Taking a "sickie" because you're actually sick pisses me off. I injured my back many years ago from jumping out of perfectly good aeroplanes, so usually I'm very careful about not doing anything that'll aggravate the injury, but last Saturday I was pulling out some bike parts from under some shelving and I lifted a big plastic tub full of Honda nuts and bolts (probably 50 pounds in weight) and I felt it "going out", but persisted, and by the time I'd done mowing the lawn and weed whacking, I was just a big ball of hurt.
A mixture of pain killers and alcohol (not recommended by doctors, but what do they know?) put paid to the pain, and I was much better by Sunday. During the week though, the pain didn't go away, and today I had to go home at lunchtime, take some drugs (no alky-hole today though) and go to bed.
If you've never been bored before, try spending your afternoon in bed, in a hotel room. So being bored, feeling sore and even a little sick (a weird side effect of my back pain) has well and truly pissed me off. I did spend my sick day well though, by buying another bike.
Yes, I know, with 7 other complete running bikes I need another bike like I need a hole in my head, but on Monday evening I won $2400 playing a poker machine at the club where I'd had dinner, and my thoughts turned to the best way to expend my ill gotten gains without telling the wife? When I bought my little folding trailer a few weeks ago, John, the seller, showed me his BMW R1100GS. For those who aren't familiar with the model, they are a big 1100cc on/off roader, using the later oil/air cooled "Boxer" engine. Over the years they've morphed in to 1150 and 1200 models, but they're all essentially the same bike.
The thing that endears them to most people is that they work very well on formed roads as well as dirt, and unlike a lot of big bikes, are happy in traffic too. Anyway, John offered to sell it to me then, but I really wasn't looking for another bike, so I thanked him, and told him I'd think about it. This afternoon, buoyed by some strong pain killers, I sent him a message offering him 25% less than his original selling price, and he accepted. So on Sunday I'll be collecting it from Franger-ston and towing it back to Canberra.
Good thing is, unlike the debacle with my Harley Sportster arriving here sans number plate, it's registered so I'll be able to actually have a bike to ride around Canberra over the next few weeks. One thing I've missed about leaving Melbourne to work here during the week is not having a bike to ride on nice warm evenings, so I won't be pissed off at all having a bike up here that I can actually ride!
I hopped into my time machine so I could take this action pic of me on my new BMW in a couple of weeks time, good thing is my back came good tomorrow, so it's gonna be a red letter week. enjoy! Cheers, Terry.