Move to new den, “Hunter’s Moon”, lots of walking...

(posted from home)
(This post covers 27-31 October, 2008)


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Friday, 31 October-

I spent the morning on email and hop-scotching across the various news sites I like to read. As the presidential campaign winds down I’ve been reading a lot more about politics and enjoy comparing news across multiple sites. It’s a bit disconcerting to read the wildly-different accounts at, say, NewsMax (conservative) and Salon (liberal) and then try to figure out what really happened. The bottom line is you can’t trust either for the news. Oh, yeah—and then go read some gunnie sites where you’ll learn, for instance, that it was Acorn that was responsible for the economic recession.
After lunch I put the top down on the Miata and drove over to the West Shore Sportsman’s Club to check out the new trap range. The old trap range was closed down last year when it was discovered that shotgun pellets rained down on a neighbor’s property under certain conditions. The new range is in a much better location but there’s a lot more work to be done before it will be usable.
I did meet an interesting guy today. He was cleaning up the backstop of the indoor range to prepare for an annual ladies’ shooting event next week. Our conversation ranged widely and we eventually hit on the fact that he too had made the long drive to Alaska and back. It was great to compare notes on our experiences.
After the range visit I drove on to Pinchot State Park. Today I walked six miles, leaving from the east-side mooring area and walking to the end of the campground and back in two hours even.
That evening we watched three more episodes of ‘Weeds – 3’.

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Thursday, 30 October-

Today I rode the Concours into York on some errands. One of those errands was picking up a windshield repair kit for Mocha Joe. The windshield has five small chips/cracks from gravel kicked up by oncoming vehicles on our Alaska trip. The good news is there’s only one very small chip (not even a star-crack) in the area swept by the windshield wiper on the driver’s side.
I got some bad news on the windshield kit, however. You’re supposed to do the repair within a few days of occurrence and (worse) it won’t work if the windshield has been treated with a windshield treatment like Rain-X. And I know I have treated the windshield with Rain-X since the crack happened. I’ve found Rain-X stops wiper-skip so whenever the wipers start skipping, I clean the windshield and polish it with a Rain-X-soaked pad. I know I did this on the Maine trip.
This morning I stopped at a windshield-repair shop to ask about the Rain-X problem. They say they can try it and it may or may not work—there’s no way to tell. The cost would be $84 whether it works to not.
That afternoon I drove the Miata over to Pinchot State Park for my walk. Today I parked at the east-side boat launch and walked to the campground and back—about five miles.
That evening we hosted a few Halloween kids (only about a dozen this year). We then watched ‘Survivor- Gabon’ and the first three episodes of ‘Weeds- Season Three’.
I finished “Hunter’s Moon” today and have to say I was disappointed. This one is a bit too much like “Tampa Burn”.

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Wednesday, 29 October-

This morning we drove to the BonTon in Camp Hill to shop for a new chair. I had bought my all-time-favorite chair from them back in 2000. After calling around and checking the web, it appears they still have the best deal. My current chair (the one we’ve now moved into my ‘den’) is a mission-style recliner (a Lane Montana Hi-Leg Recliner) in dark green leather. We’ll get the same model for the living room but this time we’ll go with a mahagony color if we do indeed go ahead with the buy.
I’m pretty sure we’ll be going ahead. Moving my ‘stuff’ (the laptop bag and accessories, my stack of reading materials, the occasional map, etc) has cleaned up the living room and opened up the space. Labashi LOVES it and I have to admit it would be better for me to routinely work from the den.
The laptop gave me a bit of trouble during the move and would not connect wirelessly. I had to turn off the MAC filter to get it to work and will have to research that further so I can re-secure the router’s wireless connection. I had a wired connection in the living room and may decide to extend that to the den. If wireless continues to perform well and I can get the MAC filter working, I’ll not bother.
This afternoon I brought up a small TV we had in storage and connected it in the den. I can’t change channels from here but that’s okay.
My four-miler was more pleasant today but temps are still below normal.

