Good things came in pairs today.

[John Schmidt]

First, had lab work done yesterday to check glucose and A1c. With the stress of the past couple years and hormone shots for the prostate treatment, the A1c had spiked to 11.1 and blood sugar was right at 300. The shots alone have that side effect, then add the stress of the last 18 months or so and it was getting out of control regardless of my eating and exercise habits. My former primary care wouldn't listen to either my questions or suggestions so after he interrupted me a half dozen times while I was trying to answer his questions, I finally picked up my things and headed for the door. My parting words were short but not so sweet...not vile but made my point and left. All the nurses at the station across the aisle heard me and all gave me a thumbs up. That told me he wasn't high on their Christmas list as well. A couple days later I was hooked up with another young gent with the same health organization and we hit it off great. He listened, made suggestions and we agreed to give a new approach a try for three months. Result...A1c dropped to 7.5, sugar down over 100 points. Still shooting for lower numbers but this got me riding high the rest of the day. The other part of the labs were for the one year followup of my cancer treatment. Result....PSA is .008, was also 11 and rising, and testosterone was 122 and headed for what the dr. expects to be about 130 for an old fart. I'm hoping for higher just so I can brag to him.    Six months ago it was too low to get a reading so happy things are returning to normal. So, the labs were the first good thing.

The second good thing was I got my 4 deg. T/W end of last week but has been too cold to work in the garage. Finally hooked up some IR heaters and aimed them all at the front of the trike. This evening I got the T/W and new belts installed. The right belt always seems to be a challenge so I used an old procedure I learned long ago and all the marks are now lined up. Smeared some blue loktite on the crank bolt, then using my homemade wrench to hold the cam sprocket I tightened the crank bolt. Also had the bike in gear. Once tight, I let the stuff dry a while as I picked up the overburden of tools laying around. Next, put the trike in neutral and cranked the motor around for six revolutions. That lets me check the timing marks alignment three times while listening for any telltale sounds of valve interference. All is well so tomorrow I'm going to try starting it, haven't run it for about a month so the battery is most likely down. I left the front cover off for now so I can observe the belt action and if satisfied, I'll button it up and move on to swapping out the front wheel/tire with the old bike. Once that's done, I'm pulling the tank/airbox/will desmog and swap the carbs. Tomorrow is supposed to be in the upper 40's, followed by a high of 16 Thursday and 18 Christmas day so want to try and get more done. But...the ground is pretty bare of any snow. Go figure!

One last thing...after crawling around on the garage floor my knees aren't happy. Think I'll opt for a hot bath instead of a shower tonight, especially since I hit the gym this afternoon. That tends to bring out your personality which can be whiffed from afar. 

[f6john]

You did have a good day. Always good when valves and pistons aren’t clapping!

[Serk]

Awesome on both counts! Be sure to have your eyesight checked out, mine went all wonky when I got my A1c down...

[NewValker]

Good to hear good things happening to you!!
Ya paid enough dues...

Craig

[FLAVALK]

Good to hear John, glad things are looking up!

[scooperhsd]

Keep it up , John. I've been working on diabetes for about 5-6 years now, last 3 A1C hovering around 6.0/6.1 area. Good diet and exercise are your friends, but be really regular on your meds too. Losing weight will help (like I have a alot of room to talk ).

A good Primary care who will listen and work with you can make all the difference in the world. Best of luck.

[Jess from VA]

Good news John.  

I keep one of those stiff foam rubber kneeling pads in my bike shed and it really comes in handy.



Or at least some chunks of carpet remnants.

[John Schmidt]

Good news John.  

I keep one of those stiff foam rubber kneeling pads in my bike shed and it really comes in handy.



Or at least some chunks of carpet remnants.

Jess, I have some foam pads and old blankets I fold up but it's the getting up & down plus just being on the knees kills me. Probably going to get worse when I get old. 

[Jess from VA]

I'm the same way John.  My knees are pretty good, but getting up and down all day is a killer.

