Return to the Smog Test
As might be guessed by the title of this post, I returned to the smog test only to discover that, Lo! It's still not working. I should've known this wouldn't be over so easily :/
So apparently what got replaced was just the thermostat, the thing that reads the sensor, which since the needle now moves on my vehicle, probably was, in fact, genuinely broken (because I do actually recall thinking it was odd that the needle never seemed to move sometime ago). Smog guys agree that the temperature is probably what's holding it up--they hooked up the reader and revved up my engine and showed me that it never reads above 123, and it apparently needs to get into the realm of, oh, 165 or so in order to gather the right data for the smog test. (I think it's degrees, but the smog guys just speak in the numbers read out by the little computer reader device. I kinda hope it's Fahrenheit because otherwise my engine gets a lot hotter than I want to think about, but I don't know. It does have tiny explosions going on inside of it.) So, the sensor may also be dead, and that by itself isn't all that quick a fix. It's going to have to be at least overnight at the shop, possibly more than one. I would have tried this over the weekend, except I needed the car to get to my Tour de Cure ride this morning, so I couldn't really afford to do that.
I have an appointment for Wednesday, except the usual guy who drives me around, Joe, is now laid off and most of my other coworkers are either too swamped with meetings to come get me, on vacation, or do not themselves get here by car... On Saturday I stopped by the new location of the bike shop where I purchased my current bicycle, Talaria, and picked up a $50 U-Lock that comes with a cable; Eva suggested it as a more secure means of locking up one's bike, which she has been using with her bike on the occasions that she rides into her workplace. At least the U-Lock portion would take a longer time to get through, but... we do suspect it's the construction guys, and they do have quite a bit at their disposal. I'm not happy with it, but I think my best bet is to take Talaria with me, drop off Sleipnir, ride to work and use Talaria as my means of transport until I can pick up the car, and then try to assess the situation regarding whether I think I can safely stow my bicycle at my workplace. Honestly, I miss having the ride and I think my sleep was genuinely doing better when I was getting out into the sunlight twice a day. Obviously, this won't work so well during overtime mode, which unfortunately this coming week is, but if it comes down to leaving early so I'm not biking in the dark and coming in on the weekend to do the overtime, that's probably what I'll do :( It all really just blows.
In other news, Whole Foods seems to be expanding their repertoire of potted herbs they're peddling by the entrance--a few months ago I managed to get chamomile (German, not the decorative Roman), and suddenly that day (after the depressing time at the smog check and the call to my mechanic) they were carrying shiso plants. Both the normal green one and the red kind! Naturally I had to get one of each. I'm hoping they won't die, but as I was digging up the dirt in the pot I put them in, I came across the most American earthworm. (And by American, I mean it was a seriously fat earthworm.) Besides being worried that I might have injured him in my digging (and worrying that maybe there wan another one in there that I hadn't seen and potentially killed or seriously injured or something), I suspect him of eating the sprouted onion that was previously planted in the pot which suddenly withered after flowering and, when pulled up, was completely hollowed out from the bottom. Probably ought to say a prayer for the shiso :/ All the same, I had thought all the earthworms dead on my balcony after the Christmas drought that apparently caused them all to attempt to flee their pots and shrivel up on my balcony, so that might be a good sign that there are still a few kicking around. Or that new ones are still being brought up by whatever means worms use to scale 3-story buildings.