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Tuesday, 28 October-

I slept GREAT last night. The headaches associated with my cold or whatever have finally stopped.
I spent a few hours on web news this morning, then Labashi and I took an hour to adjust the hang of the dining room lights. The three lamps hang down individually and our task this morning was to make them four inches higher. They had been a little too close to the dining room table top.
We also spent a few hours figuring out what to do about my favorite chair. It has seen better days. We were trying to figure out whether we could fix it, have it upholstered, or replace it entirely. We ended up deciding to move the old chair into my office as a reading chair and buy a new one for the living room. This will solve several issues. Now if we can just find the right deal on a new one.
Today was a windy and cold day so I dug out a rain jacket for my four-miler. Going downwind wasn’t bad but coming back I had to lean into the wind and hold onto my hat. I see the weather report says we had wind gusts up to 49 miles per hour and I can believe it.
That evening we finished off the “Weeds - Season Two” episodes. The season ended with a cliff-hanger. Now I want to go get Season Three right away.

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Monday, 27 October-

This morning I updated the blog and caught up on the news. After a few hours watching and cataloging video clips, I went with Labashi to run some errands in town. We took advantage of a free temporary membership at BJ’s Warehouse to check it out. I’m kind of underwhelmed. We did pick up some excellent trail-mix. It’s Berkley and Jensen Gourmet trail mix intended for vending machines. We both say it’s the best ever and the cost was reasonable at $8-something for 12 bags.
We got home just an hour before dark but I wanted to take my four-miler anyway. That turned out to be a good thing. A barred owl serenaded me from a sycamore across the creek. Very cool!
That evening we watched three episodes of Weeds-Season Two.

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“The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time”, faucet installation, “I’m Not There”

(posted from home)
(This post covers 23-26 October, 2008)



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Sunday, 26 October –

Last night was a lousy night for me. Yesterday evening Labashi believed my headaches might be caffeine-related so I took a caffeine pill and that turned out to be a mistake. It didn’t help the headache and I couldn’t fall sleep. I know I didn’t sleep at all until 0230 or so and then woke at 0500 and couldn’t get back to sleep. I read a few chapters of “Hunter’s Moon” to while away the time.
This morning I caught up on the offline blog, then we watched the extras disk from “I’m Not There”.
Afterwards I took the DVDs back and then Labashi and I washed the north side of the house. We have to wash the siding in this area every other or every third year to remove a greenish sheen that grows in this always-shaded area.
I then went back to work cataloging video clips from the Alaska trip.
Late in the day I took my four-mile on this nice 60-degree day.

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Saturday, 25 October-

This morning I double-checked all the connections on the kitchen-faucet installation and found them all dry. We put all the tools away and cleaned up but I’ll give it another day before re-installing the under-sink storage rack and bins and calling the job complete.
I spent much of the day working on the laptop. I recently bought a portable hard drive and today copied all the video clips from the Alaska trip to it. I’m a bit leary of the portable drive after reading about high rates of failure on these devices but I have to do something— my main hard drive is 95% full.
I also spent a few hours viewing video clips from the Alaska trip. It’s a slow process to view, write a short description and assess how useful it is for later reference.
That evening we watched “I’m Not There”, the movie about Bob Dylan’s life and music. It’s an interesting premise. Dylan is represented at different phases of his life by six different actors, including a woman (Cate Blanchett). We’re not Dylan fans so missed many of the movie’s references. I don’t think I’d recommend it unless you are indeed a Dylan fan or want to see how this experiment works out.
No walk today.

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Friday, 24 October-

I’ve been dreading today. Labashi bought a new kitchen faucet last week and today’s (sigh) installation day.
As I feared, I ran into problems with the removal of the old faucet and accessories. The old American-Standard-brand faucet used hoses with non-standard fittings which were impossible to remove. I couldn’t undo the faucet mount because I couldn’t remove the sprayer hose. There was no way to grip the hose nut because the manufacturer had chosen to use an el-cheapo ‘nut’ consisting of two small flats machined onto the round fitting rather than a standard six-sided nut. And if I couldn’t remove the hose, I couldn’t remove the faucet-mount nut behind it. I tried a special plumbing wrench from the local hardware store but clearances were too tight for it to work. I ended up cutting off the old faucet by using a cutoff wheel on a Dremel tool.
I also had problems removing the sprayer mount and a drain but eventually prevailed.
Late in the day we drove into town for plumbing supplies and on the way home stopped at the Farmer’s Market and then picked up a couple of pizza slices at a new restaurant (‘Parma’) in Manchester.
That evening we finished the faucet installation and testing. The job that should have taken an hour or two took all day. But now that it’s done, it looks great and works better than the old one.
No walk today.

