It's really hot!

Yesterday was our annual Club Lite Triathlon. Ride, swim and eat. Sadly, I had to pass on this arduous event for an excellent adventure in my attic. A few weeks ago, the outlets in the garage went dead and I had no luck in finding the cause. Merrill from church is an electrical engineer and has all the probes and meters to test and trace wires, and he offered to come by early yesterday to help. The "help" amounted to doing the work. All I could do was provide wiring info, get cold water, feed slack extension cord, etc. Merrill was on his knee pads in the attic, following wires to see which outlets they serviced. Our attic exhaust vent fan is thermostat controlled. It comes on at about 120 F. It came on about an hour into our efforts. In the end, we did find the fault and fixed it. All our exterior outlets had also gone dead, and it may have been something plugged in outside that did the damage. We sweated off several pounds in the 3 hours we worked on it.

Since I was already as grungy and yucky as all get out, I decided to do the lawn. Xander did it last week, and he takes the Carl Edwards approach. The mower leans on two wheels as he speeds around the corners, leaving curved Mohawks of grass everywhere. He also does not use the edger or string trimmer. This week, the lawn looks GOOD. I've been watering the lawn on a rotating schedule in the 3 weeks that no rain has fallen. It's not lush, but it looks okay. We don't have a sprinkler system, so it's me and hoses with various sprinklers to fit the spaces needed. I hate how the automated systems spray so much into the street or on concrete. At least my water gets on the grass.

Thursday was a hot day as well, but Frank and I again enjoyed a good ride. We did the Prattville Loop and the legs felt strong. I made up for not riding yesterday by puttering with my bikes after I had cleaned up, and the movement of the Sun provided a shaded area to set up the bike work stand. Saddles were tensioned (Leather saddles stretch at first, and they have a tensioning bolt to turn and keep the shape properly molded to your bottom) and I changed saddle bags and adjusted the Kool Stop pads on the Saluki. I also took off the black and yellow Vittoria tires from the KHS and put the drabber Continental Ultra 2000s back on. The black and yellow water bottle cages came off in favor of some gray Nashbar units left over from another project. The bike was a little too wild looking, I think, and it's toned down. The Brooks Challenge seat bag (small: holds only a tube and tire levers) will go on ebay and an older Cannondale bag with more room is on. It rides nice and looks good now. I couldn't get the Look pedals off, they were on so tight. Mark at the shop will have to help me. I want to put some Spds I have on, so the bike can be ridden with cycle sandals.

There is a guest speaker at church today, and Xander, his main squeeze and I are invited to lunch with the pastor, his wife and the speaker. Hopefully a bike ride will ensue!