26/05/22 Riding My Fixed-up Bike

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I rang the bicycle mechanic to check on the progress of my bike. 
"Oh, we haven't got to it yet," a young fella airily informed me. "Shane's off sick with Covid." I was talking to Shane yesterday but we were both masked so hopefully he shared nothing other than his bicycle knowledge with me; while I wished him good health I was disappointed because his untimely illness meant that I would have to make do with old fashioned legs for yet another day.
 
The (not-sick) bicycle mechanic texted me later that day.  "Hey, you know that grinding noise?" he texted.  "That's your seat creaking.  There's nothing wrong with the bike!"
 
Well, that was nice to know.  It would have been nicer to know before I spent $300 fixing bike bits that possibly didn't need to be fixed after all, but that's the way of bicycles. Like taking sick children to the doctor: they're at death's door until you walk into the surgery and then everything's hunky dory until you walk out the door and the sick comes back. 
 
I went and picked up my bicycle and while I was glad to be reunited with it, I have to admit there was a tiny twinge of sadness that I didn't have a good excuse to go out and buy myself a shiny touring bike with bright red paint and rohloff hubs.  
 
I took my fixed-up bike home, parked it out the back, and didn't ride it because I had to work and when I wasn't working it was raining, although I did manage to squeeze in a damp 30 kilometers to pick something up from Kmart.  On the way there I stopped at the beach to enjoy the peace and serenity.

The quiet, peaceful seaside.


There was lots of damp over Glenelg.


On the way home we stopped at the airport because, due to wind direction, the planes took off right over our heads.

Waiting for the plane to go overhead.

...and there it went...




Back at home we procrastinated from doing things by writing lists of all the things we had to do, and by having visitors for afternoon tea, which was way more fun than writing lists. In this way we managed to spend an entire evening putting off things that had to be done, thereby ensuring ourselves a much busier day tomorrow.

And we brushed the cat.  We didn't have a choice about that: he insisted.



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