2016-06-12 Local Ride With New Spot, 145k miles, Aunt Ruth's service

Today was my first 'fun ride' in over 9 weeks due to working another nookie outage. Having just got KrZy8 running good again (clogged fuel injectors) and the weather unseasonably cool, well, a feller just has to, yes?

..and I needed some time to clear my thoughts. Last Friday my family put  Aunt Ruth into the ground. I couldn't attend the services as I am on-call foreman this weekend.

She is the last of the greatest generation in my family. She survived a husband, son, brother in laws, hell, she survived everybody. I recall the two families, my dad's and his brother, getting together about every 3rd weekend for BBQ, pool playing, home made vanilla ice cream. And Aunt Ruth's chocolate cake was to die for. Especially with fresh homemade vanilla ice cream on it. 

Aunt Ruth was awesome. In WW2 she ferried aircraft from the factories to their designated air bases. She was a crack-shot with guns too. From .22's to .45's to long rifles.. She could dance a can at 50 feet without aiming. She was flipping houses and making a small fortune before the term 'flipping houses' existed. She could out-paint me too, 1.5 rooms to my 1. And I was 18 or so at the time, in my prime, and a hard worker.

'Boy,' she would say.. 'Is that all you got done? I'm paying you by the hour you know, you need to pick up the pace!'. But at day's end, she would always pay in cash (cash is king) and Thank me for my hard work.

She let Uncle Dutch ride motorbikes, alone. She had no interest in going, had other things to do. But she let Uncle Dutch be Uncle Dutch and I admired that then and now. She didn't have a conniption fit when her daughter dated then married a Japanese man. Remember this wasn't too long after WWII.

Aunt Ruth sold me both of Uncle Dutch's BMW motorcycles, after he died. An R60 and R69S. The last time I saw Aunt Ruth was in a care facility. She was wearing an all-white robe and pretty red lipstick. Her eyes lit up when I told her how pretty the red lipstick looked.

The Parkinson disease was kicking her strong but she smiled when I told her that both BMW's were being restored. I held her shaking hand as her body convulsed involuntarily, the convulsion strength beyond belief. She didn't cry at that time, but her eyes said it all. From smiles to pure agony in 45 seconds.

She was truly a woman ahead of her time. Fiercely independent, work driven, frugal to a fault, a loving mother, wife and wonderful person.

I miss her so. 

And I couldn't pay my last respects. But I will. I'm off call in two weeks.

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The route was simple enough, head to the lakes of Naciamento and San Antonio, to check out the water levels after the little bit of rain we had over winter.

Lake San Antonio is closed.. due to, wait for it.. no water.

Turned 145,000 miles as indicated. Over 204k total now. Recall the odo has been replaced twice. Check out the mpg.. I never get this high of mileage. In chasing the clogged injector problem, replaced spark plugs, coils and caps, air filter.. She is now running KrZy8 Great!

And here's the road 145k happened. Just north of Paso Robles on River Road.

That's it. Short RR.

Good night, Aunt Ruth. I hope you're enjoying your second honeymoon with Uncle Dutch.