Well, now, do I have a story to tell. First, a few days ago Windows 7 decided that it had a dangerous trojan horse around the time the Windows partition started running very low on disk space (55gb partition). MS's own security system all of the sudden started doing something. Acted like it was going to take care of everything all by itself; supposedly quarantined the thing. Acted all peachy, but when I tried to get rid of it, it would just start the same thing all over again. I restarted the machine to find that it did not help, and then the OneDrive started giving errors repeatedly. The creepy thing is that I have had the file that is being blamed for months, and this is supposedly the kind of program that can hide in the background and track you
Back to OpenSUSE for me. Since I'm out of school, I don't really need MS Office anymore, so I can't really think of a reason to use Windows anymore, except maybe to try that free Win 10 thing again--maybe--maybe not
I just didn't want too fool with Windows to repair it; I just started using Linux instead. I decided not to login or make any posts until I got the thing updated. Unfortunately my old 12.3 was unsupported, so I had to download and install over 2000 packages
to make the upgrade to 13.1. I still had to go through a lot of trouble, Windows or not
. There is still one security update that cannot install due to dependency problems, but I gather that is a bug. For the record, to make myself feel better, I changed my password for this forum.
Aaaanyway...
The really crazy story to tell is of the night I just had. Going against my parents wishes/advice (That happens often these days), I took my bike to work today, amongst other things. The crazy part is what happened as I came home. I wanted to do some exploring-- try some alternate routes home instead of doing the same old trip down the four lane. Well, the first thing to mention is that it was wet and dark. Secondly my face shield was continually a little foggy, so I kept it raised, making the wind noise mildly annoying. I stopped to put in my earplugs, and a sheriff stopped by and asked if I was okay. I asked him for directions while he was there, and he let me know that I was going the really really long way back home. So I turned around and took another route. As I headed back, I almost ran out of the road in a curve. It was a weird curve on a fairly fast road, if you know what I mean. I noticed it as I came through the first time, but I let it get me as I came back. I then bought gas... It was a good thing I did, for if I had run out of gas at the wrong time, the coming nightmare would have been a trip through the bowels of Hades.
Well, actually, that was not far from the case. It went like this, all was okay until I took a little back road. Well, I didn't really know it was a back road. I thought I might have come out that road at some point. I was almost surely mistaken, but who knows, considering how complex those little roads can get. Regardless, it was a trap set by Satan himself. After a while, I started getting the creeps about that road. It was wet, after dark, and in some places, the fog was mighty thick. There was a fork in the road, with one fork going up, and the other going down. Well, I went down into the bowels of He-double L itself-- no, literally-- the place was called the Devil's bathtub. When I saw a big landmark sign (don't know how to describe it) that said "Devil's Fork", I got a creepy feeling. I came to the beginning of a dirt road, and said to myself, "I ain't foolin' with this," and I turned around.
Well, I didn't really go into the "Devil's Bathtub" itself-- I wasn't that crazy-- but I was on the road. I came to the end of that road and went to the uphill fork. I was faced with a line of deer that crossed in front of me as well as some fog. I went to the end of the hardtop and said, "I ain't foolin' with this." Again, I turned around and drove past that evil fork.
I was on my way out of that crazy place when I crossed a bridge-- a creepy bridge. This bridge was named but had no markings, and it looked big enough for maybe two cars. Something about that bridge was a little creepy. That sure was an enchanted bridge, because, when I came off that bridge, something went dreadfully wrong. That 8 year old Metzler let me down. It broke loose for some mysterious reason. Whether I touched the brake and caused it to lock, or whether it was just spontaneous or environmental is currently unknown. There could have been a mechanical failure. Who knows? Whatever the reason, when I came off that bridge, I believe the rear broke loose; it began to recover, but I lost it, possibly resulting in a minor highsider. I can't say for sure. I don't remember perfectly. The fall strained my knee a little. After I got up, it took me a few seconds to gather the strength to pick the bike up. I was left with a broken foot peg and two broken turn signals. Since it was dark, I will have to look tomorrow in order to tell whatever else is wrong with the thing.
I was in the dark in the middle of nowhere (or the edge of nowhere anyway--could have been much worse) with a sore leg and a broken bike. What was I to do? Call for help (assuming there was even a cell signal)? Sit there and cry? Naaaw, I picked the thing up, cranked it up, rolled around to look at the crash site and gather the broken parts, and I rode home. It worked.
However, after the crash, I began to notice that the rear tire felt funny, like it was wanting to slide everywhere and go all over the place. Just felt insecure. Maybe it was all in my head
. It made me think that the tire pressure is low. Just to make sure it wasn't totally flat, I pulled over and felt of it. It had some air in it. How much? I don't know. I do know that when I pushed the bike into the garage, the belt squeaked all the way and felt warm when I touched it, so something definitely seems amiss. I also know that the rest of my trip home was kinda slow, creepy, and full of fog.
I can say that my parents will probably get what they want: I probably won't ride in the rain tomorrow. As I was coming home after all that, I felt like I had gotten my fill for a few days
. Maybe I will let it rest long enough to put on that Sportster seat I just ordered. Got it for 57 bucks, free shipping
. I've got alot of work to do on it, but one doesn't get much chance to do that when he's riding the tar out of it. I've probably put over 1000 miles on the thing since October-- and wrecked twice to boot
.
From what my Dad told me, this road goes all the way into High Knob, if anyone is familiar with that area. It is a good thing I wasn't insane enough to go up the dirt roads, for Dad told me that it was so steep that his truck overheated many years ago going up there, that he couldn't even make it with a two wheel drive truck. Just imagine getting stuck halfway up that mountain at its steepest part, in the middle of the woods, on a streetbike, in the middle of the night
. Now that's treacherous! My Dad said that it was a wonder I didn't meet Bigfoot
. He also told me that the "Devil's Bathtub" is some sort of rock pile or something. I don't know
.
Kinda funny that my trip through the pit took me straight to the Devil's bathroom
Maybe it was occupied, if you know what I mean, and he didn't like me disturbing his privacy
. Couldn't be his living room, now-- had to be his bathroom. Maybe I'm like Mario and came through the wrong pipe