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Thursday, 23 October-


I spent the morning updating the blog and posting it online. Today’s post marks the longest-ever delay between posts for me (17 days) and I’m wondering whether that means anything for the future. I hope not.
Perhaps I’m getting a bit lazy. On the other hand I had caught up the offline version of the blog just before I came down with this cold or flu or sinus infection. But since then, I’ve just not felt like doing much with it. And once I miss, say, five or six days, it’s tougher and tougher to catch up.
I finished ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’ by Mark Haddon last night. On a one-to-ten scale (ten high), I think I’d rate it about a six or a seven. I very much enjoyed the off-beat approach in the novel. The narrator, Christopher, is an autistic 15-year-old--- a fan of Sherlock Holmes stories-- who finds a neighbor’s dog inexplicably killed. We learn about Christopher, his family and neighbors, and the workings of Christopher’s mind as he attempts to solve the mystery. Recommended!
In the afternoon I returned two books to my local library, then drove into the Martin Library in York for others. There I picked up two Randy Wayne White books (“Hunter’s Moon” and “Batfishing in the Rainforest”) as well as another Matt Willen book (“The Best Tent Camping in Pennsylvania”). The first is a novel and the second a collection of White’s non-fiction writing about fishing. I’m hoping the last will point me to a new-to-me campground or two this Fall. I recently bought Willen’s ’60 Hikes within 60 Miles of Harrisburg’ and thought I’d take a look at his earlier book.
I then drove to Rocky Ridge and walked five miles on my end-to-end course. It felt like a bit of a push today. This might be a mistake.
That evening we watched ‘Survivor- Gabon’.

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Toilet-tank bolt failures, flu, ‘The Grace That Keeps This World’, Playaway book player, ‘60-Hikes’

(posted from home)
(This post covers 6-22 October, 2008)


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Wednesday, 22 October-

This morning I had a routine dental appointment in Mechanicsburg. Afterwards I dropped in at the nearby Starbucks. One of the staffers, Jim, is an amateur photographer and we’ve talked many times. This Spring, Jim and I had talked about the Canadian Rockies and today he showed me a terrific photo album he had made about the trip he and his wife took in late August and early September. They had flown to Jackson and spent three days in the Grand Tetons with a daytrip to Yellowstone and then flew to Calgary and drove up the Icefields Parkway to Jasper. Jim is a very talented photographer and had multiple National-Geographic-quality photos of those spectacular areas. What a treat!
I finished the Times and then drove to the nearby Borders. I browsed the books and magazines and had just come to the conclusion that I’ll probably never buy another new book when I saw one I had to have. Labashi and I had gone to a lecture and slide show by Matt Willen at Harrisburg’s Wildwood Nature Center. At the time he was working on a new book and had been taking the photos we saw as he researched the book. And here the book was—“60 Hikes within 60 Miles of Harrisburg”.
I browsed the book, going back and forth over whether to buy it. I know many of the hikes he recommends. But then again I he not only has new hikes but also new twists on those familiar to me. At Shenk’s Ferry Wildflower Preserve, for example, we’ve always just done the out-and-back walk. But he shows it can be made into a loop. Now I have to go do that! Same with Flat Rock (near Colonel Denning State Park). And when I saw he also shows the GPS coordinates of the parking lots, I was sold.
I could, of course, eventually borrow the book from a library but that generally just turns into my forgetting all about it. I bought it.
That afternoon I walked five miles at Pinchot—from the Dam to the Nature Center and back.
That evening we watched ‘Bella’, a romance movie. It was a bit over-the-top in its sentimentality and it plays a bit fast-and-loose with the concept of ‘based on a true story’ but overall I’d recommend it.

