unused gear

On Tuesday afternoon, the bike racks finally arrived. “Finally” isn’t a dig at Nashbar, since I did opt for the cheapest US Post shipping option, though I’d be happy to dig at Nashbar over the literature they include in every package about some colon cleanser and its miraculous curative effects. It’s enough to put me off the company and send me elsewhere on the interweb for cheap bicycle gear.

So anyway, the racks came on Tuesday. That night I installed them on our two bikes. I wish mine had come with instructions as to which kind of bolt was intended to be used to attach what part to where, but for the time being the rack is bolted on and feels secure. I’ll put off being mad about it until it falls off because I used the wrong bolt for something.

I’m anticipating having to deal with a Too Much Crap On My Bike problem soon: The rack is made to bolt to the threaded hole near the rear wheel hub, but I can tell from looking at my wife’s bike that when the extra Solobug trailer hitch finally arrives, it will take up enough extra space that I’ll need to attach the rack to one of the other holes nearby instead. Problem is, there’s only one hole that’s threaded. Using one of the other holes will require a bolt and nut. Bleah. I’ll deal with it later if/when the hitch comes in.

With the rack in place and the panniers in the closet, I was ready to commute without my backpack and get some shopping done on the way home from work, right? Wrong. Wednesday is work-at-home day, so no commute for me. Today I’m back at work but actually drove to campus with my wife. There’s a soaking rain outside that’s been going since yesterday afternoon, and the big grocery panniers don’t offer any rain protection at all. Ordinarily I’d just wrap my things in plastic bags and get on with it, but today I was schlepping some borrowed books and didn’t want to risk the water damage. So… it’s a car day, today.

another week down

Yesterday was (yet another) car day. I’m started to get frustrated by those, which I suppose is a good thing. The reason: Beatrix had a pediatrician checkup in the morning (all is good: healthy 9-month-old baby) and I don’t yet have the trailer hitch for my bicycle so I couldn’t take her in the trailer. The hitch has been on order for a couple of weeks now, but I’m told it was out of stock at the supplier, so I’m still waiting.

In other car news, today I went to the VW mechanic where our dead car is parked in the lot and handed over the paperwork Dave (the mechanic) will need to buy our car from us. It isn’t sold yet, but it’s very close. Probably early next week. I’ll most certainly post when it’s a done deal.

For now, I’m looking forward to tomorrow. Saturdays are good biking days (in nice weather) when we get to go to the farmer’s market and lounge around downtown all morning.

a weekend turtle

Saturday was a good day for biking. Elinor and Beatrix and I left the house in the morning with bikes and trailer to go to the local Farmer’s Market. We did a little shopping and left on foot to walk around downtown for a little while, ending up at Milton’s for brunch. We scored some seats on the patio and got to chat with several friends who happened by. After a stop at Sunflower Bike Shop for some knick-knacks we biked home to lounge a bit. It was Saturday, after all.

Through all the biking, Beatrix’s new helmet worked out great. It sometimes tipped forwards when she slouched in her trailer seat, but never covered her face, and I think she found it more comfortable to wear than the old one.

On our way home from the downtown bike trip we noticed a turtle crossing a busy road near our house so I hopped off the bike to move it before it got crushed. I have no idea what kind of turtle it was, but I think it was a plain old box turtle, in which case it was a big one. The shell alone was at least a foot long. All the turtles I ever caught near creeks as a kid were little things, maybe 5 or 6 inches at most. This guy must have been ancient.

For the afternoon, Elinor had places to be so I took Beatrix in our loaner car to visit my grandmom. Being on the far side of town already, I took the opportunity to stop at some of the big box stores in the commercial soul-sucking wasteland on the southern edge of town (we needed some curtains and they couldn’t be found downtown – we tried) and then back home for the evening.

Sunday saw us in the car again, out to my grandmom’s place once more and then out the other side of town to a park near a local lake.

Today I got back on the bike to ride in to work and Elinor and I got to ride to campus together. The weather is threatening storms at some point today, so I’m packing rain gear. I really want to find some kind of pannier I can hook to my bike to carry more sizable loads for grocery trips and books and stuff from the hardware store… So much of my time in the car, I realize now, was spent ferrying stuff from one place to another. Until I get some decent packs for the bike, I’m still forced to use the car for loads that are just slightly too large to stuff in a backpack or hang from a handlebar.

end of a work week

I vowed to myself that any time I opted to take a car to work rather than ride my bike, I’d post about it. Yesterday I wimped out. The weather for the day wasn’t exactly ideal bicycling weather: steady winds at 25mph, gusts up to 40mph, and several severe thunderstorms (complete with tornado watches) throughout the day. Combined with the fact that we’re still adjusting to a new baby care schedule for the summer semester and it was just easier to drive the loaner car. We compensated, though: three adults plus a baby all drove to campus together.

