Bicycles again

You will remember that I bought a propane stove in July, and carried it home on the bicycle. Well, the piezo-electric starter on the darn thing failed on the second one pound tank during the first weekend of use. I took it to the local service people, only to find that they didn't believe it was malfunctioning. I told them to check it again, and they called three weeks later to say it was ready. I checked it before taking it home, and it STILL wasn't fixed. So they tried again; this time, after a couple of weeks, they called to say that it was ready, and had been replaced, since it couldn't be fixed.

I went last weekend to pick up the new stove, but the repair folks were closed for Thanksgiving.

Today I finally got the new stove. And I brought home by bicycle, with what will probably be one of the last rides of the season. I didn't bother taking photos of the bicycle this time, since it looked the same as when I first bought it in July. Of course, here are yellow and brown leaves around the yard now.

It's autumn now, and soon it will be winter. We won't be using the stove before next summer, but at least it's finally repaired.

A Time for all things

This week, my Beloved and I are preparing to go to war. To be more specific, A war. Quad War, it's called. It's the largest annual gathering in the Principality of Avacal. Oh, you've not heard of the Society for Creative Anachronism? See sca.org for beginner's information on the SCA. See also http://www.sca.org for more information on the Society, and http://quadwar.avacal-sca.org/index.htm for the website of the event known as Quad War.

For now, we have acquired a new tent, two new foam-filled air mattresses, stove and fuel... Now we're getting the clothing ready. We each need garb for four days - and water for four. My Beloved is sewing at every spare moment, and I am attempting to braid four cords with the lucet, to be used to tie collars and cuffs of children's shirts. The stove works: I heated water for tea last night on the back steps. The air mattresses took a long time to inflate decently at first, but they're very comfortable. The sleeping bags will be checked tomorrow evening. Life is good.

Since I practice only modern first aid on our injured populace (if any injuries occur), I am not allowed to carry leeches, except the gummi variety. Gummi worms will be taken, and prescribed as needed. "No., no, don't swallow it whole; you have to grind it up by chewing for the medicine to work!"

Of Bicycles and Cats

Having bought and transported home by bicycle (on separate occasions) a tent that will comfortably sleep five, and a four-foot ladder, I found today that a new propane stove was in order. Of course, it came home on the bicycle. In terms of attaching things to a bicycle, it was like shooting fish in a barrel.




In light of my use of a bicycle for transport, I ask you, gentle reader, to comment with the strangest thing you have seen being transported on a bicycle. No, your little sister/brother doesn’t count. I will start the bidding, as it were, with having seen a cyclist pulling another bicycle; he had the front wheel strapped to an Xtracycle (a kind of frame extension/funky pannier), but it would have been little trouble to do the same trick with a regular bicycle. Or would it? Hmmm. Perhaps I’ll have to try it some time.

Meanwhile, it’s a cat’s life at our house. Our Siamese helped clean Youngest Son’s room by preventing any books from falling behind the bed.


I see a LOLCats caption for this photo: “Now that I’ve finally finished reading these books, I need a nap.”