LATEST EPISODES IN THE PERILS OF PAULINE, Chapter 19 OK so I moved here a month ago. Didnt have a washer and dryer but hey, I thought, I can get something workable from Freecycle and arrange with a friend to get it out here. Well, it took a few weeks but we found one. Arranged with a friend with a mini-van. The new owners of the house wanted their garage cleared yesterday, but agreed to wait until after the weekend when the friend and van were available. I called him -- and he is flat out with a serious case of infectious mononucleosis. Mono requires solid rest, and furniture moving is definitely out. So I bused into the city taking a pack of movers straps along, met Malcolm with his movers dolly, and walked a mile to store the washer and dryer in his moms garage -- two trips of course, showing Malcolm how to balance the very heavy washer -- and no doubt she wants it cleared out too. Luckily it was only a mile and very luckily in this city it is nearly level, mostly slightly downhill and only a while. So here I am back out in the boonies with no way to wash clothing. I did a bit of handwashing in the bathtub, but without a proper washtub and scrub board its pretty hard to do bulk. The laundromat in town closed down a while ago -- more and more houses with their own machines, and the rural areas losing population. But I heard there was one at the camping area only six miles up the road. After procrastinating for a week, every day weather predicted for thundershowers, every day perfect weather, then a nice sinus infection, today ran out of excuses; the most beautiful weather ever, not a cloud in sight, perfect temperature, sinus clear for the moment, no need to go shopping -- it was time to go. I loaded up the old bike with two carry-on bags full of filthy clothes, pumped up the back tire and intelligently took the pump along, and headed on out. First problem: the old bike has no front brake. The center-pull cable got damaged somewhere. Well, I am riding at walking pace anyway, a weak back brake will do. Second problem: forgot how heavy clothing in bulk can be. Those two bags piled on top of each other are an unstable load. I held them on with a ratchet strap but left the spare bungees and other straps at home to try to cut back the load -- bad decision. Third problem: the old mountain bike is *heavy*. I like it for its solidity and stability, but oh my dear, it is work. Fourth problem; the seat keeps popping off. It is old and cheap, and if you lift the bike from the back of the seat as normal, the rubber/plastic pops off the metal support and can be hard to pop back on. Oops. Well, I figured, it I just stay ON the seat until I get there, we can fight with it later. I was chugging along the road and wondering why it was so much work -- ah, yes, my new place is down by the river and the camping area is six miles away, so going out of the river valley it is much more uphill than downhill. Part way up a very long hill, I stopped to take a breather -- and the seat fell off. I disentangled myself from the bike and load, not easy, and went to fetch it. The shoulder ends suddenly at the edge of a steep ditch. The bank of the ditch has been gravelled to help hold the steep bank in place, and the gravel slides under your feet like marbles. At this point the ditch is at least ten feet deep. I slithered to the bottom and tried to find a way out. Straight up is no hope; the gravel over clay and sand is as slippery as ice. Of course on this perfect summer day I was wearing shorts and sandals, perfect gravel-crawling gear. You could walk down the ditch a way until it gets less shallow or a lane crosses it, but I was in front of a wooded area so that might be a long walk and the ditch was full of nice tall weeds. The weeds are too soft to hold any weight, but finally I found the stump of a sapling that would support me. I crawled and slithered and wriggled up until I got my foot on the sapling. Meanwhile maybe a dozen vehicles passed, at high speed of course on this empty straight section of roadway. Several slowed for a second or two to look at the bike dumped on the shoulder but they couldnt see me so they went on. Finally I got up to where my head and shoulders were visible and a nice lady saw my fuchsia tank top (*knew* there was a reason to wear hot pink!!) She came and gave me a hand and managed to pull me back up to the paved shoulder. A couple of other vehicles stopped and a nice gentleman helped pop the seat back on, where it will stay until we try to move the bike again (sigh). They were quite concerned and made sure I was uninjured before sending me on my way. Good people. (A nice offer of the back of a pickup truck would have helped, rats.) The rest of the ride to the camping and laundromat was fairly uneventful. Listened to a couple of ladies chatting while washer was running; they stay at a camping area with every facility, wear pretty flowered summer dressed while camping, and they and their families come there every summer all their lives and stay on the same street and spend time with the same friends. Not my style for sure but very nice. On the way back I tried mounting the bags saddlebag style on either side, more stable, but of course they then interfered with the back brakes which you will remember are the only ones working. However at my snails pace I can (and do) stop by jumping to the ground. What with all the futzing around getting ready and mounted on the way out and on the way back, plus the half hour or more in the ditch, of course I was late leaving, nearly 8 pm and riding home in the gloaming. My battery-powered light was broken off of course. Luckily indeed it was three-quarters downhill so I could do a lot of coasting. By the time I got back at 9:10 it was pretty gloamy, in fact pitch-black in the driveway. Am now home safe and reasonably sound:body barely hanging in there and lets not mention the mind. Stiff now and tomorrow should be fun. Toasted (gluten-free) bread and cheese for supper; cant handle anything else. Have to re-think this whole laundry business -- should I go with nudism or filth? So anyone who has a large vehicle or access to one, I really really need your help (less than an hours drive each way) before having to make that lifestyle choice. John Symon, not only could I use a vehicle, we do need to do some bike maintenance and repair some time and can use all the help we can get. Alex Tyrrell if we could get your vehicle some time that would help; if you are up to drive, or maybe we can find another driver. E-Patient Dave deBronkart, this is part of the story sequence I was telling you about. Jan Warford Fisher, this was my adventure today. Also for your amusement Michael Thelen Dwight L Davis Annette White Suzanne LaTulipe Sara de la Barre Mew Zi Kat Colin Melville Joan Farrell Léo K. McKenna David Le Roi Nanette Saucy and all the rest of you out there.
Posted on: Thu, 07 Aug 2014 03:50:02 +0000
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