SpokEasy

April 2021

Pre Easter

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Today is pre Easter! As usual for a Saturday, I headed for the salvage store. I decided to shop there rather than at Whole Foods so I could get in some mileage for the current Love to Ride challenge; and if I wanted Easter goodies, I hit the jackpot! I went straight to the grab-bag bins, and made up a large bag. This \”Easter basket\” ended up holding six Met-Rx bars; seven Quest bars; a bar called Detour; and more! This big take is a good reason for me to hit that store early, before those grab-bag bins get too picked over! Today, to my surprise, I found natural peanut butter. It\’s crunchy style, and I really prefer the smooth kind; but that\’s because it\’s hard to spread crunchy-style peanut butter as thinly as I like. But lately I usually eat \”PB\” with a banana or some other fruit before a morning ride; and spreading it isn\’t an issue. I\’ve been going through peanut butter rather quickly, so I decided it was worth buying two jars of it. They still had chocolate-hazelnut spread @ 99¢ per 13 oz jar. I got two jars to put away; I\’m sure the stuff will keep. I found tuna and brown rice… Sorry; I guess I get wearisome with my long-winded enumerations of what I find at the salvage store, be it pre Easter or another day. But I was glad I took the trailer along, because I had a big load! On the way home, I had to resort to my granny gear here and there. The wind really wasn\’t bad, but I was hauling a lot behind me. Back Home Once back home, I taste-tested one of the Met-Rx bars; then got busy cooking. Today I made another variation on Hoppin\’ John (appropriate for Easter weekend, isn\’t it?), this time using anasazi beans. It looks like the weather will be good for a long ride tomorrow; and part of my ride food will be the rest of that Met-Rx bar. Meanwhile, I have to pack away that \”Amblin\’ Anasazi\” in the freezer; wash dishes; go get a few things from the drug store; and get the laundry done. Pre Easter is turning out to be a busy day!

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Shady Dealings?

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Shady Dealings? 🕶️ Shady dealings are something most people want to avoid. On a bright, sunny day, however, shady dealings are just what we need to protect our eyes. These Photochromatic Sunglasses change tint automatically, depending on the intensity of the sunlight. That’s great on those days when light conditions are constantly changing! No need to drag along several different sets of lenses; so you can save space. These glasses also protect your eyes from wind; dust; insects; and so on. My own sunglasses have prescription lenses. I noticed that, when I turned my head from side to side to check for traffic, my eyes seemed to have trouble adjusting their focus; and I thought that I needed “script” sunglasses. Thus I don’t think I’ll be trying these soon. But if you don’t need prescription lenses, Photochromatic Sunglasses sound like a good choice. Don’t forget that your skin needs protection as well as your eyes. Take along some lip balm and sunblock, too!

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Dishes!

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Always dishes! I hardly get one pile of them washed, when another pile appears. Sometimes, after a meal, there really aren’t enough dishes to make washing them worthwhile. Then, after the next meal, there are so many that the dish drainer can hardly hold them all! If I didn\’t go for early-morning rides, I could take care of dishwashing right after breakfast. But I\’m not going to give up my exercise for a perfectly clean kitchen! Ergo there isn\’t time to wash dishes before I leave for work; so they have to wait until I’m home in the evening. Most days I carry lunches to work; and that means plastic food boxes and plastic bags (for carrot sticks, apple wedges, etc.) to be washed. Yes, you read that right – I wash and re-use plastic bags. Sometimes I’ll have five or six of them! And then there’s whatever plate or bowl I used for supper; plus, in many cases, a cooking pot. It would be nice, I think, to have a bicycle-powered dish washer. After all, it’s possible to hook up a bicycle to small appliances such as blenders; or even large ones such as washing machines. Wouldn’t it be fun to get in a little extra pedaling and take care of an irksome chore at the same time? I used to have a book that explained how to do such hook-ups; but I finally had to give it away. My kitchen is too cramped for any such set-up. But just think — if you can set up a bicycle-powered blender, you might burn off the calories in your smoothie before you even drink it! Alas, afterwards there\’s still the problem of cleaning the blender. Dishes, as usual.

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No Foolin\’

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No foolin\’ here, even though it\’s April 1. Overnight it got a good bit cooler. At 5 am, it was 58 degrees; and it was barely warmer than that by late morning. The wind was 14 mph when I was getting ready to ride; not as bad as I thought it might be. I had envisioned a terrific struggle against a powerful headwind! I decided to ride in the park, and then head for the supermarket. Unfortunately I got out the door later than I should have. Somehow that\’s only too common when I want to go grocery shopping before clocking in for a day of working from home! There was time for only one lap around the park — not a great start to the April Love to Ride Challenge. Then I headed for the store. The load I brought home turned out to be pretty big, and both my panniers were quite heavy. While I was in the store, the wind got stronger. As I was loading the panniers onto the bicycle, a strong gust almost blew the bike over! Those bags sure can act like sails. After I was back home, I noticed that the wind seemed to be getting stronger; and I was glad I wasn\’t out in it. Late this afternoon we were still seeing gusts as strong as 30 mph. Shall I head over to Whole Foods tomorrow morning for tofu? It will mean a much shorter bicycle ride; but I can\’t count on finding tofu at the salvage store. It would be nice if that store has more of those Lindt 90% cacao chocolate bars. After a year or more of much less sugar than usual, they\’re surprisingly sweet — no foolin\’!

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