OK, I'm Back ...

... but I haven't been back for long enough to be certain that the electric/cable repairs are finished. In the past, we've sometimes had power for an hour or two and then had it go out again for some amount of time. This time it was about 36 hours of no power. I took the motorcycle downtown for a bit, and it was back on when I returned.

No obvious damage to the house, and everyone's safe. Which, of course, is the preferred outcome. The storm ripped about half the siding off the house next to ours, and dropped some big trees within half a mile or so. It looked/felt like a pretty big blow, but other than the siding, our neighborhood looks like it came out pretty well.

Hope anyone and everyone affected by the storm came out OK -- let us know in comments!

Speaking of the motorcycle:

The "motorcycle garage" arrived on Wednesday, but I wasn't going to put it together and up right before a hurricane. It's really just a glorified cover on a frame of metal rods. It's mean for light protection. I parked the motorcycle in my mechanic friend's real garage across the street.

Yesterday, with not much to do since the power was out, I went over there (he runs a generator and was doing car stuff) and did some work on the bike.

I hadn't noticed until after getting home from the accident that the fall had pushed my handlebars a little to the right. So I loosened the hex bolds that hold them, re-centered them, and tilted them a little further out toward the seat so that I can lean even a little further back than before. I also took a mallet to the left foot peg, which had been ever so slightly bent in the lay-down.

And I took off the little "windshield." It really served no obvious purpose, and frankly I thought it made the bike look like a toy or something. It wasn't big enough to provide significant protection for much of anything, and I suspect if I ever went over the front of the bike, some part of me would catch on that thing and just make everyhing worse.

Both I and my mechanic friend wondered what its aerodynamic effects might be and what would happen in that respect if I removed it. Anecdotally (I didn't have my GPS speedometer app on), I think the main effect was that I achieved a top speed of 60 miles per hour or maybe even 61, instead of the former 58. That's just a guess, based on what the "generous" factory speedometer read (63 mph). And it's possible that I had a perfect tailwind or something.

The bike also looks a bit meaner without the little toy windshield on it. Going with the "mean theme," I have a tiny sticker on the way (the first, and maybe only, sticker I intend to put on the bike):

No prize for figuring out what it means, but take a guess if you like (for the first two letters think "Marine Corps"). I've been seeing those stickers around and had no idea what they meant until I saw then in a Marine Corps context.