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Well, squat day didn't happen on Tuesday. Nor did I get much work done on the Massive Project of Doom. That's okay though, this particular MPoD isn't due until the 30th (at which point we will immediately embark on another even more massive project). On the plus side, I did get the galleys for the fully bilingual edition of the Pocket Guide (coming out only 13 or 14 months behind schedule) and I went over them the way you just can't on a computer screen. I caught double entries and places where the type was too dark for the background. I noticed kerning errors and wrong photos. It was absolutely brilliant fun.

In between bouts of work, I also got everything packed. I'm using the homebrew bottlebag panniers up front again and a mismatched pair of non-waterproof Vaude in the back. Vietnam proved that it was technically possible to cram everything into the two bottlebags + a single pannier (though not without ripping the pannier in a possibly unrepairable way). So instead I'm going with the bottlebags, one of the Roadmaster Front panniers, and one of the spacious Roadmaster Rear panniers. 

Since the bottlebags are a pain in the butt to open, they've mostly got "stuff I won't need to access very often" like my folding tire, most of my spare tubes (by carrying this many I'm sure to not need them at all), the lifestraw water filter, maps from the middle and end of the trip, and clothing to wear on trips back to Beijing.

The Roadmaster Front pannier will carry my laptop, various charger cables, coffee supplies, and clothing that I'm likely to wear the next day. The Roadmaster Rear pannier will basically just be clothing storage all nicely divided into ziploc bags. Per the usual, I've probably got too much clothing. However, considering that I'm not doing two full size rear panniers and two full size front panniers, I'll consider this a reasonable step forward on the road to "not packing too damn much junk".

With regards to packing for Spain, the fact that I actually have to pack 3.5 months before my flight and that I'm going to have my luggage couriered to me means that I did really really well at embracing the whole 'minimalist' thing. After one or two trips with way too much luggage, I've come to realize that the inconvenience of having to do laundry multiple times in the middle of your vacation is more than outweighed by the joy of flying with just a carry-on.

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I also rode my bike over to the Giant on Jiefang Road so I could get a cardboard box and so I could take advantage of bike shop tools like heavy rubber mallets for getting my bike apart. Last time the frame was disassembled was over a year ago and all the internal bits were seized up with dirt and rust. One of these times I really have to remember to put oil inside the frame when I'm putting it back together.

Factors like being busy with life started to interfere with my regularly biking inside Haikou about the same time the traffic started getting bad. This was also about the same time the Bike Shop Wars started and I decided I wanted nothing to do with any of the sides. As a result, it's been many many years since I was so much a regular at this shop that I was eating most of my dinners at the bike shop owner's apartment. 

She's outlasted just about everyone but the wars have taken a toll and the community of cyclists that was very much what got me into cycling back in 2005 just isn't around. Lots and lots more cyclists but no community. There are still big group rides and regularly scheduled training trips but, by and large, it's all become fractured groups of people who go riding with this friend or that friend or those friends. I suppose in choosing to take no side in the Bike Shop Wars, I actually took the side of helping fracture that community. 

I wasn't the slightest bit surprised that I had to *gasp* pay for the mechanic services or the cardboard box. Mostly I was surprised that it only cost me 50 yuan.