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Tuesday, 21 October-

I finally felt like getting out a bit today. Labashi and I went into town. We had a nice lunch at Isaac’s and ran an errand at Lowe’s. We detoured into downtown York to pick up an Obama sign at the county Democratic Party Headquarters, kicking off a discussion about whether or not our sign is likely to be stolen. If it is, we’ll just put up another.
We spent the afternoon making our final voting decisions and then mailed in our absentee ballots.
Late in the day I walked my four-mile.

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Monday, 20 October-

The cold/flu is still hanging on. I’ve been spending my time on the web reading CNN, Salon, Slate, DailyBeast, THR, PAFOA.
That afternoon I went to the library. I read the papers and picked up another ‘One Book, One Community’ book from a previous year. This one is ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’. I also picked up an audio book called a ‘Playaway’ book. This is interesting. It’s an audio book, complete with player. The player is similar to an iPod in that it’s a solid-state memory device with a jack for your headset. It’s about the size of the original iPod with a tiny display to tell you what chapter you are on and controls to move forward or back. The recording is Michael Connelly’s ‘The Closers’.
My first attempt with the Playaway book was a disaster. The player had a battery aboard and an extra in the case. Both were dead. I finally got the player working by installing a new battery I supplied. Then the player had been left on Chapter 41. There’s no way to know how many chapters are in the book and there’s no ‘start at the beginning’ button. So I scrolled backward through all 41 chapters to get to the beginning. I should have gone forward but I had expected the player to have some type of fast-rewind. You can only go back or forward a chapter at a time. And the sound was bad. There’s a control for equalization and speed and they helped get the sound into the realm of human speech but that’s about it.
I also find I’m not a fan of audio books. Maybe they’re okay to listen to while driving somewhere or something but I’d much rather have the print in front of me.
No walking today.


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Sunday, 19 October-

Today was another lost day. I think the flu may have peaked today and I’m starting down the other side. I spent the whole afternoon reading the Sunday Times.
We finished ‘Desperate Housewives’- Season Four that evening. The strain of doing a popular series is showing.

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Saturday, 18 October-

Today was another ‘lost’ day. I was completely miserable with my cold or flu or whatever the heck it is. I napped twice during the day and did a little reading.

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Friday, 17 October-

Overnight my sore throat got worse. Swallowing became more and more painful and kept me awake for a couple of hours. I finally found some cough drops and those took away some of the scratchiness and allowed me to get back to sleep.
By mid-morning I had drainage and a pervasive ‘blah’ feeling. As the day progressed it was clear I had a full-blown cold and my efforts to stave it off with Vitamin C and Zicam hadn’t worked.

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Thursday, 16 October-

Today I finished ‘The Grace That Keeps This World’ and turned it over to Labashi. I had read about this book (and the ‘One Book, One Community’ program) in a local arts newspaper (ShowcasePA) and picked up a copy from my local library.
The book is a somewhat-flawed first novel by a creative-writing prof from Susquehanna University in nearby Selinsgrove. But despite its flaws, the story has heart. I found myself more than willing to overlook the minor difficulties for the essential ‘truth’ of the story. And for me it doesn’t hurt that the setting is in the Adirondacks and the main character is a forester and hunter.
I did my six-mile this afternoon and noticed in the last mile that I have a bit of a sore throat.

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Wednesday, 15 October-

I’ve been pushing it a bit with the daily walking but I’ve been loving it. I would normally be riding the motorcycle to a local park for a walk but for some reason I’m very content to just walk the roads around home in this extra-beautiful weather. Today I simply did my regular four-miler along the creek.
Otherwise, I’ve been doing a lot of reading. I’ve just about finished ‘The Grace That Keeps This World’ by Tom Bailey, a selection of the One Book, One Community project. This project covers a six-county region of 63 libraries. It encourages us to read and discuss the book and to attend in-person discussions with the author. We’re thinking of attending a session with the author at the end of the month if nothing else comes up.

