It keeps getting to be bed time before it gets to be Usenet time, so
here's a snippet from the Beeson Banner:

Wednesday, 3 November 2021

I was having a hard time working up enthusiasm for this trip, then I
suddenly needed to go to RP Home & Harvest for duplicate house keys,
and that straw was enough.

It looks as though my all-day trip will start at noon or later. I
slept late, and then there was a lot of stuff to do before putting on
my outer layers.

***

Left at 12:08. It turned out to be less of an all-day trip than
planned: it had gotten colder when I came out of Tractor Supply at
almost four, so I pulled out my shopping list and decided that nothing
I wanted at Aldi was urgent. We are almost out of breakfast sausage,
but there is some "dry Italian salami", a nearly-full package of
pre-cooked bacon, and plenty of ham.

Moral: if I'm going to be out after three o'clock, TAKE THE
WINDBREAKER! (I *had* taken a pair of warm gloves to put on.)

I warmed right up on the first hill, of course, but it would have
continued to get colder, my metabolism would have slowed down while I
was in Aldi, and I'd have been likely to get sweaty if I stayed
indoors any length of time; I wasn't wearing a zip-off jersey.

But I did get four keys made, One of them is now on my car-key ring; I
put the original back on my depleted ring of tools. (It's now one
over- fat pocket knife with a short long blade, one measuring tape,
one bike-cable key, one house key, nail clippers, and a Kroger "drop
in any mailbox" tag.)

Dave brought home a Mad Anthony shrimp taco for my supper. I did't
bring him anything at all from the Marathon station.

I'd planned to lunch at Wendy's, but they were drive-through only,
Arby's didn't appeal to me, and I'm not sure they weren't also
drive-through only, so I decided I could get something in Sprawl Three
(Google Maps says that it's Woodland Plaza).

I paused before the awkward intersection of Commerce Drive, Commerce
Drive, and Commerce Drive (one of those is really the other end of
Orthopedic Drive) to survey the fast-food joints of Sprawl Three,
which consisted entirely of McDonald's. (There was also a
sit-down-and-wait-to-be-noticed restaurant.) Then I glanced to the
left and saw the Marathon station. I decided to see whether they had
a hot-dog roller. They did, there was food on it, and it wasn't
labeled "Not cooked yet".

So, many years after I first noticed the existance of these clever
gadgets, I finally got to sample their wares. I chose the sole
remaining "tornado" and something with chicken-cheddar in the name,
also the last one. That left a hot dog and a couple of other things.
I studied the layout for a while: there are the bags to put the food
into, but where are the tongs to pick it up? I finally decided that I
wasn't going to touch any food but mine, and if I held the tornado bag
open and ready I wouldn't have hold of the food long enough to get
burned, so I used my fingers.

Turned out that the food was only lukewarm. I should have expected
that; if it was kept honestly hot for hours, it would burn.

The tornado turned out to be in dire need of sauce, but I had a packet
of Taco Bell taco sauce among my emergency food bars. I imagine that
I'd have seen packets of sauce if I'd hunted for them before checking
out.

Thursday, 4 November 2021

A hard freeze is predicted for tonight, so just before supper time, I
walked my wheelchair bike up Chestnut street so that I'd have its
basket to bring the produce home in, and picked all the tomatoes off
Kathy & Dave's vines. I also found a greem pepper.

--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at centurylink dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/

Sunday, 7 November 2021

The one day in the year I wake up soon enough to get me to the church
on time. Hope I don't lose track and type too long.

For years I've been saying "no, I haven't fallen" when filling out
medical forms. Yesterday I had two hard falls in the same day!

The first was on my way out of Warsaw. I realized I'd gone past my
turn, and veered onto the sidewalk, which is flush with the road in
that section of Winona Avenue.

Only this particular section wasn't quite flush; there was an
invisible one-inch curb. Striking a curb steers the bike out from
under you, and you go down hard.

Not as hard as the time I touched wheels on the way from Albany to
here back in the eighties -- I was going slowly, so there wasn't a lot
of kinetic energy to disperse. The potential energy was sufficient to
bruise my elbow, and it was quite sore for a couple of hours.

