Notes ๐Ÿ“

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I guess the bike is back on the road sort of ๐Ÿšฒ

Still having issues with derailuer being out of alignment but it looks like the frame is bent. Maybe I need to see what I can do with a pair of vice grips. A bigger issue is it looks like the chain got a kink in it, but I tried to straighten that with vice grips on the chain.

What I probably need is professional help, ๐Ÿง‘โ€๐Ÿ”ง but I am not sure I want to drop hundreds of dollars on a 3 year old, fairly basic bike with lots of issues and half repairs I’ve done over the years. Hoping I can get the bike running though good enough for commuting around town, I did ride about 2 or 3 miles yesterday, and might go for a test ride out to Arboretum this morning. ๐ŸŒฒ๐Ÿชฟ I have a feeling that the chain issue will straighten itself out now it’s lubricated and somewhat straightened just by putting some miles on it. That said, Tuesday and Wednesday look awful hot so I might just bus it in to avoid the heat.

Yesterday I’m sure the local bike store had their used bike sale, ๐Ÿšฒ and maybe I should have looked a t that. Or look at getting a second bike at the end of the season. I think I want to keep riding the bike to work. The local bus and transferring to the shuttle ๐Ÿš€ kind of sucks, especially the time I have to wait in the evening for the next bus home. ๐Ÿš I have thought about potentially getting a 25-year old Honda Civic or otherwise getting rid of SuperDuty but I like my big truck but not for commuting. I could also move closer to the office to avoid the transfer, but I like the bike. โš™๏ธ Getting that good quality but not cheap Quick Link tool made swapping the chain super easy. I guess just not having the bike running well and not being able to get around means I feel so immobile, which sucks with such beautiful weather. I realize part of my problem is I buy shit tools or lack the right tools, and I need to also get quality parts. Like from the bike store, not the China Crap you get on Amazon. I realize getting rid of the old bike shouldn’t be hard, if I left it on the road with a free sign, chances are a scrapper would get it in a few days. Or I could take it to the scrap yard with some of the other metal crap I’ve accumulated over the years. โ™ป๏ธ Shit builds up when you don’t have trash service but mostly burn and do a can run to transfer station once a year.

Maybe I’m just pissed I missed the car show ๐Ÿ›บ at the Power Authority, or otherwise spent my weekend out at the Mine Kill Pool. ๐ŸŠโ€โ™‚๏ธ Next weekend looks stormy โ›ˆ๏ธ though anything could change over the next five days. Assuming I get mostly caught up on work over the next few days, and the weekend is decent, I may well take off Friday to head out Schoharie and also Shauls. ๐Ÿง… ๐Ÿ† ๐ŸŒฝ Maybe do Bromley Mountain Firetower in Delaware County, that’s been on my bucket ๐Ÿชฃ list for some time now.

Went to the Henry Hudson Park ๐Ÿ›ถ and paddled back to the falls on the Vlomans Kill and around on the Hudson River for a couple of hours then sat down by the river as the sun set. ๐ŸŒ‡ Pretty nice evening, listened to more of the Audio Book, the Crazies by Amy Gunerman about the politics around a wind farm development on ranch land in Montana. ๐ŸŒต Flipped through a few E-books then drove back home, stopping at Walmart as I wanted to get more cottage cheese. I missed having cottage cheese and Greek yogurt all winter, ๐Ÿฅฃ but now that my rig is working, I don’t worry about the excess plastic trash. Honestly, when I seperate it out, it’s kind of fun to watch those containers melt and burn, but regardless compacted and burnt, they still make some nice bright flames. ๐Ÿ”ฅ Lot of salt in cottage cheese, though that’s why I like to have it moderation.

Map: Folded Rock Trail
Map: Santa Clara Reservoir

A year came and went since I decided to get LASIK ๐Ÿ‘€

I did the consultation last July but put off the surgery until September as I didn’t want to spend my summer recovering after the surgery. Seems hard to believe it’s been September without dealing with contacts – I came across some when I was cleaning out my old rig and they got burnt up in the fire the other day. Pulled the aluminum seals out of the ash.

It’s wonderful seeing without the sometimes severe irration and dry eyes associated with contact lens. I wake up and go to bed now without having to touch my eyes. No more fishing pieces of plastic out of my eyes, much less searching for a contact lens that got rolled up under an eye lid. I just wake up and see, go to bed without touching my eyes or looking for my always seemingly scratched up glasses.

