early morning... late night

last night had the elements of a road trip...

there was fixing, repairing, replacing, and digging stuff up
there was the gathering of and accounting of gear

the karate monkey got a new chain
earlier this week I replaced the chain ring
last night I replaced the chain
the old chain was degrading fast
it was not a question of whether or not the chain would break under a tork situation
it was a matter of when
that is no way to ride a bike
so last night I replaced the chain

the thought of the worst case scenario
looking to move through an intersection only to break the chain
well... the world would stop
worlds would collide
and the world just might end
at least for the person on the bike

went old school on the chain connection
thought about giving the power link another shot
even if they crumbled under my clydesdale-ness a few times last year
but... in the assembly process my gorilla strength tweeked and twisted the power link
so I went old school with the chain tool
just as well... it is a system that I can trust

once the link was in place I used the remaining chain links to create some links for emergency trail repairs

gotta have spare links... just in case
three sets of links with pins ready to be pushed into place
one set of four links
two sets of two
maybe that is one set of five and two sets of three

in any case
both sets ending in male ends with a pin on the outside of the chain
ready to be forced in
so I can continue to roll


after working on the bike I assisted lisa in gathering gear for the kids for a day trip to whitetail
lisa adopted my entusiasim for getting dean out on skiis a second time before the season is up
no trip to west virginia
just a local day trip
they are in the car driving to western maryland now

I am up early drinking my coffee and playing with the computer
retroactive on comcast cable is playing Echo and the Bunnyman
I have yet to walk the dog
things are getting closer to normal waking time

if I want to play with images I need to stop playing with words