When the bike stopped, a pannier filled with canned goods I'd bought
at Carniceria San Jose didn't. The hanger was bent out of shape, and
I found a neatly-snipped piece of wire cable-tied to a rack stay.
Since I couldn't see the double-size hole in the basket, that puzzled
me for quite a while.

None of the contents of the pannier were disturbed in the slightest;
I'm impressed with my packing skills, and I hadn't even been trying.
After I re-assured the driver of a passing pick-up truck that I was
not in need of help, the bungees across the top of the pannier made a
convenient handle for carrying the basket to a quiet place where I
could figure out how to re-attach it. I managed . . . 09:47 ... go!

----------------------

I came into the sanctuary after the service started anyway -- I'd been
wandering around the church.

In the SEED sales room after the service, I showed a little too much
interest in a brown duck apron that, I was assured, was a perfect
match to the flowers on my black two-part dress, and came home wearing
it.

Before leaving, I checked that one of the many pockets on the apron
was a good way to bring home the two green cherry tomatoes that I had
noticed on my way to church -- they could go into the snack bag with
the doughnut that I'd snitched for Dave. Then I came home by Park
Avenue and didn't give any thought to the tomatoes until I was
entering our driveway.

http://wlweather.net/LETTERS/2021BANN/BUNGEE04.JPG , (huge file)
http://wlweather.net/LETTERS/2021BANN/BUNGEEh4.JPG (scaled)

I managed to secure the basket with three bungee cords -- two
cow-hitched over the top wire of the basket and the rail of the rack,
then pulled tight, and one passed under the rack stay near the
cable-tied piece of wire, then pulled tight and clipped to the outside
of the basket. (Picture was taken after refining the set-up at home.)

When I packed the dill weed and English muffins I'd bought at Walmart,
I moved all the heavy stuff to the undamaged pannier, leaving the
damaged one with nothing but crumpled grocery bags, my windbreaker and
gloves (I never put either on, and came home a bit sweaty), and my
little bag of stuff. The little bag holds spare handkerchiefs, a
back-up mask, food bars, and the like. I did eat two or three of the
salty meat sticks.

Then when we were putting thyroid medicine on Al's ear that night, my
chair rolled out from under me and knocked a knob off the stove. Dave
was able to put the knob back on, but I bruised my other elbow, and
just now I found a bruise on the back of the shoulder that was not
involved when I fell onto the side walk. I suppose I bounced off the
arm of the chair on my way down.

Al walked around on the table wondering what all the commotion was.

I had to dash out of Walmart at four o'clock to be sure of getting
home before sunset. And I did get home in time to zap Marie Calendar
lasagna for supper.

This may be my last wandering trip to Walmart this year; I'd have to
dash at three o'clock, and I can't get all those layers on much before
eleven. Maybe if I scrubbed my feet the day before and slept in my
socks . . .

--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at centurylink dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/.

On 2021-11-14, Joy Beeson <jbeeson@invalid.net.invalid> wrote:
>
> Sunday, 7 November 2021
>
> The one day in the year I wake up soon enough to get me to the church
> on time. Hope I don't lose track and type too long.
>
> For years I've been saying "no, I haven't fallen" when filling out
> medical forms. Yesterday I had two hard falls in the same day!

Ouch!
I remember the worst fall I had...
My wife and I were riding up a steep hill to go check out a house she found
to see if we wanted to try to buy it...we did, back in
1985.

I shifted to my small chainring and the chain promptly fell
off on the inside. I was clipped in. I majestically fell
over on my side as the bike teetered and I could do nothing
in time.
I kind of stopped pulling my toe clips tight ever after.
Now they're just there to keep my foot mostly where it
belongs.

>
<snip>
>
>
> http://wlweather.net/LETTERS/2021BANN/BUNGEE04.JPG , (huge file)
> http://wlweather.net/LETTERS/2021BANN/BUNGEEh4.JPG (scaled)

I looked at the 'scaled' one...worked great and nifty to
see.

