All is well here. Nothing unusual or good or bad to report. Mostly staying home awaiting the vaccine. Aerostich open and generally solvent. We are making good incremental progress on past debts and correcting past mistakes. Yesterday our bank let us know our PPP loan was forgiven, which is a pretty big deal for us. Next is applying for a second round PPP loan which we qualify for.
Wife is fine. Family members all fine. Co-workers all fine. New Years and Xmas stuff fine.
Have ridden my old 75 XL250 on the bay twice so far. Its 25-year-old studded Trellborg tires and tubes are ancient, but they still hold air. Have not had these winter wheels back on this bike for many years but it’s been a goal to get it going on them again ever since moving to this location three years ago. Now waiting for a blizzard so I can go out and play around in traffic a little. Note: During blizzards there actually is zero traffic, which is why it’s fun to hoon around on the street during them. Probably will never put the summer tire wheels back on it again.
The bay ice is now between 8” and 11” thick in most places, and is covered with 2”-5” of crusty snow. About 14” minimum is needed to be considered safe for cars and trucks. Lots of ice fisherman out there now anyway. Maybe 50 every day. A couple have ATV’s to help them drag their tents and gear out, but most just walk a block or two pulling the plastic sled-tubs behind. They strike their tents every night, come in, and do it all again the following day. Fishing is mostly walleye moving into the bay from the lake, heading upriver so they are pre-positioned for spring spawning. Keepers by law must be 15” or longer and the catching is pretty good, I guess. Walleye are a tasty eating species. A few Sturgeons and Northern are biting too, but they are not sought after. Not planning to invest in the equipment even though this place is perfectly located for convenient ice fishing. My wife does not like eating fish or even the smell of fish cooking, otherwise I would be tempted. But I probably wouldn’t invest in the pop-up ice tent, just a hole auger (electric) and some tip ups. Simply walk out there in the morning and put a few lines down and then come back in and watch for the flags through a binocular from the comfort of our living room. It would be perfect. And so easy.
Also just put studded tires on my old fat bike about two weeks ago for the first time ever and have had that out on the ice too. Works OK but not nearly as much fun as riding the old Honda. Not even close. Very slow huffing and puffing pedaling it through the crunchy snow layer. (Wife took photos of me riding the old XL and put them up on the Aerostich Instagram a few days ago if you want to see.)
Last night coming back from Aerostich I got a flat on my studded-tire electric bicycle, which is now on its third winter with just over 2,000 miles of use. It’s starting to develop a nice worn-beater patina. This wasn’t a fancy high-end model to begin with so no regrets. Only 36v with an older Bfang electric motor in the frame but still good for 23mph across level ground with light effort. It’s crappy rechargeable battery pack now much diminished from when new. Range on a cold day is down to less than ten miles, so it will soon need to be rebuilt or replaced. My one-way commute is about 4.5 miles, so we’re getting close. The battery pack is made like all of them -- a bunch of individual cells tack-welded together then encased. The cost and quality of these sub-cells varies greatly, up to 90%, depending partly on country of cell origin and brand. Not a do-it-yourself job to fix this. Haven’t decided what to do yet. Walked the bike home the last mile and a half at around 8PM and 22 degrees, which is warm for this time of year here. This morning I took the tire off and found the leak was caused by a ½” sliver of steel which maybe was a snowplow shaving. That’s what it looked like. Also discovered this will be the fourth patch on this inner tube. It’s probably been a year and a half since the last one, which is so long I don’t remember exactly when or any other details. I knew I’d previously patched it, but not how long ago or how many times.
So, there’s nothing spectacular going on here, just day-to-day life, which, in the broader stressful societal/economic/political/governmental/climactic context is pretty darn good right now, I think. So much to be grateful for. Sick of wearing a mask when going out for work, groceries and everything else, but other than that I could get used to winter pandemic-living pretty easily. Plenty of time for reading, household and workshop projects, etc, and also riding (and pedaling) around on studded tires.
-- Mr. Subjective, January 8, 2021
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