I'd Rather Turn on a Lantern Then Curse the Damned Darkness...
Feeling at bit better today. I took a long nap yesterday which helped. My side is still very sore, though. Walking isn't a problem, despite the massive bruise on my hip. Bending and stretching and reaching with my right arm are. I've been able to lift things without escalating anything, so there is nothing structurally wrong, but the obliques and upper chest muscles complain mightily.
I still need to get ready to go camping, so I did a little more of my equipment inventory. Thank goodness that I checked out the tent and air mattress situation last week instead of waiting. Most of what's left is much easier to handle.
That said, why do I have five, count 'em five, camp lanterns? One is fueled by propane gas and will provide exterior light for the campsite. That's fine. Then there's the brand new LED lantern that I picked up the other day because LEDs are the coming thing. They don't run through batteries the way fluorescent tubes do. The thing is that when I bought that one, I thought I had at most two other battery-powered lanterns, the larger of which was in pieces on my workbench because I'd left the batteries inside it for too long and they'd corroded. Turns out I had three, all using fluorescent tubes, one small four-battery lamp, and two large eight-battery lamps. I don't remember the second large lantern at all. It's a larger version of the small fluorescent, so maybe I elided the two, but for the life of me I can't see why I ever thought I needed it. It's not like I need more than two lanterns in the tent (one to hang up, and one down next to the mattress).
Anyway, I finished cleaning the corrosion out of the other large lantern, and then I tested all of them. They all work, but I don't have enough batteries on hand to run all of them, so one of the big ones will stay home, I think.
Still trying to decide what sporting gear to bring. I doubt I'll be ready to swing a golf club a hundred times or more by Saturday, so I'll probably leave the clubs home. I doubt I'll be ready to play tennis, either, but a tennis racquet is neither heavy nor bulky, so that'll probably come. I'll still bring a bike, because that doesn't require the extreme upper body motion that the other items do. I need to swap out the road tires for hybrids, because the nearby bike trail is unpaved. I had thought about bringing the old Univega since it not only has hybrid tires, but I also have a set of wider tires for it. So I swapped in the wide tires about a week ago and took it for a spin. Boy, did it ever ride like a pig. It's a heavy bike to begin with, and the wide tires make it worse. Plus the rear derailleur needs adjusting badly. It kept changing gears on me without me touching the shifter. So I hung it back up on its storage hooks for another time.
What I will do instead is take the slick, thin road tires off the Fuji and substitute the knobbly hybrids that I took off the Univega. They're only slightly wider than the Fuji's road tires, so they should fit on the narrower rims well enough. We'll see. I'll try that tomorrow when I'm a little more healed.
I still need to get ready to go camping, so I did a little more of my equipment inventory. Thank goodness that I checked out the tent and air mattress situation last week instead of waiting. Most of what's left is much easier to handle.
That said, why do I have five, count 'em five, camp lanterns? One is fueled by propane gas and will provide exterior light for the campsite. That's fine. Then there's the brand new LED lantern that I picked up the other day because LEDs are the coming thing. They don't run through batteries the way fluorescent tubes do. The thing is that when I bought that one, I thought I had at most two other battery-powered lanterns, the larger of which was in pieces on my workbench because I'd left the batteries inside it for too long and they'd corroded. Turns out I had three, all using fluorescent tubes, one small four-battery lamp, and two large eight-battery lamps. I don't remember the second large lantern at all. It's a larger version of the small fluorescent, so maybe I elided the two, but for the life of me I can't see why I ever thought I needed it. It's not like I need more than two lanterns in the tent (one to hang up, and one down next to the mattress).
Anyway, I finished cleaning the corrosion out of the other large lantern, and then I tested all of them. They all work, but I don't have enough batteries on hand to run all of them, so one of the big ones will stay home, I think.
Still trying to decide what sporting gear to bring. I doubt I'll be ready to swing a golf club a hundred times or more by Saturday, so I'll probably leave the clubs home. I doubt I'll be ready to play tennis, either, but a tennis racquet is neither heavy nor bulky, so that'll probably come. I'll still bring a bike, because that doesn't require the extreme upper body motion that the other items do. I need to swap out the road tires for hybrids, because the nearby bike trail is unpaved. I had thought about bringing the old Univega since it not only has hybrid tires, but I also have a set of wider tires for it. So I swapped in the wide tires about a week ago and took it for a spin. Boy, did it ever ride like a pig. It's a heavy bike to begin with, and the wide tires make it worse. Plus the rear derailleur needs adjusting badly. It kept changing gears on me without me touching the shifter. So I hung it back up on its storage hooks for another time.
What I will do instead is take the slick, thin road tires off the Fuji and substitute the knobbly hybrids that I took off the Univega. They're only slightly wider than the Fuji's road tires, so they should fit on the narrower rims well enough. We'll see. I'll try that tomorrow when I'm a little more healed.