that 26x1.5" kenda tube i patched up last night? i'm unhappy to report that it was flat by this morning. i pulled it out of the tire and checked for leaks again. not that i would've patched it a 4th time, but i was curious to know where exactly it was leaking. if it was in the same place, then it meant something wrong with the rim. after an exhaustive search, there were no leaks i could find, the tube is just bad overall, micro fractures that seep air over time.

i went down to my local rite aid to refill 3 prescriptions and a chance to ask the pharmacist about how my 90-days supply was reduced to 30-days. the guy i spoke to - a young indian man whom i've never seen before - showed me how the 90-day request was denied on his computer when he tried to fill it up. he had no idea why that was and didn't offer any advice as to who i should ask. "i could have your prescriptions refilled by thursday," he told me, today being tuesday. that struck me as odd, as typically prescriptions are refilled that day, if not sooner. "at least fill this one," i said, pointing to the one medication that was already empty. after a moment, he told me he could have these refilled in 10 minutes. after waiting nearly 20 minutes, my drugs were ready. unlike last time - where i had zero copayments - i paid $1 per refill. i then went across the street to dunkin' donuts and got 2 dozen munchkins for my mother. finally, i biked down to somerville wheelworks on elm street to get a new tube, i was tired of waiting for my replacement tube to be delivered. i don't remember the last time i've been here (the last time i went to a wheelworks was the one in belmont back in 2011). i had to ask for the tube, which are placed behind the counter. i told him the size (26x1.5") and he asked what kind of valve (schrader). he handed me a box, specialized brand, $8.49. i should've came here from the start, a replacement tube doesn't cost so much, and i've never seen specialized branded ones, i usually just get the generic, or at most sunlite brand.

my mother was curious about my salmon bagel sandwiches so i made one for her as well as one for me: everything bagel, salmon cream cheese, capers, crushed peppers, onion, salmon slices. i also squeezed a container of orange juice before leaving for the cafe. my aunt lili was there working from her laptop. after finishing my bagel sandwich, i helped my father clear the basement in anticipation of the upright freezer delivery tomorrow. a heavy security door needed to be removed from the frame to give enough clearance for the freezer to fit through. we used my sister's bosch impact driver, which made short work of removing the 8 screws. we also moved a steel shelve and repositioned a basement circulation ceiling fan. i left with some leftover lu ruo fan (滷肉飯) my 2nd aunt had made.

it'd only been 11 days since my cargo bike was out of commission due to a blown tire, but it felt longer than that. i did ride the cargo bike again with a replacement rear wheel, but that wheel had its own issues (wobble, broken spokes, and more importantly cursed rim that seems to naturally deflate all kinds of inner tubes), so the cargo bike has been on hiatus. but today i finally had all the parts to put the original rear wheel back together again.

first i put the new kenda road tire on, with the new specialized tube. i used to partially inflate the tube before putting it in the tire, but i realize that's a mistake, as a deflated tube is so much easier to install on the rim. the specialized tube has a pretty long schrader stem (40mm), and even come with a retaining screw so the stem doesn't get pushed back inside the rim, a pretty good feature. the tube and tire went on the wheel effortlessly, i didn't even need any tools. i partially inflated the tube, running my hands around the circumference to make sure nothing was getting caught, before i fully inflated. the wheel was now hard and bouncy.

next i prepared the axle, removing all the cones, spacers, and nuts from the old broken axle so i could install them onto the new axle. the new cones are almost the same size as the old ones, but i decided to stick with the previous cones for full compatibility. besides, the old cones still looked like they were in good shape. the new axle also came with its own spacer (just one) and nuts (2); i wonder if those would work with my rear wheel even though they're not the same sizes.

once the axle was prepared, i cleaned out the grease from both sides of the hub shells. i probably never cleaned it before, because the grease wasn't the same color (blue-green) as the grease i use. it also wasn't greasy anymore, more like sticky. i had to use some cotton swabs dipped in alcohol to get the old grease out. on the freewheel side i could remove the rubber dust cap, but on the other side the dust cap didn't seem removable so i just cleaned around it.

with the hub shells cleaned, it was time to pack in some new ball bearings. after filling the shells with grease, i put 9 ball bearings per side. after that i slide in the new axle and secured it using the cones before adding the spacers and nuts. now that i've rebuilt the axle, it no longer wobbles like it used it, which is great.

i put the rear wheel back onto the bike frame. the brake pads weren't engaging, even when i have the brake lever fully pulled. this seemed weird but i didn't think about it too much as i knew how to fix it. i readjusted the brake pads, reversing them so they now used the longer spacers, which requires less pull for the pads to engage the wheel rim.

with that my cargo bike was hopefully back to normal. i pressed down on the bike seat to see if the rear wheel was deflating but it held firm, a good sign. instead of taking the bike for a test ride, i just put it away in the basement.

i took the fuji bike and went to whole foods to pick up some gold nugget oranges on sale ($1.69/lbs.). the somerville beacon street bike lane project started back up this week, and the contractros stripped the surface of beacon from washington to buckingham down to dusty gravel. it was impossible to bike so i rode on the sidewalk for that stretch of road. this was my 2nd visit to whole foods this month. i picked up 5 oranges for about $3.

the sky today was populated with patches of clouds but we still produced 47.82kWh of energy, the 5th highest production of all times. rain is expected for much of tomorrow so this streak of high production will end. but there will be other sunny days!

i heated up the 滷肉飯 for dinner and had some gold nugget oranges. instead of a new episode of for the people, ABC decided to broadcast an episode of deception instead. i hope this doesn't mean that ABC has given up on for the people and the show won't get cancelled.

i've been going to sleep so late these days, i don't know why. i'm not in bed until 2am, and usually i'm reading or watching videos on my phone, i don't actually sleep until 3am. i'm definitely tired, and i fall asleep so fast it sometimes scares me, feels like i'm dying. i then typically wake up around 9am, so i only get 6 hours of sleep. however, usually in the late afternoon/early evening, if i'm lounging on the couch, i might doze off for a bit, anywhere between 15 minutes to an hour. i don't like napping, but i'm so sleep deprived, it just happens.