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#961
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AG: Scraping the notes
At the bottom of the first page of my notes on Tue 4 June 2019: "AG: overtaken stop pedal". At the time, that was enough to remind me of what I meant to write about being overtaken by a larger vehicle, but right now all I can remember is that it's often a good idea to stop pedalling once it's on your left so as to shorten the time spent beside it. There's a lot more to it, but it's pushing bedtime and I'm not very bright. Perhaps I'll open my training diary and transcribe the notes that have been accumulating for a couple of months. At least I've been geting out! The roads were slick the whole winter; writing notes faster than I can process them is a real luxury. Reminds me of the cellphone discussion raging over on bikes.tech -- I write the time at every stop, except when I forget, so I consult my cellphone frequently on every ride. Writing the time was originally part of a scheme to get my top speed above five miles per hour, but I haven't had time to calculate my speeds recently. I also use the phone to reassure my spouse that I'm not lying in a ditch waiting for a road crew to notice my red scarf and tell their dispatcher to call for an ambulance. I think maybe the scar is less lumpy than it was before I started rubbing Vitamin-E oil on it. Pity I didn't take a close-up photograph before I started. (People in cars couldn't see into the ditch. The guys in the high truck could.) -- Joy Beeson joy beeson at comcast dot net http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/ |
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#962
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AG: Communication is everything
Communication is almost all there is to safety on the road, and it isn't all communication with other humans. Today I slogged up a hill because two large dogs were frolicking on a lawn to my left. If I had shifted down, my feet would have begun to move faster. To a dog, breaking into a run is an unequivocal announcement that you are up to no good, and must be chased and harried until you are well away from its territory. -- Joy Beeson joy beeson at comcast dot net http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/ |
#963
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AG: Scraping the notes
Here's a note scraped in a more-timely fashion. Yesterday I rode an honest quarter century, and with some modest hills (Though I went around hills whenever possible). Before heading out into the country, I spent a couple of hours walking around in Meijer, and just before *that*, I took a quick lap around the Goodwill store (charity second-hand shop). Something yellow caught my eye on the men's shirts rack, and I found an honest-to-goodness oval-cut jersey! Too transparent, and made entirely of plastic, not to mention that oval cut is really silly for someone who actually *uses* the pockets, so I wasn't tempted to try it on. I wonder how many of the people who see it have a clue as to what it is? I also wonder whether "oval cut" is still the trade term for making a jersey longer in the back for coverage when you get down on the drops? Oval cut makes a lot of sense for track jerseys, but I carry up to a pound of coins in my wallet, so my jerseys are cut *shorter* in back than in front. Well, not cut; I put darts across the back. Except for the woven jersies, which have a drawstring around the waist. I'm thinking of retrofitting the knit-fabric jerseys with belt casings and taking out a dart or two. I tried belt loops on the older of the cotton jerseys, and they work, but a casing across the back would work better. -- Joy Beeson joy beeson at comcast dot net http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/ |
#964
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AG: My first batch of switchel
"My first" makes me think of George and her first mouse. She lost it in her own belly fur and frantically frisked herself. Friday, 21 June 2019 It's been months or years since I had leg cramps, but I woke up from my nap after today's ride with a doozy. I started to throw one leg out of bed, the calf cramped up, I grabbed my foot to stretch the gastrocnemius, that touched the other leg off, and things went back and forth for a while. I even got cramps in the thighs. It stopped when I finally managed to stand up. So I opened a can of tonic, added a generous squirt of lime juice, and reflected that I've thrown sweat-soaked clothing into the washer after every ride of late -- it must be time to start making switchel. Traditionally, switchel is diluted molasses, often tarted up with vinegar and ginger. In New England, they added oatmeal. Some day I'm actually going to put in molasses. I'm pretty sure there is half a bottle of it in the freezer. So far I have in the saucepan: A quarter cup of the syrup off bread-and-butter pickles. A stalk of rubarb, sliced thin. One cup of water. A tablespoon of frozen cranberries for color (the rhubarb is green). A tablespoon of dried ginger -- the store where I bought fresh ginger last year is no more (whimper). A quarter cup of steel-cut oats. I went to the freezer for brown rice, saw the oats, and decided to go traditional. I think half a teaspoon of Lite Salt (equal parts of potassium chloride and sodium chloride) will finish it. The package says that the oats will soak up most of the cup of water. The cranberries will also soak up some. (I'd like to know how juice-drink manufacturers manage to get "juice" from cranberries. Surely it's a water extract!) The rhubarb should cook out some juice, but last time I boiled some, it didn't. I have saved a 24-oz honey bottle to carry switchel concentrate in. Honey weighs twelve pounds to the gallon. Water weighs eight pounds to the gallon. Two thirds of twenty-four is sixteen. That bottle doesn't *look* like a pint. I added one cup of