Triumphant Return (almost)

A Year In The Making!

Almost exactly one year ago I took my 1967 Triumph Bonneville to Century Motorcycles in San Pedro for restoration.
The initial estimate for time was five months, even that seemed a long time.
After the months passed, I contacted the shop and one thing led to another, eventually I became resigned to getting the bike back when it was ready. I reasoned that since I had it for 20 years and didn't fix it what was a few more months.

Earlier this week I got a call from Tim Rutherford, the guy who owns the shop saying that it was almost there.

So today after work I ran over to San Pedro to check it out.

 

Looking Good

 

 

 

I should be able to pick up the bike next week. The crew at Century will put a few miles on it during the week and recheck the bolt torques, then it will be mine all mine.

 

Next up!

The Ariel Square Four

This one just needs a little TLC and some electrical work.

 

 

You know the old joke:

How come the UK never put a man on the moon?

Lucas Electrics.

Wallsend

The title will mean more to some than others!

The great wall project is now complete.
The gate is installed and the new house number is on the wall.
The grass is green and the trees are growing.

Birthday!

My Birthday

 

 

 

As most of you already know, my birthday was earlier this week.

 

 

"Will you still need me will you still feed me when I'm 64"

 

 

Well I guess now I'll find out the answer to that question asked by the Beatles in 1967.

 

 

Here are my birthday cards, and I must say that I'm worried about my reputation.

 

 

 

 

The cards on the right have some reference to beer, the cards on the left don't.

 

The card at the top center mentions beer and curry!

 

Before the card from our friend Cheryl who lives in England, arrived, the split was 50 - 50 with the tie breaker being the beer and curry card!

Fortunately, Cheryl's tipped the balance to 7 - 6.

I did not count ecards in this as they are a bit more difficult to reproduce.

 

If you sent a card, THANK YOU.

If you sent a card about beer, THANK YOU.

If you sent a card about something other than beer, "You don't know me very well do you?"

 

Thanks to you all for your wishes and messages of commiseration!

 

 

To paraphrase the old saying "You are what you drink"

 



More Of The Great Wall

 

 

The great wall is now complete.

We decided to have some trees on the outside to soften the effect of the wall.

 

We got Blue Tip Juniper and had the yard guy plant them on the Friday after Thanksgiving.

 

We also decided to have top dressing applied to the grass and have it re-seeded.

So now it smells like Wisconsin out there. That's not an insult to Wisconsin , but there is a reason that it is known as America's Dairyland.

 



The final step will be the installation of the gate and that is about two to three weeks out.

 

 

 

 

Carnivale In Germany

 

 

This was the Carnival mood in Cologne when we arrived on Sunday.

 

 

Maybe we will go with the intention of enjoying it the next time.

Leaving Germany

We are checked in, sitting in the lounge and ready to go.
Yesterday we drove south to Kehl which is near Strasbourg, France. We looked around a warehouse with a bunch of used forging equipment. Some of it was even older than I am.
See this press from Newcastle below!




Or this old Fielding press from Gloucester!



After we got back to Frankfurt, I treated myself to a Bitburger in the airport.



No the table is not pink, it just the lighting.

We should be on the plane in about 30 minutes and ready for take off in about one hour.

More soon from home.

Norm


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Location:Frankfurt Airport

Day 3 Germany

Today we drove from Cologne to Siegen to visit our friends in DDS.
It was quite an easy drive except for the area where the tree trimmers were working. They had one lane of the autobahn shut down with a huge traffic back up.
Once we got to Siegen we met with our friends there and took a tour of the plant.

And, they still have the PINK ladies room (portable) that Anne saw on her last trip!



We saw our good friend Martin who asked to be remembered to Barb and Leon.
He is in this picture if only you can find him.
.




Tomorrow we drive down to the German town of Kehl which is near Strasbourg which is of course in France.

Tonight we had dinner with Rainer Dango (after a little delay when he got lost in the hotel)
A great night was had by all.

More from Frankfurt tomorrow when we get back.

Location:Frankfurt

Day 2 Germany

After a tough day of working our fingers to the bone!
We decided to visit the local HD store in Cologne.
After an early setback, John came up with a great idea to find the place.
He realized that we were passing through this commercial area and that the store would be in there.
A huge production site has been broken up into boutique size buildings and the HD store is housed in one of them.














I decided to take a walk around the area by our hotel, not a bad idea, but very cold.

How can you play a grand piano outside when it is cold!







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Location:Cologne

Day 1 Germany

We arrived in Cologne on the day that they start celebrating Carnivale.
They celebrate it from now until Mardi Gras taking a break to celebrate Christmas.
I thought that we had the lock on crazies in L.A. they have nothing on these guys when they are in party mood.
It is now a little after midnight here and there are still a few revelers out in the streets.
It is not just a young people thing, lots of grannies and grand dads are out there too.
Normally you can, with a little difficulty, drive to the hotel which is in a pedestrian precinct. (I'm good at that) Yesterday we had to park about a half mile away and walk to the hotel.











