The Benly and Me

Every once in a while I surprise even myself, take yesterday for example. Heather had given me permission (she's AMAZING) to drive out to Carbon and buy an antique motorcycle that had shown up on Kijiji exactly 48 hours earlier. The Paynes had lent me their truck (on short notice - you guys are awesome) for the task of bringing it home. Things were falling into place. It was a sunny day and as I cruised past the range roads in Dad's old truck, I had that usual feeling of anticipation. This was my first visit to Carbon and I was charmed by its picturesque streets and little church on the hill.

The elderly owner and his best friend met me at their shop and we sat on bar stools for a while and talked about the virtues of small towns and the problems with big cities. The friend sparked up a cigarette and removed a tiny mint or pill from the package and placed it on his tongue. I have been wondering about that; I'm sure I've seen people do that somewhere before, but I have no idea what that pill is for. Anyone know?

Anyways, after the small talk, it came time to see the bike: a 1959 Honda C92 Benly (125cc). This model is one of the earlier ones to be sold in America and was an important stepping stone in Honda's journey from manufacturing powered-bicycles to becoming a world-wide juggernaut. These bikes are quite rare and this particular example had been stored indoors for the past 30 years! A barn-find Benly that has been so completely (and so accidentally) preserved is not something that comes up very often. The owner claimed that a year ago, they had hooked up a battery, fed fuel to the carburetor, and managed to fire the engine with the starter button. Now, the fact that the bike could be started electrically was a big deal back when it was on showroom floors. The fact that it could still be started electrically 50 years later!? After 30 years of sitting!??? If true, that could only have been possible through a combination of extraordinary engineering and ordinary luck.

The bike needed some paint, had a dent on one side of its art-deco headlight nacelle, some dents in the exhaust, and was missing a signal light and sidecover. Now if someone took the time to fix it up, it would be worth many times what it cost them. In short, it actually would have been an "investment" (a word that I use frequently with Heather but which neither of us really believes). Now I could have parted the bike out and probably doubled our money, but I don't think that would have been in humanity's best interest. I don't even agree morally with the practice of converting classic bikes into cafe racers; because there are fewer of these machines each year and I feel that the remaining ones should be preserved in stock condition. In the end, I was honest enough to admit that if I bought the bike I would just end up spending more money on it, at a time when we should be putting money to other uses. I left the shop empty handed but felt like I had matured a little.

The day wasn't a complete loss either, I got to lay eyes on the valley village, met a couple of interesting characters who used phrases like, "rare as hen's teeth", and saw an old Benly that hasn't been seen by anyone else for decades. I may not be able to say that I own a 50 year old motorcycle, but sometimes a story about one that got away is just as good... sometimes even better. The only real downside is that during the return trip, that excited optimistic feeling was gone, and all I kept wishing was that it wasn't so far of a drive, or at least that I had brought a lunch.




- C

Stay the Course

You can probably tell from the unsophisticated, less-portable style of this post, but I'm still typing on our old desktop computer. Since I last wrote, there have been a few developments (or more accurately, the antithesis of developments). First, I called Dell to upgrade my order to a faster processor so it would also be able to run video games. A couple days later, it occurred to me that for the money we were spending, I could buy a cheaper laptop + a Nintendo Wii to play games on. I called Dell from work to downgrade my order; however, when I got home and told Heather about my great idea, she pointed out that "we really don't need a Wii". Her words. I pulled up our online banking to put her mind at ease and... apparently... after Disneyland, the Odyssey, and weekly trips to the new Thai restaurant in town, I'm of the opinion that "we really don't need a laptop" after all. I made one final call to Dell.

In hindsight, my last post was a little dramatic... this computer works just fine and the two-stage startup is a nicer, more gradual transition from off to on. Kind of like how I would set the actinic bulbs of my aquariums to turn on an hour before, and then turn off an hour after the daylight bulbs. This dawn/dusk effect is more natural for captive livestock than going from full-night to noon-day at the flick of a switch. Anyways, we will keep using this computer for as long as we possibly can, and only when it dies will we get a laptop. Kind of like how the pioneers were with their computers.

Oh, and the aforementioned Thai restaurant is one of the few that have my favorite dish "Naam Tog" (aka Waterfall salad) actually listed on the menu; I usually have to special order it. And they also have sticky rice made up and ready to go whereas most places in Calgary and Edmonton require advance notice to make it. The owner is a super good guy and takes the time to sit and visit with me in Thai. He is not a member, but he thinks that the Cardston Temple is one of the most beautiful buildings in the world and even takes his friends to see it when they visit. I was talking to Jewel on the phone tonight (we do it every Sunday) and she told me that they wouldn't move again because they love their cul-de-sac so much. When she asked me what was keeping us here, the first thing that popped into my head was this Thai restaurant... maybe not the best reason but, whatever. It's in the old Humpty's location across from Tim's and I highly recommend it. On an Ebay scale it would be an "AAAA+++++++++++++++++++++++++++".
Please visit and give them your business so we can keep the restaurant here in town. Because when it's gone, so are we (I don't know, maybe).

