Two hours early. My work was done for the day and the only thing I would accomplish by staying there would be to stultify myself into a torpor. Took a couple hours of PTO and went home specifically to cut the grass and to do something about my motorcycle.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.
Used the pusher to cut the front, sides, and immediate back yard, then got out the tractor and used it to cut the east 40. My goal is to work up to using the pusher for the whole job, but by the time I got done with the back yard I was flagging and needed to sit down.
Soon enough.
...once the east 40 was done I began work on the motorcycle. The basic disassembly was done July 14, 2019 but I hadn't gotten as far as getting the carbs out or anything.
With the manual in hand, I pulled the carbs and cleaned them as best I could. Took the float bowls off and found a little rust and crud in them; blasted carb cleaner through the passages and cleaned out the crud.
I'm pretty sure I got clean what needed cleaning. I hope so. Getting the carbs off the bike was a bitch. The manual says to remove the screws holding the air box, then loosen the clamps holding the carbs to the air box and to the intake boots on the head, then slide the carbs backwards--but the problem is, the air box doesn't move back far enough to give you the clearance you need. What I had to do was to get the carbs out of the intake boots, unscrew and remove them, and then I could get the carbs out.
To move the air box back far enough to do it the way the manual says, I'd have to remove the rear fender.
Anyway, got it apart, cleaned the carbs, and "assembly is the reverse of disassembly", to the point that I got the bike completely back together but for the battery--which is trickle-charging on the front porch overnight.
So, the test run will likely come tomorrow, after work.
Then I cleaned up a bit in the garage--sweeping, mostly--and put the snowblower away for the summer. Took out Buttercup's battery, which is now trickle-charging on the back porch, because that's next.
I'd like to drive the thing a little more than once this year. My hope had been to take it to cruise nights--I get off work early enough!--but of course the local cruise nights have been corona'ed.
*sigh*
* * *
The notebook has been insane, too. I can't really explain it, but the whole thing where Hot Dog Man got a date with a chicken nugget? She told all her friends about him and the six of them decided they wanted to have a little "party". I figured that'd be the end of that schtick but it went on to have Hot Dog Man realize that she probably wanted to get married, and he had a nightmare about it, where he was ass-deep in their kids who were all brats; the nugget's father (a chicken patty, smoking a cigar) tells her that no daughter of his is going to marry a sausage; she tearfully accuses him of being a racist, of course.
Cut to two martians and Smoker in a movie theater:
Martian 1: What's that??
Smoker: SHHHHHH!
Martian 2: A chicken patty.
...and it ends up with a splash panel, large letters, "Forsaken at the Fryer: a tale of romance, betrayal, and fast food!"
Hot Dog Man is pushing chicken nugget behind him: "Look out, Chicky! That looks like a gang!"
French fries in a little french-fry-box car: "That's right! We're the Twelfth Street Frittes! And you're in our TURF!"
Next page: Martian looking disgusted: "He had me until the french fries showed up."
Another Martian, looking irate: "THAT was your limit? I was pissed off before we got to the family shot!"
Smoker, coming on from the right margin: "It's okay, guys. I torched the sets, scripts, and all copies of the film. And the studio. And all of Hollywood, just to be sure."
Other stuff happens, but on the next page, a 16-ton weight is dropped on Hoobersmit (who looks like Hitler) but instead of one of the usual sound effects it goes "SPLADDD". Martian: "'Spladdd'?"
Another shot of Hoobersmit: "Ich bin Alfred Hoobersmit!" Another 16-ton weight, KATANGA. Martian: "'Katanga'?"
After something on the next page garners a third 16-ton weight that falls with a PADOOP, he asks, "What's with these lousy sound effects?"
Guy from Disney (a martian with a mickey-mouse balloon): "Ever since some LUNATIC burned down Hollywood, this is all we can get!"
So the first Martian looks in this big crate and says, "What the--? These are all factory seconds from NORTH KOREA!" ...which is why, subsequently:
Smoker's lighter goes "moosle"
Lightning goes "FAMP"
Rathad the wizard, casting a spell, and the spell goes "ZLORB"
A guy playing the saxophone: GRILPIT
A guy throwing a rock in a lake: KREM
A martian firing an arrow at a target: SNERDLE
A grandfather clock: gni gnu gni gnu
An R/C truck: PRELTOW
A gale: MURPH
Dripping water: FROPNAR
A campfire: FRIMMIN
A martian being hit by a death ray: SHAD
The death ray itself: FENCIL
A nuclear bomb going off: PLID
The guy in the foreground being vaporized by it: MERK
A model rocket launch: MOOOOONG
The model rocket blowing up in midair: FNOO
An ancient seal cracking: GART
The Loch Ness Monsta: PAGT
Starbirt: GREN
Pages later, a martian ringing a doorbell: "Guess I'd better REMT the DOORGLAAT!"
Angry guy comes out: "DON'T remt my DOORGLAAT!"
...picture of a crazy-looking guy spinning to the tune of GLAAT GLAAT GLAAT GLAAT....
Today, they ran out of sound effects entirely...and so now there's a cheerful-looking Martian doing the sound effects as needed. A 16-ton weight falls on someone, he says, "THUD!" A guy playing the saxophone gets "TOOT!" and lightning gets "ZAM!" and so forth.
Today I was busy enough that I didn't draw much, but of course there's going to be something in there about sound effects not being considered "essential business" which is why they can't get any....
To be honest, I'm thinking about getting one of those drawing tablet things you plug into your computer, which acts as a display on which you draw. Something like that would let me scan these comics, then use GIMP on the image files in a constructive way, so as to make them legible to all and sundry...and then I could post them.
I keep looking at them on Amazon, and it turns out you can get an actual drawing-type display for well under $250. Wouldn't that be something?
* * *
Pusher threw its drive belt again. I'll buy one this weekend.
* * *
Now--a little WoW before bed. Whee!