Monthly update

The big thing since last post was the trip to Ohio to watch the eclipse. It went very well. We went due south to Findlay, taking farm roads. It was only about 30 minutes longer than taking the expressway, and at least on the way back that was the right choice as people on the expressway were stuck there for several extra hours. We went to a city park on the outskirts and had a great view. We were concerned because it said 60% cloud cover, and that was correct but they were such thin clouds that they didn't actually block the view in the least.

I've been working my way through the trails in the Chelsea Trail Challenge. It's been interesting, there are a lot of trails I didn't know about or just had never been on before. Yesterday was the Wellness loop around the hospital and senior housing. It's a very nice wooded walk. There are a bunch of deer and they just watch as you walk by. Snapping turtles too.

On motorcycle news, yesterday I rode the Yamaha into town, and I decided I really need to go back to using that as my primary bike. The Honda is so underpowered that it doesn't keep my skills up. I was very twitchy on the controls and stalled it once at the roundabout. I never would have done any of that 2 months ago. I should keep the Honda for occasional use. I put the cargo box back on the Yamaha and took off the bike rack. I guess I'll just use the truck to carry bikes, it needs to out once in a while anyway.

I sold my CFMoto 700 CL/X to a former coworker. I just don't need 3 bikes, or at least if I do have 3 bikes, that isn't one of them. It's a fun bike and I have no real complaints but it just wasn't feeling like a long-term resident of the garage. While delivering the bike to him I swung through Monroe and hit their historical markers.

I went to the CycleGear bike night. It's OK but kind of boring since almost everyone there has just same old same old, new sportbikes all lined up. There are like 150 bikes there and maybe 3 of them are interesting. I see more interesting stuff in parking lots on a regular basis, especially over in Dexter, there is a group that rides there on the weekends and one of them rides a Square Four. The Gilmore Auto Museum has a vintage bike weekend coming up, that should be more fun. Maybe I'll get to see some Nortons and such in the flesh.

I built a new batch of bluebird houses. The last batch was 8 years old and the pine was pretty far gone. The new ones, I made out of cedar. Cost about $100, a lot of that was in the one board I used for the roofs. Cedar plank prices go up steeply when you get to wider ones.

The vernal pool visit went OK. We saw some neat wildlife. The second visit should have been this weekend but scheduling. We're shooting for next week.

I got the side deck reskinned with composite decking. I still have to do the steps to the front deck and then the decking is totally converted. Then on to re-doing the skirting. The goal is to keep critters including felines out. Hopefully it won't result in them getting in anyway and now I can't get in to chase/pull them out.

In excitement for the month, on the way over to move risers for OLC, it turns out I didn't have the trailer attached properly and it jumped off the hitch on I94. I got to the side on the safety chains. It had wedged the jack under the truck, so I had to use the scissors jack to lift the truck off the trailer tongue, then everything went back together and I was back on the road.

The second excitement was while welding yesterday, a spark got into an "empty" gasoline container and gave me a surprise. That was loud.

I'm back on track for donating platelets, I think I'm at 4 or 5 for the year now.