Also, as mentioned earlier, I did my Tour de Cure race today (6/8), which was mildly confusing until I got to the first rest stop, which I'd always remembered as the second rest stop, when I found out that the reason everything seemed familiar but also weird is because we were riding the route from previous years in reverse. Apparently due to someone making a complaint of some kind? Weird. I didn't get lost this time during the race, although I did make a wrong turn on the way to the race and got mildly lost, but still made it there in time. Mom was very seriously worried about me doing this with no support/presence of people I know, which felt odd given that I'd done that the first year I did the Tour de Cure and at least one other year outside of that, but it's generally not productive to try and apply logical thinking to her thoughts. It felt good to ride again, but man, it was scorching hot! I have not felt compelled to drink so much water in a very long time, and I had a terrible headache for the rest of today from the heat long after being relieved of it. (And yes, even after drinking tons more water.) I forgot to put sunscreen on my legs, so I apparently have some new tan lines there, because scrubbing in the shower did not remove the new lines. (Oddly enough, they don't hurt, either.) Riding in the new Tour de Cure pants I'd gotten last year has given me some faith in foam padding, which I haven't had faith in before (my other pair is gel padded). I also saw a person on a unicycle who wasn't actually part of the Tour de Cure race (it goes through a popular cycling area, which is how I got lost last year because I was blindly following a group of non-Tour cyclists), and it looked like a mountain bike unicycle, which was being ridden on the adjacent dirt road leading into one of the parks. Huh. As expected, my hill stamina is next to nil, and I take a long time to struggle up them even in my easiest gear, but I seem to do alright on the straightaways; it's funny how you sort of get to know the cyclists in your general vicinity, pace-wise, because some of them will break away and pass me on the uphills, but then I'll be passing them once it levels out. I'm assuming it's kind of an endurance vs. power thing. One day I will have some time and maybe companionship to do some hill training, but until then, I'm sticking to just the 50k version.
When I got home from the Tour de Cure ride, having had lunch and gotten a free massage there from what I believe is a massage school that brings their students to such charity sporting events, I was exhausted. I actually laid down after I had taken my shower, but couldn't fall asleep :( Too many things on my mind, too many little things tearing away at my heart. My stomach has been bothering me since I got back, too, and I'm not sure if it's related to basically doing a super long ride when I haven't really been doing anything physical for the past week since Kerry has backed out of nearly every climbing session and I haven't been able to ride to work... or maybe it's cross-contamination or the buns or veggie burger having eggs in it (as some of them are wont to do). Uuuuurgh, I don't feel so good, even now :( I hope I can get to sleep sooner now -_-
So apparently what got replaced was just the thermostat, the thing that reads the sensor, which since the needle now moves on my vehicle, probably was, in fact, genuinely broken (because I do actually recall thinking it was odd that the needle never seemed to move sometime ago). Smog guys agree that the temperature is probably what's holding it up--they hooked up the reader and revved up my engine and showed me that it never reads above 123, and it apparently needs to get into the realm of, oh, 165 or so in order to gather the right data for the smog test. (I think it's degrees, but the smog guys just speak in the numbers read out by the little computer reader device. I kinda hope it's Fahrenheit because otherwise my engine gets a lot hotter than I want to think about, but I don't know. It does have tiny explosions going on inside of it.) So, the sensor may also be dead, and that by itself isn't all that quick a fix. It's going to have to be at least overnight at the shop, possibly more than one. I would have tried this over the weekend, except I needed the car to get to my Tour de Cure ride this morning, so I couldn't really afford to do that.
I have an appointment for Wednesday, except the usual guy who drives me around, Joe, is now laid off and most of my other coworkers are either too swamped with meetings to come get me, on vacation, or do not themselves get here by car... On Saturday I stopped by the new location of the bike shop where I purchased my current bicycle, Talaria, and picked up a $50 U-Lock that comes with a cable; Eva suggested it as a more secure means of locking up one's bike, which she has been using with her bike on the occasions that she rides into her workplace. At least the U-Lock portion would take a longer time to get through, but... we do suspect it's the construction guys, and they do have quite a bit at their disposal. I'm not happy with it, but I think my best bet is to take Talaria with me, drop off Sleipnir, ride to work and use Talaria as my means of transport until I can pick up the car, and then try to assess the situation regarding whether I think I can safely stow my bicycle at my workplace. Honestly, I miss having the ride and I think my sleep was genuinely doing better when I was getting out into the sunlight twice a day. Obviously, this won't work so well during overtime mode, which unfortunately this coming week is, but if it comes down to leaving early so I'm not biking in the dark and coming in on the weekend to do the overtime, that's probably what I'll do :( It all really just blows.
