Mundane

I have about half of the jet lag licked, I think. I was in bed before dark, as predicted, and up at 3am. 3am may seem early but it is 10am Paris time, about 4 hours later than my usual rising time while in France. There is a 7 hour time difference, I think I may have gotten past 4 of the 7, about half.

I was up plenty early which easily enabled me to set out on a couple of morning errands. I had ordered the repair part for the newLOOK before leaving for France and today I rode the bicycle over to County Cycles to have the new part bolted on. This gave me an opportunity to wear my new jersey at something other than a token balcony appearance.The repair took only a bit of time but I had to hang in the shop and tell vacation stories for a bit. I rode towards home and it was so nice that I ended up extending the ride a bit.

I learned that if you quiet the chattering coming from the derailer you create a much nicer atmosphere in which you can clearly hear that your chain needs lubrication. I took care of that later this afternoon.

I have no job so I have only a few assigned tasks. It turns out to be a good thing that I a) arrived home from France and b) extended my morning ride. Otherwise I might have missed this sign of weekend events at the State Fairgrounds.June 5 and 6 (Saturday and Sunday) at the Fine Arts Center.

Great American Gem Show and Sale at the Progress Center Friday though Sunday and the GMCCA Car and Truck Show/Swap, Sunday on Machinery Hill. There again appears to be no event scheduled this weekend at the Horse and/or Cattle Barn.

If you go away for a couple of weeks at the beginning of the growing season you can miss quite a bit of plant activity. The corn appears to be well past ankle high.I hadn't ridden for two weeks but I did have a huge amount of walking and an occasionally painful amount of time on my feet during that time. The exercise was useful as my bicycle fitness does not seem to have deteriorated a great deal. Of course, the true test will be how I feel tomorrow. Today I felt OK.

And today was another landmark day in an obscure bicycle category. That bicycle wears me out nearly every day. It is very, very rare indeed when I wear part of it out. Today I had to replace the buckle on one of my bicycle shoes, the spring controlling the ratcheting action on the old buckle is broken. Here is the shoe with the new buckle installed, old buckle and tool for perspective.Yes, I now have one black buckle and one red buckle. That makes five years and over 21,000 miles before a part failure for those shoes. Considering the price that I paid for those shoes I am glad to report that they are wearing very well indeed. I am also pleased to report that parts for bicycle shoes are considered shoes by the Minnesota Department of Revenue. There is no sales tax on shoes, therefore no sales tax on the pricey new buckle.