Can anyone out there top this one?

Last Monday I got my long-awaited income-tax check. Well, I got it Friday night, butthat doesn't doyou any good until Monday. Since I was lucky enough to buy my bike with no money down in November, all the money I was going to use for a down payment could go for P&A. Of course being February it's flippin' frigid out. Cold won't keep me off my bike, but this day it was supposed to rain. And it did. And was supposed to rain all the next day, and THEN get even colder and snow and be generally crappy all the rest of the week, all of which it has...Global warming my FOOT.
Early that morning, as the rain started, I hopped in the cage and drove out to the local H-D dealer. When I got there, I got with the guy at the parts counter and we looked up all the stuff I wanted to buy. A pillion seat, passenger pegs, highway pegs, sissybar upright, side plates, sissybar pad, and last but not least, heated grips. Like I said, I ride all year round and those grips were sounding better and better every day lately.
Everything was in stock but the pillion and the particular style of grips I wanted. After looking in the catalog again I noticed I could get a Badlander seat for just a little more than the pillion. And it just so happened they had one in stock. I also took a second look at a different style of grips and those were in stock as well. Plus the labor on the grips is discounted right now. Which got me to thinking I reallywanted to getit alldone that day. It was raining that day, but it wasn'tin the single-digits...yet. The following day it would be. Between the weather, work and raising two boys on my own I knew there was no telling when I could get my stuff put on my bike if I didn't do it then. I asked them if I was nuts enough to bring the bike in that day, could I get the stuff installed the same day. Fortunately it was a slow day in the shop. I had to time everything just right because I had to get home in time to pick my boys up from school at 3o. They estimated the labor at 3 hours. I figured that should put me back home right between 2 and 2:30. No problem!
So I drove home to get my bike. I live about a 45 minute drive from the dealer. It didn't seem so far in the car, but once I rolled Monique out (into the rain for the first time ever) it sure seemed a good long trip. BTW, I can now tell you from experince, leather is waterproof...to an extent. About halfway there I got stuck right behind a semi in some stop-and-go traffic. Every time he stopped and took off again, a good bit of muddy sludge slid off the top of his trailer. I knew the bike would be pretty dirty, but when I finally got there and climed off, I saw she was FILTHY. (my BRAND NEW BABY!) The motor was brown! I did get a couple of comments from the guys in the service dept. about how I was "hard-core", though, so that was kind of cool.
They rolled her in and got started. Since it was pouring by then, I pretty much had to hang out in the showroom and look around. In my fiflthy, muddy leathers. That was fun for about an hour. By hour two I had read all the newsletters and pamplets on the table in the waiting area. Close to the end of hour number 3, I was starting to sweat my deadline. I hadn't heard a peep from the service dept. So I wandered back there to talk to the head guy. They had my bike on a lift right up front where I could see her right from the counter. I wasn't reassured by what I saw. No sissybar. No pegs, passenger or highway. The seat was still off and one of the techs was still working on wiring up the grips. At least THEY were on the bike. Turns out wiring the grips up was a bit more involved than they figured on. Good thing the labor was already at a set price.
AfterMain Service Guystated the obvious, that I would waiting a bit longer than planned, I figur

 

crushem77. I feel your pain. But look at it this way. If thats the worse thing thats happened to you in the last year than your 1 lucky soul. By the way Monique sure is a sweet looking bike

Jim

 

Crush....it's winter. And it sucks. Sucks double time here for me because I work outside, swing shift. DAMN it's cold at night, lol. Now I know why they pray to the Sun Gods.
The only thing that keeps me going is putting the new parts on. Some days it's even too cold for that in the garage, with the kerosene heater on.
Tuesday is supposed to be in the 40's, but there is still a lot of salt out there. Haven't decided if I want to get it all salted up just yet, but we'll see.

 

Damn Crush, never had that much bad luck on one day - There's quite a few of us sharing the weather blues with ya.

Good luck - any man raising 2 boys on his own deserves every second of R&R he can get!

 

Thanx Jim. I was suprised to see how cool it looks with the Badlander seat. I really thought it would take away from the sporty look, but it didn't, even with the sissybar. Soon as I get some pics I'll post 'em.

 

What is this 'snow' stuff you speak of?
Snow, snow is strange to me.[&:]

 

Only one answer to your cold problem is move over to Australia. Where I live in north Australia there is no winter, gets abit cool for a week or two but nevermissed anyriding time.

 

Thanx Boogie. I have a philosphy that any experience in life that leaves you with a good story to tell couldn't have been a complete wash. I'm hoping to look back at this post this summer and laugh about it.

Rhubarb, bite me!
j/k, of course.

 

good for you raising your kids first....the bike can wait. Anyway, count your blessings, we still won't be riding here for another 2 months and it was -40 for about 6 days a week ago. Hell, i WISH it was raining here.

 

That's a great outlook to have. Some of the best life lessons learned are done so through less than desirable circumstances...Wow, I sound like my old man!

Make sure and get us some pics soon as your camera defrosts!!!

[IMG]local://upfiles/11891/68AB58427E5F408CA34ACBB983F4C8EB.jpg[/IMG]