Home alone

TOPWLH has gone with her brother and her parents on a family vacation. To be fair, I was not excluded, they said I could go. But I work and today and tomorrow I have regularly scheduled shifts. So I am Culkinesque, here on my own.

My ride today was a quest for these:My pedals, Speedplay X-series, have a composite resin pedal body. But the actual contact point of cleat to pedal is these things. The "bowtie" bolts to the resin body, the cleat slides over the wide parts, the connection is complete. The resin part is fairly indestructible but the metal parts wear. The cleat connecting part, initially round, gradually flattens on both sides. And this deal gradually wears away as well. After nearly 9,000 miles the connection is no longer quite snug. The result is that I have developed a metal to metal click. I have already gotten new cleats and those coupled with these new bowties should eliminate the click.

I tried County Cycles but they didn't have this particular part in stock. I tried the other Roseville bike shop and even Erik's and neither of those had the part either. Eventually I ended up at Freewheel, that's their advertising that the part is pictured on. The bike kid went all out and eventually located the part. It doesn't look like installation is going to be a big deal although I did have to acquire my first "torx" tool for the special head on the fasteners.

I passed some other of the University fields and although I have no picture, I can report that the oats are ready for harvest. Getting a good look at what I recognized immediately as oats confirmed for me that the other field that I was a bit uncertain about is, indeed as I suspected, wheat. Oats is the first grain to mature, wheat the last.

And in wildlife news today as I made the turn up onto Dale from the street along the east side of Lake Owasso a red fox loped across the road in front of me.

It was a little too warm and a little too windy but it was an extraordinarily pretty day, blue sky and cumulus clouds. It was nice out there.