Frustrating

Life is perhaps in best ironic form when things are going well.

Take, for instance, this evening. After a long and exhausting day, I was looking forward to two things: Alley Cat's "Pumpkin Pi" Ale, and getting my motorcycle back into one piece.

My chain has been in need of replacement for some time now, but I decided to kill two birds with one stone by replacing the rear drive sprocket at the same time. I've been waiting most of a month for the sprocket and chain to arrive (thanks again, Customs and Border Services...), and I've finally had time to get the bike up on the blocks and take the wheel off...

So, after a few hours of wrenching, hoisting, fiddling with chain link clips, and cleaning up the rear wheel (it's hard to get into those nooks and crannies when it's on the bike!) I was ready to put the wheel back on... at which point I noticed something strange and more than a little bit disturbing:

Note the side of the bike I'm taking this picture from:

It seems whichever wrench-monkey at the Honda stealership put my rear tyre on the rim decided to do so in a backward-rotating orientation.
Perhaps he's Australian.

On the optimistic side, this might give the stealership a chance to replace the rear tyre tube while they're fixing their mistake. (That's another thing they forgot to do last time.) Here's hoping they don't have a 30-day guarantee on their shop labour or something dumb like that... (Come to think of it, it's been almost three months... I hope I filed that receipt...)

Also: the "Pumpkin Pi" Ale was everything I could have hoped for, and a warm blanket.