An off-script day

December 6, 2023

It’s still dark when I wake up this morning. Looking up at the ceiling, I puzzle over the pattern of light until I figure it out. The Venetian blinds are closed, but the outside light below the window are shining up through the closed slats. I reach over to the iPad and try to take a photo of it, but it’s just black. A half an hour later though after Rachael’s awake I try again with her phone and get a satisfying result. Really, the camera on her Galaxy 23 does remarkably well in a range of conditions.

Streetlight art, another triumph for the Galaxy 23.

Our plan for the day is to bike together out to Lopez Lake, a ride we’ve taken in the past. It looks like a good day for it - reasonably warm, sunny, not too windy. We agree to leave around ten, and then Rachael’s back on the project that’s consumed her since last night - learning the nuances of her new Garmin 1040 that she bought yesterday to replace the lost 1030 plus. It’s frustrating work, and she’s still at it when I remind her it’s time to ride.

Down at the bikes, we’re surprised by how chilly and breezy it is, and by how much cloud cover is in the sky. It’s not really the conditions we anticipated, and we wonder if we should be going back to get our coats. In the meantime though we fire up the Garmins and realize that we forgot to load the day’s ride. That’s an essential, so we go back upstairs. Rachael loads hers, but then when she tries to transfer it to mine she can’t figure out how to do it from the 1040 (later we’ll learn that the file sharing function was inexplicably dropped from the 1040 - which should really be called a 1040 minus). I suggest she might have concentrated on mastering the core functions instead of learning how to find the nearest Starbucks, a comment that bounces back unappreciated.

So she gets the route onto my Garmin by downloading it using the phone, which for reasons not worth going into here is less straight forward than hers; and in fact it’s been so long since she’s done that that she’s forgotten how, which slows us down further.

Finally though we’re set; but when we get down to the bikes it’s even chillier and windier. And, I’m getting concerned about time now because I have to be back by midafternoon for a Zoom session with my electrocardiologist. So we decide to change plans - she’ll take a hike, and I’ll drive down to Laguna Lake and look for birds. We put the bikes back to the garage and go upstairs to change clothes.

A few minutes later I hear a loud gasp, followed by uncontrollable laughter when Rachael finds a surprise when she tries to put her hiking shoes on.

So what the hell happened here? Rachael thinks she must have dropped her Garmin into her rucksack, which also had her walkers in it because we’d brought along thinking we might go for a walk on the beach after our ride with Kathleen. Apparently it dropped into the toe of her shoe, and it didn’t occur to her to reach down inside of it.

Anyone out there want to buy a very slightly used 1040?

Really, after that not much else feels worth mentioning about the day. I went down to Laguna Lake, walked around for a few hours, saw a few birds but nothing new, and made it back in time for my Zoom session. And Rachael made it up to Bishop’s Peak, a repeat of the walk she took this spring.

Tomorrow, back on the bikes for sure!

Looking west along the string of peaks between SLO and Morro Bay. I think the closest one is Bishop’s Peak, where Rachael is hiking today.

Maybe not though. I don’t see her up there.

Aerial pas de deux: red-tail and vulture.

I don’t remember seeing one with so many densely clustered cones. Some even grow straight from the trunk.

First acorn woodpecker this autumn. I not sure why he’s in this pine tree with his acorn, but maybe it’s where he stashes them. I was hoping to get a clearer shot but a crow swooped in and chased him off.

Scenes from Rachael’s hike:

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Steve Miller/GrampiesDodie here - first, really glad to hear your ablation seems to have done the trick. Excellent news. Secondly...I seem to spend almost all my time in the smallest front ring, using my lower 3-4 rear gears only. Any time my gears start slipping it is because of all the wear on that limited range of cogs, but the whole drive train then seems to need replacing. Is your middle ring your preferred choice? At least you can go up or down a ring until you can get a replacement of all of them.
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11 months ago

Scott AndersonTo Steve Miller/GrampiesYes, on this bike anyway I probably ride 89-90% of the time in the middle chainring, so it’s no surprise it’s so worn. It’s not much of an impediment to do without it as long as the outer and inner are fine.
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11 months ago