I suspected the tires that came with my trike were cheap. But I decided not to replace anything until it demonstrated its deficiency. That didn’t take long. Not only was my tire flat, it was damaged by a small piece of wood. Fortunately, I had a spare inner tube and the appropriate tools for a roadside repair. Unfortunately, I purchased the wrong tube. My bike uses a smaller valve called “Presta”. I purchased a tube with a “Schrader” valve. This is like the valve on car tires. Unfortunately, it doesn’t fit in a hole designed for a Presta valve. I knew better. I just didn’t read closely enough.

I was only two miles from home, so I picked up the front wheel of my trike, hiked home, ordered good tires, and the wrong inner tubes. Twice. I think I finally have the correct tubes on order. They should be in Monday.

The COVID positivity rate is below 4% in Howard County. And we should have some small amount of protection from our first vaccination shot. We decided I could bring home a Sunday breakfast. Bob Evans makes a fine breakfast.

That’s what passes for news around here these days. I hope this finds everybody doing well.

Maryland put us in the 1C category for getting COVID vaccinations (65 and older). Some facilities have been giving 1C shots for several weeks. Danita was checking all the sites daily. I would hear that a site had appointments available, only to find that either the website was not responding, or the reservations were no longer available. Monday, I got a message that the Colts football stadium has appointments available. Of course the website was not responding. But there was a number one could call if they weren’t able to use the internet. I decided that included me (my screen was frozen after all) and used the call-in number. I waited 20 minutes, then was connected to a very helpful person who got Danita and me appointments for this weekend. We were delighted. We were talking about visiting friends, eating in restaurants, and traveling. Even scheduling my colonoscopy sounded upbeat. Euphoria was rolling out of our ears and getting in the carpet. Until Tuesday morning, when Danita got her Email confirmation. And I did not.

What did that mean? Did I have an appointment? Was I required to have the confirmation before getting the shot? The phones were not manned all day Tuesday. Or Wednesday. I was in a massive funk. (Emotions are not logical.) Thursday they opened the phones. I talked to a very helpful woman who corrected my Email address. That sounded good, but I still didn’t have a confirmation. 23 hours later, the confirmation Email finally arrived. There was no more euphoria, but the tension level dropped precipitously.

Now both Danita and I have our first shots. Our second shots are scheduled for March 22.

The football stadium is one of Maryland’s mass vaccination sites. They’re doing a soft start — 500 vaccinations a day. They are gearing up to do 10,000 a day. The facility shows it. They have spent tons of money on computers, iPads, carts, people, and every other thing you can think of. Being a football venue, there is plenty of free parking and more bathrooms than they could possibly need. They even bought cute little white busses to shuttle people who are mobility challenged. Everybody is being as pleasant and helpful as possible. If you show up without an appointment, many sites send you home. This site gives you the option of standing in a long line and getting an appointment. That way everybody comes home with something. Several people in our neighborhood drove 45 minutes to another mass vaccination site at 6 Flags near DC. A few drove an hour to Waldorf. The Colts stadium is an ideal venue for us. It’s just 20 miles away, right off I-95 on the south side of Baltimore. It’s as good an outcome as we could possibly want.

There’s nothing else nearly as interesting. I hope this finds everybody doing well.

We got a nice day in our normally sloppy weather early last week. I went for a ride on my trike. I was slogging up a steep hill. The road was wet from snow melt. The tire started to slide. If this happens on a bike, I put my foot down. Once my foot is planted, I can use the brakes to hold the bike still. I never use the brakes first, because if I stop moving, I fall over. So I put my foot down. I didn’t even think about it. But I sure did regret it. The problem is, on a recumbent trike my back-side is 2 feet off the ground, and my feet are in front of me, not below me. It’s impossible to generate any meaningful force.

Gravity can be an awesome thing. If a trike is determinedly going backwards down a hill, it forces the pedals to rotate backwards. Neither pedals nor shins have conflict-avoiding behaviors. The bike was fine. I, however, spent the next several days staying indoors and wearing shorts. Today it was sunny and a balmy 35. Perfect for a ride. This time all was well.

The other thing I’ve been doing is adding features to my budget database and making the code more robust. One of the things I like about working on the database is that it requires my undivided attention. These days, my mind mostly wanders a fog of memories, daydreams, and snatches of old songs. It’s nice to have an activity that forces me to focus for a few hours.

There’s not a lot else going on. I hope this finds everybody doing well.

There’s not a lot to report this week. I did taxes. Jul’s COVID turned out to be a mild case. Danita is in PT for her sore shoulder.

