Help Is On the Way

Dad ended up helping me with the bikes. I told him about the bad back wheel on the cruiser and walking to work yesterday when I went over to his and Uncle Ken's house to do the laundry. We drove back to my apartment to take a look at them. He ended up going to a bike shop in Cherry Hill to get a new wheel and a tire and inner tube for the mountain bike while I waited for my laundry to finish. (He said he didn't need me to come with him; I offered.)

The bike shop mechanic had confirmed that yes, I needed a new wheel. Badly. It was so bent out of shape, it would cost more to fix than replace. Dad came home just as the laundry was out of the dryer (darn good timing) and we rode home together. I put my laundry away while he worked on the bikes. He did most of the repair work. Put the wheel on the cruiser and made sure that was all right. The mountain bike was more complicated. I had the new brake pads for that, but the brakes needed to be adjusted and Dad couldn't figure that part out. Oh well. They were on and the tire was replaced.

I had a very quick lunch, then rode the cruiser over to the Haddon Township Library for this week's volunteering session. The chain came off while I was riding down West Clinton Avenue. Unlike the trouble I had with the chain a few months ago, I was able to get it back on with no problems.

The library was busy, not surprising given the cool and cloudy weather and the fact that most of the local kids had just gotten off one of their last days of school (if they're not done with school already). While the stack of DVDs wasn't quite as high as the last couple of weeks, there was still plenty to do. I returned all of the DVDs, organized the children's as best as possible, and took out three DVDs for myself - Fantastic Four (I've had a lot of luck with Marvel superheroes lately), the David Niven Around the World In 80 Days, and another 50s Hitchcock film, Rear Window.

I made a quick stop at Super Fresh on my way home for Smart Balance butter. Didn't like the price, but I did end up getting milk, which was only slightly more expensive for a half-gallon of skim than WaWa.

Made spinach salad, mashed sweet potatoes, applesauce, a leftover Lemon-Wine Chicken Leg, and sauteed summer squash and onions for dinner while watching Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid. One of the odd cult comedies Steve Martin did in the early 80s, Dead Men is a tribute to the Hollywood film noir mysteries of the 1940s and 50s...with scenes from many of them spliced in, allowing Martin and femme fatale Rachel Ward to interact with the likes of Humphery Bogart, James Cagney, Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardener, Cary Grant, and Alan Ladd, among others. The humor is dry and the story doesn't make a lot of sense, but if you're a fan of film noir, old movies, or Martin, there's enough wit here to make it worth a look.

(Trivia: This was the last movie with costumes designed by long-time Hollywood favorite Edith Head, who died during it's filming, and the movie is dedicated to her and to all the behind-the-scenes people who made Hollywood the glamor capital of the world in the 30s, 40s, and 50s.)

(Oh, and my neighbor came over a bit later and fixed the chain on my bike. He also switched the good bike seat on the mountain bike over to the cruiser bike. I can just get the mountain bike a new seat; you can get bike seats anywhere for a song.)