Gorgeous, gorgeous day, so after work I took my first ride on my newly repaired and tuned up bike and it was frelling great. Ten plus miles. The derailleurs were shifting crisply, the crank didn't make any grindy noises, and the brakes were responsive. Legs were tired, and the right knee was pretty stiff at the end, but that's normal when I haven't been riding for awhile. The knee pain will disappear as I ride more. The quad hurts not at all.

Stopped at Wal-Mart on the way home to pick up the machine screw that I needed for the table saw, and decided it wasn't worth getting in line for a single eighty-three cent item, so I bought a wrist watch and a pair of cheap sunglasses, too. The watch was ten bucks on clearance. I already have at least four watches, but I've only been using one of them because the batteries on the rest are dead. I tried to get them replaced, but the watch hospital in the next town changed their hours so that they're only open 9-5 on weekdays. The perils of living out in the sticks. It's a nice looking watch, and I wanted to make sure I had something just in case the battery ran down in the other watch before I take my vacation days at the end of the month, and can actually get to the store. What the hell, it was only ten bucks.

Used the newly acquired machine screws to finish setting up and adjusting the shaper head, so it's already to go when I ready to cut some beads. Tomorrow night, I think.

Lots of interesting discussion the last couple of days, both here and at Buffistas, about what should we expect out of life, and setting and achieving goals versus enjoying the ride, a lot of which impinged on some of the stuff that I've been thinking about lately. I haven't responded to any of it, because I'm still trying to work things through in my own mind. I started writing a post to respond to something in Bitches, but it was a busy day at work, and I lost my concentration. It's hard. There's a lot of scar tissue in that portion of my consciousness. Working on it, though. Maybe tomorrow.