If I'd only known...

[Incubus]

So I was going to give Incubus his maiden voyage today. The engine starts on the first pop, I confirmed the clutch engages and disengages, I rebuilt the brakes front and rear and put on new tires.

So I wake up this morning to rain. It has been raining all day, mostly heavy. Some of you may know of our weather situation in Austin. We are in the most severe drought since the 1950s, bordering on Dust Bowl dry. Our lakes are less than 40 percent full and all the water systems around here are on Stage II water restrictions (If it's yellow, don't flush fellow. When it's brown let it all go down) which is real, real bad. We are about to set the record for the most triple digit temperature days in a summer - which is Texas is almost inconceivable. That record has stood since 1925. Over the last two years we are almost 40 inches of rain below normal. The crops around the area are a disaster and most private wells are either dry or required new and very expensive deeper drilling. It's real bad.

If I had only known what the first attempted trip on Incubus would cause I would have found and rebuilt this bike two years ago. Now I may rebuild the parts bike.

The ride can wait.

Patrick

[Wildkat]

Glad to see y'all finally got some rain down there Patrick... and it looks like you might be in store for some more as well...

Keep rebuilding those bikes and maybe the reservoirs will be full before winter hits.

[Silent]

You must have washed it too

[latexeses]

Looks like you better get after that 2nd bike. If the State finds out you may have them backing into your drive with a truckload of XS's!

[Incubus]

You must have washed it too

And I left the windows open and the Cyclesound cover off...

[fredintoon]

Eddie the rainmaker

Hi Patrick,
my neighbor Eddie is a Cree adopted into a white family and claims he had to learn to be an Indian out of a book.
He bought his first brand-new car. For a whole week he'd go out with a sponge and hose to wash it and it would start to rain.
I told him, sponge and hose works better than drumming and chanting eh?
Tomorrow, he sez, I'm gonna buy a can of car wax and try for a tornado.

[mxmikie]

rain shoot why just the other day i was out riding and it started to sprinklehttp://s88.photobucket.com/albums/k1...pt%205th%2009/

[foreda]

Rain

All I have to do is say the word motorcycle or golf.. The other day I had to laugh, told the wife... Think I'm going to ride this morning, play golf in the afternoon. Walked outside and I swear there was not a cloud in the sky but it was raining.

[Incubus]

Back in the day I spent several years living out in West Texas, which is mostly arid. Almost every precipitation events we had out there were "two-inch rains." That didn't mean rain that collected two inches deep, that meant drops evenly spaced two inches apart.

One rancher back then told me once about the time his seven year old son came running into the house in a panic, crying and carrying on. The rancher asked the boy what was wrong. "I don't know, paw," the boy said. "I've never seen anything like it! It's like the sky is crying!"

It was not that unusual a reaction. The boy had just never seen rain before.

But this is Austin. We're supposed to have big lakes and lush fields and forests. It's amazing to see how devastated a landscape can become in just two years.

BTW, it's still raining and it's supposed to rain again tomorrow. This is not going to break the drought, but it sure is nice to know that it can still happen. What we need is a good tropical storm or a hurricane hitting the Texas coast and moving inland. I personally would be willing to sacrifice Houston. Sorry Houston members, but you have to know that a good hurricane dead in the heart of the city would do billions in property improvements.

Patrick

[GARTHXS]

i hear you

Happens here in san diego it doesn't rain all day except when I decide to go for a test run and then stops when I get home

[Gator]

I had great plans of working on the bike, and a friends car this weekend, but I'm not very far from Austin, and am elated about all the rain! We have been WAY WAY too dry! In the last coupla days we've had almost 5 inches!!!! So, no work on the bike, and so far haven't gotten to my friends car either...