My Brother's Keeper

As it was in the 70's in the New York area yesterday, I called up my brother to see if he had cleared up that little problem with his license. Not that it would matter either way, because he always has an excuse why he can't ride with me. He who talked me into ponying up for a brand spanking, not used, 2006 Road King.

"It's 70, got your license?"
"As a matter of fact, I do. But I can't ride with you today."
"Why not?"
"Well I don't have insurance, and the bike isn't registered."
Groan. "I thought we took care of that."
"I did, but that was a year ago. I missed a payment, and they cancelled my insurance. And the registration expired. I'll take care of it on Monday. Anyway they're coming to sheetrock tomorrow and I have to finish the wiring I'm doing. "
"It'll be cold again on Monday."

All that was to be expected. I wasted $45 buying him a membership to HOG for Hanukah. I convinced his wife that it would be good for him to ride on Sundays, to let out stress. She agreed, and because you need to be a HOG member to go on HOG rides, I signed him up. Needless to say, you also can't go on an official HOG ride unless your license, registration and insurance are up to date as well.

A little more than a year ago, after talking me into buying the bike, he actually rode with me. We were supposed to go around 10:30 AM, so I started calling around 9:00 AM. After an hour or so of no answer, I suited up and headed over. I arrived at 10:30 AM and rang the doorbell. My nieces and nephews greeted me at the door, wearing their pajamas and carrying around their breakfast.

"It's Uncle Rosey!"
"Where's Dad?"
"He's in the bathroom."
"He's sleeping."
"Go get him."

Remember, we were supposed to leave at 10:30. I don't know where he was, but he was in a state of disarray and undress.

He dressed and proceeded to get the bike out of the garage. First he had to move all the junk out of the way. Then remove the cover, only to discover that he had a flat tire and the bike was covered in dust. I thought that was the end of it, but the tire just needed air, and conveniently he has an industrial compressor for work, with an attachment for tires. So he started up the compressor and filled up the tire. Then he had to wash the bike because he couldn't be seen in public on a dirty Harley. Then he had to dry the bike of with a combination of compressed air and warming the engine up. Since this is a '98, it's carburated, so it it has to warm up good.

Finally we're ready to ride and it';s 12:30PM, the time I promised my bride I would be home. I called her, and she was like, it's okay, it's your brother. So we rode. And that was more than a year ago, and we haven't ridden together since.