In the hotel bar, The Pope,Elvis and a Scottish prince having a beer together.








Here you can see one part of a band, the drummers all have their equipment mounted on wheels and take them from place to place to carry out impromptu
concerts. The guys who played the Sousaphones aren't so lucky, they have to carry them.






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Location:Cologne

Trip

In the lounge at LAX ready to depart.
I think that I have flown Lufthansa flight 456 to Frankfurt more than any other flight to Europe.

More soon from the other side of the pond.




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Location:LAX

Full Height Now

Only The Razor Wire and Machine Gun Posts To Be Added

 

Now that piece of tree stump needs to go.

The chair is for Anne to sit on whilst she asks passers by for donations.
 

 

 

 

 

The Wall Goes Up

 

 

Today the crew started the construction in earnest.

They poured the footing and started the building of the wall.

 

 

They have now set five courses of block and are about half way there.

 
 I noticed that on the inside of the wall they marked some blocks with an X.
I asked the "builder" what that meant and he told me that was how they knew where the re-bar is placed and that they pour each of those positions with concrete.

In the gate opening there will be a turnstile installed to ensure that guests do not leave without paying their bill.

And here we have the lovely  Anna showing how high the wall will be upon completion.
Of course the broken glass and barbed wire will be a little higher.

This wall adds a whole new dimension to round the bend! 

Once the block is all in place, the wall will be covered in stucco on both sides colored to match the house                     

 

 

 



Health & Safety You Know Mate!

 

We had the city inspector out today to sign off on the foundation footings and rebar.

 

He suggested that we put up barrier tape and add safety caps to the rebar until the wall construction started.

 

 

Health & Safety You Know Mate, Health & Safety!

 

 

The safety tape and rebar caps are in place.
I hope it works!



Construction of the Cain Compound

We have started the construction of a wall out front of the house.

It will be the entire length of the lot and 6 feet high. The idea is to cut down on the traffic noise and on the visual impact of traffic at the lights.

Ground breaking was today, unfortunately we did not have Obama with a gold shovel to get the project off the ground.

 

Reviewing the fortification!

Who's that behind you?

Going round the bend.

 

I'm not sure that I like it now.

 

More Soon as the project progresses.

Riding over the Vincent Thomas Bridge

Check the video riding from San Pedro to Terminal Island over the Vincent Thomas Bridge, California.
Richard, look at the size of the expansion joints, they look really scary the first time you cross the bridge and they don't get much better.

 

 

 

Marjorie, you would not have liked this at all, too high, too fast, and too open. 

USS Iowa

Today we rode over to San Pedro on the scoot to check out the USS Iowa in her permanent berth.




Of course when you go aboard there is a photo op, we bought a couple of pictures.








This is a little bit about the ship known as the battleship of presidents.
She carried FDR, Ronald Reagan and George W. H. Bush (the better one of the two)
The nickname of the ship is "Big Stick" for obvious reasons.
Her armament was impressive when she was commissioned and was added to or modified as developments took place. Her nine 16" - 50 caliber guns made her one of the supreme battleships of all time.








Six forward and three aft 16" guns. The turret armor was capable of withstanding a direct hit. Each turret when fully armored and carrying ammunition weighed as much as a WW 2 destroyer, about 2,000 tons.





The ship has only recently opened to the public and much modification is taking place. In the future expanded tours and facilities are planned. Anne and I will be returning periodically to check out the progress.





This is the cabin used by presidents when they were on board.
Not exactly the Ritz but a great security team!




On the lounge deck with Palos Verdes in the background. No drinks with little umbrellas here! In fact no drinks at all, nor are there any bathrooms on board.
Well not for the public, they must have had bathrooms otherwise the cruising range would have been very short.





In the mess hall, Anne has a replica WW2 food ration book from the UK sent to us from Bletchley Park by Mike and Mary Irwin. Bletchley Park was the home of the WW2 code breakers and specifically Alan Turing the pioneer of modern computing science. Boy I wonder what he could have done with the computing power of a modern PC.




Looking back from the ship towards the Vincent Thomas bridge.
Note the Disney Cruise liner in the left of the picture.




The parking lot for the battleship visit is gigantic, there should never be a problem finding somewhere to park. The hard part is finding your way out.

Looking from the ship I was able to spot my bike. How one might ask oneself?
Because the sun was blinding me with the reflection from the chrome.




The reason it looked so great was because whilst I was in Europe, Leon took my bike and gave it the mother of all detailing.
Barb bought him the ultimate in chrome polish and he put it to good use.

I'm almost afraid to ride it in case I get it dirty.

I took a video riding over the Vincent Thomas bridge, after a bit of editing it will be posted to the blog.
Those of you afraid of heights or of a nervous disposition should not watch.

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Location:San Pedro, California