Fucking Toasters!

I hope everyone had a good Christmas? It's December 30th today and I'm looking forward to New Years Eve tomorrow night. Not because i have plans to go out and kill off more of my brain cells, but because i get to spend it quietly with Mrs Crusty at home.

Last night i went to make myself toast because i do that sometimes when i want a snack. So i pop two slices of bread in my toaster and NOTHING happens! WHAT THE FUCK!?!? This toaster if you recall from my September 29, 2010 post was a replacement for my cheap, little $7.00 toaster that served me well for many, many years. After all those years it finally died. So Me and the Mrs went to Walmart and purchased a new one. We went for the $14.00 model instead of the $6.59 version that was almost the same at the one i had for years. Fast forward to last night and this new one (purchased in September 2010) died. As you can imaging i was bummed. Three months old and it shits the bed. I KNEW we should have gone with the $6.59 model! We spent double that and got screwed!

Now i have made it my life's mission to find a toaster that can last as long as my old favorite friend (may it rest in peace). Yes it's slow in the M/C biz as you may have guessed by my rant about toasters! Come on Spring! I hate Winter almost as much as a toaster that only lasts 3 fucking months!

Happy New Year Everyone!

Crusty

First BIG snow storm of the season

It's 1:30am and i just came in from plowing the driveway a second time tonight. The temperature has been right around 30 degrees, so the snow is heavy and wet feeling. The old plow (the truck that is) is feeling the strain of pushing this shit around. Come to think of it, the other old plow (me) is also feeling the strain. I can't complain to much. Compared to many places in the country we have been lucky so far this Winter. We had bare ground up until this storm.

Earlier today Mrs Crusty and me had a few errands to run. It had just started to snow a little this morning. We got to see how folks here in New England panic now-a-days at the possibility of a little snow. Ever since the blizzard of '78, New England'ers turn into lunatics when ever it snows. Hey i lived through it too, but you don't see me loose all sense of reality and go into full panic mode every time the weather man says "snow".

The news and weather man we're doing their best to hype up this storm. So naturally the first thing the Massholes do is make a run on every gas station in the area. They were fighting for spots in line! They were parking out in the street waiting to fill up! What the hell is a guy with a Toyota camry going to do with a full tank of gas if we do get the 18" to 24" of snow they were predicting at 11am this morning? It's not like he will be driving around in the storm. And if we do get that much snow, it will take the highway department a day to clear up the streets enough for non-four wheel drives to get out. Mr Toyota Camry driver gets 30 mpg anyways, so why do they feel the need to make a run on gas stations?

They other bazaar behavior is peoples need to buy bread and milk the minute "snow" is mentioned in the forecast. Bread shelves were picked clean and people were buying 2 or 3 gallons of milk at a time! You would have sworn that the world was coming to an end. Have you taken a look at most of the people around here? They could live a couple of weeks off the fat in their asses. Shoveling snow would actually do them some good.

We fought our way past the gas station and grocery store chaos to do the few things we needed to do. We had fun laughing at the panic stricken whack jobs. It felt good to get home and be safe and sound far away from the pandemonium that seemed to be happening all around us. We settled in and enjoyed watching the snow fall.

So here it is 2:05 am.....a car just slid off the turn in front of my house and is stuck in a snow bank. The blue lights from the police car are lighting up my kitchen as a type. This is my cue to shut down the computer, and go snuggle up next to a very naked Mrs Crusty who is already in bed.

Looks like i'll be plowing more snow in the morning.

G'night

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Pretty much sums it up! Merry Christmas 2010

Hey Bud'e...u wanna buy some gud chit?

This stuff works great! Buying it these days is like buying morphine or Oxycontin.  You have to have 2 forms of ID and sign your life away. I swear they whispered under their breath i was a drug dealer for having the nerve to ask for 2 boxes. I'm hoping tonight I'll be able to get some sleep. Last night was spent sitting up watching TV and dozing on and off for a few minutes at a time. I felt like i was drowning in my own flem.