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Tuesday, 14 October-

Well, the toilet still leaks. And it’s still the same teeny-tiny drop over, say, an eight-hour period. So I took another shot at it. After draining and sponging out the tank and then removing the supply hose yet again, I noticed the top of the turnoff-valve thread — the ‘seat’ of the connection-- had a bad spot, a ‘chip’ out of it. Could that be it? I filed out the defect and this time sealed the joint with pipe-joint compound and hoped for the best.
I walked the six-mile course again today, enjoying the remarkably-nice weather we’ve been having for the last two weeks.


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Monday, 13 October-

Today I drove over to the hardware store for another water-feed for the toilet. I may have a bad ferrule on the one I bought the other day. The leak is an odd one, only weeping a drop or two over a day’s time or through the night. I’ve not seen anything like this before. It seems to be so slow that evaporation might almost stay ahead of it. On the other hand, this pipe is pressurized all the time. If the ferrule is bad and the leak gets worse, the water pump would just keep pumping water out into the bathroom until we find it. All I could do is install the new one and see what happens.
That afternoon I did my six-mile walk and that evening we watched the extras on ‘The Wire’-Season Five disk.

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Sunday, 12 October-

Today we attended my one-year-old niece’s birthday party. (Wheee!!!!)
She had learned to walk while we were in Alaska and this was our first opportunity to see her. It was such a delight to watch her toddle about. She’s the most angelic little thing you can imagine. Mommy had put butterfly wings on her so everybody’s cameras were working overtime. You can’t help but smile at her and when she smiles back you feel like the most special person in the world.
After the party I hitched up the fishing boat my brother and I jointly own so I could bring it back home. My brother and nephews were busy and the weather very rainy this year so they only had the boat out a time or two since my winter trip to Florida and didn’t run the outboard at all. I’ll need to take it out a few times yet this Fall, do some routine maintenance and then prepare it for cold-weather storage.
Labashi and I didn’t get home until 2100 but then watched the last two episodes of ‘The Wire’-Season Five.

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Saturday, 11 October-

Silly me, I spent most of the day looking for a birthday present for my one year old great-niece. Incredibly, I struck out. I was surprised to see most of the plush-toys I’d consider are for ages three and up and there seems to be a lot of emphasis on faux cell-phones, PDAs, and other electronic junk. No way! I’m a complete failure at this job.
Back home I convinced Labashi to accompany me on my four-mile on this perfect afternoon.
That evening? More Wire-5.


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Friday, 10 October-

Today I noticed a very tiny leak around at the base of the new water-supply tubing. I drained the tank and took the tubing off and re-installed it. Everything looked fine so I went ahead and put the tools away and put everything back in place.
Late in the day I did took another walk on the new six-mile course. That evening we watched three episodes of ‘The Wire’-5

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Thursday, 9 October-

I spent today resolving the toilet problem. I was able to save the old cutoff valve by carefully cleaning the internal threads. It doesn’t leak but then again it doesn’t completely close off the water feed to the toilet. In those cases where I have to do some repair work on the toilet, I’ll have to turn off the main water valve into the house.
The new flapper valve didn’t fit at all--- not even close. After disassembling the old one and finding the new one didn’t fit, I called the manufacturer and learned their kit is considered a ‘universal’ kit but only works on about 90 per cent of toilets. And that 90 per cent doesn’t include our late-Seventies Eljer toilet. So there I was having removed the old flapper valve and couldn’t put on the new one. I drove to our local hardware store and bought yet another flapper valve and seal, this one designed to work with the Eljer-style cast-in valve-seat and overflow tube.
The Fluidmaster setup had very poor instructions and is much more complex to install than the Korki system I had in there before. In my call to Fluidmaster I learned they have a cleaner-only kit which would have worked with the Korki so that would have been the way to go. But our local Lowe’s didn’t have the kits so I hadn’t seen them.
I eventually worked my way through the problems and by late afternoon had the toilet working again. But I left the top off so we can monitor it for a few days.
Late in the day I picked up some DVDs and did my four-mile walk.