Maybe some views of your whole bike someday.

Pureheart in Aptos

>
> I managed to secure the basket with three bungee cords -- two
> cow-hitched over the top wire of the basket and the rail of the rack,
> then pulled tight, and one passed under the rack stay near the
> cable-tied piece of wire, then pulled tight and clipped to the outside
> of the basket. (Picture was taken after refining the set-up at home.)
>
> When I packed the dill weed and English muffins I'd bought at Walmart,
> I moved all the heavy stuff to the undamaged pannier, leaving the
> damaged one with nothing but crumpled grocery bags, my windbreaker and
> gloves (I never put either on, and came home a bit sweaty), and my
> little bag of stuff. The little bag holds spare handkerchiefs, a
> back-up mask, food bars, and the like. I did eat two or three of the
> salty meat sticks.
>
> Then when we were putting thyroid medicine on Al's ear that night, my
> chair rolled out from under me and knocked a knob off the stove. Dave
> was able to put the knob back on, but I bruised my other elbow, and
> just now I found a bruise on the back of the shoulder that was not
> involved when I fell onto the side walk. I suppose I bounced off the
> arm of the chair on my way down.
>
> Al walked around on the table wondering what all the commotion was.
>
> I had to dash out of Walmart at four o'clock to be sure of getting
> home before sunset. And I did get home in time to zap Marie Calendar
> lasagna for supper.
>
> This may be my last wandering trip to Walmart this year; I'd have to
> dash at three o'clock, and I can't get all those layers on much before
> eleven. Maybe if I scrubbed my feet the day before and slept in my
> socks . . .
>

On Sun, 21 Nov 2021 23:47:20 -0000 (UTC), pH <wNOSPAMp@gmail.org>
wrote:

> Maybe some views of your whole bike someday.

http://wlweather.net/LETTERS/2021BANN/TourLake.jpg

This is a professional picture. While I was preparing to start the
Tour des Lakes this summer, a woman asked to take my picture. I
posed, and thought no more of it. Later on this picture showed up in
Ink-Free News, and I snitched it.

I signed up for the 100 km loop, then checked out at Checkpoint One
and went home by the shortest route. I hope next year to take in
Checkpoint Two. Checkpoint Three is about half a mile after the route
passes my house, but there's no way I could check out there, as you
have to clear the route by four o'clock, so the checkpoint would have
packed up and left long before I could get there.

If the previous picture looked odd -- "the orange thing" was draped
over my top tube, not the handlebars.

--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at centurylink dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/

On 2021-11-22, Joy Beeson <jbeeson@invalid.net.invalid> wrote:
> On Sun, 21 Nov 2021 23:47:20 -0000 (UTC), pH <wNOSPAMp@gmail.org>
> wrote:
>
>> Maybe some views of your whole bike someday.
>
> http://wlweather.net/LETTERS/2021BANN/TourLake.jpg
>
> This is a professional picture. While I was preparing to start the
> Tour des Lakes this summer, a woman asked to take my picture. I
> posed, and thought no more of it. Later on this picture showed up in
> Ink-Free News, and I snitched it.
>
> I signed up for the 100 km loop, then checked out at Checkpoint One
> and went home by the shortest route. I hope next year to take in
> Checkpoint Two. Checkpoint Three is about half a mile after the route
> passes my house, but there's no way I could check out there, as you
> have to clear the route by four o'clock, so the checkpoint would have
> packed up and left long before I could get there.
>
> If the previous picture looked odd -- "the orange thing" was draped
> over my top tube, not the handlebars.
>

Ask and ye shall receive, that is a nice photo and the bike reminds me of my
old Centurion Super-LeMans that I got back in college. (Where I first
discovered the Joy (no pun intended) of SunTour finger tip shifters.

The super-model showing off the bike is not bad, either, but we're not
supposed to notice things like that anymore or we're bad.

Thank-you for the photo..

hmmm....that looks like 40/52 gearing in the front. I'm going to guess this
bike is from the "golden age" of the mid-70's to 80's.

pH in Aptos