SpokEasy

May 2023

Rererun

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Rererun It feels like a rererun, aka re-rerun, every time June 1 rolls around. To be precise, it’s the beginning of hurricane season! Now we’re in for six months of anxiously watching the tropics; and hoping we’re spared this year. I’m not sure where I’d go if I decided to relocate; but I know I wouldn’t mind being out of the immediate reach of hurricanes. I put aside some of my store of canned goods, in case I’m caught short if a storm threatens; and I want to get some protein bars.  I also want to start buying gallon jugs of drinking water. A big concern for me is what I’ll do if an evacuation is called. It won’t be easy to get out of this city on a bicycle; not even on an e-bike! I’m glad to be in a lower-story unit, because I’m sheltered from the worst of the sun; but I hope I’m out of reach of street flooding! That, at least, was never a concern in my old neighborhood. But in a hurricane, there might be enough rain to let water get in here, anyway. Speaking of rererun, that’s what my daily rides sometimes feel like. I have a great path at hand; but using the same one all the time can seem tedious. It’s a great place to ride because there’s minimal motor traffic — a patrol vehicle now and then; and some mini-industries with access roads that cross the levee. The big problem is wind.  Up there a rider is totally exposed; and I nearly always have a headwind on the way home. That’s a rererun that gets VERY tiresome!

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Memory Lane

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Memory Lane Memorial Day sounds like Memory Lane. Today we honor those lost while serving our Country in the armed forces. Memory Lane also sounds like remembering epic rides, such as my first century. How long ago that was! I can hardly believe it’s more than eleven years since that day. Naturally, I included an account of that ride in this website; but the editing program I was using gave me trouble with the text length. I had to cut out huge chunks of the text; and one of these days I must go back and see whether my current editor will let me expand on it. If, that is, I can find the complete log. Seems to me it’s around here somewhere. My road bike is in the shop, so I had to content myself with a short ride on the hybrid today. I made a detour to the closest supermarket on the way home to buy a cucumber. After I locked up the bike, I suddenly remembered that I had no money with me; and had to  head home instead. Once there, I boiled an egg and toasted some bread. I got a pot of brown rice going; and chopped up some kale leaves, onion, and garlic. These went into another pot with canned black beans for a stew. Cooking can seem like a walk down Memory Lane, as I think of all the culinary experiments I’ve done over the years!      

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Settling in with BBH

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Settling In with BBH I’m settling in with BBH. If I’ve got a “housekeeper‘s bible”, this is it. The first week, though, I was busy unpacking; and deciding where to put everything. I didn’t really feel like I was settling in, with BBH or without it; nor did I feel like cleaning! There was too much to do at one time; there were boxes of stuff everywhere; and my head was spinning. It took a week for things to start falling into place. I was interested in non-toxic cleaning even before my sensitivities got so bad. To me commercially available cleaners just plain stink; and their fumes are suffocating. Most things in BBH are easy to find; and inexpensive.  BBH was written by an author who developed severe multiple chemical sensitivity; and had to find substitutes to standard cleaners such as chlorine bleach. This book discusses housekeeping; skin (i.e. facial) care; whole body care; gardening/pets/pest control; and house care/hobbies. Sometimes I wish I had my own home so I could try milk paint! $18.35 This past week, my brother was in town for some kind of convention; and he stayed here nights. That threw off my schedule. My front door is deadbolt-only; and of course he couldn’t get in our out unless I were here with the key. That meant going riding later than usual; and somehow that upset the rest of the day. On top of that, I was getting to bed too late. He headed back home late Friday afternoon; and now things can settle down. BBH, shown above, came in handy yesterday. The basin in my bathroom looks like marble. I’m not sure it’s genuine marble; but I checked this book for hints on marble-surface care. It was a good thing I did! It says marble scratches easily; and recommends using chalk powder. I don’t have any; so I mixed up some baking soda soft scrubber. I used that and a soft cloth to clean the basin. Next I’ll try club soda on the fixtures.  See? I’m settling in with BBH.

