With any luck, this is part 1 of 2 posts today involving me getting good news... I await a decision from business school TODAY! It was due Friday, didn't come, I wrote, they answered with "by today for sure," here's hoping. On to good news part 1:

Yesterday, after putting in a new battery and some carb cleaner, (oh and waiting friggin 10 months) my bike magically came back to life.



I had pulled the carbs, pulled the gas tank, checked the petcock fuel valve, replaced the spark plugs, checked the timing, verified spark and compression, and generally just knocked shit around off and on that whole time. Turns out to be what it always is, a hard-to-spot carb problem.

I have a new lease on life. Errands are now looked forward to, (if I may dangle a preposition.) I now get 60 mpg. I cannot describe what a relief it is to finally have her up and operational again. Nothing worse than seeing all those happy bikers all over the damn place now that the weather is beautiful. It was getting painful.

Woo HOO!

Good luck dude. Don't do what you did when I rode with you last time. Just sayin'...it's been a while since you drove that thing.

Go take a long ride today. You deserve it.

what does this have to do with me

I've already been 45 miles since I got it running last night, and not a whisker of a problem. No missed shifts, no stalls, nada. I've even been up and down her aunt and uncle's steep-ass driveway twice, which used to scare the crap out of me.

I have only gotten better with time, somehow. I also broke the speed record on it last night, hitting 81. It's hilarious... you just open it all the way up, put your chin right down over the speedometer, and wait for like 20 seconds as it slowly crawls up to 80.

GIT R DONE!!

Good stuff Kyle!

Here's to hoping the biz school comes through. That's something I've been pondering lately as well.

Gotta start getting ish together. The ole 5 year plan ain't gonna make itself happen.

I think this news warrants a mid-morning beer and a nap.

...hmmmm... (ponders suggestion more than is required / healthy)...

Nope. Gotta straighten out the real wheel a tad. Got just a touch too much noise coming from the chain.

This is going to impact my post count, significantly.

Thank God.

So the plan now was to run some more carb cleaner through the bike, which one does by adding a bottle of it to the gas tank and then driving around... which is awesome, because it's an excuse to drive around.

I made a sandwich, grabbed a backpack, and headed for New Glarus, which is 20 miles southwest into the countryside of southern WI (gorgeous for those who haven't seen it). Got there, had the sandwich, just had the best little alone time ever.

4 miles back outside of New Glarus, the bike just dies, completely. One minute I'm doing 65, the next I have no throttle response, no turn signals, no starter, nada. So I dig around by the side of the road and eventually locate a blown fuse. I have no spares, of course. So I start walking back to town.

I didn't make it 200 yards before I hear this huge, awesome, rumbling sound come up along side me, and it's a really nice dude on a gigantic green Harley Roadmaster. "Need a ride back to town?" Yes I do! He drops me off back at the hardware store in like 5 minutes flat. Damn, that was awesome, if you've never ridden bitch on a Roadmaster, it's impressive. Barely 2000 rpm's at 55mph.

A box of 5 fuses is $2.37, which gives me 4 spares, and I don't know what blew the first one, so I may need them. I started walking, thinking it'd take like 30, 40 minutes. An hour later I'm about 3 miles into the 4 mile trip, and getting a tan. And a guy pulls over, rolls down his window and says "need a ride back to your bike?" Yeah, how'd you know? "I passed you going the other way like 2 hours ago." Helluva nice guy, electrician, just friendly as all getout. He even waited till I got the fuse in and the bike started.

People here are just so damn nice. Seriously, I've never had this good of a day where I had engine trouble and almost got stranded. It still felt like some sort of vacation. Best mood ever!

But no word from business school yet.

The way your juju's going, the word from the biz school can only be good.
Congrats, dude. Sounds like a great day.

Damn I hope so. I reeeally don't enjoy the constant drum roll in my head as I wait out Deadline #2 from them... the original hard deadline was this past Friday, but everyone in admissions seems to have taken last week off, so nobody could get anything done.

hoping for the best man.

They're cuttin' it close aren't they man?

Yes, yes they are, dammit. Here it is, 4:28pm, and nothing yet.

At what point does one consider the ball once again dropped?

I just sent a gentle, professional, "how late do you stay in the office, because I have some errands to run and don't want to miss anything in my email" kinda thing to the lady I've been in contact with.

THIS IS GARBAGE. Who makes homey wait till the last 20 minutes, on the second deadline (after the first was blatantly missed) on something this important?!?? Especially when that someone said, and I'll quote it here:

"I promise to have an answer to you today. The process was delayed because a couple of people in the admissions office were out last week. I look forward to talking to you soon."

Oh I want to cry.

I got it.

As in, you're in?

Yeah, sorry, momentary shock / freak out / call wife-n-mom.

Here's the deal:

Not only did I get in, but I got a "Project Assistant" position, which means...
- I don't have to pay tuition for the first year (of 2 yrs) at least,
- I get a monthly stipend, described as "a good monthly wage," whatever that is.
- I get full health insurance.

I got that PA spot because I mentioned that I'd written for a paper before, and that I'd love to help revamp their newsletter, and it turns out they want to do just that. So at the very least, half my tuition for this is paid, beyatches. PAID. And I don't have to get a part-time job while I'm trying to make good grades. Holy christola, this is surreal.

I need bourbon. Take that, former job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Holy shit ky, thats awesome. I'll try to talk to you tmrw on AIM as I will be in storage office all day.

Kick ass, brother.

I am still freaking out.

Thanks for the well-wishing, folks. Y'all made it easier to be jobless and without prospects.

YAYEE, YAYEE in best Ice Cube voice.

Kick ass my brutha!

does this mean we can all start crank calling that dickhole who got you fired?

Congratulations! Really glad to see it worked well for you. You defintely deserved some good fortune.

Congrats, Kyle, that's sweet!