WWW = Wacky Winter Weather

Here it is Monday evening at 6:19PM and it is STILL raining! It's been raining here in New England since late Saturday night. The rest of the country has been dealing with severe snow storms and cold weather, while here in Massachusetts, it has been mild and rainy. I'M NOT COMPLAINING! In fact I'm loving this weather. Anytime we can turn down the heat and we have clear roads with no ice is a GREAT thing! A sign of the Winter to come? I sure hope so but i won't get to excited just yet. It's not even officially Winter yet!
Today i feel like shit to put it bluntly. I'm coming down with a cold. I hate being sick! Mrs Crusty has been sick and i think i caught it from her. Oh well, for better or worse right! It didn't help i spent the weekend crawling under a wet truck doing repairs on one of the Crusty mobiles. The only thing i hate worse then being sick is working on any kind of automobile! They are evil rust buckets that Detroit made specifically to cost the unsuspecting American public tons of money to keep running. If a motorcycle manufacturer made something as poorly designed and badly made, they would be out of business very quickly or have their corporate offices burned to the ground. ( Better watch out Harley Davidson ). I don't feel sorry one bit for any of this countries auto makers. I have had them all, and every one was crap. Considering what they charge for them! They have screwed the public for years. If business ever picks up enough for me to be able to replace one of my rapidly aging vehicles with something new it will be made by a Japanese corporation. Maybe even a Chinese corporation! ( considering it will be years before i can afford something new! ) By that time the Chinese will have started importing cars and I'll give them a try! Hell ,how much worse can they be then a Chrysler!

Ok, I'm off to medicate.....Stay warm and dry!

Crusty

Summer Memories

I was going through the pocket of my tank bib and found this ticket from one of the many NY State Parks we visited this Summer on our tour of NY State. NY has a fantastic park system. It is a beautiful state for motorcycle touring. We spent seven days riding and only hit rain on the first day. The rest of the week was absolutely beautiful. NY is a very diverse state. Running across this simple, little ticket brought back a flood of memories and emotions. That was the best week of my life i can remember in many years. We did not have reservations. We just looked at the map and picked out interesting places. We explored back roads and got to experience life on the road. By avoiding highways as much as possible, you get to experience so much more of what the countryside is like. Small diners and mom and pop restaurants often is where we met the nicest and most interesting people. There is something about traveing by motorcycle that makes people want to talk to you. Maybe we stired up past memories of their own road trips, or maybe it was just sympathy. In almost fifteen hundred miles we never once came across anyone that pissed us off or we had a problem with. Everyone was open and kind and even smiled at us and our bikes packed with a week's worth of gear.

Winter Blues / This And That

I have sat down to write something several times this week, but i just can't seem to come up with anything interesting to talk about. I was pissed at the way the TV show "The Sons of Anarchy" ended its season. I think this years writing was lame. The ninety minute season ending episode had sixty minutes of commercials and it was actually painful to watch. What's worse is FX plays the same commercials for its shows OVER and OVER and OVER again. I was ready to throw something at the TV. The much hyped Sonny Barger cameo was much ado about nothing. Sutter put him in there to have a guarantee HA supporter audience. I'm sure all the Little minions had wet spots in there pants after Sonny's one minute appearance.

Business so far the Christmas season has sucked. Motorcycle people are always last minute, but I'm getting the feeling this Holiday season is shaping up to be a bust. Screw those shopping forecasts. The data is mostly compiled by retail associations and of course they will tell you to hurry down to the mall because merchandise is "flying off the shelves!".... Bullshit.

Harley Davidson has been setting up "assembly plants" in India and Brazil. Americans can't afford their bikes because Indians and South Americans have all our jobs. Now they can afford to buy them. It helps that by doing this it circumnavigates the import taxes Indians and Brazilians have to pay on imported motor vehicles. Trust me folks, this is the first step in a foreign made Harley Davidson being sold in this country. All their clothing is made someplace else, so why not their bikes?

Normally New England weather sucks at this time of the year, however seeing whats going on across the country, I'm glad i live here. Buffalo, the Pacific North West, the mid-West, and even Europe are getting slammed by shitty weather. We are having a pretty good early Winter by comparison. Of course Florida is having nice weather too. I have been to Florida a few times.Just the other day i was thinking maybe I should find a way of going back. But until business picks up some i think I'll be sticking close to home. I spent allot of moolah this past Summer on two long distance rides so this coming Summer I'm planning on staying in New England. After i pay off some bills I'll think about another FLA trip.

Anyone out there a TopGear fan? I love the original series from England that's shown on BBC America. I tried to watch the new American TopGear, but I'm sorry, the hosts are a bunch of idiots with no personality. I just can't get into it. I have often thought that the motorcycle world needs a show like TopGear to promote motorcycling and motorcycles to the public. No, not the typical Sturgis or Daytona Bike Week jiggle fest. The last thing we need is another OCC fake-reality show or another bimbo pretending to be an expert on all things motorcycle.

I can't think of anything else to write about. I guess my writers block shows in this post. It's more just random thoughts then anything else. I have never been much of a Holiday person. Maybe after the stress of Holidays is over my brain can relax and I'll have something more meaningful to write about.