Only a week ago I was extolling the golden light of fall and the brilliance of the leaves. Instead of the golden light of October, we have the bleakness of November upon us. I hadn’t started the car in at least two weeks, so it seemed like a good idea to drive to the start point of today’s ride before the battery died. That would also cut 28 miles off of the ride distance.
At 9 AM it was still dark. Most cars had their lights on. The trees were barren. The temperature held a steady 35º F (~1.5 º C). The forecast said light wind but with it coming from the north and the ride starting east and north, it sure felt like wind to me.
A half-dozen hardy souls turned up for the ride. Snow flurries greeted us. I kept my fleece jacket on until the last second.
The cue sheet was wrong and, apparently, so were the Garmin instructions. We followed our fearless leader out of town. He was clearly making it up as he went along. We eventually found the route.
Once we got into the countryside, the birches were still holding their leaves. On a few southern hillsides, other trees still had leaves, but the colors were subdued. Around 11 AM the sun made a brief appearance, looking like a 25 watt lightbulb behind a lampshade. It was too dim to create shadows.
Ten miles in we turned due north and everyone slowed down. We were already going at a leisurely pace. I decided to shift into “get it over with” gear and slowly accelerated. As I passed the person at the front, I let him know. He chose not to follow. I decided to embrace the north wind and put my head down and went for it, figuring the faster I went, the sooner it would be over. We alternated head and cross winds for the next 30 miles. I never saw another rider.
At mile 40 we had about 4 miles due south and any doubts about wind were gone, as I sailed along at 27 mph, climbing hills at 15-20. I passed Goose Pond and only geese were on it. I guess birds can read signs.
It’s a Bill Monroe song, but my introduction was via Goose Creek Symphony
Way too soon I was back in town. It (the tailwind) was fun while it lasted. We seemed to spend a lot more of the day heading north than south, but they must have been equal. My toes were a bit chilly but the rest of me stayed warm. Maybe the neoprene socks next time. There are 3 more rides on the club calendar.
When I lived in San Francisco there was a live Saturday morning radio show (“West Coast Weekend”). They passed out 3×5 cards to the audience to write of their adventures on the way to the studio and the host read some after intermission.
My adventure started after the show started, not on the way there. My pager went off and I had a clogged sewer line to clear. I snuck out quietly and went to work. On the way to the job I wrote a poem called “Sewerman”, in which I imagined myself as a combination Superman/Philip Marlowe.
Bidet
Rich folks in old SF Victorians had bidets. They were free-standing and often came in colors. Bathrooms in those old houses were beautiful, with tile and fixtures in coordinating colors. (I once worked for a famous person whose lavatory – bathroom sink to you – was installed in a converted Louis XIV desk. My boss told me I had to wear white cotton gloves (not my usual brown) to work on it. I bought pairs of brown cotton work gloves by the dozen.)
Nowadays you can get a bidet to attach to your existing toilet. I’d heard enough recommendations over the past few years that I finally did it. I bought an inexpensive but highly-rated model. As a bonus, it came packaged in cardboard. Hardware was in a paper bag. Instructions in a paper booklet. Everything recyclable and biodegradable. As a further bonus they provided poop and butt jokes. The email to tell me it had shipped told me “Your sh*t is on the way.”
Installation was easy and took a few minutes. (Full disclosure: I am a retired plumber, so “easy” and “a few minutes” may be relative terms.) I didn’t like the plastic connector included so I replaced it with a brass tee.
The white plastic fitting installs at the other end (at the connection to the toilet tank). The brass fitting just above it serves the same purpose and will last longer than I will. I wouldn’t say the same about the plastic fitting. Brass compression fittings should never leak once tightened properly. The supply line to the bidet (darker line coming toward you in the photo) would have been much longer than needed from the connection at the tank, so there were two benefits to making this change. [For any plumbers looking at this picture and scratching their heads, yes the water line is coming from the side wall, not the back wall.]
The simplest bidet attachments hook up to the water going into your toilet tank. You can get models that connect to a hot water line. That means running a line from the lavatory (sink to civilians) along the wall or some fairly serious plumbing if you want the line concealed. Do you get instant hot water in your bathroom? I thought not. That means you have to run water until it gets warm or you’re using cold water even after going to the work of running it to a hot line. Where do you run that water? Through the bidet line, meaning that before the water is warm you are probably finished. You can also get a small point-of-use water heater, but that requires electricity next to the toilet, which may require a new outlet. It also requires careful calibration of the heater. A jet of cold water may be refreshing but it won’t burn you. After a few days of use, I can say that cold water is fine.
Filter
As noted before, my undersink water filter blew up. They had warned me that, in addition to replacing cartridges annually, I should replace the housing every ten years. I didn’t. Now it’s too late, as the model was discontinued long ago. (“Blew up” may be a bit dramatic. It didn’t actually explode, but it did burst, releasing pressurized water. That was a bit dramatic. Luckily, someone was awake to awaken me to close a valve. Otherwise it would have become very dramatic.)
The filter arrived. It was too big to fit in the same place the old one was installed, so had to move to the side wall of the cabinet instead of the back wall. I’m old school when it comes to plumbing. I like copper and brass. The plastic waterline connections all leaked on the first try and one required a quick trip to the hardware store. Unlike the bidet, it did not take a few minutes.