We had a coating of ice starting late Friday and going on through a lot of Saturday. Fortunately, the Friday food truck was here. Most of the ice melted today. We expect today’s food truck arrive in a little while. I even got a bike ride in today. I wouldn’t have taken a two-wheeler out, but a trike doesn’t fall over if there’s a small slick spot. As it turned out, the roads were fine.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

It used to be we could go over to the clubhouse and get free coffee. Then the clubhouse was COVID-closed. No troubles, we dug out the Mr. Coffee. That was fine, until it stopped working. Normally, I just re-seat the valve, but this time the valve had disappeared. We looked everywhere. I can’t imagine where it went. But it was gone for good. I loved that Mr. Coffee. It had one on-off switch and one green light. What more can one ask for?

Again, no troubles. A quick trip to Amazon found that they still make the same Mr. Coffee. In the mean time, we put our one-cup brewer in service. The next day, I found that Amazon shipped our new Mr. Coffee by USPS. And that same day, we discovered the one-cup brewer was leaking. That called for another trip to Amazon. We were definitely getting into a serious shortage situation.

All’s well that ends well. The USPS came through and delivered our new Mr. Coffee on time. The new one-cup brewer came in two days later. I was amazed that the old carafe fit in the new Mr. Coffee perfectly. How many times have you heard of people who had to buy a whole new coffee maker because it was cheaper than replacing a broken carafe? Now you know somebody with a spare carafe.

We had a spate of good weather this week — three days in a row of temperatures above freezing and no precip. One of the wheels on my new bike started squeaking. I was convinced a bearing wasn’t lubed. As soon as I got home I called the shop. They said it would be no trouble, just bring it in. Danita and I loaded the bike into the Leaf, only to realize I had to charge the car first. (It’s a bit of a drive to the shop.) All’s well that ends well again. It turned out to be a minor adjustment. The forecast is for a week of sloppy weather. I won’t be worrying about bikes for a while.

If you think this is what old folks do for excitement, I’m about to prove you wrong. Next weekend, we have neighborhood food trucks on Friday and Sunday. The Sunday truck has the key-lime pie in a jar. It tastes grand.

On the bad side, Jul thinks she has COVID. Here’s hoping it’s a mild case. Danita and I hope Jul has an easy recovery, and that everybody else is staying well.

We’re into winter weather. Thursday and Friday it was cloudy, temperatures were near freezing, and winds were 20 to 40 MPH. That’s enough to turn me into a slug, staying indoors and doing nothing. Yesterday was nice, Temperatures were still near freezing but the wind was mild and it was sunny. I got a great ride in. That’s good because today it’s snowing. The ground was above freezing, so after 5 hours of snow it’s only now beginning to stick on the street. Danita teases me about shoveling snow when I don’t have to, but there’s not much of an alternative for getting some exercise.

We had a nice Zoom with Mark, Jiajia, and Mira this morning.

I think I finished my budget database. It has all the features I want and no known bugs. I even wrote a user guide. I wonder what I’m going to do for the next several days until the streets clear?

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

My new trike has been at the bike shop for several weeks. It got held up because the manufacturer left a bag of parts out of the box. Then they shipped the parts USPS. It took over two weeks for the parts to arrive. I consider myself lucky to get the parts so “fast”. The trike is a fun ride, but I’m even slower on the trike than I am on the bike. That’s OK. I’m retired, and have time to ride the trike. Before today, I was staying close enough that I could walk home if necessary. I ordered some bike stuff that came in today. That lets me carry water, tools, etc. Now if I get a flat, I can fix it and ride home. I took my first real ride today. It was a 14 mile circular route with moderate hills. Everything worked just fine.

I’m also still working on my budget database. I’m finding and fixing little bugs and adding features. It’s a tremendous amount of fun. I forgot how much I enjoy doing software development. If I tried doing it for pay, I would be fired within a week. I’m that slow. But I chug along, get things done, and have a very good time doing it.

That’s the news. I hope this finds everybody doing well.

Ryn came up from Virginia for a quick visit. It was cool and cloudy. We shared an excellent lunch in the garage, with the door partially opened for everybody’s safety. I got plenty of pictures, but somehow every last one had Ryn with her eyes closed.

Both Bud and Mom are scheduled to receiver their first COVID vaccine shots next week. That’s a good thing for us all.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

Wednesday, Danita and I “tunneled” from home to Mark & Jiajia’s. There was no stopping. Windows were closed. Danita brought 10 home-made frozen dinners. Mark and Jiajia were very appreciative.

We had a nice visit and enjoyed a very nice lunch — Danita’s shrimp salad with fruit salad, chips, and sinfully rich brownies. After we were all relaxed and contented, Mira woke up and we had a photo shoot. Then we “tunneled” home. It was a great visit.

We have big news this week. Mark and Jiajia had their baby Mira somewhere around 9 PM on December 31. Mira was 7 pounds, 6 ounces. Everybody is healthy. Mira has some jaundice, so they are still in the hospital. They expect to go home this afternoon. We hope to visit them soon. There’s a good chance there might be a picture or two next week.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.