water. That should make half a bottle. I'll probably add some honey while it's hot enough to dissolve it, and if the rubarb isn't sour enough, a squirt of lemon or lime. The residue in the strainer, with butter and maple syrup, will be my bedtime snack. -------------------- It made eleven ounces of concentrate. I added enough honey to make it twelve. The porridge required neither butter nor sweetener. The cranberries imparted no color at all, but looked nice in my porridge. -------------------- Saturday, 22 June 2019 It farmers' markets day! /stan frieberg I poured the switchel concentrate into the honey bottle, then rinsed the measuring jar it had cooled in with a cup of water and poured it into my translucent water bottle twice. Then I added enough concentrate to impart a slightly-starchy flavor and put the concentrate in the fridge. (I was planning to get home pretty soon after finishing the first bottle, and there are few places to get more water on the farmers' markets loop. Also, the room-temperature concentrate would have melted my ice.) There wasn't the slightest trace of sour, so I added a few hearty squirts of an inferior lime juice that I bought yesterday. It's "from concentrate" but I don't think they used much concentrate; one has to come pretty close to drinking it straight to detect any lime flavor, when it's tasted straight, the bitter conceals the sour. At least having to put in lots each time means that the 4.6 fl oz/133 ml bottle won't last very long. Then I can buy better juice in a less-expensive store. I filled the bottle with ice cubes, which were pretty much melted by the time I ate breakfast and got dressed, and put it in the cage. A little starch in the water gets it out of the stomach faster, and a little tartness in the water gets it into the mouth faster. I had only half a bottle of water left when I got home about two hours after I left. I topped the half-full bottle off and left the empty bottle on the counter before I went back to pick up lunch for two. I thought that I might want the empty cage for the drink that comes with the special, but I put it into my insulated pannier before bungeeing the foam box of sandwich on top. It's been years since Sweet Dreams switched from giving you the drink in a cup to letting you select from a display of bottles and cans, but old habits die hard. Also, they might switch back without warning. It was a pretty good sandwich. We saved the can of fizzwater for later, as I'd hit some bumps on the way home. -- Joy Beeson joy beeson at comcast dot net http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/ |
#965
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AG: My first batch of switchel
Wednesday, 26 June 2019 The weather allowed an all-day ride today. As I was packing a pint bottle with eight ounces of concentrate in it, planning to use two ounces, I reflected that I need to find a smaller honey bottle. It turned out that the concentrate was weaker than I'd thought, and I refilled more often than I expected, so I killed the batch. I'd still like an eight-ounce honey bottle. I checked at Aldi on my last stop; they do have twelve-ounce bottles of honey, but they are shaped like bears. Won't do at all. The switchel worked quite well, and I felt good all the way. I planned twenty-one miles, but made a couple of wrong turns that brought it to at least 23.4. One of the wrong turns re-aquainted me with 8-Square Road. It's a pity that it's impossible to find information about road names with search engines. I did finally find out that Silveus Crossing goes through land once owned by someone named Silveus -- but the story about it being a bridge over the Tippy isn't compatible with the name "Silveus Crossing" ending nearly a mile north of the Tippy. Thought it was farther than that. The Tippy slants a lot through here. (Not to mention the usual meanders.) Thursday, 27 June 2019 The Goodwill store is about five miles from here. While I was getting ready to leave Goodwill for Walmart, where I intended to eat a pizza and change into cycling shoes for serious riding, another customer remarked that she's seen me at the teller machine in Winona Lake. "My, you've come a long way!" I smiled and agreed. On the way to Goodwill, I saw a hollyhock in full bloom beside the Beyer Farm Trail. Hollyhocks look much prettier among weeds than in gardens. I have a quarter cup of rice soaking in a cup of water, together with a half dozen crumbs of achiote and a few mustard seeds. Tonight I'll add a half pint of PBL's bread-and-butter syrup, two stalks of rhubarb, ginger, and another cup of water. I've remembered that when I carried concentrate in salad-dressing cups, it was fresh-squeezed lemon juice frozen with equal parts of honey -- and almost impossible to scrape out of the cup into the bottle. I remember leaving a cup in the sun while I went into a store, hoping that the honey would thin. -- joy beeson at comcast dot net http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/ The above message is a Usenet post. I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site. |
#966
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AG: My first batch of switchel
On Thu, 27 Jun 2019 14:27:32 -0400, Joy Beeson
wrote: another customer remarked that she's seen me at the teller machine uh, " she'*d* seen me". The porridge strained out of tonight's switchel concentrate was terrible. A jalapen~o seems to have gotten in somehow, and I couldn't taste the ginger. There's less than half a pint of concentrate. I'll probably thin it with orange juice to make sixteen ounces. Not soon, since festivities are approaching. I rode two miles to Kroger today, to pick up butter for the cheese dip. -- joy beeson at comcast dot net http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/ The above message is a Usenet post. I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site. |
#967
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AG: My first batch of switchel
