Post 12

     I made an apple pie. I forgot our oven doesn't work well though so the apple pie's crust was undercooked. It tasted okay, but I was pretty disappointed. It took forever too, I decided I was finished around 1:30am, I started around 10:00 pm. Once the oven gets fixed I will redeem myself. Don't have any pictures because it's already been eaten. 

I really like this picture

  I rode down to the river trails on the west side of the bridge. Since it was a warm day, I thought the normal river trails would be too crowded. These trails are less traveled, and therefore narrower with more obstacles, really a terrible place for a track bike with toe overlap, but tons of fun regardless. It was a shorter ride than I would've liked but whatever, I can always go back.

    As for animals, I didn't see much besides some dark eyed juncos, a hawk or two, and maybe a blue jay. The dark eyed juncos are really common now, but in a few weeks they'll move away, to make room for spring and summer residents. 

 There was a group of gravel freds on their way in as I was on my way out, in their spandex and abhorrently expensive bicycles. They looked like they were having a good time though, so I'm happy for them.

    Before that a freight train was moving by, a booming, metallic, greasy wyrm. When a train goes by, attention will not be bestowed anywhere else. The earth shakes. Hearts rattle in their cages. The iron beast booms on, to traverse the stark drabness of America's winter plains.

Maybe a C45ACCTE

    Also on that ride I got a scratch on my fork. No worries, my good buddy Sally Hansen helped me “fix” it. I would have used black but I only own one bottle of nail polish and it’s Royal Rage. 

    I could take it off and replace it with black, but the Royal Rage spots are charming in their ugliness.

 Fortunately, my frame isn’t painted. It’s powder coated. Powder coating is different in lots of ways from paint that you can Google if you care about. The important thing is that it’s thicker and more durable than paint, and is almost never used in mass-produced bikes. The fork is a mass produced fork from Surly, and is painted.

    Three years ago, during the "extended spring break" I rode down to the same area and saw a group of coyotes hanging out & running around. Every time I go back I hope I might see some again, but there aren't any. I think going in the morning is the key, I was out at 8:30am or so that first time. 

   So that brings us to today. Today in some mad haze of creativity and tinkerer's restlessness I chopped about 50mm off my seatpost. I thought "Oh, it'll be lighter and it will fit better." But once the action was complete and the haze lifted I realized I'd mutilated a perfectly good seatpost.

    I felt a little ashamed, and sauntered over to go install it anyway, when I realized my initial predictions were true! It was lighter (of course), and it fit better. It wasn't even all that short anyway, 250mm is a standard for seatpost length and my newly cut seatpost was ~260mm. So I'm actually pretty happy. I won't be able to sell anyone the seatpost, but that's alright.