4 October 1997 (nice; sunny; kind of windy; mileage = 33; Seth's [Mountain
View]) -- X - I woke up at around 8:30 which seemed to beat everyone. I
read bike catalogs until everyone was accounted for. Then I took a shower.
Both showers are in the bedrooms. After that, I had French toast and cereal
prepared by Yusong. Not bad at all. Very welcome to eat a big breakfast
today. Then I planned my outing today amidst constant distractions from the
Power (to command attention) Ranger, Peter. I finally had everything ready
and away I went. 1st I hit a bike shop in Los Altos. They had many tandems
and recumbants, but no disk brakes or drums on any. They had some decent
special stuff, but they were lame. The next place was also well above
average (and pitifully lame). They said they had no bomber cages or
equivalents. I bought 2 there ... hmmm. I also got a big green V.L. with
the good specs, a derailleur guard, a tire and tube and a chain. The next
place I went was Wheelsmith. This bike shop makes wheels for Nashbar. Their
collection of old bikes and their affiliation with specialty stuff was
impressive, but I didn't get a big urge to spend money. I did get a tear in
my eye watching a video of a Euro Classic (San Marco?) for about 15
minutes. Beautiful! Then I rode on to REI. In there, I realized that I
owned one or more of everything and I was the most knowledgeable person
there about my stuff. I sort of forgot to buy the good-type map. On the way
back, I hit a Hostess thrift store. I got a pineapple! pie. Back at the
townhouse, I took a shower and hung a line in the small yard for sweaty
clothes. Yusong made steak and corn and garlic bread. Very good. After
dinner, I worked on Seth's and Peter's bikes (which is low-tech torture
with the wrong tools!). After that semi-futile exercise, and after Peter
finally went to bed (~10:30) after hearing the Power Rangers CD about 6
times, I was able to concentrate on what I was doing. I was looking at song
lyrics on the I-net. Wow! Too cool. Seth and I stayed up till about 2:00 AM
doing things like this: 1) checking bike shops near our old house, then
making maps of how to get there; 2) checking airline ticket prices from
many places; 3) in 15 minutes, Seth downloaded "Robinson Carusoe" and had
his computer reading it aloud to us! Alex! Are you aware? 4) using
"collective filters" to have statistically intelligent music
recommendations. This is a 5-year-old idea of mine; 5) getting set up to
view my AT&T card bills on the web.
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