And I've tried and tried, but I can never figure out a way to do all the down work while down, then all the up work when up.

Just resigning myself to (clean but) battleship gray Valk wheels had been a great relief. 

If you don't like how they look, don't look at them.   

I'm not parked much, and most guys only get to see my tail lights anyway.   

[rocketray]

there are a lot of knee pads at sporting goods and hardware stores-they attach w/velcro straps that are  pretty nice and affordable

[Thunderbolt]

All great news John.  How about the move to N.C.?

[Oss]

This is the kind of news I was hoping to hear.

Have a great Christmas John

[John Schmidt]

All great news John.  How about the move to N.C.?

Terry, don't think it's going to happen. It was a good deal....turne out not necessarily for me at the time. Was turning into a financial drain, most of the problems most likely due to long distance dealings. Been looking up here more recently but the housing market is nuts, property going for waaay over asking price. I made an offer on a nice little home with a price of $175k, I offered $188k and turned out it was near the lowest bid. Finally went for over $210, it's not worth it even with updates. Ridiculous money going out.

[old2soon]

        I've asked this before and asked you directly John when we had brunch couple weeks ago. WHEN Zackly did Down git so danged far away?  Course as you mentioned also John-gittin back vertical Do have it's interesting points!  I've heard too-that which don't kill us makes us stronger! My personal jury still out on dat. RIDE SAFE.

[John Schmidt]

        I've asked this before and asked you directly John when we had brunch couple weeks ago. WHEN Zackly did Down git so danged far away?  Course as you mentioned also John-gittin back vertical Do have it's interesting points!  I've heard too-that which don't kill us makes us stronger! My personal jury still out on dat. RIDE SAFE.

Dennis, in that case I should be able to lift a '49 Caddy.   Actually, the older I get the farther away UP seems to be. Likewise mounting the bike/trike, seems that saddle gets higher every year. At least now with the trike I don't have to worry about tipping it over. 

[John Schmidt]

Another good thing happened this past Tuesday. I had been waiting for my 4 deg. T/W to come in then wait for it to be warm enough so the IR heaters had half a chance to work in the garage. Tuesday was it so went to work replacing the belts and installing the T/W. I left the cover off to observe the belt action and listened for a whine in case they were too tight. I usually just let the tensioner springs do the job and it was good this time as well. Battery was down so had it charging while working, and pulled a little vacuum on the petcock to let the carbs fill before spending time cranking. Finally all was ready so opened the garage door, hit the choke about halfway, confirmed it was in neutral and hit the starter. Fired a couple times but balked a bit so let it sit while I picked up tools. Tried a couple more times and away it went. I had installed some clean plugs, the old ones were covered with oil and rather dirty. That new T/W sure woke the old girl up, including throttle response. I let it warm up a bit and was able to release the choke, was glad it still idled although a bit slow so bumped that up to just under 1k rpm. Tested the rebuilt alternator output...looked good as well. One thing I noticed is all the hose clamps were loose so tightened the visible ones only, the rest will have to wait until I swap out the carbs...as will the intake o-rings which are leaking like a sieve...see pic below. Even with all the evident problems, once warmed up and no choke it idled quite nice...has a little lope to it with the extra 4 deg. advance on top of the existing I/S 2  deg. built into the ICM. Snap the throttle and it really wakes up, can't wait for warm weather. Soon as it warms up at least to mid 30's I'll swap the front wheel and fender off the old bike. Then it's on to swapping the tank, new filter, swapping the carbs, add cruise control, desmog....then in the afternoon...  I've come to realize the prior owner did only one thing to the trike; the fog light switch failed so he butchered the wiring so they're on full time. At 68k miles it looks like it has double that. It's dirty, don't think he ever did anything re. cleaning the engine but the body of the trike is in remarkably good shape. Had a trike builder check it over, he said the main thing it needs is some elbow grease. I have plenty of that. I polished the front cover and some of the surrounding items I could reach while it was off. Still a long way to go!

#1 & 3...two others on the left side are worse.