Boomer, the 14yo rottie-shepherd, isn't up to the full five k anymore, so I've been strategizing as to how I might compensate for the loss of exercise. I need the daily 5k for my physical and mental health.
There's a bicycle in the garage that we got Junior when he was maybe eleven or twelve. By the time he moved out he had long outgrown the bike. It's too small for me too, but I'm thinking, if I raise the seat up six inches or so, maybe it would do for bike rides around the local back roads. Shouldn't take more than ten minutes.
So I dig out the bike. Looks like there'll be two half-inch wrenches required, one to turn the nut and one to hold the head. This should be a snap. After all, I know for a fact I have multiple half-inch wrenches and sockets around the place.
I've had a life-long struggle putting tools away after I use them. When I was younger this wasn't so much of a problem. To find this or that, all you had to do was recall the last time you used this or that, and problem solved!
This system doesn't work that great anymore. What happens when you can't remember when you last used this or that? In this case, I was specifically looking for a half-inch combination wrench, a half-inch socket, and a ratchet, and I'd be good to go on adjusting the bicycle seat.
The socket was right in the case where it's supposed to be.
I found the wrench I needed about fifteen minutes later. After checking the basement, the woodshed, the Subaru, and the tractor, it turned up in the old pickup.
But I couldn't find a ratchet. Oh, I could find a quarter and a half-inch, but I needed a three-eight for this particular socket. I checked again everywhere I'd already checked.
Nothing. I've invested 45 minutes in looking for this ratchet.
Time for Plan B. Instead of using the ratchet on that nut I'll use the slip-joint pliers. That's when I realise the head of the bolt is welded to the frame and I never needed anything more than the half-inch wrench to begin with.
Seat adjusted, I'm now gonna put a little air in the tires. They're not flat, they just need to be firmed up a bit. Luckily, I found my air compressor right away!
Unfortunately, I had run over my three-prong extension cord with the lawnmower last summer, so I had to move the compressor to the plug, which turned into a twenty minute operation because it was packed in behind the snowblower and the lawnmower.
I finally plug it in. Nothing happens. I spend another ten minutes dinking around, looking for an on-off switch I may have inadvertently shut off. Normally it's always fired up as soon as I plug it in. I do some more sleuthing. Maybe the plug is defective? The ground plug was partially melted, but it's always worked on the extension cord.
Get the other three-prong extension cord out of the basement. Still nothing.
Then it occurs to me that maybe a breaker went and the outlet is dead. There's a panel right in the garage that I put in when I had the welding outlet installed. Son of a gun, I flipped all the breakers on and off, and that old compressor was humming away in no time!
Pumped up those tires and took the bike for a spin.
Nope, this won't work. Raising the seat didn't make the bicycle any bigger.
Good to know.
All in, that ten minute job took pretty much all day.
That's how we're weathering the lock-down here at Senility Acres.
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