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Wednesday, 8 October-

This morning I began searching the web for an explanation of what may have caused the brass tank-bolts to corrode through. It didn’t take long. I found that toilet-tank tablets—the so called ‘automatic cleaning tabs’ going by brand names like “2000 Flushes”--- slowly release chlorine bleach into the tank. And these assume the tank water changes often enough to keep the solution diluted. If the solution is not diluted, it becomes strong enough to corrode tank parts. And of course we were gone for three months on our Alaska trip. Looks like that’s what happened in our case.
We drove into town for the replacement parts and ran into a few difficulties there. I was surprised to not be able to find solid-brass toilet bolts at Lowe’s. They only sell brass-PLATED bolts and the wing nuts aren’t even plated. But fortunately, Lowe’s also sells a Fluidmaster complete-repair kit which has both the bowl-cleaning system we were looking for and solid-brass bolts (in addition to the water intake valve, flapper, and tank-to-bowl doughnut). I had seen the tank-to-bowl gasket on our brand of toilet (Eljer) is a unique design so I bought that separately.
My other problem had to do with the water-supply cut-off valve. My old one didn’t cut off the water flow. I had tried using pliers on it and merely crushed the internal washer and stripped the threads a bit. The design was such that I could unscrew the inner valve portion for replacement so I had that along on my trip to Lowe’s. But the design has changed and parts are no longer available. And that presents a big problem. To replace that valve I’d have to go down into the basement and remove cabinets and ceiling insulation to get to the pipe, then sweat on a new valve assembly or take a chance on a less-reliable valve assembly which uses a compression-fitting. I went ahead and bought a compression-fitting but also had the rubber seal replaced on the old one. If I can clean up the threads on the old one I might be able to put it back in place.
Late that afternoon I took a six-mile walk. I did the first two miles on my four-mile course, then turned off to walk several sections of country road back to circle back around to home.

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Tuesday, 7 October-

This morning I walked up to the garage to bring the Miata home, then walked up there again for Cherry Larry. I put so few miles on them that they’re exempt from the emissions inspection but of course must still pass the safety inspections. Larry needed brakes and rotors this time and I’m starting to wonder if I’m not on the wrong side of the cost-to-benefit ratio. Labashi uses him to haul stuff a few times a year and I drive him in sloppy winter weather to avoid exposing the other vehicles to road-salt. But then again I have to pay insurance, licensing, inspection, and any repairs.
That afternoon I walked another four miles. That evening we finished off Season Four of ‘The Wire’.
That night I noticed a bit of water below the toilet tank- a very small puddle about two inches across. After dabbing that up I started feeling around under the tank. I flushed the toilet to drain the tank and check the mounting bolts. To my astonishment, the right-side bolt broke off in my hand (and of course started draining the remainder of the water in the tank onto the floor!). After turning off the water supply and cleaning up, I also checked the left-side bolt and found I could lift the brass bolt-head right off the bottom of the tank. What the heck is going on???

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Monday, 6 October-

Well, last night I was sure I had to go somewhere for a couple of days but today I’m not so convinced. I had thought I might go see the fall colors in the Canaan Valley of West Virginia. Or maybe spend a few days in the Tuscarora State Forest. Or maybe fish a bit in the Kinzua Dam area. But in the end I decided I’ll do something in a couple of weeks — there’s still plenty of good weather left this Fall.
This morning I took Cherry Larry (our beater van) up to the garage for inspection. I walked the mile home, drove the Miata up there too, and walked home again.
I spent a few hours catching up the blog, spent an hour pulling the dual-sport motorcycle out of the barn and getting it prepped for inspection, then went did my four-mile.


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Finishing up the bedroom, The Worm, Ethan-the-Bimmer-guy, Susquehanna bike ride

(posted from home)
(This post covers 1-5 October, 2008)

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Sunday, 5 October-

I spent the morning on the web and doing a bit of blogging. But given the great weather today I had to get out. I rode over to the video shop to return DVDs and thought I’d go on from there to find somewhere new for a walk. But I realized Fall is rapidly passing and our extra-nice weather won’t last.
I returned home and did my walking behind the lawn mower so I have that out of the way. I still have a few chores to take care of tomorrow but then I’m going to bug out for a few days.

