Mar 4 - nav vs reality

I uploaded my ride to Bev's, curious to see where I'd gone wrong in following the GPS. There's one place on a small street in the subdivision north of them where I'd turned left, gone two blocks eastward to a straight-forward dead end, turned right (south) for another two blocks, and then right again (west) back to the road that I'd been on, turning left to go south. I knew the general area from looking at the map online and knew that If I headed south for a few more blocks I would hit Barber, could then head east and then north to their place.

Well ... interestingly enough, where I turned two blocks east, on the map data the road crosses the little canal that in actual fact made for a dead end. Perhaps the city planners had intended that the road would cross the canal ... but since I didn't want to get wet I had to go around. The NAV data, on the other hand, has the original intent (or it's just plain wrong)! I'm opting for the latter ... just plain wrong. Up north, Osprey road is on the other side of the lake after the bridge as you're heading west .... not.

Oh well, it keeps life interesting. The only thing is, of course, that on a bike slight differences like that can throw you way off in terms of time.

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It's morning again. We heard from Jeffrey that everything is falling into place for their house purchase. Their closing date is March 26th. A first house is a big deal ! It's new construction, which always has the risk of delays, but so far everything looks good. They have given notice to their current rental for the end of March so they will have a few days to move.

Stef is playing musical dishwashers. The dishwasher that came with their house has been giving them trouble -- noisy, not cleaning dishes, that sort of thing. They decided to replace it with a Bosch model, finding what they want at Sears for a good price. We have two identical Bosch dishwashers -- one north and one south. Stef also had a Bosch in Exton PA. Like mother, like daughter ? Perhaps.

The dishwasher was delivered and they were reading the instructions and it has an eco-wash instead of quick-wash. I think that it's the same thing, i.e. the amount of time that it takes varies depending on the soil level and temperature of the water, but runs under 40 minutes. Each time you turn it on the predicted time on the display is the time that it took the last time.

Down here our dishwasher typically displays 38 minutes to start; up north 53 minutes. Why the difference ? Well, it's because of the incoming water temperature. Up north we have the on-demand water heater and the dishwasher incoming water flow is not large enough to trigger the water heater so it gets cold water. The dishwasher then has to heat the water ... electrically ... adding the extra time.

Anyway, back to Stef's story -- she searched on the internet (as did Sandy) and called Sears, called Bosch, but no-one can tell her how long the "eco-wash" will run. She wants a short cycle. She's getting answers that range from the 30's up to 90 minutes, with nothing conclusive. Sears will charge her a 20% restocking fee if the dishwasher has already been installed. My advice was to simply hook it up electrically and turn it on and see what it displays, but she's worried that uncrating it will then trigger the 20% restocking fee. I think that she could probably bully Sears ... but who knows.

Interestingly enough, when they bought it from Sears they jumped to price-match with someone else. That's new for Sears -- price matching that is -- a reflection of the times I guess. So -- they found the next model up and have bought that from a Canadian chain -- The Brick -- and are having Sears take back their model. I don't know if it's been delivered yet but that should not take too long and dishwasher installation is pretty quick when you're simply replacing one.

Meanwhile, down south, I'm getting anxious to build up this new bike. I have everything except the fork and need to get the headset installed in the frame. It takes a special tool to press the headset cups and bearings into the top and bottom of the head tube -- that's the short tube at the front of the bike frame that the steerer goes through, for those not familiar with bike terminology. Not only is there a special press, but there are special adapters for this brand of headset -- the bearings are already pressed into the cups and you have to ensure that no pressure is put on the bearings. Aaron has both parts and it doesn't make sense for me to spend $140 or so for this "one time" thing. One option is for me to find a local bike shop with the requisite tools and have them do the job, which only takes a few minutes.

So ... I start searching the internet and find that one person has done the job with a piece of threaded rod and appropriately sized fender washers. Hmmm. Should I take this risk ? The risk is probably more to the headset than the frame, with a titanium frame. The headset is not quite as expensive as the tools to install it ... hmmm.

You can tell where this is going. I went over to Ace Hardware to find the appropriate parts with one of the bearing cups in my pocket. I purchased some 7/16" threaded rod and two different sizes of fender washers along with some nuts. I then had to file the inside of the smaller fender washers so that they would fit over the 7/16 rod because they were too snug a fit. The smaller washers fit up inside the bearings to keep it center-aligned on the rod and the wider washers press on the tops of the cups to press into the frame.

It worked ! For $10 my home-made headset press did the job. The major difference between this approach and using the sanctioned tool is the amount of sweat involved. No, the sweat isn't because it's more difficult ... the sweat is a function of the worry that I might screw it up (no pun intended) -- damaging something. I did the installation in two parts -- bottom first and then top. If I had to do it again I would pick up some more washers that are the same width as the cups themselves and fit snug inside the frame so that when pressing the first cup in it's easier to keep the other end of the affair centered.

Having done that job, I then attached as many of the other parts to the frame as I could. That includes -- rear brakes, rear derailleur, bottom bracket (bearings that support the crankset), crankset and front derailleur. I also installed the seatpost and saddle. It looks forlorn without a fork, standing there on my bike stand. I went online and found that the fork is now in stock and called Performance who assured me that the replacement fork would be shipped yesterday. I'll call them today and double check ... I don't trust them to turn this around that quickly. They did have a record of the return -- UPS tells me that it arrived at their location last Friday ... but their online record did not have a note that a replacement was due. They are pretty good about these things but it pays to follow-up.

Being a nice sunny day, Sandy and I both did washing. I always wash my biking clothes -- put in machine, select delicate, put in soap, turn on -- and Sandy usually hangs them out on the line to dry. She also did sheets etc. from Marda's visit -- speaking of Marda, she got home around 11am yesterday.

We had invited Angelika down and she was thinking about coming sometime in April but she must have gotten itchy because she booked a trip down for next week ! Abby is so excited ! She gets bored with just the two of us. Hopefully the weather will cooperate. I've updated the blog schedule accordingly, also noting that Carol & Allister will be here at the end of March -- exact date to be determined. Sandy's sister Sheryl is planning on coming down around the same time for a visit ... and Bev & Bruce will probably come up for dinner ... so we may have a "cousins reunion south" if it all works out. Sheryl and Jimmy just got back from Antigua -- I don't think that Jimmy will come down at the end of the month though.

I guess that's it ... time for breakfast.

Oh -- today -- I'm going to get out for a bike ride early, well sort of early, because we have a 3pm appointment at the yacht club for our "interview". It's not one-on-one, there are likely some other couples being interviewed at the same time. It's not really that formal, as I understand it, just a get-to-know-each-other kind of thing. They want to ensure that we don't have any visible leprosy I guess ! It probably means that the background check did not turn up our pending convictions as axe murderers, which would probably be unacceptable, or our history of bilking billions -- which could be acceptable ! I think, based on a conversation with Norm, that after this we get a "temporary" membership card which means that we can use the place. I'll have more information, obviously, later today.

That's really it ...