Fast Approaching Winter

I purchased a new ride last month, a 2003 Kawasaki KLR650. Got a great deal on it (I felt) and it is a real change from my usual type of ride. I love my FJ, the available performance (never did find out the top end, great to have a ride that controlled the Speed freak in me. I was amazed at how fast I did go - obvious not commenting on that here.) the look and just the whole attitude. I have posted it on a few sites for sale. The KLR has got so many good points going for it though, more economic to operate, tons of aftermarket parts (things like the Corbin seat I have received), the ability to tour on-road or off. It is light enough that I will be able put it on a trailer hitch tray to bring it with us when we head out camping or touring. I took it out to the Jordan Meadows west of Shawnigan to bang up off-road for a while. What a blast! In a little over a month I have racked up over 2000 Kms, not bad for such a bad weather month. I think I am going to be very pleased with this bike and where it will take me.

We got our Volkswagen Westy back (I also refer to it as the four wheeled money pit) after it failed us, yet again, on our way to our long awaited camping trip. Made it as far as Nanaimo before we had to pull into the local VW dealer. Long story short... Blew the engine, damaged coolant system = Lots of $$$$$. It had a 1.9 liter engine which is no longer available so it had to be fitted with a 2.1 Liter. Seemed to be running good, although have not had a lot of time to test it, (please see previous paragraph) so took it today and the Damn thing failed me yet again, thought it might be either alternator (I replaced this beginning of September) or Battery going flat. Alternator tested ok, Multimeter on the battery looked right. Next step Starter...unreal. Buying a new van one piece at a time. LOL

Some brilliant games out now, the obvious Halo 3. Picked up Medal of Honor: Airborne and Rainbow 6:Vegas. Hugely addictive. Over the next few weeks Call of Duty 4 and Unreal Tournament 3 are coming out. Love this time of year.

I was given a Cisco 2950-12 Switch, Have been spending a lot of time working with both telnet and web-interface for the switch. Been interesting to work at configuring it then monitoring or attempting to circumvent it. Or to launch an attack and then monitor the network for signs or pointers, or to configure the alarms to detect the attacks. Way too much fun.

EOF - LC