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it'd only been a few days since i've last visited the backyard, but things can change awfully quick in a garden during the summer season. there were a few more bent squash stems (due to the tomato caging), making that at least 4. there's nothing we can do about it now because the plant has sort of grown around the cage and it'd be impossible to remove it without doing more damage. the zucchini seems to be growing at an ultra-accelerated rate, so a few broken leaves might not make that much difference. should this one plant scale back in zucchini production, we have a second squash plant nearby to take up the slack. let's just say we won't be without zucchini for the rest of the summer.
later in the afternoon my father and i found a half dozen more SVB eggs. they must've been laid later because when i checked in the morning there weren't any. i think the egg-laying season might be drawing to a close though, the adults are only supposed to be active for a few weeks (at least that's what i try to tell myself).
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those mystery plants that i thought were more calendulas are actually snapdragons. i thought snapdragons were supposed to be bigger, but maybe these are smaller varieties (or maybe they're just stunted from bad transplanting). the flowers should be opened in a matter of days.
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my father and i were in the garage for much of the day. he was cleaning out the place to make more room for storage while i was polishing up the new ross 3-speed. later, when we tried to adjust the shifter cable, we managed to crack the bell crank.1 not even sure how that could happen since it's a metal part. with that piece broken, the ross 3-speed was essentially a ross 1-speed, stuck in a high gear no less so it felt like treading in sand. since this bike was basically out of commission unless we can find a replacement part, i started thinking about cannibalizing some parts since it shares the same frame as the ross 10-speed. maybe swap out the new front tire, and also take the chrome fenders.
besides the shifter (we got it to work before we managed to break it), we also loosened the seat bolt to adjust the seat height and adjusted the rear and front brakes (side-pull caliper brakes, one pad is always rubbing up agains the rim).
i took the now 1-speed ross on a few test rides. it rides well but it feels rickety. also for some reason i feel like i'm sitting very far back, but maybe because of the lower seat height. the seat looks very comfortable but it's actually very lumpy, you can feel the springs inside.
both my parents told me that my 2nd aunt has expressed an interested in learning how to ride a bicycle (she never learned). my mother said we could give her one of the ross bikes but i told her i'd find her something else. these rosses i'd like to keep for myself.
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i went outside once more in the late afternoon. that's when i noticed one of the sunflowers had bloomed. it's kind of in a weird spot where i can't see the front of the flower, only the back. it's also surrounded by smaller sunflower buds that will open up later, so i couldn't cut it off just yet.
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my sister made some green curry for dinner. she used a pair of green tomatoes from the backyard. we also had some garden cucumbers, which were ultra-crispy and sweet, to the point where it tasted more like a melon (honeydew).
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my father is obsessed with sunrise/sunset moonrise/moonset after seeing a full moon peeking over the horizon when he rode the bike back home yesterday. he happened to leaving right when the sun was setting and the moon was rising. we realized that always happens during the full moon, that the sunset and moonrise are very close together. anyway, went i went outside in the early evening i saw some really strange wispy cirrus clouds in the sky. i forgot that means. good weather? bad weather? armageddon?
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when i got home i ordered 2 parts from ebay: a genuine shimano 3-speed cable kit ($10.49 including a $2.50 shipping charge) and a new replacement 3-speed bell crank ($12.99). the cable kit comes with a long cable-adjustment rod which we already have but it'd be nice to have a spare. we got it really for the threaded cable end, which goes into the gear shifter adjustment housing. when we tried shifting today, it actually cracked the plastic cover of the housing and we think the reason is because it's missing the special threaded cable end. as for the bell crank, although it's supposedly new, it's missing a nut. there was another ebay seller selling a crank with the nut, but it was $20; we can probably find a spare nut if not in the house then from home depot for much cheaper.
bram did another load of laundry tonight. 9:40 seems to be his laundry time. it's actually the 3rd time this week he's done laundry. basically, he washes his clothes every 2 days. while i admire him for wanting to stay clean, i've never had a roommate who's done so much laundry before - at so late a time. he basically had the whole day to do it but i guess he likes the sound of the washer dryer rumbling in the evenings. later around midnight he slipped out. he didn't say where (he never does), but dressed in his tightest polo shirt, there can only be so many possibilities.
1 here's a better look at the cracked bell crank. when the letter N is visible in the window, that's the middle (neutral?) gear position. depending on how far you pull the cable, the lever can also go to the right or left of middle. inside the crank a lever pushes a long metal rod into the shimano 3-speed hub. i don't know what material the crank is made of (i'm guess maybe some kind of aluminum). i also don't know how it could just crack like that. here's hoping the replacement will has a bit longer.