Nov 24 - a tale of two rides

Ok, it's not much of a tail, but the title had a good ring to it.

I left before Ritchie got here, just after Sandy got up at 8am. The wind, which had switched from the north to the south for the last couple of days, switched back to the north again so I did my usual ride. It felt funny being back on the bicycle after three days riding the motorcycle. It was interesting that things being drilled into us on the motorcycle course like "press, lean, roll" for making turns were automatic when I got on the bicycle. On the pedal variety, it's still press and lean to make turns, but instead of rolling on the throttle you're pedaling. While you're being trained and tested you tend to overthink. If you just clear your mind most riding techniques come naturally. I'd say that "the bike and you are one" but that sounds pretty schmaltzy.

The temperature hovered a little over 70F for most of the ride. The winds were light to medium and it was cloudy, so it felt a little cool but not uncomfortably so. I was wearing my lightest jersey which happened to be a random pick but could have worn something heavier and not been hot. As I rode I was thinking that it wouldn't be much fun out on the boat -- a little cool -- so when I got home Sandy decided to head over to BB&B to do some shopping (bed bath & beyond). She'd had a fret-full day since Ritchie had not arrived until after noon (I got back around 12:45). She had finally talked to Jeff who said that he'd sent Ritchie off on some errands.

Ritchie's first task was the shower pan because he was not sure if he would be able to grout both the shower and the floor as well as do the pan. Well, as it turned out, he would have had plenty of time. The tiles are very smooth and the grout spreads easily. He was done both the pan and grouting the floor by 2:30 and couldn't go any further since he couldn't stand on the pan yet to grout the walls of the shower. Regardless, my first concern was to have the floor done before Vic's installation (8am this morning) and Stone Crazy (10:30 this morning). Ritchie will arrive somewhere in there and have a number of things to do:

1) grout the shower walls
2) lay the shower floor tiles
3) re-install the toilet and grout the base
4) grout the shower floor

... and then he'll be finished. Hopefully he will have enough time to let the shower floor tiles set so that he can grout same. It's a small area but will be somewhat fiddly since the tiles are river stone -- 1'x1' sections with stones ranging in size from 1"x1" to about 1x5"x2". They're kind of neat but since the stones are rounded there will be a lot of grout.

In between what Ritchie was doing yesterday I was able to do my drywall patch and then later taped it and got two coats of mud by the end of the evening. I also removed the light fixture and box and installed a new box for same about 5 inches to the left -- the new vanity is wider so I needed to re-center the lights. The hole from the old box has also been taped and mudded. I'll do some more work on that before everyone arrives today. Once I have the mirror from Vic I'll also be able to see how much of the wall needs to be repainted.

I also cut baseboard to go behind and beside the vanity. It's been primed, came that way, but not finish painted. I'm not concerned about the part that will end up behind the vanity. I did not nail it into place -- am not 100% sure that the vanity legs will clear the baseboard. I can do that at the last minute when Vic arrives. Of course I'm saying Vic, but it's really his guys since he's on his way to Cleveland for a family Thanksgiving get-together.

Around 4:30 or so I went out for a little toot with the powered bike, riding around the neighborhood and north of Flagler, all beachside. I had not intention of going far, just doing some practicing. I practiced some low speed tight turns in the church parking lot ... that could use some more work.

Before heading out on the bike I had re-parked the M5 to get it further away from the bike and was able to back the bike out of the garage and then ride it back in without having to move the car. Success ! That was all I was hoping for. It means that moving the car in and out will be a matter of focussing on getting as far left as possible, but that's pretty easy. I keep telling Sandy that we need to replace the M5 with a Smart Car or Mini ...

Early in the morning, before Sandy was up, I had done some more work in the garage organizing all the stuff that I had just piled on the workbench as I was emptying shelves. I need to either get some more pegboard or get some other attachment system for the section of wall between the existing pegboard and the window to take advantage of that space. It's coming together.

Oh, and last but not least, completely on a different topic, I unpacked and installed the new el-cheapo printer that I bought. This is a very basic printer -- $79 if I recall correctly, but able to print on 110lb card stock. This is for Permanent cards. Nothing is an easy installation with my setup where Windows XP is running on VmWare on Linux. I had to first reboot that setup into native windows to access the printer through a USB cable to setup the wireless features and then back and forth a couple of times rebooting into Linux and accessing the printer wirelessly from my normal Windows. The printer itself is not supported by Linux -- no drivers -- so wireless is the way to go. It works pretty well printing card stock too, so I'm now set.

I titled my previous blog "a day like no other" but of course every day is like that, yesterday being no exception. I would never repeat all the stuff that I did on the 24th either. As I was doing the printer install I was getting impatient with the 3rd reboot and thinking that I used to spend entire evenings and weekends fiddling with Windows installs, and that while I was working full time ! Now, retired, with supposedly more time on my hands ... NOT ... I'm less patient with time wasters. It's amazing how that happens.

Doing some more thinking about the above I believe that I have an answer. While I was working I was used to wasting my time. Endless conference calls, waiting in airports, shuffling endless emails -- there was very little that you could point to at the end of the day that you'd accomplished. Fussing with Windows installs was simply more of the same. Now, being retired, I'm used to accomplishing things. I go for a ride; I build something; I fix something -- it's all about doing "stuff". I depend on others far less and do what I want. Putting down the ICW in the boat is not about the destination, it's about the trip. Even if I'm sitting out on the water fishing, if I get skunked I have still accomplished more than on a typical "work" day.

I fussed with the bike a bit yesterday, looking at things with the owners manual in hand. Before delivery Dave had made a quick adjustment of the handlebars, judging them to be too high for me. The law says that your hands cannot be higher than your shoulders ... I'm short ... he rotated the handles down. In doing so the turn signals were pointing high and he wanted me to come back in so that they could fix that. He said that the turn signal itself had to be opened to adjust a nut. Well, I looked at that and determined that no, the turn signal hangs by a post and gimbals and can be loosened and adjusted with an allen wrench. He must have been thinking about another model. I also found that the bike already has a connector for battery charging and can be attached directly to my battery minder. I'll need to order another one so that the bike and the M5 can both be on charge while we're away. I may or may not do that before we go away for Christmas.

That's it ... lots of things ... another day done ...

Onward !