Wait – three adults and a baby? Yes, that’s right, I count really well up to at least 5 or 6. Elinor and I have, in a manner of speaking, leased out our two spare bedrooms to a couple of college students for the summer. In exchange for rent, they babysit during the day when I’m at work and Elinor is in class and doing schoolwork. The students get a furnished place to stay in town for the summer and we get 30-some hours per week of babysitting in return. It’s an experiment, but we think it’ll work out pretty well for everyone. So anyway, one of the girls had a morning class on Thursday so she came along in the car.

Today it was back on the bike. The weather was the polar opposite of yesterday: sunny, high in the mid 70’s with light wind.

I have an update to report on the baby helmet. We bought the Me2 by Giro and I fitted it for Beatrix today. After applying the extra pads, the fit is great. The helmet still looks huge on her little head (perhaps pictures to come later) but it’s snug all round and the shape is much better for riding in the trailer. One negative: the extra pads are self-adhesive in name only. Perhaps I wasn’t attaching them in the right place – the manual doesn’t say anything about them and I couldn’t find any guides online to tell me the best points within the helmet to affix them – but in the place where it seemed best to me to attach the pads, they wouldn’t stay stuck. I was trying to put them along the padded band which runs from over one ear around the front to the other ear. This is the band that’s not adjustable, it’s fixed to the inside of the helmet. I spaced all four pads along the band and ended up gluing them on with Krazy Glue. That might not be the right expoxy for the materials involved, in which case I’ll have to shop for another glue. In any case, with the pads in place there and the back adjustable band tightened down, the helmet fits Beatrix’s head perfectly. It’s snug on all sides, doesn’t wobble, and doesn’t seem to be uncomfortable for her. So far, it’s a success. If things go bad on us later, I’ll share it.

a long weekend

It was a busy weekend – so busy there wasn’t any time to sit down and write. And my computer desk is covered in tools, sawdust, and bits of drywall. It was also a weekend when I needed to use a borrowed car – twice.

First I needed to pick up a couple of small chests of drawers from an out-of-town furniture store, about 30 minutes’ drive from the house. Then Elinor and I hauled about 50 feet or so of 1×12 lumber back to our house for shelving. Since we don’t have a cargo trailer for our bikes, the boards had to come home in the car.

Still, we found some time to get some riding in. Beatrix is getting more used to the trailer and we’ve found she’s easier to entertain inside it than she is in her car seat. She can see her surroundings, for one thing (she’s too small to see much out the car window), and there’s room at her feet and to her sides for extra toys and drinks so she can entertain herself while she’s riding. One feature that we wish our bike trailer had was a recessed pocket in the back of the seat for the kid helmet to fit into. As it is, when Beatrix rests her head against the back of the seat, it pushes her helmet forward and down over her face. This does not make for a happy kid. We’ve ordered another infant helmet that doesn’t appear to stick out as much in back and has more clearance at the forehead. If it helps I’ll post links and such.

Ironically, now that we’re giving up our car, I really wish we had a garage. For the three years we’ve lived in our house, I haven’t missed having one except for mornings after ice storms. If you’ve ever scraped a quarter-inch of ice off a windshield, you know what I’m talking about. Now, though, we keep accumulating this bicycle gear and we’re just flat out of storage space inside our house. I’m not willing to lock things up outside. It’s not really for fear of thieves so much as fear of weather. We’re investing some cash in all this stuff, and leaving it out in the rain will shorten its lifespan considerably. So unless and until inspiration strikes, we’re putting our two bikes in our one big closet on the ground floor (under the stairs) and storing the trailer just inside the back door.

This week’s gear purchase plan: A rack for my bike. I’m still keeping my eye out for a cheap pannier I can use for commuting with a laptop, and ideally also something big enough for trips to the grocery store. I’d love one of these, or even one of these, but the dollars are adding up fast around here. So I’ll be camped out on ebay for a while, hoping something good turns up.