Categories
Cycling

Cycling Update

I’m still putting miles on my road bike, up to nearly 200 now and I’m rather due for that first service. The bike is holding up wonderfully and I’m showing some signs of progress. I’m not huffing and puffing after a good hour ride now and I’m definitely getting faster.

One thing that was driving me crazy was looking over my shoulder to check for cars. I don’t ride on especially busy roads, but when I have to turn left or cross an intersection, it can get a little dicey. I’m getting better at turning and looking back over my shoulder without swerving into traffic, but after a close call with a speeding car passing me on a turn, I decided it might be time to look at getting a mirror.

First, I picked up a little helmet-mounted mirror from my local bike shop. It seems like it would have worked well, except for one little problem. It doesn’t mount to my helmet. It needs a thin lip to mount to, like a visor or the rim of an older helmet and my helmet has neither. After doing a bit more research, I decided to try a glasses-mount mirror instead and settled on the Take-A-Look from Bike Peddler.

I’ve ridden with it a few times now and I love it. I reversed the mounting a bit so I could mount it on the left side of my glasses and so only one little prong is on the inside part of the stem. It’s a bit more comfortable that way and seems plenty stable. The mirror doesn’t shake much, it’s reasonably clear and I can see what’s coming up behind me. It probably looks a little dorky, but hey, I’m already wearing spandex and day-glo yellow.

Categories
Etc

Amazon Prime, Free for 1 Month

Amazon is running a promotion on their Prime service, giving you one month for free. We’ve been prime members for the last three years or so and we love the service. It damn near pays for itself come holiday season… After the first month, it’s $79 a year for free two-day shipping on many items and $3.99 next-day service.

Here’s what they have to say about it:

What is Amazon Prime?

Amazon Prime is a popular Amazon.com program that gives its members unlimited Free Two-Day Shipping on millions of eligible items. All new members are offered a free trial, allowing them to experience the convenience of shopping with Amazon Prime benefits for an entire month at no charge.

Amazon Prime members enjoy the following benefits:

Fast Delivery

  • Unlimited Free Two-Day Shipping on millions of items
  • Upgrades to One-Day (Overnight) Shipping for just $3.99 per item

Simple Shopping

  • No minimum purchase required
  • Members-only 1-Click buttons on product pages
  • No need to think about shipping charges

Convenient Sharing

  • Members can share benefits with up to four family members living in the same household

Free Trial

  • Amazon Prime new subscribers are invited to try Amazon Prime free, for one month.

After the Free Trial period, customers will be automatically charged the $79 annual fee unless they choose not to upgrade to regular annual memberships at or before the end of the trial period.

Categories
Food Photography

Tomatoes are almost here

Brandywines

The tomatoes in our EarthBox are coming along nicely, though the plant has grown to exceed all expectation. It’s upper branches are not entangling the basketball net, about seven feet off the ground. It’s drinking about 2 liters of water a day (!!!) and though we had some problems with blossom end rot, a quick application of some lime seems to have fixed that up. I definitely want to try growing more in the EarthBox… Sheri put some basil in and said was just amazingly large. As a kid, I got to pick a few seeds to plant in our family garden and I always went for the tallest, biggest, fattest variety of whatever I could find: giant sunflowers, huge watermelon and pumpkin, tall corn. It rarely ended up being as large as the seed package claimed it could be, but I was all about growing the biggest thing I could. The EarthBox definitely delivers on growing stuff big and increasing yeilds.

Jalepenos

Our jalepeno plant is also doing pretty well in its standard container. It doesn’t drink quite a much water, but it looks like we’ll be making homemade salsa pretty soon…

Categories
Etc Family

The new measure of distance @ Always in Motion

Jeff came up with new measurement for distance, Effective Cry Hours. If you have kids, you’ll understand.

Categories
Etc

Motorcycle For Sale

My bike is for sale if anyone is interested. See the page on Craigslist for more details.