New Sound System

Well, it finally happened! Yes, Mike at Greywolf Karaoke finally brought along his new amp and it works really well. I told him I could hear the difference right away. It's especially good for those songs where a key change is required. The old amp really sucked for that operation. So it was a breath of fresh air last night down at City Beat, hearing the new system work so well. Anyway, it was a beautiful evening and I took the motorcycle down there. On the way back I stopped in at Biaggi's for a Summer Sizzler (raspberry vodka and lemonade) and then hit Casey's on the way home to put gas in the motorcycle. Overall, an enjoyable and quiet evening.

By the way, I almost had yet another car run into me on the bicycle the other day. I was turning left and the car was sitting at the stop sign on my left (i.e., the street I was turning on to, so I was turning in front of him). As I entered the intersection (and he'd already stopped just before I got there) he started to pull out right into my path. Fortunately, I was able to maneuver around to the right and he finally decided to actually yield at the stop sign and he hit his brakes ... again. I think I could've avoided him even if he had kept going, but I'm not 100% sure of that since I was doing about 15 mph as I went through that intersection. But at least one of us was paying attention, so it worked out. But if you're thinking it might be safer on the trail, stay tuned. One of these days I'll write up some thoughts about people riding on the nature trail ... and you'll see why I don't like to go there very often ... it can really be worse than riding on the roads.

Spent some time last night reading about the Kennedy assassination again and reviewing the pictures there. What an interesting book, as I've perhaps said before (the title is "Reclaiming History-The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy" by Vincent Bugliosi). I will be at it for awhile, though, as it's about 1600 pages.

In other book news, I have a couple of bicycle repair manuals coming so I'll be better able to understand and fix stuff on the bike. The real drawback to that isn't really understanding it, but that there are so many unique tools needed to do almost any of the work ... and some of them are quite expensive. So I try to strike a balance and understanding about what I can work on myself (along with the tools I feel OK about purchasing) and what makes much more sense to take in to the shop to have done. Again, I've been very happy with the support I've received from Northtowne Cyclery.

Nothing new on the used bicycle front ... still thinking maybe Joyce wants it but haven't heard back from Adam since he and his wife were noshows to check it out last Thursday evening. Maybe they'll want to try again this week. Of course, I haven't heard anything on this from Joyce either. Well, if I don't get it out of the garage soon, I'll probably do some work on it (repacking bearings, etc.) and keep it as a backup. In that case, I'll probably get rid of my older (30 years) bicycle which I should've done long ago. I'm confident that it still works but I'm sure it needs a good lube job.

Well, today is golf day again so let's hope for just a bit of glory (something simple ... say, no 3 or 4 putt greens, hehe!) and some fun this afternoon. I may also play this Sunday (Father's Day) ... but that depends on whether or not I get motivated to ride to Waterloo on Saturday (if I do the ride, I don't think I want to play golf Sunday morning). But it's good to be my age and to still feel so physically good (for example, I'm sure I *could* do the century ride on Saturday and still play golf on Sunday morning ... but I'm not sure that I *want* to do that as I also like my relaxation time and it is good to allow for recovery from such physically stressful exercise), and I'm thankful for that every day ... yes, it's definitely worth smiling about.