mmmm, cheese.
Last Saturday was the Wind Dancers' ride up to Marin to the French Cheese Factory. It was fun; nice people, good roads, awesome food. No, I didn't drink the wine while on the ride (in fact, I brought it home, where it is still sealed in my fridge).

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indications that i may have missed my calling.
While sitting at my desk, wasting my life fixing bugs that no one gives a shit about, two of my coworkers came by to ask questions. Not about my bugs, or the product, or anything even remotely related to our jobs. No, they both asked if they could bring their motorcycles by sometime for me to look at. So now I have an impending valve job and cam chain tensioner adjustment on a 1983 Honda Nighthawk 550 (hydraulic valves!) and a carb adjustment on an Aprila Pegaso to read up on.

I try not to think about the fact that I'm about 15 times more useful to my coworkers as a motorcycle mechanic than as a web apps software engineer. If only the salaries were comparable.

speaking of carburetors.
The VF700 carbs are clean and adjusted and ready to go back into the bike. Next up is the fun part of "where the hell did this tube go, anyway?".

Once again, I am procrastinating the SVS service. I don't know why -- it's easy, just an oil change and a few adjustments. That's probably why I'm procrastinating. I should just do it tonight and get it over with. It's much more motivating to putter around and take my time with someone else's carburetors. ;) I think part of it is also that, since I'm doing a lot of riding, I feel like it's always time for a service on the SVS. 4000 miles just doesn't really take all that long.

coming up on prescott.
Somehow, I blinked, and it's almost mid-June. I leave for the Ride-In in just over three weeks. That's pretty cool.

I'll be riding down there with two women from the Wind Dancers chapter, which, uncharacteristically, I'm looking forward to. They seem like fun gals -- Jenny is also a mechanic and is currently off in Alaska; I don't know which of her stable of motorcycles she'll be riding down. Akili is a photojournalist for the San Jose Mercury News and has a Harley with one of those awesome paint jobs where it's purple in some lights and green in others. So, between the three of us, we have two writers, a photographer, two mechanics, and three travel addicts. Not a bad way to spend two days.

Once I'm in Prescott, I'll be splitting a hotel room with Debi and Sara, two other Wind Dancers. They're fellow sportsbikers, though more of the track variety than the touring variety (Debi also has a stable, though, and has at least one BMW for touring). There may be some drama there, since I originally messed up and made the hotel reservation through Tuesday night instead of through Wednesday night; I had to reserve another room just for Wednesday. Hopefully the hotel will just laugh at me and let us stay in the same room instead of making us move.

The Ride-In this year sounds a lot more social than I usually prefer, doesn't it? Don't worry -- I'm planning on taking all three days at the Ride-In to do lots of solo, misanthropic, trips around the area. I hear nothing but rave reviews about Sedona and environs, so I think I could happily spend three days puttering around and not paying too much attention to anyone else. ;)