An old friend contacted me last night and I was very happy to hear from her. However, she contacted me on myspace and for some reason or another, it will not let me reply to her message.

If this friend would please give me her email address (or figure out why myspace is being wonky), that would be wonderful.

Haribol.

Six new pics.
(click to see, ok?)

And the poem…

I wasn’t fully truthful about my time in Salt Lake City. I was miserable most of the time. So I thought that I should go back and hit some of the points that I left out. I’m not going to retell the whole stay, but I do want to give some background on it and disclose some of the highlights. Fun.

This is long. Very long.

Continue Reading »

When I was in Seattle, Ryan took my pulse and could read things from that. I’m not sure how it works, but he told me that something was .. something and that indicates that I can’t make clear decisions. That’s right. I can’t. Especially now. And especially with this damn scooter thing.

As of right now 63% of you folks are pulling for the Bajaj. I agree. It makes much more sense. It’s cheaper, for one. I can buy it and then use the rest of the money from selling my other three scooters to pay off my credit card debt. And I’ll still have a bit left over. Let’s see… if the scooters sell for $3000, $2000 and $1000, respectively (I’m under-estimating here), that’s $6000. After paying for the Bajaj, I’ll have roughly $3300 left. My credit card debt is $2700ish. So I’ll have a bit left over.

I *could* buy the Vespa with the $6000 from the scooters. But then I’d still have the credit card debt. And true, that debt could very easily be paid off when I sell the store. But why wait?

I very much want to be credit card free. I don’t like having one. I saw a wonderful little documentary about credit cards called Maxed Out. See it.

There’s a chance that I’ll take out a loan to get the scooter and then pay it off with the $6000 I get from selling the other scooters. I’d like to ride a little before it snows. I’m pretty unhappy about my ride-less summer.

But damn, the Vespa is so so cute. I REALLY like it. The Bajaj could never ever be that cute. Even if I painted it yellow. Sad.

I want the Vespa more. I know that. But the Bajaj makes more sense right now. I want both, of course. But I want to thin the herd to ONE scooter.

I’ll be buying the Bajaj.

*sigh*

Which one? The Vespa LX or the Bajaj Chetak? There’s a poll to the right of this. Look over there now. See it? Ok. Now read.

The Vespa LX:

It’s an automatic with a top speed of around 60mph. It’s a four cylinder and pretty clean burning. It gets about 75mpg. Oh, and it’s yellow. There are a few modifications that I can do to make it a tiny bit faster, but not a whole lot.

You can read about it here.

Price: a bit under $5,000.

or

The Bajaj Chetak:

It’s a manual shift with a top speed of 55-60mph. It’s also a four cylinder and clean burning. This gets about 85mpg. It’s a crappy grayish type color, but that doesn’t matter. I’ll be repainting it. And I really hate the front, but I can replace that. I really really like manual shifting. There are also a few mods that I can do to pull some more top end speed.

You can read about it here.

The price is around $2700ish.

The Vespa is the better scooter, of course. But is it twice as good? I’m not sure. And it’s an automatic. I’m not sure if I’m ok with that. I’ll be test riding an LX on Saturday, I think.

So YOUR job is to tell me what to do.

Go for it.

Tell me.

Now.

To the right… there’s a poll thing. Do it.

Well folks, I made it home.

The flight was without event, which is how flights should be. As soon as I touched down in Baltimore, I was depressed. And it’s not really gone away. I do not want to be here.

I’m not going to throw myself off any cliffs, of course. But I do have a plan.

The store is for sale, as you know. But now there’s a definite cap on it. Firstly, I am lowering the price. And if it doesn’t still doesn’t sell, I’ll drop the price again. And then, in January, when I get back from Seattle (more on that in a sec), I’ll start the liquidation. I will be out of the book business by March 30.

That is my plan.

Oh, and then, after that, I’m not sure. Definitely moving to Seattle. That’s for sure. But not sure exactly when. Two options, really. The first is to travel by scooter. You know, the Sprung from Cages Tour idea. Right now, it doesn’t sound to palatable to me. But that’s now. It might change by April. I have a feeling it will. The other option is just move without traveling. I’m not sure which to do.

I have decided another thing. Well, I’m selling all of my scooters. All of them. White, the AllState and the Bajaj are all going. Bye, guys! And I was planning on buying a Vespa LX and a Bajaj Chetak at the same time (roughly). But I’ve decided that I’m only going to buy one while I’m here. I’ll pick up the other one on the west coast, if at all.

But which one? I don’t know, really. I’m excited about both. This will take some figuring out. Right now, I’m leaning towards the LX. That’s the yellow one:

I really like it. But it’s an automatic. Am I a snob that this? The Bajaj is not a pretty, but I like it. I should hold a poll. Hmmmm…..

Oh, and the Seattle in January thing. I’m going in January. I found tickets for $230ish. That’s not bad. But I don’t know exactly when Jason and Margaret’s wedding is. Yes, they’re getting married. But I’m not sure when. Fun. So once I figure that out, I’ll book the flight.

And that’s the plan as it stands now. Fun? We’ll see.

Not a lot to say. A few pics which I’ll post tomorrow.

But I do NOT want to go “home.”

This sucks.