Nov 7 - Handles R Us !

It's a small thing, but so important !  We now have handles on all the doors and drawers save two that Charlie missed.  They're the back-side doors on the island.  I was eating dinner and noticed the lack of handles ... had to get up and double check that they simply weren't visible behind the island stools.  I can kid Charlie about those now !

Of course we do have something like 56 handles ...

We are still missing the four glass doors, two per cabinet, for the corner cabinets.  I'll have to check with Bill but I think that they were still being finished.  The three drawer fronts that were late-ordered are outstanding as well. 

Charlie did many cleanup items yesterday while I did my own.  There's not much left on the punch list.  We now have under cabinet lighting too !  I did that early, before breakfast.  It was a slow process wiring and mounting all those lights but it eliminated the wires sticking out from the walls.  I now have to either rip some small pieces of wood and create little channels to cover/protect those exposed wires on the undersides of the cabinets or buy some appropriate conduit.  I saw something at Lowes that would work, the type of channel that you can use to cover exposed wiring.  I'll ponder this one before moving forward.

I also finished up with door trim except that this trim hasn't been caulked or second-coated yet.  I'll likely do that today.  I will also start doing baseboard today, after I paint the four 16' pieces.

Today is supposed to be G-Day !  Granite !  Of course, once that's done, it's P-Day for me -- plumbing, of course.  Faucets should be trivial, since all that plumbing is in place.  Drains will be another thing altogether.

I rode yesterday ... north yet again.  It was somewhat windy but not as windy as it's supposed to be today at 20+ mph.

It was an interesting ride ... 20 miles north, before Granada, I went over something that almost cut my tire in half.  Of course I had neither a spare tire nor tire boots.  Great.  "I'm done", I thought.  The rip/hole was large enough for me to poke my pinky through !

Well, I thought, let's see what a gel wrapper will do ... so I ate one, folded it in half and mounted the tire/tube with that in place.  I pumped up the tire to what I would guess is about 60 psi -- something that I could only consider with 28's, to see how much it bulged at that point.  There was a little bulge.  I could feel the sticky gel.  Of course the triangular tire flap was sticking out.  Forward or backward ... let's go forward and see how it holds.  I fully expect that I'd be calling Sandy whichever direction I rode.

Ride a couple of miles, check tire -- no change.  Ride past the only bike store -- should I buy a tire ?  Then what will I do with that tire ?  Ride a couple more, check tire -- still no change.   Keep going.

The tire was soft -- I could feel it squiggle.  All I could think of was how far I'd get with my other two tubes before having to call Sandy ... but guess what ?  ... I got through the ride just like that.  Gels are amazing !

Luckily the cut was on the sidewall.  On the tread, that exposed gel wrapper wouldn't have lasted very long.  With more pressure, it would have blown out the side, but not at 60 psi.  One of my tire boots would have done a better job.  Of course having a spare tire would have been even better !  I did get through the ride though.

Here's the thing -- before heading out, I mounted my seatpost rack and unloaded my seat wedgie into the small rack-pack.  I had plenty of room for a spare tire, boots etc. but didn't do anything about it.  The reason that I used the seatpost rack is that I fully expected to get rained on or at least would encounter wet roads.  The seatpost rack with pack keeps my butt dry and keeps road dirt from riding up my back.  Keeping that dirt off is more than vanity since it can easily stain a jersey. 

Here's the other thing -- that Continental 4-Season tire was almost new.  They're expensive and can be cut to shreds in a heartbeat.  Hey -- perhaps I can add a tire boot and JB Weld that patch into place ?  No, that's carrying it too far ...

Onward ... it should be an interesting day.