Category: Off the Bike

Kate’s bike has been in need of some TLC for a few weeks. Her shifting has been a mess. The brakes are a little soft, and I don’t even want to look at the greasy chain. Oh and her handlebar tape needs to be replaced. What we are looking at here is known as a tune up.

If you take you bike into a Local Bike Shop(LBS) for a tune up they are generally going to wok on everything that isn’t a bearing. For example they will replace the shift and brake cables but they won’t repack the bearings in your wheels or bottom bracket. Its good to get a tune up once a year to make sure the bike is in good working shape.

Today I replaced the cables, put a new roll of bar tape on her handle bars and replaced her chain with a waxed chain. I went ahead and gave the bike a nice washing as well since I had a lot of things removed.

Overall the process went well. She has bar end shifters which can make putting a new roll of bar tape on tricky but not today. I could have documented the process with photos but it was hot and I just wanted to get it done.

Workout details

So far this burpee challenge is not going the best for me. My left elbow has been sore the last week or so. I stopped doing pull ups to let it heal and push ups may be causing issues as well. I did 1 burpee again to keep the challenge alive but I wasn’t feeling the motivation. Tomorrow I have a bike ride and will try to do some burpees before and after the ride.

In most programming languages the first step is writing a ‘Hello World’ example. This is to help give you a first taste of how to use a language in a very basic form. I figure that in woodworking there should probably be something similar. For me that is a basic table, and hence I present you with my Hello World for woodworking:

The most important thing about this table is that Kate likes it. I do not hate it, but it is a first attempt with the Kreg Jig and shows. I used all scrap wood, some of which has been sitting outside for a year, so cost was low. The 28 screws that I used were the biggest expense.

I learned a lot about the Kreg Jig and how it works. For the most part is was really easy to use and configure. I need larger clamps and a Miter saw will give me much more square cuts. Changing to a 60 tooth blade on my Circular Saw definitely helped. Oh and good wood is critical.

I have worked from home/remotely for about 10 years. During the first 4 years I was in an office in our home. I had a great workspace setup for working. We were in downtown Phoenix so I would go to coffee shops and co-working spaces occasionally.

Then we hit the road 6 years ago and have lived/worked in a 30 foot travel trailer since then. We already were out backpacking or car camping almost every weekend anyway. Now we didn’t have to drive home on Sunday. Home is wherever we park it.

My workspace was severely reduced but I think my productivity went up. At the house I had a 30 inch monitor and a massive desk. It was a sweet setup but it didn’t necessarily help me work better. In the trailer I only had my laptop and quickly found that I am much more productive with only one application on my screen at a time. I learned to use the shortcut keys and my Alfred usage skyrocketed.

My chair is the classic Ikea Poang with foot stool. I can sit in that chair for hours. I get no pain or soreness. In fact I have to remember to stand up every hour or so.

One advantage in the trailer is that everything is very close by. The kitchen is a couple of feet away. The restroom is about 15 feet and the bed is 20 feet away. I can get to everything in need in a few steps.

The pandemic has caused us to re-evaluate driving around the US and Mexico. Right now the best thing we can do is stay put and let things calm down. From what I am seeing this probably means 1 year. During the few months we have been back in Colorado we are also remembering how much we like it here. The house design is progressing and I think we are ready to plant some roots here for a little bit.

We have been working in our cabin for 2 weeks now. Going from a 280 square foot trailer to a 320 sq ft cabin for work has been a fun process. Mostly the process is appreciating how much space we have.

We have both noted how much easier it is to get into work mode. In the trailer the office is mixed with the kitchen, living, and dining room. The cabin is set away from where the trailer is so we have a commute of sorts. At a minimum having the separate space is certainly appreciated. Also when the work day is over we just leave everything in the cabin. Its pretty great.

Last week I mentioned that I was investing in some new tools for woodworking. Namely the Kreg pocket hole jib. I had even posted about a project that I was going to work on this last weekend.

Instead we ended up running errands, installing electrical extensions, and painting the interior of the cabin. Basically I had no time for learning woodworking and did not even start the project.

Another reason I held off was that the price of lumber is really high at the moment. We are close to the last high from 2018. It looks like when things slowed down in April the lumberjacks put their axes down and started telling everyone to wear masks. The last part may not be accurate but they did cut output. Thus raising prices.

So I’m gonna start off practicing with scrap wood from other projects. Once I feel confident I’ll start spending some money. Maybe by then prices will have cooled too.

Part of yesterday’s errands involved stopping at the paint store so we could paint the interior of the cabin. We are making a good push to get the cabin wrapped up this summer. It’s only taken 3 summers to get it done.

Last month we got the drywall done so we could install the solar powered electrical system. Last week was the first time we had been able to spend working in the cabin with power. It was great but we need to finished the trim around the windows and doors. My thinking is that it’s a lot easier to paint without the trim installed. Let’s paint the room this weekend.

I did some research on paint and by research in mean I went to the Wirecutter. They like Benjamin Moore’s top line product for enough reasons to satisfy my needs.

One thing about Benjamin Moore paint is that you have to goto one of their distribution stores to get it. While this adds another store to visit it ensures that I get to talk with someone who knows about paint. In our case the owner of the store, Jude, was there to help us out.

We knew we wanted some type of color and that it would be blue or green. Jude helped us understand that there is no wrong color. There is only the color that you like. He did point out some paint collections that work well with any other colors in a room: floor, rugs, upholstery, etc.

Choosing a color was pretty fast. We pulled a number of options out and looked at them on the light table. We settled on Prescott Green which is cool cause Prescott is in Arizona where we used to live.

From there Jude helped us figure out how much paint we needed and gave us some tips on how to paint. He had been a painter for 20 years and knew a few things. He was also really nice and patient.

Today we painted, but painting is only half the work when painting a room. First we had to move everything out of the room. Then we removed the electrical covers and taped over them. We also remove the ceiling fan blades and wrapped the rest of the fan in painters plastic. Finally we put a drop cloth down and prepared ourselves for the painting.

Jude had made a recommendation that we roller the ceiling and walls before brush painting the corners. Typically you do it the other way but since we went with a high quality paint he thought we could get away with it.

Starting with a roller is great because you get so much painted quickly. We did 2 coats of paint in less than 3 hours. Then we came back and painted 2 coats in the corners in about 1.5 hours.

We bought 5 gallons of paint and knew we would have about 1 gallon left over for touch ups. I think we ended with a little over a gallon but I didn’t feel like we had gone too light on the paint usage. The ceiling and walls all look really smooth and consistent.

Painting with a color can be a nerve wracking and most people just choose a safe shade of white. I highly recommend choosing one room in your home and painting it with a color. Do some research about colors and moods and figure out what fits best for that room. Then go get a good quality paint. It goes on easier and looks and last so much better. Since paint is the main thing you look at it’s worth spending some money on and making it personal to you.

I’ll have photos to share once the trim in installed later this week. We are thinking pine.