I just remembered that boiling vinegar with the starch is for when I use flour, not for starch that I strain out. I distinctly remember writing down the recipe, but I've forgotten which diary it was in. My training log is the only logical one, but it's not there. I'll try a fluid ounce of flour in a British pint of water. PBL's bread-and-butter syrup: Fix enough vinegar and sugar equal parts to cover — approximately a cup and a half of each. Add celery seed, mustard seed, curry powder, turmeric, bay leaf, a snort (1/10 tsp) of cayenne pepper or a fresh red pepper (hot). -- joy beeson at comcast dot net http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/ The above message is a Usenet post. I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site. |
#968
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AG: My first batch of switchel
On Sun, 30 Jun 2019 00:25:30 -0400, Joy Beeson
wrote: I just remembered that boiling vinegar with the starch is for when I use flour, not for starch that I strain out. I distinctly remember writing down the recipe, but I've forgotten which diary it was in. My training log is the only logical one, but it's not there. I'll try a fluid ounce of flour in a British pint of water. PBL's bread-and-butter syrup: Fix enough vinegar and sugar equal parts to cover — approximately a cup and a half of each. Add celery seed, mustard seed, curry powder, turmeric, bay leaf, a snort (1/10 tsp) of cayenne pepper or a fresh red pepper (hot). When I was a little kid my maternal grandmother used to make a drink from vinegar, honey and water. I can't for the life of me remember what she called it but any time any of the grand kids showed up she'd make up a batch, put it in the "ice box", and we could drink all we wanted :-) -- cheers, John B. |
#969
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AG: My first batch of switchel
On Sun, 30 Jun 2019 13:35:58 +0700, John B.
wrote: When I was a little kid my maternal grandmother used to make a drink from vinegar, honey and water. I can't for the life of me remember what she called it but any time any of the grand kids showed up she'd make up a batch, put it in the "ice box", and we could drink all we wanted :-) My maternal grandmother had a real ice box in her summer cabin. She had a fridge in the main house, and a pump on the back porch. I don't know what cooler she had in the trailer, but it had a water tank for when you weren't hooked up. Our trailer had a refrigerator that could be operated as an ice box when you couldn't plug in. (You could still buy a fifty-pound block of ice almost anywhere back then.) There was no provision for water on the road. The fridge was easy to defrost: just turn it off until the frost fell onto the ice shelf, then clean it and turn it back on. When we were plugged in (which was all of the school year) we kept a gallon of milk in the ice compartment. I don't recall any special beverage at Grandma's except the water in the bucket. My mother diluted and sweetened rhubarb juice in hot weather. I like a bit of raw rhubarb ground up in a glass of ice water. -- joy beeson at comcast dot net http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/ The above message is a Usenet post. I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site. |
#970
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AG: My first batch of switchel
On Mon, 01 Jul 2019 00:20:45 -0400, Joy Beeson
wrote: On Sun, 30 Jun 2019 13:35:58 +0700, John B. wrote: When I was a little kid my maternal grandmother used to make a drink from vinegar, honey and water. I can't for the life of me remember what she called it but any time any of the grand kids showed up she'd make up a batch, put it in the "ice box", and we could drink all we wanted :-) My maternal grandmother had a real ice box in her summer cabin. She had a fridge in the main house, and a pump on the back porch. I don't know what cooler she had in the trailer, but it had a water tank for when you weren't hooked up. Just the opposite for me as my mother's mother had a "Frigidaire" refrigerator with the cooling coils mounted on the top of the box, while my paternal grandmother had an "icebox" It set on the side porch and the Iceman came around every few days with a new block of ice. When I was growing up most people referred to a refrigerator as an "ice box" probably because there were so many actual ice boxes in use. The "Ice Man" was still delivering ice when I was in grade school. Both of my grandmothers had a wood stove for cooking and I can remember them using wood for fuel, both in the cook stove and in the stove in the "Front Room". In later years my father's mother had her wood stove converted to burn kerosene, but my mother's mother cooked on wood until she died. I remember my mother and her three sisters once trying to tell "Mother" that she ought to get a gas stove, it must have been thanksgiving as the whole clan was at "Grampa's" house, and I remember my grandmother telling her daughters that "she'd been cooking on that stove since she was married and it still worked just fine". But I also remember that in later years she had a kerosene stove on the back porch for summer. Our trailer had a refrigerator that could be operated as an ice box when you couldn't plug in. (You could still buy a fifty-pound block of ice almost anywhere back then.) There was no provision for water on the road. The fridge was easy to defrost: just turn it off until the frost fell onto the ice shelf, then clean it and turn it back on. When we were plugged in (which was all of the school year) we kept a gallon of milk in the ice compartment. I don't recall any special beverage at Grandma's except the water in the bucket. My mother diluted and sweetened rhubarb juice in hot weather. I like a bit of raw rhubarb ground up in a glass of ice water. -- cheers, John B. |
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