Week 32 - Hadley, Bynum, Graham, Wentworth, Mebane

Things I Did

• Replaced Punkin's carburetor with a much nicer one. Stretching the rubber air hose to fit it was such a challenge that I had to take a long break and come back to it, but eventually determination and elbow grease won the day. And wow what a difference it makes! The throttle response is butter smooth and the extra power is palpable.
• Disassembled and lubricated Punkin's front suspension. One of the grease fittings was clogged with dried grease, but after many rounds of soaking it in gasoline, blowing air through it, and poking it, I was able to get grease to go through. Two of the felt dust seals had become as soft as earwax, so I replaced them with modified O-rings. This was the last part of the bike that I hadn't really taken apart, and it felt good to learn about it and take care of all the issues before I put thousands more bumpy miles on.
• Replaced Punkin's rear shocks. The old ones were making funny noises and a lot of their damping action was gone. Plus one of the plastic housings had melted from the exhaust heat, and the new ones have metal housings. The ride became noticeably smoother as well as quieter. I hadn't realized how much I'd gotten used to the junky feel of the old parts, but all these improvements add up to a substantially more enjoyable riding experience.
• Worked for an afternoon down by the river at Bynum and had dinner with JH on her front porch. We had a wide-ranging conversation, and some neighbors and their pets stopped to chat, as often happens in Bynum.
• Rode 55 miles up to Wentworth to take the motorcycle skills test, through rolling pastures covered with yellow flowers. Luckily the weather was fine this time and the pavement was dry. I got to the DMV early and set up a practice course in the parking lot, using pieces of trash in place of cones: a crushed water bottle, a plastic cup lid, a Barbie doll, an empty pack of Newports, and the remains of a blunt. Even after running through all the drills several times, I was still a bit anxious about the actual test. The examiner took one look at Punkin and said, "What is that? It's so cute!" And then all my practice must have paid off because I got through the test without making a single mistake, and she announced to all the other examiners that I'd passed with flying colors. I wasn't expecting to have to take the vision test again, so I hadn't done any eye exercises and just squeaked by, but luckily I won't need to do it again for eight years. I was passing through Graham both ways (where I now know the good places to eat), so I stopped at Steve's for a veggie plate on the way up and at El Carbonero for some celebratory pupusas on the way back.
• Visited my friend CC in Mebane, whom I've known for over 30 years now. It was fun to tell him about my snake and turtle sightings in Florida, because he's a wildlife enthusiast with a soft spot for herps, and I didn't need to explain how cool it was to see gopher tortoises in the wild. To give you an idea of how into herps he is, we were sitting at an iron table that he'd forged at a workshop, and instead of following the instructions, he'd made the curlicues around the edge into sixteen snakes, and the rosette in the center into a pinwheel of four cowering mice. He talked about his landscaping plans, "For a while we were thinking the yard should be like a Carolina prairie, but then we got into thickets. Thickets are where it's at! The birds need thickets!" He's working on building rock piles where lizards can sun themselves, and he wants to make a huge hollow rock out of ferrocement with a crack that children can crawl through into a secret hideout. It would shade a small pond, with mud on one side for underwater critters to hibernate in and a deep spot where he can immerse himself until his nose is just above the surface and watch the frogs mating.
• Visited my old neighbor JB, a former pig farmer and barbecue chef, competitive chess player, and small engine mechanic. We talked about motorcycles, regional barbecue styles (we're both devotees of the vinegar sauce), and the banjo he wants to build out of pear wood he cut from the orchard. He said nobody calls him anymore to cook a pig, maybe because it's politically incorrect, and I reminisced about how I used to help take orders and make change for his stand at the Pittsboro street fair, my wages being a barbecue sandwich, which I still use as a point of comparison for all others (not many can surpass it).
• Went with my parents to the H's farm for finger food and drinks on the patio around a bonfire. Behind us their chickens hustled around the yard, and behind them the flock of Gulf Coast Native sheep, with a record number of little spring lambs. There were sandwiches made from a wild turkey that AH had shot a few days before, and meat pies filled with bear and deer sausage from recent hunts. As it always seems to in places where land values are rising, the conversation turned to lucky and unlucky real estate purchases, the ones that got away, and how much they would have been worth now. The crescent moon rose among the stars and we walked home in the dark.
• Went to the monthly workday at BH Farm. There wasn't a whole lot to do this time, although RM and I did move a heavy table, and I did some handyperson jobs at SL's house. Afterwards there was pizza and salad, and I caught up with MP, talking about travel, philosophy, and the personal growth work we'd each been doing.

Things I Learned

• I can get Punkin up to at least 52 miles per hour! I determined this with a GPS speedometer since the needle on the old analog one tends to jump around at high speed. Unfortunately, when the airspeed gets up around 50mph, the bike starts to wobble a little, which I think might be some kind of aerodynamic effect on the saddle bags. It feels a little unnerving but not actually unstable; I'll just need to keep studying it to see if there's a way to counteract it.
• A lot of modern Harleys and Triumphs have fuel injection, but they've mounted fake plastic carburetors for that classic look.
• Many plants contain silica structures called phytoliths, and they're distinctive enough that archaeologists can look at the scratches on stone tools and tell what plants they were used to harvest. To do this they first need to make a lot of stone blades and harvest various plants with them, which was a job one of RM's friends had.

Wonderful Things

• Watching the leaves unfurl and turn the forest into a green wonderland.
• A solitary old tree in the middle of a big field.
• The rhythmic calls of whippoorwills, owls, and mourning doves.
• Eating lunch and reading in the lush clover under a blooming apple tree.