This has nothing to do with the title or content so far, but check out this video:





You might recognize that this is what YouTube played on April Fool's day, in place of whatever video you actually wanted to watch. At the time I thought, 'who is this crazy little guy lip-syncing that familiar old song'? Last night, while doing some AR (awesomeness research), I came across a photo of Rick Astley and it hit me that the guy in the video is actually the Rick Astley. I've never followed or payed attention to a particular musician, but this guy's songs have provided the background music to many of my memories. Heather sometimes shaves my head on Sunday mornings, but today I just asked for a trim in the back so I can grow my hair out like Rick's. I can also relate to what he's going through when he's dancing... it's like when I was at Stake dances, I knew I was supposed to move my arms but I was never 100% sure of what to do with them.

So maybe it's not cool to admit that my new favorite artist is Rick Astley, but he had a lot of great songs and they seem to be more PG than much of the music currently on the radio. It's probably also not cool to begin a blog post without knowing what you are going to write about, and then fail to maintain any coherent theme...

- C

CHEMT_'s Computer Concerns

Readers would probably be quite shocked to see what a humble operation it is that produces this high quality product each week (or each month sometimes). In fact, all of the work, from concept through to pre-production and production, is done on a single computer. This week, in a twist of irony, the means through which the news has always been reported, now is the news.

A few months ago our computer developed a strange grinding noise on startup. When working on motorcycles I learned to touch the tip of a screwdriver to an engine case and hold the handle to my ear to help identify the exact location a particular sound is coming from (it works good, try it). What bothered me most about this sound was that I could not think of anything in a computer that should be grinding against any other thing. I ended up doing what I usually do when I don't know how to fix a problem; I resolutely, though uncomfortably, ignored it.

The problem developed into a high pitched whining sound that would continue even after the computer was shut down, and could only be stopped by disconnecting the power. Two days ago, the inevitable happened and the computer failed to restart. Since then I have figured out that by fiddling with the voltage switch on the back of the tower, I can get it to start by: 1) turning the voltage switch to 220v, then 2)pressing the power button, then 3) switching to the proper North American voltage (115v) halfway through startup. I am not making this up, that is the only way to do it. At first, I didn't even know that the little red switch changed the voltage (and carried the risk of frying the entire computer), all I knew was that it could be switched back and forth - and in the moment, that seemed more helpful than anything else I could think of. This complex ritual reminds me a little of the process whereby one would go about kick-starting a 1969 BSA 441 Victor Special.

However, unlike cast iron motorcycle engines which can be gently coaxed along through concessive internal explosions, the wires and circuits and magic that make up a computer are more prone to just up and quit without any cause or any deference to journalistic deadlines. In light of this, I have been scrambling to research, locate, and purchase a new computer before this one dies more thoroughly. Just minutes before beginning this post, I finally sent my credit card payment off to cyberspace. Now we will just wait and see if cyberspace honors its end of the deal and sends me a computer.

In the meantime, if you don't hear from us... you'll know why.

- C

Resolutions anyone?

Yesterday I heard someone say that they had set a resolution five years ago to never set another resolution. Given the failure rate of new year's goals, that probably isn't a bad idea. Still, I am of the opinion that even though today is really no different than yesterday, it should be different, or rather, it would be nice if it was different (aside from police case numbers changing from an "08" prefix to an "09" prefix). In light of that, Heather and I came up with our list for the coming year.

- Exercise more and eat better. I would also be happy with "Exercise better so I can eat more". Not coincidentally, this resolution is also our most likely to fail. Dang it, but Heather is just such a good cook.

- Daily scripture study. We actually got pretty good at this near the end of '08. It brought a wonderful spirit to our home and everyone enjoyed the time together. I was surprised at just how much Ella's reading improved as well.

- 100% Home Teaching for me. I picked this because it is one of those things that I get uncomfortable thinking about (always a good indication of where work is needed). First order of business: next time the Elder's quorum president calls for stats, I'm going to ask him which families I'm supposed to be teaching.

- Visit all the parks in our home town. This goal is more like "spend time outdoors as a family", but with a fun mission. Yesterday, I was looking at a map of Bayport (my made-up name) and was surprised to see that we have more than 50 parks here. In the past seven years, the only parks we have frequented are: "The Park by the River", "Far Park", "Yoshi Park", "The Park by the Mailbox", and "The School Park" (the kids' made-up names). That leaves a lot of parks, not to mention a good amount of the town, that we have never seen. I contacted the town office to get a map of all the green spaces, and this year we will start crossing them off the list. We might even take pictures at each park and put together a scrapbook once we've completed our mission.

- Have a family service project. This idea was kindled by our reading of "Christmas Jars", and my memories of dad taking us as kids to "pixie" the church in our home town. On those pixie nights we would drive into town and clean and vacuum the church while trying not to get spotted. The secrecy was what made it fun, kind of like the difference between leaving cookies on someone's doorstep and running away, or just handing it to them. Anonymous service is just as thrilling as vandalism, but you feel even better afterwards. (I made that last line its own sentence so it would be more easily quotable)

Well that's not a bad looking list, if we do even most of that, I will count it as a success. Speaking of which, CHEMT_ wishes all of you a successful new year as well.

- C