Remembering how to tie my shoes, going back for a do-rag

Ordinarily, riding to the farmers' market on Saturday isn't much news,
but my last such trip was on the second of May, a few days before a
masked man sliced up my nose. (And two days after that, he sliced a
piece off my chin to patch it with.)

Last Wednesday, I got leave to resume normal activities, and soon
after that I took the potatoes out of my pannier and put them into the
vegetable bin. It's getting too warm to keep veggies in the garage
anyway.

I discovered, once at the market, that when cleaning out the panniers
I'd overlooked canned cat food and a poop scoop that I'll someday drop
off at the Animal Welfare league. (My next-to-the-last ride had been
to AWL; I can leave old towels etc. on their front walk without
speaking to anybody.)

I put on house pants and my second-best jersey in case I needed to
undress into the washing machine. I settled for leaving the jersey on
a hook in the garage to keep it from snuggling up to the clothes in
the closet. The house pants are in the laundry room, but that's
because I spilled soup on them at suppertime.

I'd put on sunscreen when first arising, in the hope that it would be
dried enough that it wouldn't prevent band-aids from sticking when it
was time to leave. I can wear a mask or a niqab when carrying out the
garbage, walking to church, or riding the flatfoot, but I have to wear
bandages when I ride the Fuji. Special clothing *does* inhibit
riding!

During the ban, I'd retrofitted my new cycling sandals for summer wear
by adding thick insoles. I put them on, reflecting that, unlike my
walking/driving sandals, I didn't need to worry about my heel slipping
off the back. I remembered that cycling sandals have to be tied
assymetrically, then looked at them baffled. The outside laces were
so long that I was more likely than not to step on them. Then I
remembered that I tie *these* sandals symmetrically, shorten the free
ends by lengthening the loops, then tie the loops together in an
overhand knot that makes the bow knot into a short Macramé chain.

The seasons had changed during my confinement; I picked up my helmet,
then went back into the house to dig a do-rag out of winter storage.
I'd still been wearing scarves when strenuous activity was banned. I
should have hunted out summer gloves too, but I wore the plastic ones,
then dropped them into the laundry on my return. I didn't hunt out
summer gloves until evening. I find that I have a nice new pair and a
shabby mended pair.

At last, ready to go . . . Umm, I can dent my front tire with my
thumb. The back tire felt hard, but was down to around forty pounds.

Legs aren't the only body part that goes soft during a layoff. It
took a *lot* of very hard pushes to inflate those tires. Hurt a bit,
but I didn't notice being sore while riding, and my arms don't hurt
any more than usual now.

After all this, (and a cooked breakfast), I still managed to get to
the market over an hour before time for them to close. Forgot to note
various times in my notebook. Started to write down the departure
time, looked up the date, wrote it down, put the notebook back into my
pocket. I did write the time I left the market, after buying some
daikon that tastes like wasabi.

On the way back, I stopped at the outdoor plant display at Sherman &
Lin's. They didn't have any herbs I don't already have execept for
tarragon, and I don't *like* tarragon. Which is just as well, because
you have to go in to pay, and someone who keeps a bag packed with
books, a water bottle, food bars, and other things that might be
needed when parked in front of the emergency room does *not* go inside
stores.

Sent unedited.

--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/

On Sat, 20 Jun 2020 21:43:48 -0400, Joy Beeson
wrote:

I'd overlooked canned cat food and a poop scoop that I'll someday drop
off at the Animal Welfare league.

Monday, 29 June 2020

Someday is tomorrow!


Tuesday, 30 June 2020

I learned why I wear special bike knickers.

I'd made a couple of short rides in my grubbies, in case I had to
undress into the washing machine, and thought that I could wear
calf-length house pants on the bike all the time. They aren't
reinforced in the seat, but hey, they are cheap (never mind that each
pair represents a few hundred trips to the store; non-plastic clothing
is *really* hard to find) (And never mind that I can't go into stores
now. Which is a real pain because my default walking sandals broke a
vital strap.)

Today, I learned that when I'm sweating buckets, trousers stick to my
knees. My knickers have elastic that holds a billow of fabric over
the knee and prevents rubbing.

I also sweated my bandaids off, but I didn't find that out until I
peeled them off on purpose. The dressings were sopping wet; I don't
know where that fits on the "no sun, no wind" order.

Needless to say, I discarded my plans to come back by way of Wooster,
and came back exactly the way I went, save for coming down Ninth
Street instead of Chestnut. Ninth is too steep to climb (though I
could do it in 2001) and Chestnut is lined with parked cars on the
side that's on the right when coming down. And not all that wide.


I couldn't get all the cans into the bag, and I entirely forgot the
old bath mats, so I can try again when I'm dressed for the weather.

But not this week.

--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/

On 7/1/2020 12:18 AM, Joy Beeson wrote:

I'd made a couple of short rides in my grubbies, in case I had to
undress into the washing machine, and thought that I could wear
calf-length house pants on the bike all the time. They aren't
reinforced in the seat, but hey, they are cheap (never mind that each
pair represents a few hundred trips to the store; non-plastic clothing
is *really* hard to find)

You know MUCH more than I do about clothes, so I hesitate to post a tip.
But I'll do it anyway.

About hard-to-find clothes: Last year I needed to replace a couple of
cotton seersucker casual shirts. I like that fabric for summer's heat
and humidity.

I seldom even consider buying clothes online, but then I thought about
Kohl's online. Turned out they had a large inventory including my
acceptable shirts, I could order and pay online, then pick up at the
store which is not far away.

Best of all, in my book, I figured I could try the shirts on in the
store before I even walked out the door; so if they didn't fit, the
return would be postage free and instantaneous.

