Note: There are no pictures this week.
I lost my bike computer! I don’t know why they call them computers. They are really a combo digital watch and speedometer, and only cost $20 or so. When I was a kid, the coolest thing one could do to pimp a bike was to use a clothes pin and a playing card to add a motor sound by arranging the playing card to click against the wheel spokes. The second coolest thing one could do was to add a speedometer. That is, provided one could get the money. The speedometer was a hook that attached to the axle of the front wheel. The hook sat against a spoke and rotated as the wheel turned. A shaft rotated inside a hollow flexible tube and was connected to the speedometer on the handle bar. These days, of course, everything is digitized. One mounts a magnet to a spoke on the front wheel. A magnetic pickup is mounted to the front fork. As the wheel spins, the magnet creates voltage pulses in the pickup, which are sent up a wire to the specially designed watch. It has tons of features. The battery lasts for 2 years or more. And in real dollars it’s probably cheaper than what I mostly couldn’t afford as a kid. Unfortunately, the readout unit is designed to be removable. Over time, mine got loose and removed itself somewhere along a Howard County roadside. In my case, the battery lasted the life of the speedometer. I could have visited bike shops looking for a new unit that was as cool as my old one. Or I could visit my good friend Amazon and get it delivered right to my door. The new unit delivered to my door is very nice, but it has one defect. They ship the unit with the battery removed. To show what the display will look like when it’s in use, they put a sticky transparent plastic cover over the display. When I got mine, it clearly said 21 MPH. The defect is, when I put the unit on my bike, it mostly said 12 MPH. I’m going to have to see if I can’t get those two digits swapped so it displays correctly. ;-)
It was a hot week, but good weather for riding. Friday I drove up to Jerusalem Mill and rode some of the old streets around Baltimore and Harford Counties. It was a lot of fun. You will be happy to know that the double-chocolate malted milkshakes at Jamie’s are as good as they ever were. (My route went right by there, just at the half-way point. What could I do? I’m sure it was just a coincidence. But having had the encounter, I had to check it out.) I found things that changed as well as things that hadn’t. They added music to the patio at Jamie’s. The patio tables are still the same, and looking pretty grungy. Both were to the detriment of the establishment. But I had to forgive Jamie’s faults. How many places serve really great milkshakes these days?
Besides riding my bike, I also installed the new Wi-Fi unit in our clubhouse. I found that by moving it, I could get a great signal throughout the upstairs of the clubhouse. Somebody told me there’s even a good signal in the bathroom stalls. (That was a surprise to me. I never considered this to be important, but apparently at least one gentleman was delighted.)
I had two doctor appointments this week. I learned that I have good blood flow through my carotid arteries. I also had a psychometric evaluation, which takes a whole day. I failed almost every test. (The tests are designed to get harder until everybody fails. This maps out a person’s capabilities.) There was one test on which I had a 100% perfect score. Unfortunately, it means I am eminently qualified for the most boring and demeaning jobs. NEWS FLASH — early results are already in. I am better at some things than I am at others.
Our neighbors across the street are Gary and Sarah. Sarah has a job with the US Government. She doesn’t talk about her job much. An interviewer knocked at my door and asked questions about her. Do the police come to quiet boisterous parties? Does she spend a lot of time traveling to foreign countries? Is she trustworthy? Is there any reason to doubt her loyalty to the US? It seems that these folks always find a way to slide in the shocking question. I think they do it just to see if we’re paying attention. Years ago, it was “Is this person associated with the Boy Scouts?” (That’s back when the Boy Scouts were considered some kind of a subversive organization. It turns out the government might have been right. According to some, the Boy Scouts are subverting family values even as I write this!) The interviewer asked me if Sarah was associated with any organization that would threaten the privacy of US citizens. I was so shocked by the question, I blurted out, “You mean besides the US Government???” I hope Sarah gets to keep her job.
I received a new burden this week, and it’s laying heavy on my soul. We normally have trash pickup on Monday and recycle pickup on Thursday. Last Monday was a holiday, so pickups were delayed to Tuesday / Friday. Thursday morning, I saw our neighbor Gary (the husband) outside, and went across the street to tell him about my interview. While we were chatting, our next door neighbor Libby put the recycles out. She wasn’t the only one. Almost all of the houses put their recycles out a day too early. I warned Libby that pickup wouldn’t be until Friday. She said her benchmark was Gary, and Gary’s recycles were out. Gary advised her not to believe a word I said. Of course, the pickup was Friday. This weekend, Libby told me that *I* am now her benchmark for trash pickup. I never wanted all this responsibility! However, I was very happy I was right, because after all that, I couldn’t possibly put our recycles out Thursday “just in case”. I could have ended up with two-week-old wine bottles stinking up the garage.
That’s it for this week. I hope this finds everybody doing well.