6 October 1997 (windy! cloudy sometimes; dark clouds on mountain; mileage
= 34.3; Mountain View [Seth's]) -- X - We were all up at around 7:30. I had
my raspberry toast and jam for breakfast and then, after quite an ordeal, I
was alone! Yea! I couldn't stand it in the living room any more. So I spent
several hours picking up toys, dusting, vacuuming, organizing encyclopedias
(why does he have them?) and general cleaning. After I was done, the place
looked great (it was, of course, a relative thing). Then I organized for an
expedition and took off. The wind was right at my back and I flew to San
Jose. I did 10 city miles in about 30 minutes! When I got to the address
listed in the phone book for Phil Wood, it was a newly-created vacant lot.
Hmm. I tried to call the number, but the phone wouldn't transmit, only
receive. I got it working, got the address and made it there. I talked to a
guy named John who gave me an info book and showed me how to assemble a
rear hub. I could tell that everyone was real busy, so I kept it brief. We
had a quick talk about disk brakes. Hayes is the one they like. Also, the
bearings fit looser with radial spoke tension. After that, I tried to eat
at a Mexican place, but it was cerrado. Then I got on a bike trail that was
real elaborate, but went nowhere. Good. I finally got on Homestead and
started into the wind. I first came across a good-sized library. Inside I
found the North Atlas. I made a route selection and then some copies of it.
Then I came to REI. The only interesting thing there was an XGK igniter.
Hey, no fair -- I want one. Other than that, nothing much of interest. Back
in Mountain View, I merged with 2 bike weenies. I was in front, and I could
tell they were trying to tag on. They did barely catch me, but they had to
draft a long time before they could pass. Then I drafted, etc. I kept
dusting them at the lights with the track stands, etc. Fun. Back at the
ranch, I was still alone (~6:30) in peace with a clean room and classical
music. But then Sir Power Ranger returned. He was asleep in Seth's arms and
he woke up obviously still tired cuz he was extremely cranky. He was trying
to hit Seth, etc. Yusong asked if I ever hit my dad when I was young.
Answer -- maybe once. Certainly not twice. So Peter had to watch TV, so I
retired to the cleanest, quietest, least-used room of the house --
"Peter's" room -- where I looked over my maps and planned. We had sausage
and Chinese noodles and I had corn (not broccoli). This was late (~8:30).
Peter, of course, didn't eat much. After dinner, I tried to mind my own
business while Peter commanded attention. Not really possible. Finally it
was story time, which is the several-hour process of transforming a hyper
Peter into a sleeping one. During this process (~11:00) Peter gets hungry
(no shit?), so he gets a snack prepped (his uneaten dinner). Finally Seth
came down alone. It took great stamina on our parts to propagate an
intellectual discussion, but we're pretty good at it and we were both
interested. We finally got too tired at about 2:10. It's 2:30 now. Wow!
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