Mar 1 - yes there's more

You didn't really think that I was going to stop after a one-liner. Does it qualify as a short blog if I continue the day's blog in another entry ? I am publishing this on a different day ...

Anyway, it eventually rained yesterday and then later on the sun came out. Before the rain it was cloudy, warm and humid; after the rain it was sunny and cool. It's morning again and the temperature is 43F according to our indoor/outdoor thermometer.

The "significant" task from yesterday, which I undertook after the rain, was repacking the trailer wheel bearings. All was well -- no water; no rust; clean bearings. Grease is always dirty though and dirty work. I reinstalled the existing hub covers but there was a part missing from the one after it was popped off by that jerk ... so I decided to go to West Marine in Port Orange to pick up another pair. I ended up purchasing some stainless steel covers like the ones on the Boston Whaler trailer which themselves have soft plastic covers to go over the grease nipple.

The hubs that I have on the trailer are the ones that I purchased last year. They have a grease fitting on the back of the hub as well. I have three grease guns -- two with fixed pipes and one with a flexible hose. Of course the flexible hose is up north ... the fixed pipes are really tough to use to get at the grease fitting on the back. The job was done ... but while at West Marine I picked up a 12" grease gun hose. Once back home, I installed the stainless steel hub covers. They were tough to get on -- they are a very snug fit, needing to be pounded on with a hammer and wooden block. One of the hubs was just a hair out of round and I had a devil of a time getting the cover to go in straight. I managed eventually though and greased them up.

I'll have to check the bearings again before heading north but based on this "look see" I'll do so simply by opening the end of the cap (removing the spring-loaded cover) and pumping grease through from the back-side. If it all comes out clean with no water, then I'm good to go ... otherwise I have to remove those stainless covers, probably ruining them in the process, and replace the bearings and races. I have a spare set of bearings that I bought last year just in case I need them and should probably pick up a spare set of cheap aluminum hub grease covers which are easy to pop on and off and would do the trick for highway driving. I don't know if I could re-install those stainless steel covers after removing them ... hypothetically yes ... but not sure.

In the meantime, Sandy and Marda were off chasing wild geese. They didn't catch any. They had lunch at The Breakers, I think it's called, both downing one of those half-pound burgers. The last time that I did that I felt ill and stuffed for 24 hours ... even though they taste great going down. After that they went over to Petman in Port Orange to pick up dog food for Abby. She eats a half & half blend of California Natural Chicken & Rice and Innova chicken/turkey whatever in a green bag. I have not told Abby yet, but she's now down to just over a 1/2 cup of food left in her container -- enough for dinner tonight and then she's on bread and water.

Petman, under renovation due to a fire as we found out later, sent her off to a couple of places that were supposed to carry the food. Sandy would have been better to call me first so that I could look them up and place some calls, but in actual fact she and Marda were just as happy to tour around. It was too cool to walk the beach or any such activity so they made the rounds, going into Daytona to check a pet store there as well as a couple of other places. Anyway, once we hooked up, I checked the internet to see who were retailers of these foods and found a few places in the area, which either were not open on Sunday or didn't have the food in stock.

Hopefully, though, this story will end well. Sandy and Marda just left for the Orlando airport. No, Sandy is not flying somewhere to get food for Abby ... Marda is flying back to Philadelphia ... into the teeth of a winter snowstorm I might add. I called around yesterday and found a supplier of the pet food in Orlando so Sandy will be stopping there. The moral of this story is -- don't let the food run so low. These retailers get some of this food in on demand, not stocking it all the time. The local Petman will be open later in March and has been our supplier, but any of a dozen other places can get the food if you all them and give them a few days notice.

We'll need another couple of bags before we head north. The two bags that Sandy picks up today would not last all summer. Apparently the food can be purchased in Canada as well, we've just never done so. Also, the formulations might be different and there's no point in messing up her diet.

Yesterday must have been "family day" -- I exchanged emails with Philip, which doesn't happen too often. All's well there -- we were discussing music. I exchanged emails and talked to Arlene, who is still having a problem with a computer. She's going to ship it to me and I'll see if I can get it going. If not, it won't make the trip back ! Sandy talked to, and I exchanged emails with, Stef, who is pleased with the work done on the kitchen by Aaron but has some questions about her new dishwasher that she's going to pester Bosch about today. I think that they've just changed some of the labeling -- "quick wash" that we have to "eco wash" on her model. From the sounds of things, they operate the same, varying the wash time depending on the soil level and temperature of the incoming water.

The sun is out. I intend to go out for a ride. The wind is from the north, so I'll be heading in that direction. There wasn't much biker traffic yesterday, hopefully an indication that the bikers were paying attention to the weather forecast and had stayed put for the day vs riding in the rain. Today would be cool on the bikes, but I'll be passing by the big events and will get a sense of the total biker turnout. There may very well be some impact from the economy ... don't know. Last year's traffic did not seem as high as the year before and this year may see a significant drop again. That's just gut sense though.

Tomorrow I have another ride, this time down to Bev's and over 100 miles. Wednesday will be an off day, Thurday on for a shorter, perhaps 50 mile ride and then I have the 400km ride on Saturday. Yikes. Today I'll ride unencumbered again but will reinstall lights and rack etc. for the ride tomorrow, not that I need them for the ride but want to ensure that I'm in shape for Saturday.

Later today I expect to see a bunch of bike parts delivered from Excel Sports -- the component group that I ordered along with the headset. The fork is still showing out of stock at Performance, so I don't expect that I'll have the bike built until late next week at the earliest. I also ordered a saddle, and that should be on the way too. I already have the seatpost and stem.

That's about it ...