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Squirrely

BACK ISSUES, bicycling /

Squirrely! “Squirrely” is a characteristic unwanted in cycling; especially for group riding. The squirrely rider is unpredictable: he or she swerves and/or wobbles; and doesn’t hold a straight line. When riding close to others, this can cause unintended contact and subsequent crashes; and nobody wants that! It’s a long time since I’ve done any group riding; but maybe I should think about finding a way to get some. If I’m to do RAGBRAI next year — or any year! — I’ll be riding with many other cyclists. If you’re unused to group riding, it’s unnerving to suddenly be in a big pack of riders. They say that practicing on rollers is a good way to develop the skill of holding a straight line. I don’t have rollers; and I don’t want to get too much stuff too soon. My new place has more room than the old one did; but there’s no reason to hurry to fill it up. Let me have some elbow room! When I’m riding, I notice that I tend to be squirrely, especially when handling a water bottle. Sometimes I swerve all over the bike path! That sounds like a good excuse to use a Camel-Bak; but I need to be able to use the water bottle while holding my line. For weekend long rides, I do use the Camel-Bak; but I have a bottle of electrolyte drink to deal with. I got to thinking about this topic because of some odd squirrel sightings in the past week. I saw one that had a very short tail; and I thought maybe it had been injured. Today, I saw a similar squirrel; and these two sightings occurred several days and a mile or so apart. Unless those “bushy tailed rats” (my brother’s term) are terrific treetop travelers, I wonder whether some kind of mutation has struck the local squirrel population!

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Winding Down

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Winding Down I’m finally winding down after the move. Most of my stuff is now put away; and I’ve begun doing some cooking! My sister-in-lawn generously had a box of fresh veggies and a box of fresh fruit delivered to me. It’s a LOT of food! Yesterday I sliced the fresh mushrooms; cooked  them in tomato sauce; and froze them. Today I made borscht from the beets. Incidentally, making borscht is a very messy business. All that red juice makes my kitchen look like a butcher shop! I still have corn on the cob; kale; a mango; and more! There’s more cooking ahead; and I’m considering buying a small chest freezer. The fridge/freezer here is smaller than the one in my old place; and it doesn’t have room for all the projects I have in mind. Cooking isn’t the only thing I have to work on. The floors here needed cleaning. Today I just damp-mopped; and followed up with a Swiffer. The living room has a wood floor; and I don’t want to leave moisture sitting on it for long. Part of the living room floor is still not cleaned because it’s covered in empty boxes. I hope to be rid of them soon. The people living upstairs are moving out next week; and they need boxes. I just moved in; and have more boxes than I know what to do with. So I’m giving them boxes! That’s part of my winding down. I need to get things squared away, because my brother will be here next week for some kind of convention; and will “crash” here nights. Maybe I can feed him some of this stuff I’ve been cooking!

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Put Friction to Use

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Put Friction to Use Put friction to use with the Bike Friction Generator Headlight. It fits most bicycles: BMX, e-bike, and more! Set includes headlight; tail light; dynamo; and necessary tools. Spare cable, too! Lights are 12 volts/6 watts. They make a great item for a bicycle tour packing list; especially if you’ll be far from places to charge up your lights; or unable to buy batteries. $23.24 I’ve never tried a light like this one; but I can see the advantages. No buying dry batteries, the cost of which adds up fast. There aren’t any cables creating clutter in the home. You don’t have to worry about what you’ll do if you forget to charge your lights; and have a pre-dawn ride planned. Just hop on the bike and ride; and put friction to use! I remember reading that using this type of light does slow your speed slightly; perhaps by one mile per hour. As long as you aren’t racing, that might not matter. A concern of mine is that cable. Will the Bike Friction Generator Headlight short out in heavy rain? I had that problem with my earliest bicycle computers; and it drove me crazy. Shorting cables might be a problem if I ride this afternoon. There’s a chance of T-storms; and it isn’t fun to get caught out on a bicycle when the lightning starts to fire up. But maybe I’ll skip the ride today; I think I actually need the break.

