Saturday, December 8, 2012

What Do You Know, It's Raining

The rain has become daily entertainment and that's fine except for two little problems:

1 - How do you dry your clothes.  Greeks don't believe too much in clothes driers as it gets so hot here so why waste the money and the electricity.   But what do you do in the Winter.  No good answer yet.  I'm out of shirts so I better find one soon!

2 - Greek bread is fantastic but they don't use preservatives so that means go out and get more every couple of days.  Rain, scooters and bread aren't a good combination so I've got to find a bakery that's closer than fifteen kilometers!

The ride back here a couple of days ago was a horror show but it was quite funny.  I've ridden in some bad stuff but I have never been ridden in a hailstorm!  There was no place to get cover so I just kept riding.  Kids came out of a store to giggle as they couldn't believe anyone would be nuts enough to do that.  I laughed back at them and they could see it, what else was I going to do.  The hail was bouncing off the helmet like machine gun fire.  My reaction might have been a little different if it were baseball-sized Texas hail but this really wasn't too bad.

If I take my hands off the handlebars on the scooter, even at low speed, it will shake quite strongly.  I'm thinking either a very badly-balanced front tire or head bearings.  Anyone have an idea??

Yes, I'm aware the above leads to speed wobbles.  In fact, I'm acutely aware of it.  Next time I'll just jump off instead of trying to ride it out like I did on I-71 (laughs).  The shaking is not that evident at speed so that leads me to think it's the tire rather than the head bearings.  More to come on that.  Must talk to Harry as it was like this when I got it and he knows about it.

There was a question about blood pressure meds and that's covered.  The pharmacist isn't that strong with English but I'm improving, little by little, with Greek and I don't go about with an escort to translate.  It turned out I didn't need a prescription and I don't know how that works but it means I'm covered with precisely the same dosage as I have been taking.  I also have a blood pressure kit and was amazed to see it testing lower than it has in a very long time.  Daisy knows how bad it was in Texas and I'm telling you straight that it's much-reduced now.

Other than laundry and weather, there's not a lot to report this morning but I did get a mike going last night.  I've been unable to locate a power supply for the vocal effects unit and that's unfortunate as it should only be about twenty euros if I can find one.  Eventually.  Previously I had been using the mike on the Skype headset and that's way below grim.

So I'm broke and alone at Christmas in one of the most destitute countries on Earth so what could go wrong.  I say nothin' as it already did (laughs).  I have less money, less stuff, and no drugs but I feel better about just about everything than I have in a very long time.  It's all good, really.

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