To-Did/To-Do

[rebeccmeister]

Today:
-Meeting with my Writing Club friends (yay!)
-Made a whole bunch of pancakes (snacks for the week)
-Repotted three newly-purchased pepper plants*
-Folded laundry
-Mowed
-Cricket work (only one useable datapoint out of 5 crickets, blargh)
-Hauled recycling
-Picked up heat-shrink tubing for fixing Froinlavin's taillight wiring
-Failed to pick up any anti-seize compound at bLowes (what do they actually sell in there? It never seems to be what I'm looking for, or else it's a set with 1 tool I want and 19 I don't)
-Acquired miscellaneous grocery items from Village Foods and HEB that couldn't be acquired at Brazos Natural on Saturday
-Made muesli and paneer, and cooked up some chickpeas

I also made really good progress on an annoying R project last night. I probably won't have time to work on it again for a while, though.

This week:
-Writing Club writing chores and carbohydrate assay
-Crickets Every Day
-Push other two manuscripts forward
-All-day conference in San Antonio on Tuesday
-Work on the Jolly Roger's stuck seatpost some more
-Fix Froinlavin's taillight wiring; work on pedals, adjust rear fender which keeps rubbing***
-Continue bridesmaid's dress shopping (and start shoe shopping) for annikusrex's wedding in April

At some point:
-Swap Jolly Roger's shifters and replace front brake pads**
-Schedule doctor's appointment for required physical (step 0, pick doctor)
-Renew passport
-Work on oar painting
-Work on quilt project
-Acquire basil and a couple more Succulents of Doom (last ones died in the frost)

*Garden side notes: A couple of plants I'd feared were dead are coming back to life - chiltepine pepper plant, Texas lantana, maybe even the last rhubarb. The apple tree is leafing out, the strawberry plant that survived last summer is blooming and has tiny fruits (newer strawberry plants do not), and the pomegranate is also showing signs of coming back to life. Still just buds on the fig tree. The dog broke another small flowerpot.

**I miss having a competent bike shop within walking distance of home and work. It's that "Everything is Three Miles Away" problem again, and it's not like there's much packed in-between my home and the bike shop. Lawns, mostly. There are times when I would gladly part with money for the convenience of having someone else do the mechanical work.

***It turns out this is mostly due to the non-driveside spokes loosening up, again. I'm definitely bringing the wheel with me back up to Seattle in April.

Comments

[randomdreams.livejournal.com]

It's awfully nice to have a bike store within walking distance. (I wish I did.) If it's three miles, ... have you ever tried riding two bikes at once? It's not so bad. Put your right hand on the stem of the one bike, and cruise along, steering it and sort of pulling up on it a bit so the rear end tracks well. When I was growing up we played an extended game of hide and seek on bicycles, offroad, and one of the points was to swoop in and snag someone else's bike and ride off with it. At that point I could yank up a bike laying flat on the ground and take off, while never dropping below jogging speed. (only if the bike were laying on its left side, though. :( but still!) So you can drive one bike to the mechanics, come home, and then ride back when it's done.

[rebeccmeister.livejournal.com]

I've ghosted bikes before, but it's difficult with the Jolly Roger because of how much weight is on front and up high...makes it difficult to start/stop and turn corners. On the other hand, I have a bike trailer and have used it on more than one occasion to haul around a second bike. :-D

And I'd be more motivated if I thought the mechanics there had any interest in the project. They've been pretty disappointing. That, plus the time/effort it takes to get over to the shop have sucked out all my motivation to go unless it's an emergency.

[randomdreams.livejournal.com]

Harumph. Okay, a _good_ bike store within walking distance.
I was just ogling the place that altamira16 bought today. It's within walking distance of three great bike stores. le sigh.

[scrottie.livejournal.com]

If the rhubarb dies, it won't be because of the cold. My working theory is that heat loving fungus (dampening off, etc) are its only real possible undoing in Texas. It'll die back and grow back when it gets cold, of course. It's amazing that you've done this well growing them from seeds. It seems like they're indestructible, but only once they're mature and established.

I dug up an ornamental thorny bush that grows like nuts in a bramble and have some 3/4" blisters and a three foot by five foot hole (not on my hands) to show for it. That was my gardening project and I'm quite pleased with it. Ben cut the thing back to the stump and I did not relish the idea of waiting for it to once again come back and then snipping off tiny pieces of it until it could be untangled. A pomegranate is going in in its place after I bury all of the compostables in the hole.

My "indestructible" Mavic A119 36 spoke rim has a large crack in it, going through one of the eyelets.

The bike count is coming up but I have more helper volunteers this time, and the software is virtually ready to go after last year. Boise contacted me expressing interest in it. I'm going to ask them for money. This should be interesting.

[rebeccmeister.livejournal.com]

Man, if Boise pays you, that will be pretty awesome. Doesn't hurt to ask.

Also, that sounds like an excellent replacement for the thorny bush.

Also also, something has been eating the rhubarb, and it wouldn't surprise me if heat exhaustion made it more susceptible to cold and disease. I'll have to photograph another heat-tolerance experiment from the front yard soon, too.