I had a bunch of things to get done Saturday; clear the grass from the edge of the patio, plant lavender, cover the bare dirt with weedblock, pound in edging, cover with mulch, then change the oil on the motorcycle, then change the front brake pads on the motorcycle, all while smoking a ten-and-a-half pound picnic ham for dinner with friends.
The clearing and planting and digging and weed-blocking and mulching took the most time. Got started early before the heat of the day caught up to us. Then it was in the garage for the oil change. Munched my index finger being silly while loosening up the drain plug, but other than that things went well. Spun the oil filter off, used my new oil drain pan (and when I carp about how Harley Davidson gear is over-priced, let me just say right here and now that the HD drain pan is the best one you can get on the market and worth every penny if you change your own motorcycle oil), and once the bike was all drained, put the plug back in, and grabbed my new gee-whiz oil filter.
Which didn't fit. What the what?
Grrrrr. Growl. Did I get the wrong one? Did the shop ship me the wrong one by accident? Who knows? Luckily I had an additional, although inferior oil filter that I knew would fit. Went a grabbed that one, and spun it on. Well, tried to spin it on anyways, as it got to the same point as the other oil filter and stopped.
Dammit, this is not a hard task! I've done this plenty of times! What the ^%$@#(*! is going on here?
Compared oil filters. Not much difference, but just one slight little difference, maybe a millimeter of size difference between old and new. Did I just screw up on picking the filters? So I hop in the Ragin' Car, drive to the shop, get a filter that specifically matches my bike. Drive home, spin it on. It's difficult, but it goes. I shine a light behind the filter to see if I notice any gaps, because I'm just not feeling good about the way it felt going on. No light. OK. Time to fill 'er up. Amsoil, baby. Only the best for the vehicle that takes me to and fro. Filled up, ignition on, wait... slide the oil pan under the filter juuuuuuust in case something went wrong. OK. Ignition on, hit the start button, and the engine starts up like a champ.
Then "hissssSQUIRT" Oil comes shooting out of the space between filter and engine. I have edited my actual statement that I made right then from "GAAAAAHWHATTHEHELL %^&$#@(&*!@##$%!!" to something more civil, like "Oh my, I think something has gone horribly wrong!"
Get back down, cursing a blue streak. Grab the filter, spin it off. Set it down in the oil drain pan, grab a rag to wipe down the now dripping engine, and as I swipe it over the spot where the filter meets the engine, the old, dead seal from the old oil filter comes peeling off where it's been hiding and lands in the drain pan.
(rage-induced cursing streak deleted)
Grab the Wix filter I'd purchased as my primary, spun it on. Fits like a glove.
So I said all that to say that I never got around to replacing the brake pads, because when I include driving to and from the shop, I spent about two hours doing a fifteen minute job. Oh well. I'll get to the brakes right before I mow the lawn, after church.
On second thought, I should mow the lawn first, juuuuuuust in case something goes wrong....
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