Once again it is that time of the semester when all the work starts piling up. I have a presentation tomorrow, a paper due Thursday, another one coming up soon and finally an exam in a week or two.

Don’t bother me none.

The heat is still not on in our apartment. I really don’t think this can be legal. If it still isn’t on after another week, then I start calling and complaining. It isn’t all bad though, somehow our apartment is at 70 degrees right now. I wonder how long that will last.

Springtime means one thing for me, the beginning of motorcycle season. Three years ago, I bought my Nighthawk:

She’s a wonderful bike. Light, great on gas mileage and she gets me from A to B. However, last summer I was itching for something with a little more oomph. So I found myself an old KZ650 which has an estimated top speed between 120mph and 140mph. She looked like this:

The problem was, well I don’t know what the problem was or is. She didn’t run like she was supposed to. I think I managed to get her chugging along at a few miles per hour, but it wasn’t a smooth roll.

So I took her apart and tried to see what was wrong. My suspicion is that there was a fuel flow problem in the carbs, most likely not synced correctly. I also suspect that the valves in the cylinders weren’t spaced correctly because the first and second cylinders weren’t firing like they should. I believe there was also an oil leak somewhere in the transmission. All of that being said, it was a little beyond my mechanical knowledge. So I have decided to sell her, as is. Hopefully someone will be able to get this old girl running again. She is a beautiful bike that doesn’t deserve a junk heap.

My dad, somewhat reluctantly, agreed that I could replace the old KZ650 (providing that I got rid of her). Seems fair to me. I have found a replacement, another KZ650. I haven’t bought it yet, but the plan is to go one week from today and purchase it. I hope the man selling doesn’t find another buyer before I show up (he knows I intend to buy, so hopefully that is worth something). I will let you know the outcome of it.

One final note for now, I have completed the next step in my Peace Corps application. After I submitted my application, they sent me a few legal documents to sign. From what I could tell, it was mostly things for background checks. And again, I will let you know more as I find it out.