In other news, Whole Foods seems to be expanding their repertoire of potted herbs they're peddling by the entrance--a few months ago I managed to get chamomile (German, not the decorative Roman), and suddenly that day (after the depressing time at the smog check and the call to my mechanic) they were carrying shiso plants. Both the normal green one and the red kind! Naturally I had to get one of each. I'm hoping they won't die, but as I was digging up the dirt in the pot I put them in, I came across the most American earthworm. (And by American, I mean it was a seriously fat earthworm.) Besides being worried that I might have injured him in my digging (and worrying that maybe there wan another one in there that I hadn't seen and potentially killed or seriously injured or something), I suspect him of eating the sprouted onion that was previously planted in the pot which suddenly withered after flowering and, when pulled up, was completely hollowed out from the bottom. Probably ought to say a prayer for the shiso :/ All the same, I had thought all the earthworms dead on my balcony after the Christmas drought that apparently caused them all to attempt to flee their pots and shrivel up on my balcony, so that might be a good sign that there are still a few kicking around. Or that new ones are still being brought up by whatever means worms use to scale 3-story buildings.
Also, as mentioned earlier, I did my Tour de Cure race today (6/8), which was mildly confusing until I got to the first rest stop, which I'd always remembered as the second rest stop, when I found out that the reason everything seemed familiar but also weird is because we were riding the route from previous years in reverse. Apparently due to someone making a complaint of some kind? Weird. I didn't get lost this time during the race, although I did make a wrong turn on the way to the race and got mildly lost, but still made it there in time. Mom was very seriously worried about me doing this with no support/presence of people I know, which felt odd given that I'd done that the first year I did the Tour de Cure and at least one other year outside of that, but it's generally not productive to try and apply logical thinking to her thoughts. It felt good to ride again, but man, it was scorching hot! I have not felt compelled to drink so much water in a very long time, and I had a terrible headache for the rest of today from the heat long after being relieved of it. (And yes, even after drinking tons more water.) I forgot to put sunscreen on my legs, so I apparently have some new tan lines there, because scrubbing in the shower did not remove the new lines. (Oddly enough, they don't hurt, either.) Riding in the new Tour de Cure pants I'd gotten last year has given me some faith in foam padding, which I haven't had faith in before (my other pair is gel padded). I also saw a person on a unicycle who wasn't actually part of the Tour de Cure race (it goes through a popular cycling area, which is how I got lost last year because I was blindly following a group of non-Tour cyclists), and it looked like a mountain bike unicycle, which was being ridden on the adjacent dirt road leading into one of the parks. Huh. As expected, my hill stamina is next to nil, and I take a long time to struggle up them even in my easiest gear, but I seem to do alright on the straightaways; it's funny how you sort of get to know the cyclists in your general vicinity, pace-wise, because some of them will break away and pass me on the uphills, but then I'll be passing them once it levels out. I'm assuming it's kind of an endurance vs. power thing. One day I will have some time and maybe companionship to do some hill training, but until then, I'm sticking to just the 50k version.
When I got home from the Tour de Cure ride, having had lunch and gotten a free massage there from what I believe is a massage school that brings their students to such charity sporting events, I was exhausted. I actually laid down after I had taken my shower, but couldn't fall asleep :( Too many things on my mind, too many little things tearing away at my heart. My stomach has been bothering me since I got back, too, and I'm not sure if it's related to basically doing a super long ride when I haven't really been doing anything physical for the past week since Kerry has backed out of nearly every climbing session and I haven't been able to ride to work... or maybe it's cross-contamination or the buns or veggie burger having eggs in it (as some of them are wont to do). Uuuuurgh, I don't feel so good, even now :( I hope I can get to sleep sooner now -_-