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Saturday, 4 October-

I spent this morning on the web and then met buddy Jackrabbit for a motorcycle ride. We met in Wrightsville and first rode down the west bank of the Susquehanna to the Shank’s Mare outdoors shop, then on to route 425 to Indian Steps Museum. After a snack at Collinsville Drive-In we crossed the river and rode up to Face Rock overlook above Holtwood Dam, hoping to see bald eagles (none today, though).
We then rode up the east shore of the river to Columbia on this perfect afternoon, then back across the Susquehanna to our starting point, a 75-mile ride.
That evening we finished Season Four of ‘The Wire’. It’s absolutely the best series we’ve seen, bar none.

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Friday, 3 October-

Today I rode into Camp Hill. I stopped in at the Starbucks for a coffee-and-Times and there met a very interesting guy. He had ridden in on a mid-Eighties BMW which had a bobber look to it. I learned the guy—Ethan, by name—had pieced it together. The front end was Honda cruiser, the engine a BMW Boxer and the frame a modified BMW. Ethan is an area native but had lived in Brooklyn for a few years. He’s a theatre tech by trade and said he just recently moved back to the area and is finding he can make a living at his trade in the Harrisburg area—something that was impossible a decade ago. He’s convinced the crisis in the US economy will lead people to stay closer to home and attend local theater. He and his roomy lived in the East Williamsburg section of Brooklyn in a loft. They replaced their front door with a garage door and ramp and kept their motorcycles inside.
I love that type of completely-unexpected conversation. I had just been sitting there reading the Times as Ethan walked by on his way out. When I caught his eye, I just nodded and said ‘I like your bike’. I’m so glad he jumped on the opportunity to talk and hope to run into him somewhere again.
I then did some shopping at the nearby Giant super-store, hoping to find some specialty foods for sandwiches but anything out-of-the-ordinary was so expensive that I gave up and left empty-handed.
I rode home and did my four-mile creek walk to top off the day.
That evening we watched two more episodes of ‘The Wire- 4’.

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Thursday, 2 October-

I spent the day running errands. I took the Concours over to Cycle Tech and hung around through its annual inspection. I then ran into York on some errands. One of the things I was looking for was Flitz, a polishing compound, but I struck out.
I stopped at the new Fuddrucker’s for a burger and had a discouraging encounter there. As I walked through the restaurant I heard some guy behind me say ‘I guess he didn’t hear me’. Then it sunk in that I had heard him ask ‘Are you racing today?’. I thought he had been talking to his friends but now realized he was making a smart-aleck comment about the ballistic-mesh riding pants I was wearing. I had locked my helmet and jacket to the bike but I had worn the pants into the restaurant. But I was now already well past him and not about to let him get into a battle of wits with an unarmed man.
I ignored the idiot and, in fact, chuckled to myself that his little show had not gone as planned. I went on with my lunch. But as I left I found he had retaliated. When I tried to start the bike, it wouldn’t turn over. It took me a try to two to realize the kill switch had been turned off. Mr. Smart-Aleck had taken his revenge.
It was easy enough for me to turn the switch back on and get underway but I can’t help but marvel at the implications of that incident. All I did was walk through the restaurant wearing motorcycle safety pants. But apparently he had an opinion about that. And by inadvertently foiling his attempt to humiliate me, he had to retaliate. What a worm.
After lunch I rode up to Rocky Ridge Park and walked five miles on my end-to-end course in 1:41.

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Wednesday, 1 October-

This morning I took a few hours to catch up the blog and work on email. In the afternoon we finished moving furniture back into the bedroom, finally getting everything back into place. Late in the day I walked my four-mile course along the creek while listening to CBC podcasts (Editor’s Choice). I enjoyed hearing several contestants talk about Canada’s National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) contest in which authors are challenged to write a 50,000-word novel wholly within the month of November. Can you imagine?

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