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Four Quails and one German Man
Aug. 14th, 2018 08:52 pmHow's your smoke?
I'm thinking about every sunny summer day I ever took for granted, and even the days this summer when I crouched inside feeling sorry for myself, before the smoke came again as it does, I guess, every year now.
It rained on the weekend, so beautifully, and I posted about how happy this made me. Then it turned out that the rainstorm brought lightning, and now there are more than 100 new fires.
It's not the worst here -- it's better than many places. I tried to go for a walk tonight. The air smelled like fire and night-blooming jasmine. After two blocks I turned around and went home. The yard smelled like cigarettes and warm lavender.
Today, against mild advisories, I biked to and from far-workplace for the third time. On the way home, I saw four quail -- two scuttling across the road and two scuttling away -- and one gruff but helpful German man, without whom I would certainly not have gotten my chain back on.
The first time I rode to far-work, I tried furiously to avoid the main road. I rejected road route after road route, clinging to any off-road trail I could find, and eventually ended up having to portage the bike up a staircase. On the way home, I tried the main road, chickened out at a weird intersection, and went miles out of my way again.
On the second ride, I bailed out of the nature trail too early, but I only had to do a bit on the road, and that one of the better stretches, before I got back onto trails. The trail ride took a long time and was very gravelly, but I felt fierce. On the way home I was seduced by the wrong bridge and ended up in some sort of infinite hellscape of construction machinery and yellow dust. This, before the smoke.
This time, I would say I pretty much optimized my route out. Win. On the way home, I did take one wrong turn, but I backtracked instead of ploughing on into the unknown. I found my way to the hill that would take me back onto the main trail home. Then my. damn. chain. fell. off. This is especially pissy because I just had the damn bike checked over, and it *still* creeps into high gear when I'm trying to ride up a steep hill and then de-chains itself when I try to gear down.
I've put the chain back on several times, but this time it was stuck. I had the bike upside down for a good long while and was wearing a lot of grease by the time my rescuer happened along and brusquely showed me how to loosen the wheel and free the chain. (This was not complicated.) Dismissing my gratitude, he pedalled on, and I rode the rest of the way home in top gear.
This bike was loaned to me by an old friend. I fear I have proven to myself that I need another bike, my own bike, one that does not spontaneously shift itself and shed its chain on long hills, since the rides I mostly want to do are long ones.
{rf}
I'm thinking about every sunny summer day I ever took for granted, and even the days this summer when I crouched inside feeling sorry for myself, before the smoke came again as it does, I guess, every year now.
It rained on the weekend, so beautifully, and I posted about how happy this made me. Then it turned out that the rainstorm brought lightning, and now there are more than 100 new fires.
It's not the worst here -- it's better than many places. I tried to go for a walk tonight. The air smelled like fire and night-blooming jasmine. After two blocks I turned around and went home. The yard smelled like cigarettes and warm lavender.
Today, against mild advisories, I biked to and from far-workplace for the third time. On the way home, I saw four quail -- two scuttling across the road and two scuttling away -- and one gruff but helpful German man, without whom I would certainly not have gotten my chain back on.
The first time I rode to far-work, I tried furiously to avoid the main road. I rejected road route after road route, clinging to any off-road trail I could find, and eventually ended up having to portage the bike up a staircase. On the way home, I tried the main road, chickened out at a weird intersection, and went miles out of my way again.
On the second ride, I bailed out of the nature trail too early, but I only had to do a bit on the road, and that one of the better stretches, before I got back onto trails. The trail ride took a long time and was very gravelly, but I felt fierce. On the way home I was seduced by the wrong bridge and ended up in some sort of infinite hellscape of construction machinery and yellow dust. This, before the smoke.
This time, I would say I pretty much optimized my route out. Win. On the way home, I did take one wrong turn, but I backtracked instead of ploughing on into the unknown. I found my way to the hill that would take me back onto the main trail home. Then my. damn. chain. fell. off. This is especially pissy because I just had the damn bike checked over, and it *still* creeps into high gear when I'm trying to ride up a steep hill and then de-chains itself when I try to gear down.
I've put the chain back on several times, but this time it was stuck. I had the bike upside down for a good long while and was wearing a lot of grease by the time my rescuer happened along and brusquely showed me how to loosen the wheel and free the chain. (This was not complicated.) Dismissing my gratitude, he pedalled on, and I rode the rest of the way home in top gear.
This bike was loaned to me by an old friend. I fear I have proven to myself that I need another bike, my own bike, one that does not spontaneously shift itself and shed its chain on long hills, since the rides I mostly want to do are long ones.
{rf}
