The Other Don Kelly

Well, the bike parts showed up yesterday afternoon, and I changed out the cassette and the chainring last night. The chain itself had to wait until morning, I was just too tired. (Good decision: the job was a piece of cake once I was fresh and rested.)

Among my Master Mechanic Moments last night:

1. dropping a wrench, reaching down and finding the chain whip I thought I’d lost months ago, just lying there on the floor, and
2. Struggling to get the rear thru-axle back in place, while at the same time looking for a missing spring on the old-style skewer I’d used to help take off the cassette, only to find the spring jammed into and blocking the thru-axle threads. Lord knows how it got there…

Anyway, everything is done except replacing the front tire. If it’s nice tomorrow (fat chance) I might go for a test run on the towpath. We had Iris today, so cello duets got pushed to early afternoon tomorrow; lets hope for a reasonably dry afternoon.

I finally got rid of that cold — it took a week of rest, Advil and Mucinex-D, but it’s in the past now. Unfortunately, pretty much everyone in our extended household is currently still under the weather: Iris is now recovering from an ear infection, Emmi and Kyle are both sick, Anne looked like she was over it but is in the middle of a relapse, and Ben, who visited for just long enough to be exposed to the Whole Sick Crew before flying to LA, came down with it and is probably giving the cold to his girlfriend and her family as we speak. We’ve all been using a lot of tissues lately…

So while I was spending my days in bed I managed to finish the first “Wheel of Time” book. I’m still on the fence, though I have to say I read an 800-page book in about a week, which might be an indicator… I downloaded the second book, but I’m finding it to be much more of a slog, so I’m back to “we’ll see.”

Meantime, I went for a bike ride yesterday, my first in about a week: fifteen miles or so, riding with Anne and Julie to check out a new assisted-living facility for walkability issues — someone in CAT noted/complained that the place was isolated from anything around it. Turns out it’s true, but it also looked to me like the place was purposely designed to discourage non-automotive accessibility. Anyway, it was a nice afternoon on the bike.

The mountain bike is currently out of commission: I found a broken part on the chain, and bought a chain to replace it, as well as a new front tire and handlebar grips. I discovered I also need to replace the cassette and chainring, and am currently waiting for the parts to come in. Soon…

I hope soon — I really want to get up to Jim Thorpe to do some real mountain biking, where I can ride among the mountain laurels if they’re still in bloom. I missed them last year, I mostly missed them the year before, and I fear I’m about to miss them this year as well.

I am currently home sick, with enough downtime that I can actually muster the wherewithal to write something. We’ve been watching Iris a few days a week, which isn’t too strenuous but nothing else gets done when she’s here, so the rest of the week is compressed, etc, etc. Not much to write about lately anyway. No good news anyway — global warming is reaching the “find out” phase here, but that’s just too depressing to write about.

Meantime, I finally picked up the first book of the “Wheel of Time” series, The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan. John R and Matt I are both reading the series, and both recommended it, so I e-borrowed it from the library. It’s fantasy, which is not my thing, I’m having trouble deciding if different aspects of the story are required tropes in the genre, or just plain derivative, and it reads like it was written for children, but I read 600 of almost 800 pages since Friday, so it must have something going for it…

Remembering Sally A: Our friend Sally passed away early this year, and there was a memorial service for her Saturday at the Quaker Meeting house. She was an amazing woman, with a big personality and a sense of humor and a heart to match. There were many people there, friends and relatives, teaching colleagues and people she’d helped over the years, with many stories from her life and travels. It was nice to see how people cared, to bump into old friends and to hear the stories, but it was still a tough day.

Congratulations Holly & Chris! Our niece Holly got married on Sunday down in Glassboro. Rainy day, travel was tough (there & back) but the wedding was fun. Some pictures:

I guess I could have had a lot to say this past month, if I wanted to, but the inspiration didn’t come — I also didn’t want to blog about some things (birthdays, anniversaries) in the moment, as they might turn into a security risk. But now the tales can be told:

• I did another Road Scholar ride, the first of this year, and the second-to-last ever RS bike ride from Shawnee. This was actually one of the better ones.
• Happy Birthday to me! I hit the big Six-Oh this year.
• Happy Anniversary to us! Anne and I celebrated ten years of marriage this month.
• Welcome Home! We just got back from our final big trip out to Denver, where we helped Emmi & Kyle pack and move. Five prep days in Denver, then five days driving back here to their new home. We’re already on babysitter duty…

Now that we’re home, I’m easing my way back into the cello — Iris loves when Anne or I play music, by the way. The Native Paths project continues apace, and I just did a volunteer day (my first in weeks) at the D&L archives. And now I’m blogging again! It’s good to be back.

As a bonus , here’s what I wrote ten years ago, and what I wrote fifteen years ago.