July 2008 Archives

One of the scooter clubs I'm a member of, the Westenders, is featured in a great article in the West Seattle Herald. Once again, I'm caught in the act of waxing philosophical. You'd think I spend most of my time sitting in cafes wearing a beret and fondling my soul patch.

Ralph's quote pretty much sums us up:

"Being a Westender is a state of mind," said Ralph Leach, who wears a jacket of patches and buttons. "This is a family friendly scooter club. We aren't a bunch of derelicts, just some of us."

This lighthearted little news bite provides a much-needed respite from yesterday's rampant stupidity in the reader comments on the Seattle PI scooter parking piece.

I've received word that the Westenders article is in the print version of the newspaper, on newstands now. I've got to grab a copy tonight to read while sitting on the beach at Alki, eating cupcakes and waxing philosophical.

I found the key to staying (relatively) sane in an insane world is to keep a sense of humor about most things. My ability to do so depends largely on how much coffee I've had and whether or not the sun is out. Mama always said, "you gotta pick your battles." The scooter parking battle is a particularly heated one, and I vacillate between dragging out my soapbox and simply shaking my head in amusement.

Photo by Vu

Vu came and helped me make several improvements on Celeste over the weekend.

Now that Celeste is back on the road, I haven't been riding the GTS as often. Though when I do, it's for very long trips. Something strange I noticed today: Aphrodite and Celeste have almost the exact same total mileage this week: 2,500 miles. Cue: Twilight Zone theme song.

Two interesting Fun Facts for you today, kids:

I must admit I have a serious tech fetish. I often get itchy fingers at the sight of a new toy with bells, whistles and a microchip. (Especially in white.) So imagine my delight when I came across the Diagnostic Scan Tool for the Vespa GTS.

Basically, you plug one end of this baby into your Vespa GTS scooter and the other into your laptop, and you can "fix error codes and check out many other systems on your GTS via computer," according to the product description.

I discovered this tool in my early days of GTS ownership while Aphrodite and I were ironing out a few wrinkles, including a malfunctioning rectifier and errant sparkplug connector.

Spending a full day riding Celeste brought a few necessary projects to light. Some are more urgent than others. For example, I probably shouldn't be riding around sans signals or mirrors, but a lack of whitewalls is not endangering my safety this week. Here's the short list:

I took advantage of yesterday's blue sky sunshine to spend some quality time with Celeste the Frankenstella. We bonded like old lovers reunited.

We had plans to meet Jett and her Fireball Stella, "Arson", in West Seattle. I've been toying with the idea of moving to that neighborhood in the fall. The only factor preventing me from already relocating to West Seattle is my disdain for rush hour traffic.

I am presently spoiled by a four minute commute (five minutes in traffic). In January, when I'm riding a scooter on the windy Lakeview ramp in the freezing rain, I cherish this fact and use it as justification for my astronomical rent.

But on a warm and rosy day, riding along Alki Beach with the salty breeze on my face, watching Labradoodles gambol in the surf, January is just a faint bad dream. One should avoid apartment hunting during Seattle summers.

Jett and me reflected in Vu's very cool super-magnifying Stella mirror.
Objects in mirror are definitely larger than they appear!

The Westenders' Prime Minister, Roger Tango, decided to engage his affinity for Hawaii shortly after his return from a holiday there, and host a luau on Vashon Island. Not quite as tropical an island as, say, Ku'ai, but a beautiful island nonetheless.

Sunday was the first Operation: Big Kahuna ride and barbecue. The weather was absolutely fabulous - not a cloud in the deep blue sky and the water was all sparkly. Pristine mountain views, lush green foliage, and another string of "Omigod I live here" moments.

I have been on the verge of death for the past week and finally crawled out of my darkened apartment yesterday to blink in the brightness of day like a blind cavefish tossed upon the asphalt.  I think I'm suffering from the recent outbreak of Whooping Cough.  I'm certain it's some exotic ailment because I refuse to suffer this much from the common cold.

Last night I ventured forth under the influence of Robitussin (for a more productive cough) to attend an event that I'm still not quite sure what to call.  It was billed to those of us who participated as the South Lake Union Block Party, but according to the South Lake Union Block Party, that doesn't happen until August 8th.

I picked up my finished Stella cowls on Saturday at long last. I strapped them to the Vespa to bring them home and I was slightly nervous transporting them, fearing the curse of the Frankenstella extended even beyond the garage. I briefly entertained the thought of how darkly apropos it would be to crash right then, totaling the GTS and the freshly-minted Stella cowls in one fell swoop.

Alas, I weathered the 3 miles without incident.

Saturday's Frankenstella project report: freshly-minted cowls, complete chrome kit, Genuine license plate frame, retro badges from StellaSpeed, fresh rubber gaskets... just four whitewalls shy of a total remodel. Ain't she a beaut?

A full "How (not)To" entry is soon to follow. Moral of the story: there are some tasks best left to the professionals.

I stopped at the gas station this morning to fill up Celeste (News flash: the Frankenstella is back on the road - more to follow!) and was so amazed by the numbers on the pump when I arrived that I had to take a photo of it.

It's been a very long time since I filled up a car, and I'm not accustomed to watching that great a sum disappear into a gas tank. It helped me understand what all the fuss is about. It's one thing to see $4.75 a gallon and another to see $56.10. As I've previously mentioned, math is not my strong point. So a picture really is worth a thousand words.

I'm sorry for all you folks who have to fill up your cars. That must hurt - it hurts me just looking at it. I'll just take this opportunity to suggest a possible alternative. Scooting is not for everyone. But here's my biweekly fill-up, a decimal point to the left:

Jett had a great idea for a combination Westenders barbecue and group ride to see the sunset from one of Seattle's countless scenic overlooks. She'd been planning it for months. Somehow during discussion of this potential event on the Westenders forum, the idea of jousting arose and stuck. Leave it to RogerTango to organize the execution of this competition.

I designed a logo and made buttons to commemorate the event (right). It was a perfect excuse to play with PhotoShop and my new button press.

I'll do pretty much anything for cupcakes. I probably should not advertise that fact so widely. But I'm an admitted cupcake whore and Cupcake Royale is my brothel.

Joni Jett was planning her celebrated Secret Sunset Scoot 'n' Skewer last week and was voyaging to Archie McPhee's to harvest some prizes for scooter jousting. (Yes, scooter jousting.) Archie's just happens to be a block from Cupcake Royale so we were obligated to stop. I mean, come on - twist my rubber arm.

I filled up the 'ol fuel tank on Aphrodite again. It feels like I just made a trip to the gouging gas station, but I put quite a few miles on last week with all this devil-may-care joyriding in the summertime weather. A lot of those miles were clocked riding 2-up. I'll have to track a few more fill-ups before calculating to even things out. (Also because I try to do as little math as possible.)