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Get a Move On

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Get a Move On I had to get a move on. The place where I rented an apartment since before Katrina was sold; and I had to find another place. Fortunately I had some months to look around; and that’s lucky, because I could get my hand surgery out of the way. I had adequate time to recover before I really had to get down to the business of packing. You never know how much stuff you’ve got until you have to move it all! It makes the 100 things challenge seem quite appealing. Per my brother’s suggestion, I had ordered a pack of twenty-five 12 x 12  x 12 inch boxes. I wish I had ordered fifty! I had many other boxes (in many sizes!); and it was barely enough. Today was moving day. I moved only a short distance; and yesterday I was able to get the key and start bringing in things. Some friends who have an SUV offered to help me; and we took as much as the vehicle could hold. I made several trips by hybrid, hauling stuff in the trailer. Even so, there was plenty of stuff left for the movers. I began at 6:00 am — first I pedaled my road bike over to the new apartment. Then I walked home; hitched up the trailer; and got several loads done before I had to wait for the movers to come. They arrived around 10:00 am; and while they were loading up the van, I had time to take another load or two with my bicycle trailer. When they were ready, I rode ahead and they followed. It was 11:30 when we finished; and then I had to wait for the phone company to come and set up my Internet/WiFi service. By then, I felt like I could take a good nap in a box! (I bet Dr. Seuss could have done something with that idea!) Thankfully, I didn’t have to cook lunch. My sister-in-law very kindly ordered a food delivery for me! My new abode seems very cramped at the moment. There are boxes everywhere; and I’m too tired to deal with unpacking everything tonight. Until I get all the boxes emptied out, I have to deal with one of the maddening aspects of having my stuff all over the place: I keep losing things! Hauling all those loads let me get a move on; although not very fast. In fact, I resorted to my granny gear because of the weight I was pulling. So, despite my low mileage today, I got plenty of exercise!

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Long-Distance Cycling

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FAVORITES I have my favorites, just like anybody else. Here is one of my favorite books: [The Complete Book of] Long-Distance Cycling! So far I’ve never been able to try the mega-distance rides mentioned in this book; and even if I wanted to go for it, RAAM is quite beyond me! But if you want to put in the training, Long-Distance Cycling offers practical advice: physically building up to long rides; mental aspects of mega-miles in the saddle; and nutrition for long rides. Maybe you could call it my Cycling Dream Book! $11.66 My longest ride since my hand surgery was 22-23 miles. That’s half of what I was doing late last year; and I hope I can work back up to 40-mile rides soon. I must think more urgently about RAGBRAI 2024! That includes food; but will my favorites be adequate fuel for an average of ~65 miles per day, for seven days straight?  

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Small Things Matter

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Small Things Matter Small things matter. For example, pennies, which many seem to despise these days, add up. So I save mine! Small things come into play during bicycle rides. Sometimes it means when I make my turnaround. This can make the difference between getting caught by a train at a railroad crossing; or having time to safely get over the tracks. Today, when I went out, there was a freight train idling perhaps a half-block short of the crossing. When I came back over an hour later, the train was still there; but less than two minutes later, as I reached my front gate, that locomotive horn began to blow. If I had ridden even a quarter-mile farther, I would have had to wait for the train.  On the way home, I stopped for a minute to watch a ship on the river. The flag on the stern staff was fluttering around too much for me to get a really good look at it; but I noted the ship’s name. After I was home, I googled it; and found that the ship was from the Marshall Islands. Today I didn’t make deliberate efforts to go hard; but I did have a headwind on the way home. Same old story, that! In fact, it was blowing at some 15 mph. I’m now home with the problem of completing my packing for next week’s move. I’ve got some things that are awkwardly sized and/or shaped for boxes. There are small things that I use so much that it doesn’t make sense to pack them just yet. A few times I’ve even wished I hadn’t stowed away this or that into a box — and taped the box shut. It shows me how much small things matter. I may be able to get into the new place the day before my planned move; and that would be great! I can measure the floor space; and decide where I want to put my furniture. Then I can start bringing in small items. That will mean numerous short trips using hybrid and trailer — but as long as I can do it, I’m getting a head start!

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