Ah, That New Chain Feel

When the gravel bike's transmission starts treating shifter input as a suggestion for eventual action rather than as an immediate command, that's an indicator that it's time for a new chain.  A quick check with a chain stretch gauge confirmed it – not in the red zone yet, but edging onto it – and the change went smoothly.  No need to swap the cassette or chainrings yet, not if you change out a chain in time.  Usually get about three chains to the rest of the drivetrain components, before those need swaps too.  One down, two to go.  And yes, I do keep a log book of these things, because keeping track of multiple bikes would be impossible  otherwise.

The ride today was noticeably more snappy.  Funny how these little wear items creep up on you.

It's Getting Better

My last couple of months:

As spring winds down and (finally!) a few rains have come, it's getting better.  I've been living on zirtec, claritin, and flonase (spelllings... who cares; made up words anyway), but that's winding down too.

Last Friday's Historical Cemetery Tour

Lightly attended, but it was a good test-run for future events.  In a repeat of a tour two years ago, I stood at my great-grandfather's grave and told his story.  Here's a pic a friend snapped of me after it was over, while I was walking home in a very light rain.  As usual, embiggen for full effect.

And yes, I edited out the glaring red gas station sign as well as the two safety yellow crosswalk signs.  Unneeded distractions.

Blogging's been light of late, but not a lot worth mentioning going on.  Re-reading the X-15 engineering test flights portion of Always Another Dawn, and enjoying the fine cool spring weather.

Crossed My Desk this Morning

Yeah, movies have been kind of crappy for the better part of the past decade.  Here's hoping for a brighter future.  However, I suspect we'll just get some meaningless AI-generated slop with dancing rock piles, and the Hollywood execs will remain as baffled as ever.

Good Advice on Bike Wrenching

An ex-mechanic with ten years' experience dives into some useful stuff over at youtube:

• Top 10 Things I learned Working in a Bike Shop (10 minutes)
• Three More Things You'll Find Useful (6 minutes)
• Five Mistakes I've Made (9 minutes)
• 10 Essential Tools for Any Home Bike Mechanic (15 minutes)

FWIW, I still don't have a work stand.  Where the hell would I put it?

Anyway, his channel's just getting rolling, so look around through his videos for a handful of other bike items.  He does some other mechanical stuff over there that you may find useful too.

Yes, after Friday's post, I'm still around.  Though I have to say, that would have been a great post to wrap up this blog.  Not going anywhere though.

Because I've Been Asked About This

Sabine Hossenfelder digs into the somewhat recent, somewhat mysterious disappearance of scientists and a few scientist-adjacent people.  (8 minutes for the analysis, followed by a 2 minute ad)  TLDW: Mostly explainable, but the overall rate is about four times what one might expect in the general population, which is statistically slightly alarming.

Here's a short summary of my thoughts on the matter:

1. There's a significant subset of scientists who have a taste for outdoor adventure, so expect a higher disappearance rate there.
2. What's more, there's also another subset of scientists who will dive into adventures somewhat blindly, so expect trouble there as well.  Usually they morph over time into the previously mentioned subset – if they survive the learning curve.
3. Personally, over the years I've stumbled across a handful of things that could have been trouble: a probable pot farm, a fresh murder scene, a few awkwardly placed rattlesnakes, a couple of unoccupied hobo camps, etc.  Any of these could have been trouble had my GTFO circuits not overridden my curiosity.  I know some people, especially in Subset #2, who do not have such highly attuned GTFO circuits.
4. The relatively low number of missing persons here can account for large statistical fluctuations.  Along with numerous cases of weak GTFO wiring, this is probably enough to account for the observed 4x disappearance rate.
5. But yeah, Hossenfelder's about right on the matter.  The numbers are a little high but not badly out of line with general expectations.

Beyond that and on a personal note, I don't expect to disappear anytime soon.  Some may be comforted by this, others may be a tad disappointed.  Comment below.

Of Course I'll Go See It

First Project Hail Mary, now this.  It's shaping up to be the best year in movies in about a decade.