A Plan to Fall Back On
The whole plan to pirate around on the open seas still has not worked out. Neither, reverting to the past, did the plan for an independent nation of Baja California. The US never got behind me on that one - granted, Nixon was out, and Reagan was still a few years away. and, well neither Ford, nor Carter possessed the hawkish nature of their peers. And then, of course, I was only thirteen or fourteen when the idea was hatched, and that may have had something to do with it. Good thing there was always the university to fall back on, although multiple changes of "major", whether formulated in advance or on the fly, supports the delusion that there were options to fall back on before finding just the right one. Back up plans. Where would I be without them.
Today was a back up plan kind of day. I've worked on the mrs' shifting a lot lately, perfecting it time and again, at least once each week for, oh, I don't know, lets just say a few weeks now. Smooth shifting. Least ways until she rides and the problem returns. I perfected it again last week. Smooth shifting. So, when we reached the hills and she said "the shifting is not working again" my eyes did that roll thing and I thought, not about my clearly advanced mechanical skills, but about what she could have done during the previous two mile ride to get here. Naturally, I did not believe her, and hopped on that pink Marin to show her it worked just fine. Knees splayed out to the side, I rode around and around, pushed and pulled on those little levers and... got no response beyond, maybe, the three or four smallest cogs of the rear cluster. "Damn, is she jinxed" I thought, while realizing the ride was all but over. Four or five hours later, having loosened this cable, and replacing that one, screwing and unscrewing every screw in sight, and even a couple hidden ones, led me to another plan to fall back on - a free tune-up coupon found hidden inside that water bottle I won at the PVBC holiday party.
And that is how a nice relaxing ride around the Claremont Hills Wilderness Park became breakfast at the Euro Cafe on this first day of the winter holiday week.
Today was a back up plan kind of day. I've worked on the mrs' shifting a lot lately, perfecting it time and again, at least once each week for, oh, I don't know, lets just say a few weeks now. Smooth shifting. Least ways until she rides and the problem returns. I perfected it again last week. Smooth shifting. So, when we reached the hills and she said "the shifting is not working again" my eyes did that roll thing and I thought, not about my clearly advanced mechanical skills, but about what she could have done during the previous two mile ride to get here. Naturally, I did not believe her, and hopped on that pink Marin to show her it worked just fine. Knees splayed out to the side, I rode around and around, pushed and pulled on those little levers and... got no response beyond, maybe, the three or four smallest cogs of the rear cluster. "Damn, is she jinxed" I thought, while realizing the ride was all but over. Four or five hours later, having loosened this cable, and replacing that one, screwing and unscrewing every screw in sight, and even a couple hidden ones, led me to another plan to fall back on - a free tune-up coupon found hidden inside that water bottle I won at the PVBC holiday party.
And that is how a nice relaxing ride around the Claremont Hills Wilderness Park became breakfast at the Euro Cafe on this first day of the winter holiday week.
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