There are two pics this week.
Adirondack Park Loop
Last week I wrote about the cool and rainy weather. This week we’ve had the air conditioning on almost all week. Highs are in the 90s and it is quite humid. This is the earliest I can remember turning on the AC. Last year, we didn’t turn it on until August. But the bike riding was good. I did my first 100 KM ride. (Actually, it was 100.95 KM, but who’s counting?) I usually cross this milestone much earlier in the year, but weather, travel, and lack of urgency all contributed to more relaxed riding this spring. I don’t think I could do another 1,000 mile bike tour. But it’s just possible I’ll be able to do a 350 mile “bike & hike” in the Adirondacks in September. I’m looking at a loop route that goes up the east side of the park and comes down the center.
I have planned stops for all my bike rides. The “easy 100K” I rode yesterday includes a food stop at a place that used to be a gas station. They still have the pumps, but they don’t sell gas. There’s no trouble remembering where the place is — one can smell the grease a mile away. I was riding early to get home before a possible T-storm in the afternoon. In the past, the place has not been crowded. Yesterday I found out that 10 AM on a Saturday morning is prime breakfast time. The most popular thing ordered was a hamburger with a fried egg on top. They have hispanic women doing the cooking. One woman will sometimes be working hard and simultaneously conducting two different conversations in two different languages. But you have to listen closely to catch the English, because it sounds a lot like Spanish if you’re not paying attention. These ladies are big, and they like putting a lot of meat on a sandwich. I had a ham and cheese, and was the only person who ordered something that wasn’t grilled. It’s good food, but I take mine outside and sit on the curb to eat. The inside has grease everywhere.
Toy Bird
China is filled with cheap things to buy. One of them is toy birds that fly by flapping their wings. These are a variation of the balsa wood planes with rubber-band propellers. They’re really cool, really cheap, and look like a lot of fun. I bought 3 for about $5. My neighbor watches their two young grandsons everyday. I gave them one of the birds. They gave it back because they couldn’t figure out how to assemble it. That started “the challenge”. I would work on it for a while, then go do something else. After a couple of weeks, I had it pretty much figured out. But I had ruined the bird with my mistakes. The second bird had a poorly formed molded plastic piece. I successfully built the third bird. You can see it here, being held by granddad with the older grandson standing behind. They suggested starting flights with “medium power” (20 turns), so that’s what we did. The bird fluttered its wings as it slowly descended to a soft landing, which was pretty successful. But when we went to pick it up, we found the tail had completely separated from the frame, and the main wing had started separating from the frame. So much form 3M’s “strongest and best glue”. (Which, by the way, cost twice as much as the 3 birds.) But I had a lot of fun playing with it.
We saw lots of movies this week. I got “7 Years in Tibet” with Brad Pitt from the library, so we could play “I was there.” We had a neighborhood party yesterday. Afterwards, our movie hound showed Adam Sandler’s “The Cobbler”. It was a good movie, perhaps the only good movie Adam Sandler stared in. After Church Sunday morning we went down to College Park to take Mark out to breakfast. Then we saw the current box-office favorite, “Spy”. It’s the first funny spy spoof ever made. And, it’s a very, very funny movie.
Last year the spring on our garage door broke. I got Danita’s car out of the garage, but I dropped the door when trying to put it back down. The bottom panel got wrinkled a little bit. All that would probably have been fine, but several of our neighbors have garage doors damaged so badly that they can’t possibly be opened. The association maintenance committee got on a tare, and we got caught up in the hoopla. Two garage door companies said there’s nothing wrong with the door, but that makes no difference to the association. Danita and I put in a request to install garage doors with windows. If that’s approved, we’ll upgrade the doors. Otherwise, I’ll replace the panel.One thing’s for sure. It will be months before the association rules on our request. That bent panel is sure to be bothering some of my neighbors all summer long.
Danita had a 3/4 crown Thursday. Her mouth still feels “different”, but she’s already feeling better. It’s amazing the dentist can do work like this done in one visit.
I hope this finds everybody doing well.