Yesterday was a sad day, my -1 was taken to go and live in her new home, the garage! Since I got her in December she has been used nearly every day I've been in work come rain or shine and most days I've got to work with a huge smile on my face
. However, a few weeks ago, my wife started a new job. Over 10 years since she last worked, due to ill health and then having and looking after our two daughters, she is now driving a minibus for a charity working with Autistic adults, she drives to the centre (12 miles) collects her minibus, collects her passengers from their homes and takes them to the centre and comes home again. Then in the afternoon, she takes them all home again, and she is really loving it. The downside is that she's doing 48 miles a day just going to work and back and with diesel at the current prices (£7 per gallon) it's costing us a fortune, and it means that I have to take the bus to take our eldest to nursery and home again, so we've had to buy another car. I got a really good deal on a little purple car (£250 for a Nissan Micra for those interested) and after a bit of TLC she passed her MOT and she's looking good, and it's made life much easier.
The downside is that I can't afford to run 2 cars and use my -1 for work so she is retired to the garage to live for a while. It won't do her any harm I suppose, here she has to live outside (obviously under a cover) in all weathers and at over 90,000km on the clock being used daily she looks a wee bit battered.
Unfortunately, my garage is a rented lock up, about 5 miles from my house. It is quite secure but there's no power so I'm going to have to disconnect the battery and bring it home to leave it on a conditioning charge if she's not going to be used for a while (a good security measure though!). I have some fuel additive on order (Profi Fuel Max) which is supposed to be really good to stop the petrol going off while she's there.
I am going to enjoy getting her out at the weekends, but I've never been a "fair weather" rider and don't want my skills to suffer, I think you can tell those who only ride on sunny days compared to those who ride daily and I'm going to have to divide my time off work (which isn't much) between my -1 and my family, so the -1 is definitely going to lose out for a while.
Oh, well. needs must I suppose, my wife is really enjoying her job and it shows, she's doing really well and I'm so proud of her, and I think she feels as bad, if not worse than I do about the bike!
