Wow, what a whirlwind the past few days have been. Despite (or because of) everything going on, I was able to get out for a ride this afternoon. Looking through my mileage log, I noticed I am mountain biking further into the season than I've ever done before.
Wednesday evening, Maggie came in from Rochester to spend the night and meet up with Mom and Dad for the trip to Utica for Thanksgiving. She and I brewed with Chris. Thursday morning, we cleaned up from the brewing (which is always a mess) and played some Wii while waiting for Mom and Dad to arrive. They picked us up and we headed to Utica to celebrate Thanksgiving with the Riordans, which was a feasting fest. I typically only overeat once a year and it is always on Thanksgiving. My favorite dish this year was the candied yams. I think I am becoming a fan, but then again, anything you smoother in sugar and more sugar is probably going to turn out pretty delicious.
Friday morning Dad and I began the process of replacing a garage door. Note: if the printed instruction manual and the DVD instructions are not in synch, this could lead to having to redo a few steps... Maggie and Mom graciously helped out by cleaning things around the house, something that falls below biking on my priority list.
The demolition destined door.
First we dismantled the old, rotting door, which wasn't too much of a challenge. Next we framed in the opening for the new door (it is one foot shorter). Once this was completed we started assembling the new door. The printed instructions never instructed us to install the fourth panel and we moved on to installing the tracking... this required us to redo a few steps the next day. Friday, we were able to get the track installed and thought we only had a few hours of work to wrap things up.
Day one progress - the two step ladders were very handy for vertically challenged folk such as ourselves.
Saturday dawned cooler and we started to reevaluate our progress from the day before. We thought the track looked good and installed the fourth panel by taking apart the roller assembly. Once it was in, we removed the nails securing the panels and raised the door half-way to check for alignment. All seemed well but when we put it up all the way, the tracks were being forced out - way out. We realized we failed to make sure they were square to the door, which required us to redo the track hangers. The instructions told us to make sure the diagonals across the two hangers were equal but we failed to realize this didn't necessarily mean they were square. Once they were squared, the door worked fine and we installed the springs. I set about preparing to pour some concrete to repair the asphalt/concrete that was broken at the entrance. I promptly smashed my hand with the hammer and will likely have a pretty amazing bruise for quite a while. We ran short on concrete so Dad continued mixing while I went to get more - 240 pounds in the boot of Bonnie makes her ride a little harsher... In all it took 460 pounds of mix to fill in the hole I made to get to mostly solid subgrade.
Concrete poured, door aligned (for the most part - it is off 3/4" on one side) and working, sunlight gone and cold weather firmly settled in, we called it a day. Dad wanted to install some siding but we will wait for another time.
The evolution of the drill - chest drill on the right with a ~12" long 1/2 bit
Today I got up and installed the handles and picked up from the project. I used a chest drill my grandfather had in his workshop to drill the 1/2" hole required. Now I am truly thankful for the invention of the electric drill. This device took all my weight and what minimal arm strength I have to operate... I also needed to reinstall the sensor on my automatic door opener as it was being tripped by the bracing on the back of the door every time it closed. I guess it was a weekend for garage doors.
So with all of the projects (mostly) addressed, it was time to take advantage of the very unseasonably warm weather and get out for a ride. Like last weekend, I went to Green Lakes where I knew I wouldn't get shot. I got in about an hours worth of riding before the sun set and took away the 54 degree temps. Without cloud cover, once the sun goes down it gets chilly fast. I felt decent on the bike, more so than last weekend, and made fewer stops to take pictures, something I typically do to capture the moment and my breath. It was a bit muddier this week and my tires, again, were too inflated, leading to some "holy cow, I am glad I cleared that" moments. I managed to keep the rubber side down for the entire ride.
If this weather continues, I may be able to pass my second lowest season total.
One of many deer who call Green Lakes home - and creates the need to debate what should be done about them.
No comments:
Post a Comment