Base Camp Journal
(06/03/25)
Because of the year and country I'm living in now, each month has to begin with whether or not my monthly check came through, regardless of what blather counts as news or government announcements - it's infuriating...
Anyway, I spent the weekend buying groceries and the other few items to finish cleaning and tuning up the bike. A glance at the archives reminded me that this month marks a year since moving to my Nob Hill apartment/tiny ass room...
I picked up the car wax, shop towels and microfiber polishing cloth. I already had the rubber gloves, scrubby, aluminum foil and dish soap. The foil replaces steel wool pads to take any rust off the spokes...
Instead of doing this quickly, I'm gonna have to take the wheels off and remove the freewheel to do a proper clean and wax job that'll take a few hours on each one, from rim to hub. To be thorough, I'll also use rubbing alcohol to clean the braking surfaces of the rims as well as the rim brakes. Once that's all done I'll wax and polish the frame...
The 5th Floor view from one of the Hospital buildings where I have a Diabetes Group meeting, looking West over Portrero St., The Mission District, Noe Valley, and Twin Peaks. Once a month on a Monday, I touch base with my team and compare notes on my progress...
Anyway, I'm working on the June 6th episode of the show now and will do the wheels on the weekend...
(06/07/25)
Ok, Satuday morning I lazed around watching a bunch of cat videos and "Andor" analysis pieces, then got to work around Noon...
Instead of breaking out the service rack, I took off the wheels for ease of use...
Covering the rear sprockets and the spoke protector - see, they don't look that bad...
Warm soapy water for scrubbing...
after cleaning the wheels, only a cosmetic layer of surface rust remained on the spokes...
The rear wheel only had a few that looked like this. a couple rounds with WD-40, elbow grease and balled up aluminum foil took care of them...
The front wheel looked a bit worse, but it was still cosmetic...
Applying the liquid wax and wiping it off didn't really make much of a difference, but it was five hours later when I finished, so I put off waxing the frame until Sunday...
(06/08/25)
Ok, Sunday was more lazing around and grocery shopping, then roughly half an hour spent waxing and polishing the bike frame. It's kinda anti-climactic cause you can't really see any difference inside. we didn't even get much sun through the window to see any shine. Anyway, just in case I got any wax on the wheel rims, I'll wipe them with rubbing alcohol before going on my next ride, but the bike is clean and ready for summer...
(07/14/25)
Ok, continuing the current journal page...
I did my intensive week-long blood sugar test in late June with the result at an A1c of 5.8 according to my chart, and 6.1 according to my phone app. Either number is just fine, proving that my 'Salad and Salsa Diet' is working well for me...
So the Summer blazes on elsewhere in the country while it feels like Spring in the city...
I'm finally getting on with fixing a neglected piece of gear - assembling the trailer frame...
I pulled it down off the boxes, took off the top rails cause they were attached backwards for the move, then oriented the frame on the floor. I didn't really need the arrow - the battery box mounts are near the front. Because I don't have a lot of elbow room, I knew this would be a sweaty job...
The hardest task was to hold the bolts in place while mounting the cargo trunk...
Even with the trunk properly oriented, it was still a hassle getting it mounted. Now that it's done, I might replace those temporary wing nuts with proper nylon lock nuts...
Ok, it took about a half hour, but now it's done. I don't know when I'll be doing a hard core long distance bike tour (that's what my research into a motorized gas bike was all about), but I'd still like to do at least one day ride or a short 2-3 day bikepacking jaunt. The country's hard shift into fascism gives me concerns about encountering a gang of red hats on the road or at a stealth camp, but I guess I'll have to get over it...
(08/17/25)
Yeah, it's kinda obvious that I'm putting the whole set of Summer entries on this page, so...
Ok, taking a break from the podcast to update my tweaks on the 'Salad and Salsa Diet'.
I've been consistently going with the salad kits sold in my usual store, but lately I've noticed that no matter what the expiration date says on the package, more and more of them show lettuce that's already wilted and starting to turn, so before I wind up with a mild stomach upset I made a change last week, buying separate items to customize my meal...
I started with a base 'Veggie Blend' of Iceberg & green lettuce, red cabbage, radish and carrots in a bag that lets me see if there's any wilting at all. Out of the vast selection of optional extras I chose sliced mushrooms, tomatoes, black olives, canned chicken for the protein, shredded cheese, bacon bits, a little onion powder, and Balsamic vinegar instead of the heavier ranch or blue cheese dressings that come in a kit...
The other advantage in my custom salad is portion control. This example looks and feels suitably filling as it's more than what a salad kit provides, plus it's only 30-40% of the veggie bag, making my custom salad a better bang for my grocery buck. I think I'll go with this from now on...
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