Tuesday 17 June 2008

Hangin' around for The Rainy Days.

A break from machinery for the moment. Time for a waffle. This one is inspired by the plight and challenges faced by most of us in Oz society in its current form. The stuff being endlessly repeated in our news media with no apparent happy ending in sight.
Yeah, "Rainy Days and Mondays always get me down" type stuff.
The secular humanist society promoted in these ~enlightened~ (~ = sneer quotes) times by the likes of Dawkins, most of standard left-wing academia, and the public school system is clearly showing the kind of fruit it bears, and the grafting going on exchanging branches within the same tree ain't going to make it any better either.
Lately I've been personally lamenting the plight of our young, our brethren in remote Aboriginal communities, and the apparent sickness of the soul of our whole nation. I have been wondering what it would take to turn people around and if such a turn around will happen.
I know I can be extremely negative and critical of the time and age we have no choice in partaking in, and I am generally and usually of the view that not much can be done about it and that it is better to hasten the end rather than patch up something doomed to fail.
However, I am also reminded that we are not abandoned nor forsaken and that the proliferation of hopelessnes, pointlessness, wickedness, and all the things reported in our news media, etc, although are very distressing observations and relatities for any parent, are still serving a useful purpose and aren't impossible to turn around.
Part of the useful purpose I reckon, is that it serves as an example to Dawkin's crowd that they are just plain wrong, wrong, wrong about most things and that their brave new world built upon subjective morality and base self interest is doomed to failure that can easily be extrapolated by what we are currently already seeing. I won't go on. Heh.
Not impossible to turn around ? See: http://www.welshrevival.com/ from which I'll quote a tiny bit from the "history" section.
SOQ
"a storm had hit the churches yet for so many it was a storm of love and power which completely transformed their lives.
People were changed in so many ways. The crime rate dropped, drunkards were reformed, pubs reported losses in trade. Bad language disappeared and never returned to the lips of many – it was reported that the pit ponies failed to understand their born again colliers who seemed to speak the new language of Zion – without curse and blasphemy – even football and rugby became uninteresting in the light of new joy and direction received by the Converts.
Colliers and tin-men of the working classes expressed their joy in so many ways – so many original prayers
But perhaps the song that captures what most of these felt was a song sung by Sam Jenkins a tin plate worker from Llanelli – a song translated at the time from English to Welsh – Can y Rebel “Am Achub hen rebel fel fi” - "For saving an old Rebel like me"."
EOQ
You see, I'm reminded that in the final days before God is obliged to step in an put things right again with mankind having been given all the chances due a rebellious child by a patient parent, the promise is to pour out His Spirit on all flesh - and when that happens, I reckon the likes of the Welsh Revival will be small potatoes !
Apparently during the times of Welsh Revival, people were even falling over in the streets overcome with a sense of their need of God's love and forgiveness. Imagine the turn around and return to hope in remote Aboriginal communities should that happen ? Same too in our city's "night spots" ?
How long does it take to turn people around ?
Surely but a blink of an eye once the choice is made ?
On a more secular level, look how easy it is to shape the public view of an entire nation if not tongue ? A couple of newsprint articles, a bit of 6 oclock news time, then the odd collection advertisements, and wallah ! Done !
I reckon BRING ON the last days outpouring of the Holy Spirit as prophecised by Joel (2:28) ala "It will come about after this That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and daughters will prophesy, Your old men will dream dreams, Your young men will see visions."
"After this" ? After what ? Heh. I'll let the interested go look that one up ...
Anyway, Dawkins and crowd not withstanding, I'd rather see us all, especially our young and our Aboriginal brethren, and our leaders under the influence of the Holy Spirit rather than what seems to be the norm at the moment.
That kind of Rainy Day (regardless of what day it falls on) certainly won't be getting me down.
Other than on my knees in thanks that is.
regarDS

Wednesday 11 June 2008

CX500 rAt Attack stage 2 begins ...

Yay, at last I've rid the ratte of the Hateful Honda Custom seat. I scored off ebay for around $50 a "Bar Enterprises" Cobra model designed to suite Harley Sportsters and then had to fend off some fierce bidding (actually, I just swooped down der spatz like at the last minute to clean up) for the Harley Sissy bar to compliment it. Not so cheap at about $135 but considering the bidding that was happening I reckon myself to be a winner AND a grinner this time around.

I had to hose clip to the top of the frame a stainless steel rod (borrowed out of a boat trailer roller) in order to hold down the seat at the tank end, and I simply drilled through the mud-guard at the rear to use the existing holes in the seat along with the bolts from the original oh-so-gay Honda seat to hold down the other end.

All temporary measures. I'll weld on proper brackets when I pull the mudguard off and replace with a wheel hugging version late in "stage 2" or early "stage 3".

I decided to junk the Honda pillion grab rail (LSCP is happy enough holding on to either me or just below the back rest) and instead mount the indicators into the perfectly matched stem holes in the Harley sissy bar. For now, I've also raised the positioning of the default stop-light cluster on the mudguard to bring things more into line.

To aid in the ongoing uglification I've bunged a mini cargo net thingy over the tank ... got a spare one coming so that will probably be stored in streched out form over the same location. Heh.

What else ? Added some Triumph Cub gaitors to the front
forks to cover over more annoying shinyness. Lots of fun with a wheelie mega hydrolic car jack, lumps of wood under the centre stand, and light tapping on a cut off broomstick to push the forks down through the triples in order to get them on. Left the front wheel on the forks and just let the brake calibers hang and disconnected the speedo cable from the gauge end. Learned that what can be tapped out easily enough ain't so easy to push back in when gravity is going the other way and a heavy round thing is on the bottom. Heh++
Actually, it wasn't so hard to get the forks back in the triples again. Once they were lined up and well sprayed in suitable lubricant it was simply a case of holding the front wheel with one hand whilst letting pressure out of the jack under the engine with the other. A little pushing of the wheel back towards the radiator saw the forks easily glide back in. Then it was a simple matter of tightening up one side at the right spot then letting down the jack and applying pressure to the other side to get the top of fork line-up exactly the same as it was before the operation to hide shiny metal behind dull rubber.
Next ? Observe the small-arms ammo box, the brand new Harley chopper custom guard, and the pod air-filters an image ago. Yup, that means that the stock air-box is going bye-byes along with the standard mudguard and side covers and instead the battery and half the electrics are going to live in the ammo box which will be where the airbox used to be. While that area is all opened up I'll take the tank off and weld in some new seat brackets and a bracket to the swing arm in order to mount the new guard that will remain a constant distance from the wheel and swing up and down with it. By then I'll be ready for some lower shocks, so I guess I'll see what I can trade at the local 2 wheel wreckers from what I've junked ...
Oh, and why remove the tank again ? Coz I don't like welding and angle-grinding around petrol containers. Safety First Folks (yup, those are armoured and double lined chamos I'm modelling under that beaten up old Belstaf jacket, leather cut-offs, and nice unshiny new helmet), and until next time ...
regarDS