another typical saturday

So with all the recent thundershowers I'm still getting frequent migraines, but I've gotten better at recognizing the warning signs that a bad headache is approaching and helping to lessen the symptoms a bit by taking some Tylenol with caffeine before I find myself completely debilitated. It doesn't work every single time, but it does help ease the onset of the pain.

On Saturday I was fine for most of the day until the early evening, when I started to feel a bit of a dull throb, which I hoped could be attributed to my not eating until quite late in the afternoon. But I had been having quite a busy day... I kept up with the weekly ritual of the visit to the market. The gentleman's younger brother is coming over for dinner tomorrow and I had to pick up the remaining items for the southern style feast. Following my acquisition of these items, Lisa and I cycled across the bridge to Redbike. We were both on a lookout for some flat bungee cords that we could use to secure cargo on our baskets, but unfortunately the ones we were looking for weren't available. I ended up picking up a new honey coloured Brooks saddle for my bike, which Redbike's owner Cliff, very helpfully changed for me. My friend Billy joked that now that I have a Brooks on my bike, I can call it "Brooks and D(ah)unn" and fit in with the country-music crowd. Har har Billy. Har har.




The change to a new saddle was done mostly for aesthetics, but most people I know who ride with a Brooks rave about how comfortable they are and that they are worth the effort it takes to break one in. So I decided to make the bottom-commitment. Even though the gentleman disagrees with me, I like how the Brooks looks with the Dahon. It reduces the sportiness of the bike and makes it a bit more classy/classic looking, which is definitely something I was looking for in a bike. Speaking of classy ladies and classic bikes, one of my cousins in Italy posted this old photo of my nonna heading out for a ride on her bici. I never got a chance to meet her in person and it makes me happy to see photos of her riding her, particularly ones like these where you get a little sense of her personality.



My decision to go with the Dahon was prompted by a couple things. (1) We have limited space in the apartment for storage. There is a bike cage down in the parkade, but parkades are so inhospitable. I like my bikes to remain off-leash as long as possible. A smaller bike meant that during the summer it could live out on the balcony (with a protective seat cover in case of rain) and during the winter it can live in our little laundry room. A full-size frame just wouldn't fit. (2) The Dahon was a much more inexpensive option, especially since I bought this bike second-hand. However, aesthetic changes aside, I'm finding the smaller size of the bike to be lacking in a few things. One, is the ability to hang a basket on the front without it looking weird or affecting the steering too much. Two, is the ability to hang panniers on the current rear rack. Now these are both things that I can modify on the bike (and had I ordered new I could have ensured they were included), but it's sort of a pain to have to sort it out after the fact. The third item, is also open to modification, but the relatively narrow handlebars is a wee bit annoying. Thankfully I haven't been going on too long of rides with the bike, but the type of trips I've taken have been such that increased cargo capacity would be a great improvement and also make the bike a more ready transportation option, particularly when I'm looking to transport my computer or photo equipment. These were all things I had in mind before I bought my bike and almost all extras I would have needed to include. The only difference now is that I'm adding those same extras to a frame that I managed to get for much cheaper than I originally anticipated. More on that as I continue to use and muse about my bicycle.

By the time I came back from Redbike, the gentleman had also returned to the apartment from his errand running. We walked to Elm together so I could get a sandwich for my very late lunch, but by the time we got back home I had another headache. It was rather unfortunate, because I was planning to get some cleaning done in preparation for Sunday's dinner party and also I had hoped that Tom and I could meet up for a late night photo excursion and potentially a movie. I tried taking a nap, but the headache just wouldn't go away. The gentleman was absolutely lovely and and went out to fetch us dinner because I was sufferin' from the ole migraine pains. He coaxed me from the apartment down to the park where we ate our dinner in what is essentially the closest thing to a back yard that we have. Even though the food didn't taste quite right (it never does when I have a migraine), I felt great relief sitting out in the breeze. Props to the gentleman for making sure that I still enjoyed my saturday evening, even with a headache.