Just starting...

What happens when you take one completely kickass photo that Stalkerazzi took at Battle on the Bank this year:

And give me a deadline and an idea for derby artwork?

You get this preliminary result:





















More to follow as soon as I get more than a 3 hour stretch of free time(which has been pretty much IMPOSSIBLE these days).

Oh, and my motorcycle is sick. Very sick.

I was riding in to work on Tuesday when I noticed that the bike's exhaust started getting louder and more choppy, as if it were imitating a very low-flying helicopter. Hmmmmmm. Since I was lanesplitting down the freeway at a not-too-crazy-fast speed, I also picked up the distinct sounds of ticking coming from the engine. Uh-oh. And then I noticed that when I tried to accelerate, the bike was sluggish in responding. OH CRAP.

I had to make a quick decision whether to limp the bike to work in Borebank, or limp the bike to the Glendale HD shop. I chose limping to Glendale.

After a terrifying ride to Glendale, I was quickly informed that just by hearing my bike come into the service yard, the service tech determined I had an exhaust leak. Okay, I can deal with that. We let the bike cool down to see if the studs holding the exhaust pipes to the engine could be tightened up. They couldn't, because they were rusted over. The service dude hinted that I might need a whole new exhaust(which I'm not going to do. I'm digging up the stock exhaust pipes for my bike and will have them reinstall those if they insist that I need new pipes). Then I tell him about the engine ticking sound, and he listens and says that it may be the cam chain tensioners. That would explain the loss of accelerating power, too.

The cam chain tensioners have been replaced before, but apparently they need to be replaced periodically unless one switches to a gear-driven cam system. Which if the cam chains are the problem, I'm going to do.

The lame part of all this is that it's now Sunday and the dealer hasn't had the chance to even inspect the bike for reals. LAME. So I've been having to drive more and borrow the Dear Husband's unused motorcycle for work purposes.

The cool part of all this was that when I texted the show producer that I was going to be late because of the bike woes, she arranged to have someone from work come pick me up so that I wouldn't have to take a taxi from Glendale to Borebank. How many studios would do that?! I was able to catch a ride home from a former Scooby colleague who happens to work in Borebank and lives on the Westside, so I totally lucked out on transportation that day.

So life continues to be very, very interesting these days. I would totally dig it if I was able to get a full night of sleep one of these eons. So far, no luck on that front.