Wednesday, April 17, 2013

learn something new...

every day.

I'm a big fan of continuous learning -- and I proved it on Monday evening by learning to change a tire tube. I used instructions from this web site. Everything is explained pretty clearly -- except they forgot to suggest that one begin by taking the wheel off the bike. 

Fortunately I had my in-house handyman on standby and he told me about that important first step. It was a lot easier once I got the wheel onto the floor. After that things went quite smoothly. I did let Hubby inflate the tire using his compressor. I don't dig power tools and my hand pump was too slow for my liking.

On Tuesday I learned a new trick at work. I needed to make 15 photocopies of a 5-page handout. The last time I used the copier for a similar job, I noticed a little button that said "print sample set." It was too late to try it that time, but I tried it on Tuesday, and it does just what it says: prints a single copy of the handout so you can check everything before printing all 15 copies. Well, turns out even the administrator didn't know about that! She was pretty pleased to learn, too.

And today, I learned that even though the River Valley multi-use path may start out dry and clear of snow, it doesn't mean it will be that way to the end. I was riding joyfully along, so thankful that at last this route was in good shape, when I came to a large ice patch on the steepest part of the incline. I might have made it up if I had started on the right side of the patch, but I started in the middle and had to stop -- or fall. It was, so to speak, all downhill from there, and I ended up walking my bike through that uphill section and then through another similar section a bit further on. Everything was hunky-dory after that, but I don't think I'll try that route again in a hurry. Maybe in two weeks?

No comments: