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i ran into my roommate early this morning. i didn't realize he was home and i almost burst into the bathroom while he was inside. he came back to take a shower and handed me the final month's rent. he rented a car again this weekend and got up early so he could get a head start driving to lovely rhode island.

there's something about the chrome fenders on the ross bike that i don't like: while the wheels are only 35mm thick, the fenders are 60mm, a big large for those wheels. not needing an excuse to work on the bike, i went down into the basement and brought the ross inside the house. my plan was to remove the fenders and put them on the trek 800, with its 2" thick mountain bike wheels that's equivalent to 50mm, a more perfect fit for the 60mm fenders. i ran into a bit of a snag though: one of the axle nut on the front wheel was completely rusted shut and i couldn't remove it. since the bike axle is attached to the fender and the fender attached to the frame, if i couldn't get the wheel off, i wouldn't be able to remove the fender. i spent the next 3 hours straining and groaning, armed with pliers and wrenches, but that rusted axle nut just wouldn't budge. by then it was already 1:00 and i still haven't had breakfast or lunch yet. i decided to stop after putting all the bolts back where they belonged, adjusting the balance of the wheel, even tweaking a few of the spokes.

i got some gas for the motorcycle before heading to belmont. my mother had some hot noodle soup waiting for me when i arrived.

later when my father came home, we went to the burlington market basket to get some groceries then the sears to look for some replacement parts for a snow blower. i already knew they wouldn't have anything in stock, and we'd end up ordering the parts online. i just wanted a chance to check out all the tools. we left with my mother buying herself a pair of pants and my father getting a spool of polyester rope to replace the broken curtain line back at home.

i helped my father fixed the curtain line once we got back. originally he wanted to thread the rope with the curtain rods still attached to the ceiling, but it an impossible task so we ended up taking it off, which made it easier, but was still a challenge. i had to draw out a diagram to work out the threading logic.

once i got back home, i took another hot bath since i knew my roommate wouldn't be back until tomorrow. this time i was reading the latest issue of smithsonian magazine, the issue with the orangutan on the cover. there's a article about elvis meeting nixon, ice age cave bears, and cleopatra.

afterwards i went down to the basement and brought up 2 bike seats, one from the trek, the other from the magna. i replaced the crappy seat on the trek with the cruiser seat i bought yesterday. the trek seat post is actually a suspension post, but that thing has long rusted shut so the suspension is no longer working. i was ordering some stuff from amazon.com and decided to buy a replacement seat post for $8. the one i got doesn't have any fancy suspension but it will allow me to lower the seat height by a few more inches.