Saturday, May 4, 2013

Not As Planned But A Fine Day Nonetheless

After a night of steady degree above freezing rain, both Peg and I were nervous about her ability to leave this morning for her Cleveland Road Trip (melting snow -> flooded driveway) to bring our youngest home from school.  I went down for a look and all was fine, so my trip to Mpls coffee with the guys was the short trip, her 700mi trek to OH was the long one.  On the phone this afternoon just before leaving IN, she reported one of the faster episodes through Chicago, something we always wish for but don't often receive.

Home after a more brief than normal time at the coffee shop, I was anxious to replace our mailbox that the recent heavy snow's attack on overhead trees smashed our mailbox, the 2nd replacement in a year.  Last fall our box suffered greatly from what was probably a baseball bat, at least this time it was nature's attack.  The box was fixed in time for the mailman's delivery and before lunch, other odds and ends were taken care of.

This afternoon, the Cafe Project bike was pushed back onto the lift and work was commenced to get it put back together only enough to provide a road test to confirm the motor and transmission will not need serious work.  I had started the engine last summer but decided that before I invest any more time and money that I'd like to know that there's a solid enough powertrain to justify any more input on my end.  Hopefully I'll soon have a chance to start it and run it through the gears, though the condition of the bike is far short of being ready for a ride of any real distance.  To make it 'around the block', such as it is, will be all I need to move forward with the project.

Much of our snow left today, though not gone, conditions will be good enough for a ride tomorrow unless something changes.  At 5PM, the water was still running under our slab on the driveway and though that may change by 7 (I'll go see in just a bit), things should be fine by tomorrow for a ride if we do in fact reach the predicted high of almost 70.

Plans are underway for next Saturday night's screening of Girl Meets Bike, a locally produced and shot film.  This will be the 2nd of 3 intended early viewings of the film in Minnesota and a group of us will make it an evening of dinner, the film and ?? in nearby Northfield, MN.  Jesse James once caused a great deal of commotion in Northfield, something the small community celebrates with a festival each year.  Our evening will be much more low-key I suspect though most of us could use a sudden increase in funds, I hope that none of us are quite as desperate as Jesse was.

11 comments:

  1. Don't like the weather - wait 15 minutes and it will change. Glad yours is changing for the good. (How many cm of snow? Followed by 70F! Incredible.)
    Hope Peg and the offspring made it home safe and sound ... and the ride takes place for you tomorrow.

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  2. 31 cm of snow Thursday, another 5 on Fri morning, rain all night. Last Spring, warm and early, an overly dry summer and fall. This Spring, late and wet.....seems we're back to even :)

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  3. I'm still waiting for the latest snow to melt. Today, was the start of fishing season and all the lakes around me are still frozen.

    I just noticed your Ben Tyler quote on the side bar... great movie.

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    1. As a non-fisher, I get very casual about seasons. We stop for gas too many mornings for our commute and since we're so close to the river, we're as likely to see snowmobiles on trailers as fishing boats....in January. The serious guys, and most seem to be, fish all year long around here.

      I knew nothing of the movie until I had my Kindle and as a Prime (the only thing in the world I'm Prime at) customer, it was a film available free to me. I enjoyed it and thought the quote was fun.

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    2. And speaking of Kindle Prime, tonight I'll be watching another couple of Campion's, a series we saw years ago on PBS. Peg and I have one more episode of The Last Enemy to watch....I promised I'd wait for her return.

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  4. Ow. On those tummy tattoos.

    Sounds like you had a good day! We should have a warm week. I hope you continue your 70s.

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    1. Double ow if you ask me.

      Thanks Martha, I'd be happy if we can continue 50's at this point, but hoping for more.

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  5. You seem to be having the never ending winter. We are at summer temps right now and I hope that this doesn't mean we are getting it all now and none during the actual summer. It has been a glorious weekend here and I have been out riding for most of it. I hope you don't get too much flooding and that it warms up nicely for you.

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    1. Dar, I don't think it's a zero sum game; sure hope not. Looks like and sounds like you are making the most of the weather, good for you.

      The flooding has been very minimal now, seems to finally be soaking in and accomplishing something for us here 'up river'. We've sent a lot of it south already.

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  6. Good luck on the cafe racer project, I hope the bike will come to life soon.
    Please let us know how the screening went, I am sure some of us ladies will have had similar experiences.

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  7. Thanks Sonja, as a rule, I avoid summer bike wrenching, instead trying to deal with most of it when it IS nice to be inside. I imagine myself out there getting dirty on rainy weekends, when nothing else is planned :)

    We are looking forward to the film, in part due to the fact that we know the area so well.

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