Railroad's greatest tune.

I got something neato!

So lately I have been thinking of getting a little item I can carry on my motorcycle adventures to document and share my experiences.

Today that little item arrived! It is an Asus Eee900 "netbook" pc. Netbooks are becoming popular for people who want something super lightweight and portable with enough power and memory to surf the web and do all sorts of light computer tasks. I plan to use it on trips to update my blog, etc.

Since I knew this would spend a lot of time on my motorcycle in a high vibration environment, I wanted one that did not have a regular hard drive with moving parts but instead just solid state memory which can deal with the rigors of that kind of travel.

You would not believe how light and tiny this thing is and the sound and video quality is great. 8.9" screen. It has built in wireless and has a built in little microphone and webcam. Really neat and only $169 delivered! Yeah!

Photos of a various and sundry nature

People who know me are generally aware that I haul a massive cell phone around with me, the Nokia 9500 Communicator. Ofttimes mistaken for a relic of the 1980's, the "Big Phone" nonetheless has many endearing qualities, which I sha'n't address right now.

Along with the many strengths of the 9500 there is one glaring weakness...a really crappy built in camera. The quality of photos taken with it leaves a lot to be desired. In that vein, i present to you a small collection of some really crappy photos I have taken lately with my beloved Nokia 9500...

In order these are:

- My most excellent 1986 Alfa Romeo Spider parked beneath a massive shade tree at work this morning

-A half 'n' half pizza I made recently

-Cap'n Jim's Hazed and Infused Ale, poured expertly by bartender Ted from Liam Fitzgerald's Irish pub. You could float a quarter on that muffin top!

-TANG! Good enough for spacemen, good enough for Kid Guzzi

-Carl and Teener's kitty cat, Rusty

-Me, cruising in the Alfa Spider

-A homemade beer coaster. In protest of Liam Fitzgerald's serving their pints of ale on NAPKINS Cap'n Jim and I fashioned our own coasters of cardboard and named them in honor of bartender Ted. They soon came to their senses and got proper coasters!

-The Hawaiian Breeze desk fan that keeps me cool and comfy at work. Solid metal construction my friends!

Warren Zevon

On September 7, 2003, at age 56, singer/songwriter Warren Zevon died of a rare form of cancer. You probably know Warren's music mostly from his hit song "Werewolves of London".

Knowing he was going to die soon Zevon recorded his final album called "The Wind" which was released in 2003.

Here are a couple songs from that album:

Knockin' on Heaven's Door, a cover of an old Bob Dylan tune. I especially like the guitar in this song, as it has such a heartfelt, wailing sound. Zevon chose to record this song as he knew his time here on earth was coming to an end.

Keep Me in Your Heart, a song which expresses the feelings of a dying man to the ones he loves.





WARREN ZEVON

Makin' pizza

As I was riding my Guzzi yesterday back from Melbourne Beach, FL, I started thinking about what to have for dinner. For some reason pizza sounded really good, and I had in my mind grilled chicken pizza with diced tomatoes, fresh basil and a white sauce instead of red.

So I went shopping and got the goods to make it :) I got some pepperoni too because I love pepperoni pizza.

Anyway here are the results so far. After my first attempt at the chicken/basil, etc. pizza I learned to add the fresh basil AFTER i take it after the oven, otherwise it gets CRISPY :) These are little personal sized pizzas by the way.

Guzzi Beach Bash pics

This morning I hopped aboard the Guzzi Breva and rode down to Melbourne Beach, a coastal community about 100 miles south of me on the Atlantic Ocean. The weather on trip down was swell and I took as much of coastal highway A1A as I could. Lots of nice ocean view off to my left as I headed down there and a great ocean breeze made for an awesome ride.

There were already about 30 bikes at the Sebastian Beach Inn when I arrived about 12:45. All kinds of Guzzis from old to new and some other brands as well. The Inn is right on the Atlantic Ocean with a big deck to enjoy the sights, sounds and smells of the ocean.

On the way back I successfully dodge some rainstorms most of the way, until I was about 3 miles from home and I got sopped. Still for sure it was a great ride!

PHOTOBUCKET LINK TO ALL THE PICS...CLICK ME!!

Friday night toiling

The temperature had dropped to an unseasonably cool 80 degrees with a brisk 3 mph wind on this Friday night. But I knew I had to head out into this merciless meteorological mayhem and perform some needed maintenance on my 2006 Moto Guzzi Breva 1100.

I rummaged through my closet until I found my box of shawls, grabbed one and wrapped it tightly around my shoulders as I headed to the garage, gourmet pb&j sandwich in hand, determined to complete the task at hand no matter the ferocity of the cruel Florida weather.

Tooth and nail I fought the bike, 8mm open faced wrenches here, a wide assortment of allen wrenches there, pliers, screwdrivers of the flat bladed and phillip-head varieties at the ready.

Off came the Breva's tank, an assortment of hoses and wires disconnected, the airbox removed until the object of my desire lay before me, mocking me as it sat snugly next the the alternator, it's broad 22mm shoulders daring me to attack.

Attack I did, with the ferocity of someone wearing a shawl in 80 degree Florida heat. The battle waged on long and hard, but after 35 seconds I prevailed!

The old oil pressure sensor was removed and with nary a delay, I quickly spun the new one in, snugged it down and reattached its electrical lead.

Piece by piece, bit by painstaking bit, driven by the rhythmic sounds of Head East on my XM Satellite radio boom box, I reassembled the bike. 3 minutes later I was done. Shaken by the experience, I suckled upon an ice cold cup of water and my once quickened pulse became subdued.

The black of night had fallen on Florida and I had vanquished my foe. Time for a celebratory cup of warm milk before bedtime.

Central Florida Guzzi Beach Bash

Tomorrow (Saturday) I am riding my Guzzi Breva down to the Central Florida Moto Guzzi Beach Bash! This is being held at the Sebastian Beach Inn on coastal highway A1A south of Melbourne, Florida. I think there are 30 or more Guzzis expected to be there. Tire kickin', story tellin' and good grub.....should be great!

Mmmmm, coffeeeeee

I like coffee in the morning. I especially like Dunkin' Donuts coffee. Sometimes I will even pour a cup or two over myself in the shower to attain a rich, deep tan.

Here's my coffee this morning. I like a BIG cup of it. I put it next to a 2 liter Coke bottle for reference.

Memories

Some old family pics

Just some old family pics I found digging on my computer...

- My mom and lil sis Mara
- The boys and Mara (except for Joe)
- Joe
- Lauren and Jon's pup
- Phil choking me (cowardly sneak attack!) :)
- Sophia as a baby
- Luke and Chris with the axe attack
- My dad and his Saturday night homemade pizza
- Me, many moons ago, In Tucson, AZ