Yay, I got my motorcycle back. Oh, did I forget to mention that it was gone? Oopsie.

Background: Right about the time I was getting ready to leave for Chicago, at about the same time I was putting the Land Cruiser (no name for it yet — I’m thinking of calling it The Chuckwagon) in the shop for revivoratory surgery, I learned that Yamaha was issuing a huge recall on my model of motorcycle, one that included me. Seems there was a little problem with the transmission that could cause it to sort of break while you were riding it and kinda lock up the rear wheel and maybe make you fall down and go boom-slide- ow-bleed-ow-crunch- ow-die.

Not good.

I immediately took my bike to the shop the next day and dropped it off for repair … and there it sat. For. Ever. Yamaha issued the recall, but didn’t quite get around to issuing parts to fix it. So my bike sat in the shop for nearly a month and my truck sat in the shop for nearly a month and I sat in my home in Van Nuys and wondered how the fuck I was going to get to my job 65 miles away in Aliso Viejo.

Enterprise Car Rental loves me now; I’m their neighborhood frequent flier. I rented a car for a few days before going to Chicago, then rented another one for a few more days when I got back. It kind of sucks to be a 2-car, 2-motorcycle family when you can’t use 75% of your rolling stock and you have to pay to use someone else’s micro-mini econo-beer can car.

But you already knew I got my truck back, and now I’ve got my bike back too. I’m back on 6 wheels again and it’s nice to have a choice when leaving for work in the morning. Because, you know, it’s been cold and rainy here lately. That’s truck weather — when you’ve got a truck. And the sunny weekends are motorcycle weather — when you’ve got a motorcycle.

Now I have both. Yay.