Morning Adventures

I have had an interesting series of morning "adventures" this week. The first two were not planned, nor terribly enjoyable, though I did manage to find the humor (or irony, as the case may be) in them and keep smiling.

Wednesday
I have had a hard time admitting to myself that my commute to work takes longer than the half-hour that it used to (including the tram ride and changing clothes), so I have had a hard time getting out the door on time in the morning. On Wednesday I was determined to be at work on time, or even 5 minutes early, so I was all set and ready to go 10 minutes before my customary rush time. But... when I got to my bike I discovered a large shard of metal sticking out of a very flat back tire. Sigh. So much for being early.

I decided to just switch out the inner tube entirely, since the hole was so big... but when I got out my box of spare bike stuff I realized that the spare tubes I had were for my old tires and were the wrong size. So, I had to patch the hole as best I could and use the same tube. I figured that, as long as I was already half an hour late for work, I may as well make it 45 minutes and stop by a bike shop on my way in to get a spare tube in case the patch didn't hold. So I took a slight detour on my route to go by CityBikes... but it turns out that they don't open until 11:00. Neither does the CityBikes Annex, 13 blocks down the road. So much for being prepared.

Luckily, my tire held out and got me to work, though it was definitely leaking. I pumped it again before I left work, and rode straight to the bike shop downtown, where I bought a replacement tube, a spare tube, and a refill for my patch kit. I had just enough time to bike back to PSU and change my tire again before class. All's well that ends well, I suppose... though I think I still have bike grease under my fingernails....

Friday
My Friday adventure actually starts with an adventure last weekend -- getting my heater to work. To make a long story short, a technician had to come out to check it out, and eventually to reconnect the sparking cable so that the heater would light. He turned the heater on before he left, but I immediately turned it off again because I was baking and the apartment was plenty warm already. So the pilot light is on (and the heater makes a constant background noise -- just like the sound of your neighbor taking a shower in the next apartment over, when you can hear that the water is going -- it's driving me nuts), but I haven't turned the heat on. This is for a couple of reasons: 1) I'm cheap (I mean, frugal), and I would rather wear long johns and sweaters (as I'm doing now) than turn on the heat, and 2) the heater is placed right next to the attic door and the entry stairs, and does a very good job of spewing heat directly onto the landing, from which I guess I would just have to hope that it goes into the other rooms rather than up to the attic. 1 + 2 = I don't want to pay to heat my attic and my entryway.

Okay, enough background. So, on Friday morning I decided to test out the heater, because Antonia was coming to visit, and it's not polite to freeze one's house guests. So I got up, shivered through bed-making and tooth-brushing, and then turned the heater on to "2" before going into the living room to do my stretches. About a minute later the wonderful morning peace is shattered by the incredibly loud and obnoxious sound of my smoke alarm. At 6:00 in the morning. I am sure my neighbors were not very pleased with me. I was not very pleased with my heater. Apparently it had collected some dust (and goodness knows what else) over the summer of dis-use, and was burning it off. It smelled terrible. So, instead of having a nice toasty warm apartment that morning, I had to open all the windows and turn the fan on to get the smoke and the smell out. It was not a warm morning.

On Friday when I got home, and when the outside temperature had risen a few degrees, I turned the heater on again (after disconnecting my smoke alarm), and ran it with all the windows open and the fan on for a bit, to try to burn off whatever was in there and get rid of the smell. I hate to just blow the heat right out the window (I'm paying for it, after all!), but I do want to be able to use the heater when I really need it, without having it smell up the place and set off the smoke alarm. I think most of the nasty stuff did burn off, but it still doesn't smell too good when the heater is on. And I haven't put the battery back in my smoke detector yet, either....

Saturday
My Saturday adventure was much better -- both planned and pleasant, thank goodness. I went to the library book sale -- wheeeee! :) It was held in what used to be a Wild Oats store, and it's supposed to be the largest used book sale in Oregon, with about 100,000 items. It goes all weekend (it started with a members-only pre-sale on Friday night, and ends with a 75% off day on Monday), but I wanted to get there at the start, so I went this morning. I thought about going back this afternoon, because they kept putting out new books, but I didn't make it back. Maybe tomorrow. :) I didn't find any of the books I was looking for in particular, but I did come away with a few fun things, and one useful one -- a GRE prep book with CD, which will hopefully inspire me to actually study for the exam that's coming up next month. :} It was fun just to wander amongst the books, never knowing what you'll find, and being in the company of so many fellow bibliophiles. Not that anybody actually talked to each other much, with everybody in his own little world, moving along the tables with eyes roving the titles. Good bookish energy, though. It's been far too long since I've been to a library book sale. I didn't think they even had them here, because the library has a full-time book store (called the "Title Wave") -- but this is the Friends of Multnomah County Library, and apparently they do sales twice a year. It's just not advertised very well on the library website for some reason, so I never knew about them before. But now I know, and I'm very glad I do. Hooray for library book sales! :)

So, I think planned weekend morning adventures are good, but other work-day morning adventures are probably to be avoided. :} On the bright side, we finally have a new garage door, so after nearly two months of lugging my bike upstairs every day I finally get to park it in the garage again! :)