daily slice-of-life blog of a 52-year-old // not necessarily written for today's readers
Welcome to my blog! I hope you enjoy your visit. Here are a few quick links to my most popular content:
“Sophie” Cedar Park, 2021
I joined a Vintage Peugeot Bicycle group on Facebook recently and while reading through the posts, discovered that Sophie is not an A-08 model as I thought, but is actually a UJ-10. I don’t know how I missed it when checking the old Peugeot catalogs but apparently the telling sign is the gold decal on the seat tube. Mystery solved!
When I brought back Sophie from California earlier this year, I also took the bags that I used on it back in the 80s. I re-fitted the Senator saddle bag to the Brooks B-17 and I think it looks good! It’s pretty small though, so if it doesn’t fit the spare tube I have on order, I’ll look for something a little bigger. I also ordered a new Zefal frame pump that should fit in the mounts. It’s not vintage, but it is made in France so I guess that’s something. 😄
“Senator” Cedar Park, 2021
I hope you had a great day!
“Backyard Clouds” Cedar Park, 2021
I set up my Fujifilm X-E4 for a long timelapse, but it shut off early. My guess is that it overheated once the sun started hitting it in the late afternoon. Oh well, I still got enough footage to make a short video:
I hope you had a good day!
“Homecoming Court” Cedar Park, 2021
Today I rode my bike, Rossa, to see Koa participate in the Homecoming Parade. He’s part of the senior royal court this year so he got to ride in one of the Jeeps, wave to the crowd, and throw out candy to the kids. He was having a lot of fun as you can tell from the photo. 😊
I have never been to a Homecoming Parade before so I didn’t realize it was all about. It was actually a lot bigger than I thought it was, with most of the high school sports and clubs marching, plus the feeder middle schools and elementary schools also had marchers. I enjoyed it quite a bit!
I’m glad that the COVID vaccines have allowed us to have these kinds of activities again. Still, I wore a mask since there was a huge crowd. I was kind of saddened to see that only a few others were masked up even though the county’s vaccination rate is only at 65%. So even though my family and I are well-protected from the virus, 4 out of 10 people there were not and I suspect many of them will end up sick. 😒
“Gleaming Spokes” Cedar Park, 2021
The restoration of my Peugeot UJ-10 bicycle took a big leap today because I replaced the old rusty spokes on the front wheel with brand new DT Swiss 260 mm spokes. These are stronger and shiny. So not only is it safer, but the spokes are beautiful!
This was my first time rebuilding a wheel and lacing spokes, but with the help of this video, it was easy and actually a lot of fun!
I’m looking forward to replacing the spokes on the rear wheel next, but I am delaying starting that project because it would mean the bike would be out of service while I wait for parts. I can’t just order spokes (and hub bearings) beforehand because I need to remove them from the bicycle to measure them and ensure I order the correct parts. And I am having too much fun riding the neighborhood with Sophie right now, so I’ll wait on the repair a bit.
I’m so happy with my Peugeot project. It’s so much fun and I am learning so much about bicycles!
“Sophie Silhouette” Cedar Park, 2021
“Salvadorian Chicken” Cedar Park, 2021
I was reorganizing my browser’s bookmarks and came across this recipe for Salvadorian Chicken which I hadn’t made in a few years so I decided to make it for dinner. It’s a braised chicken in wine dish, and very easy to make.
I don’t really know how authentic it is, but it’s pretty tasty! I usually like very flavorful and spicy dishes, and this dish would be considered quite tame. Probably perfect for those with less-adventurous palettes.
