Feeling my age a bit

Because I'm a bit useless too lazy impecunious all of the foregoing, I needed to dispose of two dumpy bags of garden waste.  It gave Mum and Dad a chance to have lunch at my house and for me to borrow the car.  Well, 'be a passenger in'.  Our garden waste bin collection is really expensive these days, but for free I can go to the tip ad hoc.  The sole escapee from my wheelie binful of mouldering tree cuttings was this tiny snail, so I did my best not to crush it.

Tip visited, and after a quick nip round the supermarket, a very lazy lunch was had, as we sat in and out of the sun.  It's only May and de para dos meterology a Midi Lothian…scorchio!

It was only while showing Dad the new-old cranks on my bike that I noticed that the left-hand one had ended up alarmingly close to the chainstay – see pic!  Close enough that I could flex it by hand to make it touch.  A chance discovery suggested a longer crank axle existed, and could be had from Halfords of all places.  So while Mum slept off her Covid jag on my settee, Dad and I whizzed out yet again.  The 20-something kid serving me in the nearest branch needs to take some bike component history classes because your gal is a former bike mechanic and I went all lecturer and ended up telling him his job so that he could confirm he didn't have what I needed.  A bit more driving and success was had in another branch though – hurrah!

And so once Mum and Dad had gone home, a couple of hours was spent taking things to bits again.  I was also able to install a replacement gear lever that arrived today, because the original one is losing its clicks and I've spent the last 700 miles babying it.  So, this time around we might just be in business.