The new one says the housing needs to be replaced every five years. I may take that more seriously this time. At least I won’t be drinking PFAS now.
I met some former co-workers at a German beer hall. I only tell you this as an excuse to show you the pretzel we ate. The hand is for scale. There were multiple choices of each type of beer (3 or 4 Oktoberfests, a few Pilseners, a few dunkels, a few hefeweizens, a hefeweizen dunkel…) so I may have to go back again. It is in an old church which then became an Italian restaurant and later a sports bar before the current incarnation. There are large tables with pews. The evening made me happy to be retired and may have made a few of my former co-workers wish they were old.
I don’t know how this song slipped by me for all these years.
The morning dawned warm enough to sit out on the porch for coffee and newspaper. This could be the last of those for the year. At 4PM, the temperature has dropped 15º since noon and tomorrow morning could be our first killing frost. If not, it should come soon, with 23º (-5º C) in the forecast next week. With today’s wind and rain, most of the maple leaves fell. The rest should come down with the frost. The current forecast is cloudy with a temperature just above freezing for the Sunday ride.
I had lunch with an old friend. I worked with him 49 years ago. He had 6 months to spare to help us get the co-op off the ground and kicked us into high gear to get the store open. He ran the wiring for all of the coolers. After we’d been open for a few months he packed up and moved to New York as promised. I’ve barely seen him in the intervening years and he moved to Ireland in the meantime. He’s back for a visit today and hasn’t changed a bit…
Walking out of the restaurant I found myself over-dressed. The temperature hit 78º (25.5º C). It was time for a ride.
The top of Maple Bluff
Without a lot of time and with a strong southwesterly breeze kicking up whitecaps on the lake, I headed north through Maple Bluff to get out of town.
View from the bluff. State Capitol across the lake in the distance.
From the lake side, this is a vertical stone wall. From this side, it’s just a bit of a hill to climb.
This is from Sunday, but still maples (except the oak to the right).
It was a perfect day for a ride. The sun was bright, the leaves golden, the breeze, according to wunderground was at 2 mph; though the National Weather Service says 13 with 20 mph gusts. Wunderground never seems to think the wind is blowing.
After washing my bike clothes and myself, it is raining. Perfect timing!
(with apologies to Oliver and the workhouse boys.) I read a Washington Post article about e-bikes. Most of the commenters either lambasted e-bike riders for riding on sidewalks and riding too fast or said they would never ride a bike because it was too dangerous because drivers were too mean. I was intrigued that so many writers (who indicated that they use a car for all of their transportation) said it was other drivers that keep them off a bike.
The rest of the comments were about how impractical e-bikes are – you can’t ride them in bad weather, you can’t carry anything… If you’ve ever read this blog before you know I disagree.
I rode to the UPS store to return some water filter cartridges. (My water filter self-destructed so I didn’t need the spares I had just bought. Nothing like water under pressure shooting out under the sink to get one moving. Plastic may never decompose, but it does weaken with age.) There was a strong wind from the north. I rode home staying within the speed limit when it was a tailwind.
I was riding home from the grocery store today with 35 pounds of food in my panniers. (So much for not being able to carry anything on a bike.) I crossed the bridge and stopped in the middle to take the picture I’ve taken several times.
October 2022 upstreamNew Years Day 2019 upstreamOctober 2023 downstream
I ride out in the countryside to see the sights but sometimes remember that I only have to go 4 blocks for this. While one view is obviously from the water, the others are from the same bridge, just facing different directions. Maybe Dorothy was right.
The trip to the store was for ingredients for Butternut Bourbon Cream Pie, described thusly: “If pumpkin pie slipped on a silky ballgown, this dessert would be the result: a voluptuous golden custard nestled inside a nutty, cookie-like crust with a hint of spice, topped with Bourbon whipped cream and cinnamon-butter toasted pumpkin seeds.“
That sounded like I had to try it. The pie was a failure. There were problems with all layers. The recipe will require some tweaking for the next attempt. I’ve already written in some modifications for version 2.0. I’ll keep you posted.
Sunday morning the temperature climbed to 40º (4º C) before I headed out to meet folks for the morning ride. The forecast said it would reach 54º (12º C), but not until I would be back home. The sun was shining and the wind was light. I put on the warmer gloves that I didn’t wear last week, a heavier jersey, and shoe covers (as well as my high tech wind barrier of a plastic shopping bag – even on a calm day there is a 20 mph wind if you’re riding at 20 mph). As Baby Bear said, it was “just right”.
The ride required a few stops for photos – mostly maples of various types. As Little Tricker the Squirrel would say “tomorrow they are very apt to be just one day past perfect.”
Adventures in plumbing will continue next week when parts arrive. I’m installing a new undersink water filter. I’m also installing a bidet fitting on one of the toilets. I’ve heard enough recommendations that I had to try it.
Our local water is extremely hard (430 mg/L – anything over 180 mg/L is considered “very hard”) and PFAS have been detected in the well that our water comes from. The water also exceeds the EPA recommendation for sodium (likely due to road salt). No lead occurs naturally and our water does not flow through lead lines (either from the city or in our house). The water comes from an aquifer (filtered through limestone, hence the hardness) with wells over 1000 feet deep. Industrial contaminants take a while to reach that level, but have now arrived.
Half-fast Cycling Club 