Yippee

First real outing

Down Roller Coaster Rd to Albertsons for a Starbucks. 

Home is uphill. 

Today's adventure

See the end of this for the sequel.

This is not amusing. It has nothing really to do with the RV or the bike, but I have to vent somewhere.

There is a new update to  Mac OS X. Apple asked if I wanted to install on my laptop. I said yes. Then I got a warning that there wasn't enough disk space on my laptop to do that. And then it went ahead and tried to install the upgrade anyway.

The result of that was a laptop that won't boot. I did get it to boot off of a CD-ROM version of the system software. And now, using software on that repair disk, I am restoring my laptop system as it was when it was backed up yesterday, creating a new system disk on an external drive.  That will take about four hours. 

The plan is then to boot the laptop off the external drive, and go about repairing whatever the damag is to the internal disk.  

More fun than pack rats, I'll tell ya.  Good thing almost all my crucial information is stored on the cloud, and that I can get at it by way of the iPad.

It's a good night for a Chinese buffet.

(The next day, 5/24 -- )

All seems to be well, although I'm a bit nervous because I don't exactly know what I did to fix it.  I managed to get the Finder  (Apple's confusingly-named user interface) user interface to appear.  At that point I was able to delete some files, thus alleviating the "out of disk space" problem.  I did a full backup at that point, and then installed the OS X update that started this.  As far as I can tell, the only loss is some video files on external drive.  No biggie.  Luckily.

We now resume our previously scheduled ramblings about e-bikes and RV's.

Practice

Spent the better part of an hour this afternoon practicing stopping without falling off the bike.  Increasingly tight turning radius; re-learning to lean into it. Starting from a standing stop without wobbling.  Reeling and writhing and fainting in coils ...

If nothing else, that's an hour of being outside and active which I wouldn't have had otherwise.

I put a handlebar mirror on harley this morning when I bought a helmet.  Thanks for worrying, Conrad!

I'd like to ride down to the bike path that goes along the Rillito, but that involves either riding down Oracle (many lanes of scary traffic) or along Roller Coaster Rd (2 lanes of twists and turns where cars can't see you around the corner, and everyone drives just a little too fast.

I did venture out into the world to the nearest Circle K.  I'd have gone in and bought something to drink to celebrate, but I forgot the lock.  Me, paranoid?

Soon I have to order a rack so harley can ride the Beast.

harley is here

harley is an electric-assisted bike distributed by e-joe;  they have three models; this is a refurbished 2013 "Anggun."

It arrived yesterday noon and I spent most of the day puzzling out how to put it together.  Essentially zero directions: here's your box, sign here, have a good day. 

If you're interested in learning more about bikes like this, check here.  What drew me to this one was the step-through frame (my back and hip won't make it over the bar in a conventional frame,) the battery capacity (which should give me a cruising radius of about 35-40 miles,) and the relatively low price.  The company mostly does business through local bike shops, but right now there's nowhere in Tucson that carries this.  So I'm kinda on my own.  

I went out and tooled around my complex and the parking lot of the church across the street for a while.  Some modest hills, which the thing ate for breakfast.   I'm still wobbly and all newbie about bike riding, but it's coming back fast.  And man, is it fun!  It has a max speed of 20mph; I got to 12 in the parking lot without sneezing. 

The back and hip problems have taken me out of a lot of activities I loved.  But this may put me back outdoors, and get me some exercise I badly need.  The power assist is only there if I want it; I can pedal on my own until I get tired, and then let harley take the edge off.  

I'm lovin' it.

Oh, and yes, I biffed once -- I was coming to a stop on an uphill preparing to cross the road, and just lost it.  Nothing worse than wounded pride and some mild road rash; harley wasn't fazed.  

Oh, and yes, I'm wearing a helmet.  

Now THAT'S Nav

View from drivers seat. My iPad 2 running Garmin's Navigon software. Securely held in a locking frame and support from Ram. 

The iPhone display was simply too small to be seen in the RV cab. Besides, this is so cool!

Sigh ... Them again

 Removed from power distribution center. This just might have something to do with the fuse keeps blowing. 

If you're not from this part of the country, it's a pack rat nest.