I guess I can't write too much about my new job, but here's the short of it. I'll be writing reports about historic military sites.
I'm pretty excited about it; except that before I actually start working I have to have a background check and not just a lightweight one either, no, a military one. And among other things they're checking my medical, financial, and criminal histories and I have to fill out a form with every single place I've lived for the past seven years along with everywhere I've worked, including periods of unemployment.* I got finger-printed today and the official parking sticker for my car. Once I get cleared then I have to go through a training about how to be official at work.
On the downside my commute will be 6.2 miles and I'm going to try to ride through most of the winter. I've mapped my route and found a way to get there that doesn't involve too many busy streets, except that I'll have to go around the mall.** On the plus side, I get to go past the mall! I can shop whenever I want.
*I'm taking a break because my head has started to hurt from all the forms. **Imagine any mall in America and you'll get the basic picture.
On the middle bay door there's a hole to run the car's exhaust out, on the inside of the glass someone has written "mail" with an arrow pointing to the hole. Of course on the outside, and one would assume to the mail carrier, it shows up as liam.
It's empty, a sign on the door says they're out of business because of "no work." I'm already designing what my office will look like there.
Last night I went over to the bike co-op and had some help getting the drive side bottom bracket cup pulled out. It involved a nasty chemical spray, an adjustable wrench, a blow torch, and then the bench vice; after all that it came out relatively easily. And so, I spent last night finally putting on all the parts I've been accumulating for this bike for two years. I think the bars look spectacular.
Here's the run-down, not that you care:
Old French frame, a Mercier Tour de France. I bought it already set up as a single speed.
The wheels are old Weinmann's back when they were made in Belgium. The rims are unusual because they're concave instead of convex and have an interesting spoke pattern.
Prompted by an email from Ceri I've been mentally listing all the things I've bought recently. Even though I'm unemployed and a little embarrassed by the list, I'll share. Of course I'm excluding food, drinks, and general merrymaking; and to think that I might dedicate a year to not buying anything new...
In no particular order:
Bike stuff from online (enormously large).
Bike stuff from the shop.
More bike stuff from the shop (enormously large, including ice-tires).
A cyclo-cross tire from co-worker.
Pants from Goodwill to make cycling caps. A pair of jeans to wear.
Sweater and pants from Salvation army to make cycling caps.
Mom's birthday present.
Mary's birthday present, which has yet to be mailed.
Commuter bike shoes. Shimano SPD pedals.
Auto paint; enough to put my own hole in the atmosphere.
Since it was a gorgeous fall day I headed out for an afternoon walk.* I got to talk with some neighborhood characters, like the one-man band down the street. I've heard him all summer, a languid drum beat accompanied by an unnameable brass instrument. 'Turns out he's an old man with a long white beard and mustache and was playing a nice wooden drum with one hand while holding a bugle in the other. I didn't stop and stare, but it also seemed like he had cowbells hanging off the back of his pants. He said hi and commented on the day. He also mentioned that he was doing a sound check because he had a gig on Saturday. I'm pretty sure this is the guy who sits and plays on the curb at the farmer's market...
Down the block, I got hit on because of the weather. --"It's a good day to be with someone." --"Um... It is a nice day."
Then I was thinking about gardening and the astonishing variety of plants that were just growing wild in the alley I was walking down. Of course I thought about natural selection and how, as a plant picker, I select plants according to my whims of aesthetics. And then I wondered if I had to plant a garden in only one plant, what plant would that be.
I can choose a tree; Maclura pomifera, duh, but anything smaller than that kind of baffles me. A clover, perhaps? Sunflowers? Lilacs? What about a vine? To be practical, should it be edible? Runner beans? Anyway, I also found an apple tree where all the apples were rotting on the ground underneath it.