No more dependency on having to order disposable contact lens or having to buy more when supplies ran short. No more mandatory visits to the eye doctor – I should go every two years for a quick check up – but it’s not required I buy glasses or contacts from their shop. It always felt like wearing glasses and contacts was a lease on vision but now it’s permanently fixed, and no more fishing those contact lens aluminum seals out of the ash.

Happy Saturday! โ˜€๏ธ

Looks like it should be a nice weekend. I am hoping that Steiner’s Sport or maybe Mad Dawg will have a Shimano Altus Derailuer and a Quick Link tool avaliable for sale, and I can get the bike back on the road today.

Going to be a nice weekend, โ˜€๏ธ now that the clouds push off, not outrageously hot. I didn’t realize until yesterday afternoon that the Power Authority Car Show was this week – if I had I known I might have planned to go out to Schoharie. Next weekend, if there aren’t too many thunderstorm โ›ˆ๏ธ or rain, I might do Schoharie or I could go back up to the Potholers if it looks hot. Probably take off next Friday, make a three-day weekend.

It’s tough not having a bike, โš™๏ธ but I am hoping the either Steiner’s or MadDawg has a Shimano Altus or compatible derailuer and I can get it installed this afternoon. Also I am tired of messing with needle nose pliers or those awful China Quick Link tool I bought and then returned ๐Ÿ”ง so I want to invest in a good quality tool. I am so stressed and feeling sick over the derailuer – it’s stupid – it’s a $20-40 part, maybe slightly more with the bike store mark up. I have the old derailuer off except for the part still suck on the chain, and it shouldn’t be a hard fix when I get the part. I guess worse comes to worse, I’ll order online but you never know what you’ll get online.ย  I didn’t want to order line because the internet is flooded with junk knock-off bike parts that never work right.

Been working on the listing for Big Red, going to offer the cap and truck seperately or together โ€ฆ ๐Ÿ›ป Hoping to get it ready to go on sale next week. Once it’s ready to sell and I’ve finished doing my research I’ll be posting more about that. I think I will offer the truck at $4,500 with the cap, and also list the cap seperately if people just want that.

Next weekend I want to get out Schoharie County for the weekend. ๐Ÿ•๏ธ No auto show next week, but I can still float in the Schoharie Creek on the tube by Towpath Mountain, get sweet corn ๐ŸŒฝ and veggies at Shauls. Look forward to enjoying lots of fresh produce. Enjoy riding trail ๐Ÿšฒ and road, a summing the bike is working good. I could go House Pond and Piseco-Powley again next weekend, but I was just up there for the start of the Independence Day Weekend holiday, so I’ll probably wait until August after I get back from summer vacation for that trip. Though that seems so far off, I really haven’t planned the Finger Lakes Trip much but what do I have to do for that besides take the time off from work, drive out to Finger Lakes, I can always buy food and any neccessary supplies at Wally World or Tractor Supply while I’m out there.

Thematic Map: Median Year Building Built, Albany County
Thematic Map: Urban Areas in America

Fucking flyback โšก

Just to reinforce the true madness in my mind, I yelled out those words when the LED burnt out in the indicator I had built to show when the solar is charging the starting battery or the alternator is charging the accessory battery. But I then replaced the LED and wired a diode in reverse direction, and this should not only protect the LED but also the replacement XY-CD60 charge/discharge controller which I managed to crash up at camp pushing buttons on it.

Still no bike, as I was sick on Wednesday ๐Ÿคฎ and did not get to the bike store after work, as I was really dying, half feeling like puking out my brains, half awake with a headache, ๐Ÿคฏ and just barely awake and conscious at the end of the day. Thursday I worked from home then went in late, as I had a meeting downtown, catered by DiBella’s Subs which made for lunch and dinner. ๐Ÿฅช I took the broken derailuer off except for the part with the chain on as I want to get a proper, quality Quick Link tool rather then breaking the Quick Link and having to get another one. Tomorrow at 10 AM I will head over Steiner Sports in Glenmont and/or MadDawg Bicycle to see if they have a replacement derailuer from old stock or similar compatible part that is authentic and a Quick Link tool, if not I’ll order online but I am dubious about bike parts found online at this point, ๐Ÿง‘โ€๐Ÿ”ง I got burnt last time I ordered from the Amazon.

