bike/grad school update

I finally got my 3-speed into a shop to have the internal hub overhauled. I also managed to have my work pay for it because of some pitch-hitting that I did over the weekend.

I won an ebay auction for a shimano rear derailleur for the mtn bike. The seller hasn't told me how much the shipping is yet.

I got an email from Saarland. I do not have the "pertinent prerequisites". Being ever tenacious I emailed them back to make sure. The coordinator told me in February that they would not make a decision about me until May.

A part of me is relieved. I don't really want to leave the comfyness of the Twin Cities.

Impatient for a bike

This might seem really lame but I have spent the last 4 months trying to rehabilitate 2 different bikes in a weird space race to see which one will be rideable first with the goal to maybe ride in the MN Ironman in the end of April.

pink 3-speed Hawthorne that I bought on a whim: Its attaction is the motorcyclesque gear shift (which, although super cool, is not that practical). Up until about 2 weeks ago, its main problem was the fact that I needed to take off the chain to replace the back inner tube. Now that I've finally got that problem fixed, thanks to a panicked call to my roommate's father, I can't seem to figure out how to hook up the internal hub gear system. To get the wheel off I simply unscrewed it. Now it refuses to screw on properly.

dark metallic blue 21-speed Bridgestone mountain bike that Dad bought for me in the early 1990's when I got sick of my Huffy "road" bike: In 2001 the back wheel was stolen. Solveig helped me purchase the new back wheel this Christmas. But I have resigned to the fact that my rear derailleur needs to be replaced. It is out of alignment and missing pieces. Plus my derailleur tubing is like paper mache

I think that what I would really want is a touring bike that is all put together now. Something that I can load up to commute or ride faster down the river roads.

Perhaps after I find out what will be happening to me in the next few years I can make these decisions.

Read to your children on the bus

I was on the bus yesterday and first of all I believe that the Transit Librarian drove me down Nicollet on the 18.

Anyway, once at 4th and Nicollet there was a family with a small boy, about the age of Josua in Life is Beautiful. The reason why I thought of the little boy from that film is because he had the same intonation and voice. They were speaking a Slavic language that I couldn't pin down exactly. Anyway, we all got on the 16 going east and the family had a huge selection of seats to choose from because it was noonish on a Saturday. They sat all together in 2 seats with the boy in between on their laps. They were sitting behind me so I sort of zoned out and watched the landscape flip past until at Cedar I realized that the couple had whipped out a book and was reading to the child. I was curious about the content and the father was reading it rather quickly. At Cedar he said, "Ama, Ama, Ama" and continued as if to say, "said the blah blah blah blah blah".

Needless to say, it was very comforting and the mother laughed everysooften as well.

When I got up I ruled out a Slavic language that uses Cyrillic because I peeked over their shoulder and saw the Roman alphabet. Polish?