MeghanIsMe

We had a few nice days, but now we've got snow again. I hope it's the last snow of the Spring.

I keep my my bike our on the balcony, locked to the railing. When I see the snow on it, I kind of wish I'd brought in in before the snowfall. On the other hand, I've ridden it in worse weather than that. It'll just need a little oil and all should be well.



The wheel is off because I noticed a slight wobble and brought it to a bike shop for truing. I can do a lot of maintenance on bikes, but wheel building is still pretty intimidating to me.

I wasn't sure where to take it. To buy flat repair stuff, I'd gone to a place called Dutch Cycles, which, lacking any better way to decide, I picked because of the name. The sales person I talked to seemed like a typical professional-looking salesy guy, but I wondered if there was any evidence that any particular mechanic around the city might be better than others. I'm being particular about this wheel because I had it custom made with heavy touring stuff and it was pricy.

So I drove out a few days ago to go to a place called Kaz Bike Labs. I tried calling their number first, but the voicemail I got was just some guy. Wrong number maybe? I dunno. So I figured I'd just go there and ask him questions. I got to the address and it was just a house. Well, if he works out of his house, that explains why the website said to make an appointment, but between that and the voice mail I got anxious and tried the next place.

I drove from the north side of Regina to the south side (not really that far) to visit YQR Cycle Repair. YQR Cycle Repair was *also* somebody's house. I don't *think* I had the addresses wrong... Are there a lot of people running businesses out of their house around here? The person I'm seeing for electrolysis works out of her house too.

So I looked at the other option, a place called Western Cycle. I pulled it up on street view and decided not to go there. It's probably not really rational, but something about the shop looking like an Auto Zone made me decide to just drive up to the north side again and go to Dutch Cycles.

I think that turned out to be the best choice. The mechanic on the repair side of things seemed to know what he's talking about, plus he had a certain look. It reminded me of an episode of Car Talk, where someone called to ask a question about a classic Volkswagen Beetle, and Click and Clack asked the guy if his local mechanic had all his teeth. They suggested that if the mechanic had all his teeth, there's a good chance he's not a good Beetle mechanic. I think the bike mechanic I talked to had all his teeth, but he also looked a lot like an older Jerry Garcia, and like someone who has a lot of fun doing what he does. I think these are good signs.

I picked the wheel up today. He pointed out my tire actually has more of a wobble than the rim does and probably has some separated plies. He trued the rim and didn't charge me for it because it was minor. Said it was a "welcome to Regina special."

I'd also asked about ordering replacement spokes for my wheel, just in case I need them at some point. I have extra-heavy duty spokes on that wheel along with the extra-heavy rim. Supply chain disruption is a thing in the bike world too, it seems: the lead time on those spokes is out to August. By then, my parents can probably bring my little box of bike tools and parts, which should have my spokes in it.

I've had an unhappy stomach since yesterday morning. The discomfort has been slowly subsiding today; maybe eating yogurt last night and this morning helped.
I can see a small (from here anyway) bird flying around the middle floors of the Sears Tower from the library window. I love this view.
I hope that an extended period of low stress and relatively good mental state will lead to me feeling more like being social in the future. Starting work here has been good for my head, but I'm still feeling pretty hermity sometimes and often want to just sit at my computer building factories.
I noticed this morning that the front fender on my bike is cracked and dangly. This happened to the last one too, which led me to buy a replacement set. Now I have two perfectly good rear ones, and one cracked front one. Someday, I might get the really nice, full-length $120 aluminum ones I've looked at. For now, I'll see if some plastic epoxy will do the job. There doesn't seem to be a hardware store close enough to get to over lunch, and I don't have the tools to remove it for the ride home. Oh entropy, you make me sad sometimes.

It's Sunday afternoon and back to the horrifying reality of endless lines of angry library patrons!

Actually, I've checked in one book from the overnight drop and put money on a printing card for one patron since getting here an hour ago. Other than that, things are about as relaxed as can be. I've *so* needed a job that doesn't stress me. I feel like I am good at, or will soon be good at, all the tasks involved, and I have time to myself for reading or studying if I start school again.

Getting here on Sunday is a little weird because not all CTA L lines are running. Instead I took Metra to downtown Chicago and biked the two miles to the library. A short ride in the morning and a long one home in the evening make me happy. I'm not even stressed that I'll be home at 10:30 or so and up again at 5 to work opening shift on Monday.

And I read a book over Wednesday and Thursday. I read voraciously most of my life, but I hadn't read a book since leaving grad school. Trying to sit and read gave me anxiety; I felt like I had to tear through it as fast as possible. But on the commute, I was able to relax and read "Freakonomics". I've heard the radio show on the way home from the shelter on Thursdays, and I'd picke dup the book at a thrift store because the interviews and discussions were so interesting.

I liked it a lot. Levitt has some really interesting insights. Of course, it's all quantitative and speculative. Very insightful speculation on quantitative data, but still speculation. I'd like to see some qualitative work based on some of his hypotheses.

Anyway, today I'm staring on Thomas Kuhn's "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions." It's not as popular-audience oriented as "Freakonomics," but it's not a thousand-page door stop either. If the whole book comes down to 'sometimes you break your scientific paradigm and have to build a new one', it at least won't take me more than three or four hours to find out.

My sleeping brain must have been processing the heavy rain outside. I woke from a nightmare about being outside with a group of people when a tornado touched down. I was trying to hide under some concrete steps, but someone brought me into a building. There, another person who had been outside wanted to go out and try to help more people, but we were being convinced to stay in where it was safe. I hugged that person and we both fell into helpless crying. Then I woke up.

I had a nice breakfast of leftover pizza while watching rain come down in Posi's backyard. Then a utility finder came by, spraying paint and flagging something diagonally across the space. I got self-conscious and hid back from the window where he wouldn't see me staring at him, even though I wanted to watch. I felt kind of bad for him, out working in heavy rain like that.

The ride to Grayslake was really nice yesterday. I did almost the whole forty miles without having to check my phone for directions, thus I was a bit faster: just about three hours to Posi's old place. This trip really makes me want to do a long cross-country ride someday. From the dense downtown of Evanston to the open fields near Libertyille to the almost jungle-like forest around the Des Plaines River, it's wonderful seeing the sights.