I’ve been trying to get to bed early ๐Ÿ›๏ธ and sleeping in later and just recovering. Really I fell behind on everything when I spent six nights in wilderness, plus not having the bike ๐Ÿšตโ€โ™€๏ธ and having to ride the yokel local bus ๐Ÿš to work all week ground my gears, well except for that stressful day driving the SUPER DUTY to work on Wednesday. I got gas for it, โ›ฝ as it was lower then expected, but so far gas hasn’t surged again up now that the Iran War is back on ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ท, you suckers at the gas pump, as the Trumpster says. Yesterday, I got logged out of the CDTA Bus App and had to pay $2 cash to ride the bus downtown. Sucks but the alternative was taking the SuperDuty and having to ask nicely to park in the downtown lot. Or paying to park. Going to order a new Navigator Card soon as the app kind of sucks – it’s so dependent on your phone working. ๐Ÿ“ฑ Rescheduled my dentist ๐Ÿฆท appointment to October 1st, my teeth have tar on them from all the weed I smoked when I was up north playing hokey from work ๐Ÿ‘ทโ€โ™‚๏ธ as the list of shit to get done added up to the point where I just wanted to puke on Wednesday afternoon. ๐Ÿคฎ

It would be a nice weekend to get out of town ๐Ÿ”ง but I want to get the bike ๐Ÿšตโ€โ™‚๏ธ back on the road, finish cleaning out Big Red ๐Ÿ›ป and get him listed and sold. I might go kayaking ๐Ÿ›ถ on Saturday evening down at Henry Hudson Park ๐Ÿž๏ธ and maybe some fishing ๐ŸŽฃ. But maybe I’ll take off next Friday and head out to Schoharie to hike, swim and camp ๐Ÿ•๏ธ. You can feel summer fading fast – soon enough the evenings will be growing shorter and on July 29th ๐ŸŒ‡ it’s off to the Finger Lakes until mid August. Then there is only a few weekends left until Labor Day Weekend probably spent up on Hardwood Hill in Speculator. Sunset before 7:30. How fast the summer days come and go.

But while I don’t have the CB radio or the circuit wired for power ๐Ÿชซ in the cab, with the starting voltage display and the charging indicator working I think the truck wiring project is done enough for now. It will be good for summer vacation. ๐Ÿฉด I can be annoyed that one voltage gauge I had didn’t work but the other one I installed is a bigger and easier to read display so it’s a good reassurance indicator even if it should not be neccessary except maybe during winter camping โ„๏ธ when I should hit the remote start to avoid over discharging the starting battery. ๐Ÿชซ

Map: Bates State Forest
Map: Popple Pond State Forest

One sick puppy ๐Ÿถ

I was feeling pretty sick this yesterday, I thought about leaving work early but I decided to tough it out. I took the SuperDuty into work yesterday, so I could have left at any point. Ended up deciding not to go to bike store to deal with the derailleur issue at this point, pushing that One sick puppy ๐Ÿถ

I was feeling pretty sick this yesterday, I thought about leaving work early but I decided to tough it out. I took the SuperDuty into work yesterday, so I could have left at any point. Ended up deciding not to go to bike store to deal with the derailleur issue at this point, pushing that off until Friday. I did go to Wally World an get some food and supplies, and had a big pan of eggs and cottage cheese for dinner.

Thinking my stomach issues have more to do with the amount of raw coffee grounds I mixed into the oatmeal and blueberries I had for breakfast yesterday, โ˜• but I thought by around 3 PM all I could think about was barfing and I could barely stay away. ๐Ÿ˜ซAfter getting some food in my stomach after shopping I started to feel better. Maybe it’s the stress of the bike issue, but I figure Saturday I’ll go to the bike shop and talk to them about my options for a replacement derailleur, when I can think cleaner. Worse comes to worse I order it online and get it sometime next week. Tonight or tomorrow I might pull the old derailleur and see if I can disconnect the quick link without a tool or breaking it. I do want to get a quick link tool. 

I got a replacement XY-CD60 module from Amazon, ๐Ÿฟ I am going to install it tonight along with the replacement voltage gauge for the starting battery ๐Ÿ”‹ and wiring up an LED bulb ๐Ÿ’ก