Had big plans for the weekend involving a lot of chores. Most of those got done.
Had two great park walks with the pups. They’re learning to mind their own business for the most part. Don’t start nothin’, won’t be nothin’. Sadly, not all the dogs people walk there have that same attitude.
A rare empty space on the trail. It’s a busy place on the weekend mornings. People walking, jogging, walking dogs, walking kids, riding bikes. Interestingly, the only ones on manual bikes are dudes, mostly my age or so. Most of the others are on those eBikes, being annoying. They tool down the trails at 15-20 mph, weaving in and out of everyone walking. I get it. You’re middle aged, built like a potato, but still want to ride and move the joints. All well and good. Slow down. I can’t fathom them, myself. If I want that kind of deal, I’ll hop on the hotrod bike. For the price of one of those bikes, you can get a pretty light and fast pedal one and do yourself some good.
I’ve only picked up poop once. If they are off in the weeds, I leave it. I’ll take the hit being a bad dog citizen. But I’m not rummaging into a pile of poison ivy to pull a turd out of the weeds.
I’ve gotten the water pack figured out. When I started this, I only had one foldable water bowl:
That was tough to manage. Both dogs are thirsty and vying for the water. So I picked up two collapsible ones:
I pack two water bottles. When we get past the big hill at a mile, I take a break and get them watered. Then we go back, with Winston in slo-mo. Maybe I should have them sit a bit. Pretty funny that Aria is three times or so older, and is like the eveready battery bunny. They had a bath Friday, so I had to pull like a champion to divert Winston from going into the creek. I get it. It’s hot, he wants to cool the paws in the stream. But, I’d like at least a week where he’s not dirty and stinky.
Speaking of which, we had plenty of rain the past week. It rained nearly every day. The morning after, it’s sunny and sort of dry, but Winston wants to lay in his happy spot on the side of the patio. In the mud. Friday, I had enough of that and after dropping them off for baths, went to Home Depot and got some mulch:
Seems to work, although I think he was confused by it. Dude would lay in the mud, then plop down in the hallway, leaving muddy streaks on my floor.
I had plans to change the airbags in the truck:
Two bolts top, two bolts bottom. What could go wrong?
I got under the truck to size things up and found that the frame hides the bolts on the top, and the mount hides them on the bottom. So I have to remove the whole thing – upper and lower mounts – to get this done. Bottom is easy with two u-bolts. The top looked like more of a challenge. I threw up my hands and bailed. I already blew half the day with bible study, dog walking, and mowing and had somewhere to be early evening. This looks like a days work here. So I went back into the AC to download the installation manual for this system on my truck to see what’s involved. There’s one screw visible on the top mount that’s easy to get to. Turns out, there’s another one in the frame where the bump stop used to be. I could feel it but didn’t know where it went since I didn’t see the bottom.
Now that I have a plan, I’ll tuck into it next weekend, or during that week since I have off.
With all the rain around here, the bike (the pedal one) got filthy. I have two – Both are Specialized. My main one is a Trek hybrid, the fun one is a RockHopper mountain bike. That would’ve been the one to ride in the mess and mud. But it was super clean and the Trek wasn’t. So that’s the one that got filthy:
What a mess. the image doesn’t do it justice. So that one needed bath:
Ready to fly. I put it back in the garage for the water to bake off. I’ll lube it up before I ride. It needs that too.
Speaking of bikes, I figured out the magic to turning this bad boy around in the garage:
Pointing outwards makes it so much easier to ride. Backing down my driveway sucks. Going around the truck puts me in an odd position leaving the driveway where one wrong move as I hit the street and my feet will be flailing as I go down. I pull in towards the door, back up doing a hard turn in front of the weight bench. Then turn left. That puts me at a 45 degree out the door where I straighten it up. Getting it back in the garage backwards was a chore. The magic?
Scrap wood.
Takes a whole lot less momentum to back that big dude up. Get it rolling, and it pops up in. Hit the brake and ready for the second pull getting the front over it, and it’s in.
That lip doesn’t seem much, but it’s a cliff when you are rolling nearly 800kbs of bike backwards. It’s a slight uphill, so you aren’t on it paddling backwards. You’re next to it leaning in with your hip. The fewer moves, the better. Now I have made fine art of it.
I’m still on the fence about getting a smaller bike to tool around town. This one runs beautifully. And once you’re moving, it’s light as a feather. It is some work, though. It’s a pretty precise machine that expects that you know how to ride. The shifting and braking are very tight. It’s not as forgiving as a smaller all around street bike or a cruiser. You really have to think before heading into a corner – how fast, which gear, that kind of thing. Blow it and you’ll understeer onto the other lane. No bueno. Took a minute, but I’m used to it now.
Inspected By Pat 