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What mess? Looks normal to me

Ok, its a slow week and time for a distraction from the "other" issue of the day... I've been growing, harvesting and enjoying my own oranges for the last 25 years, one of my simple joys in life, so here's what I've learned that I never knew I wanted to know... Orange trees produce one crop/year and its almost exactly a 1-year process from bloom to peak ripeness/sweetness. Different varieties bloom/ripen at different times and the most commercially grown varieties are Navel (large, thick rinds, easier to peel and commonly found in the store) and Valencia (smaller, thin rinds, hard to peel but very dense juice content, commonly used for making juice). There are multiple varieties of Navel oranges, Washington & Robertson being the most common. I have Washington Navels. My oranges start turning orange in November and by Christmas, they are all pretty much solid orange. This is the time commercial growers will harvest, pack and store them for delivery to your local grocer. Unfortunately, this is also when the acid content of the orange is highest and they have not yet fully developed their sugars. But, this is when they will have the longest post-harvest shelf life due to the acids fighting the bacterias which would cause them to rot. They are very juicy right now, but very acidic. Later, they become much sweeter but less juicy as the sugars develop, starting around late January. Now, here's where it get's crazy! No other fruit or vegetable that I know of has this characteristic - each annual crop of oranges can amazingly hang on the tree for a solid 6 months after they turn orange and continue to sweeten! The longer they stay, there will be a small % that does rot & drop, but those that survive are absolutely amazing. I also have a lemon tree, it produces year round and once ripe, the fruit will start dropping in about two weeks if not picked. If you've enjoyed homegrown tomatoes vs. store bought, you know the difference in flavor/sweetness, its basically the same thing with most fruits/veggies. Most of us have experienced that, but I suspect most of the world's population has never enjoyed a home-grown, fully tree-ripened orange before. I enjoy sharing them with others who experience them for the first time, they can't believe what they are tasting. For about 6 mos of the year, I get to enjoy a fresh-picked, fresh-squeezed cup of OJ in the morning - one of my simple joys in life. If you are ever in Northern CA from January to June, hit me up!! 😉 Now, a few more interesting tidbits: Oranges can survive freezing temps, down to 28 degrees for a couple of hours due to the sugars acting as a natural antifreeze. I've only had significant crop damage once in 25 years from freezing and I now I put halogen lights in the tree to add some heat if its going to get close. Some will say a hot summer makes for sweeter orange, but now there's a growing camp that says a cold winter makes for a sweeter orange. I subscribe to the latter theory, based on my observations and the premise that like a maple tree, the colder weather causes the tree to push more sugary sap out to act as an antifreeze and protect itself. There's a relatively new & growing threat from some imported fly which spreads a fatal citrus disease. I don't understand how/why its this one and only bug capable of spreading the disease, but I pray it stays away. I will be deeply depressed if I lose my orange tree. And now back to your regular programming.

Yep! You got some work ahead of ya. Don't think that you'll be bored in the next while. Hope it works out well and you enjoy doing it.

New grips from Honda were purchased. The ones for the GL1500 model look to be an exact match. Mine didn't have any grips so I can only go by what I see in pictures on ebay. I also finished rebuilding the front brake master cylinder and have it installed I'm also working with a company to reproduce the letters to go on the controls. Most are completely gone and even though the decals won't be an exact match I think they will look pretty good. I will post some pics when I get them on the controls.

Wish I’d known you were here. We’d have grabbed a meal.

I use my computer primarily for the same things as you, plus I dabble in digital photography but even that does not require the latest & greatest hardware/software for what I do. I used to work in the tech industry, but I'm at a point where I just like tried/true and simple and don't get as excited about fancy new tech as I once did. Eventually every computer will either have a hard failure of a component, or planned/forced obsolescence. In order to roll out new features (many of which are really not needed by most of us) or to address new computer virus/hacking threats, the operating systems are constantly updated. The updates require more system memory and more processing power, just to functionally turn the computer on and operate. This leaves less memory and power for doing our basic functions of email, banking, internet and photoshopping, and forces the computer to run at max capacity, drawing more power & generating more heat - which will ultimately lead to its own demise. Two years ago, I rebuilt an older Mac for my son to do video editing on, upgrading everything to the max. Adobe just rolled out a new version of SW, which requires the latest version of MacOS. Unfortunately, those bastards at Apple decided to put some lockout code in their newest OS which prevents it from loading on older computers, such as my son's. Of course, he can continue using the older version of Adobe and the older OS, but he is a film student and this will eventually be his career, so he will need to pull the plug on that system sooner than later as he really does need the latest & greatest tools available. I built my current computer from scratch over 10 years ago and spec'd the components at about 10x what I really needed at the time, specifically so that, absent a hard failure, it would not be rendered obsolete by OS upgrades. I saved a little $ by building it myself, but then put the savings into upgraded parts. Its still going strong but I haven't upgraded to windows 11 yet. Keeping my fingers crossed that my trusty old computer will handle it when that time comes.

Now I am not even close to being a computer export as a matter of fact far from it, so the only thing I see when it comes to newer operating systems is fancier more confusing do dads for which I have little use.all I do on the on the internet is email, bank, and sometimes look up info on how to do something I am not familiar with or go on VR to stir the pot, so for me windows 2000 and maybe XP were just fine. From my point of view for the limited amount I use a computer all these upgrades mean to me is more time sitting in front of the computer struggling with another learning curve, I would rather do without preferring to spend my time with more physical activities instead of constantly saying to myself. Now What