When I picked them up, I asked if I could try them on. The clerk said
"Honey, they're yours! You can do anything you want!"

And they did fit. Heck, I'd be tempted to buy shoes that way!

--
- Frank Krygowski

On 7/1/2020 11:36 AM, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 7/1/2020 12:18 AM, Joy Beeson wrote:

I'd made a couple of short rides in my grubbies, in case I had to
undress into the washing machine, and thought that I could wear
calf-length house pants on the bike all the time.Â* They aren't
reinforced in the seat, but hey, they are cheap (never mind that each
pair represents a few hundred trips to the store; non-plastic clothing
is *really* hard to find)

You know MUCH more than I do about clothes, so I hesitate to post a tip.
But I'll do it anyway.

About hard-to-find clothes: Last year I needed to replace a couple of
cotton seersucker casual shirts. I like that fabric for summer's heat
and humidity.

I seldom even consider buying clothes online, but then I thought about
Kohl's online. Turned out they had a large inventory including my
acceptable shirts, I could order and pay online, then pick up at the
store which is not far away.

Best of all, in my book, I figured I could try the shirts on in the
store before I even walked out the door; so if they didn't fit, the
return would be postage free and instantaneous.

When I picked them up, I asked if I could try them on. The clerk said
"Honey, they're yours! You can do anything you want!"

And they did fit. Heck, I'd be tempted to buy shoes that way!

Speaking of shoes: I recently took delivery of a new pair of cycling
shoes. It involved quite a search, since I don't use clipless pedals
(that a person clips into). I like toe clips and straps. I needed to
find shoes that came with a proper cleat cover, and it seems those are
becoming rare. Plus, I'm not into psychedelic shoe colors.

I used the new shoes for the first time on a tandem ride Sunday. They'll
require a little work. First, I'll have to adjust the strap length, as I
think these are thicker than my previous shoes. Also I'll try to
re-shape the toe clips because the toe box is higher.

But the scariest thing occurred two times we started from a dead stop -
always a bit trickier with the tandem. My wife held the left pedal in my
power position, I stood on it to pedal forward as I rose into the seat,
and my foot almost slipped off!

When I got home, I found the reason. The sole of the shoe is made of
normal rubber with high traction. But they searched far and wide to find
the hardest, lowest friction material available for the cleat cover. I
think it's made of black Teflon.

I hope EPDM rubber can be glued to it.


--
- Frank Krygowski

On Wed, 1 Jul 2020 11:44:16 -0400, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

When I got home, I found the reason. The sole of the shoe is made of
normal rubber with high traction. But they searched far and wide to find
the hardest, lowest friction material available for the cleat cover. I
think it's made of black Teflon.

I hope EPDM rubber can be glued to it.

EPDM is very difficult to glue:
https://www.permabond.com/resource-center/bonding-epdm-industrial-adhesive/
The article suggests cyanoacrylate adhesives, which might work if you
don't flex the sole very much while riding. If the sole is as stiff
as you suggest, that might work. I don't have any experience using
structural adhesives (acrylic) and rubber.

One lesson I learned working with rubber is that the glue joint has to
be super clean before applying the glue. 91% alcohol was my favored
solvent, but if the materials were compatible, I used acetone. Also,
wear gloves as any skin oil transferred to the glue joint will ruin
it.

Instead of EPDM, maybe something lower tech, such as rubber gasket
material:
https://www.acehardware.com/departments/plumbing/faucet-and-faucet-repair/faucet-and-valve-packing/4218095
or neoprene sheets:
https://www.mcmaster.com/neoprene-rubber-sheet-gaskets/

However, neoprene adhesive is kinda expensive:
https://www.amazon.com/3M-Scotch-Weld-Neoprene-Performance-Adhesive/dp/B00QVILOQO
https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/company-us/all-3m-products/~/3M-Neoprene-High-Performance-Rubber-and-Gasket-Adhesive-1300/?N=5002385+3293241328&rt=rud
https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/company-us/all-3m-products/~/3M-Scotch-Weld-Neoprene-High-Performance-Contact-Adhesive-EC-1357/?N=5002385+3292667546&preselect=3293786499&rt=rud
I think it's basically contact cement, so it might be worth trying
something cheaper such as Weldwood.

Also, you could try wire brushing or cutting grooves into the existing
soles to improve traction. That might need to be done anyway to
increase the surface area for gluing.


--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

On Wed, 1 Jul 2020 11:36:28 -0400, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

I seldom even consider buying clothes online, but then I thought about
Kohl's online. Turned out they had a large inventory including my
acceptable shirts, I could order and pay online, then pick up at the
store which is not far away.

I was going to say "shame our Kohl's went broke", then checked Google
Maps -- there's one only six miles away in, ahem, the shopping center
I call Kohl Plaza.

The store so sadly missing from Sprawlmart One was an entirely
different chain. Carson's, I think.

But I can't go in even to pick a package up. I keep a bag packed with
books and other things I might need while I'm sitting in the parking
lot at the emergency room. With a tag attached that says "DON'T
FORGET YOUR PHONE".

On the bright side, neither of us has had a cold or the flu this whole
year.

My masks work better than the ones they gave us at the Midwest Eye
Institute today. DH couldn't keep his from sliding down.

Turned out that they not only didn't dilate, they fitted a new prism
that improved his crossed eye, so I didn't have to drive home, and he
felt so good that we came back by way of Plymouth. Didn't see
Plymouth; it was all divided highway until we got to Parker Street,
almost home.

Well, there was a roundabout between the exit from the Institute
parking lot and the on-ramp for 31.

--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/