Unusual Weather....

[DIGGER]

In the Tomball Texas area we had a beautiful day.   Was high fifties at day break and warmed up during the day to around 75 degrees.   Got the wifes ok last nite and rolled out about 9 a.m.   Valkyrie ran like a champ.   Made my loop I like and got in 270 miles today.   Didnt get off the bike except to gas twice.   Got home and started a fire in my firepit and got a good bed of coals going and put some really big sweet potatoes wrapped in foil directly on the coals for an hour and me and the wife got us a beer in a frozen glass and buttered down the sweet potatoes and kicked back in our recliners.....life is good....

[f6john]

Dang, now I’m hungry again,

[Jess from VA]

Good for you man.  

Weather here today will be mild, but I get to go drive around in my truck and get a vehicle emissions inspection (for the communists), then over and sit in the DMV with the unwashed masses for plate tags.

You'd think after 35 years here, I'd have this emissions thing figured out.  DMV notified me about my tags, but not emissions.  I tried to renew online but it wouldn't let me (and didn't say why).  So I went down to DMV and sat around for a while, and then they told me about the dang emissions testing (and no tags for me until I do).  So we'll try again today.  The dang truck is a 2017, but only has 13K+ on it and it's not smoking fumes yet.

And don't even get me started on County personal property taxes on the truck, which are still higher per year (forever) on a 2017, than I paid for each of my first three used cars.  

Taxes on vehicle purchase, taxes on oil, gas and tires, taxes on plates, taxes on both safety and emissions inspections, annual taxes on continued ownership.  I should get a horse.    

[Hook#3287]

Good for you man.  

Weather here today will be mild, but I get to go drive around in my truck and get a vehicle emissions inspection (for the communists), then over and sit in the DMV with the unwashed masses for plate tags.

You'd think after 35 years here, I'd have this emissions thing figured out.  DMV notified me about my tags, but not emissions.  I tried to renew online but it wouldn't let me (and didn't say why).  So I went down to DMV and sat around for a while, and then they told me about the dang emissions testing (and no tags for me until I do).  So we'll try again today.  The dang truck is a 2017, but only has 13K+ on it and it's not smoking fumes yet.

And don't even get me started on County personal property taxes on the truck, which are still higher per year (forever) on a 2017, than I paid for each of my first three used cars.  

Taxes on vehicle purchase, taxes on oil, gas and tires, taxes on plates, taxes on both safety and emissions inspections, annual taxes on continued ownership.  I should get a horse.    

Jess, does the commonwealth of Virginia require annual inspection of your van?

I have to give the commiewealth of Mass credit on the DMV process of registration and inspection.

Registration and plate issuing can be done by the owners insurance company or online, in most cases.

The only time I've been in a DMV building for the past 15 years or so is for license renewal,
when I let it lapse, or ATV registration.

Annual inspection is done by 3rd party, mostly mechanical shops, so some nefariousness rejections could happen, but the DMV is pretty strict watching for that. All inspections are done under cameras that go to the state, somewhere, and are reviewed, by someone.

The inspection process includes the emissions test.

The system has definitely professionalized the inspection shops and inspectors.

Very hard to slip a Benjamin to the inspection process for a pass.

Knock on wood, my 22 year old diesel has yet to fail.

To stay with the op theme, it's still cold and winter here and the forecast is more of the same.

[Jess from VA]

Jess, does the commonwealth of Virginia require annual inspection of your van?

Yes Bill, the whole State requires annual safety inspections, but only the communist NoVA requires emissions every 2 years.  Where the mostly affluent drive nearly all new(er) cars.  So it's just another tax disguised as a clean air thing.

Registration/plates are 1, 2 or 3 years (but you can't get 3 in NoVA because of 2yr emissions testing).

My 8 1/2 foot tall van won't fit in any regular garage anywhere (or even in a regular dealership) so I go to my Dodge 'Truck' dealer for any work and all inspections.  They are good folks, don't gouge, and are a refreshing change from all my other lifetime dealer experiences.

And my extremely good looking flirty service girl improved my morale greatly (at no cost).   

I keep all this freeking paperwork in my glove box, but it isn't exactly good reading material, and I forget about it (all the time).   

To pass the time, I went out and looked at new models of my Ram Promaster 2500.  They are now $55K. In 2018, I bought a 600 mile 2017 dealer demo for $26.5K cash.   

[Jess from VA]

Back to the original post:

After getting my inspection and tags done early, I came home and realized it was going to be high 50s today, so I backed the bike out and went for a ride.

As is often the case everywhere, when unseasonably warm weather moves in, it is often accompanied by winds.  Well it was nearly a constant 20mph, with gusting to 'Holy Sh!t'.  Traffic in town is always bad, and I usually head out West to nice winding rolling hills, but not today.  Two hours was enough, and better than nothing.   

[DIGGER]

Back to the original post:

After getting my inspection and tags done early, I came home and realized it was going to be high 50s today, so I backed the bike out and went for a ride.

As is often the case everywhere, when unseasonably warm weather moves in, it is often accompanied by winds.  Well it was nearly a constant 20mph, with gusting to 'Holy Sh!t'.  Traffic in town is always bad, and I usually head out West to nice winding rolling hills, but not today.  Two hours was enough, and better than nothing.   

Gotta take what you can get....

[Hook#3287]

Back to the original post:

After getting my inspection and tags done early, I came home and realized it was going to be high 50s today, so I backed the bike out and went for a ride.

As is often the case everywhere, when unseasonably warm weather moves in, it is often accompanied by winds.  Well it was nearly a constant 20mph, with gusting to 'Holy Sh!t'.  Traffic in town is always bad, and I usually head out West to nice winding rolling hills, but not today.  Two hours was enough, and better than nothing.   

Good for you Jess, I'm waiting on a day like that after a good rain storm.  Freaking sodium everywhere.

[Jess from VA]

Back to the original post:

After getting my inspection and tags done early, I came home and realized it was going to be high 50s today, so I backed the bike out and went for a ride.

As is often the case everywhere, when unseasonably warm weather moves in, it is often accompanied by winds.  Well it was nearly a constant 20mph, with gusting to 'Holy Sh!t'.  Traffic in town is always bad, and I usually head out West to nice winding rolling hills, but not today.  Two hours was enough, and better than nothing.   

Good for you Jess, I'm waiting on a day like that after a good rain storm.  Freaking sodium everywhere.

After our huge snow and ice storm weeks ago, and 20 hours of rain the other day, we still have a lot of sandy grit everywhere (not so much sodium).  Enough to make me back off my usual fun cranking and banking.  And yesterdays high winds had it my eyes and up my nose, as well as making the bike into a sailboat.  Thus the short ride. 

Freezing rain and ice tonight.  Yayyyy.