Wednesday, December 28, 2011

A very merry Christmas

My parents came to visit for Christmas, and we had a wonderful time- makes me wish we didn't live so far apart.  Apart from a road trip to Newport to see the mansions decorated for Christmas, we hung around the house together.

We set up the tree that I carried home on Minerva- you can see how the small brown dog is assisting the Scientist and my dad as they mess with the stand.

There was a little bit of bike riding (my Dad took Minerva around the block after I came home from a massive Christmas eve grocery run).



I got an assist from my Dad (the electrical engineer) on a wiring project I'd been wanting to do since we moved in.  The problem with wiring in an old house, is that you open up the boxes and they look like this !!!!!
Cue the violins from Psycho

  We cleaned it up as best we could and ran a new wire to a new wall switch so that we can turn on the lights at the top of the stairs from the bottom of the stairs,  which is a vast improvement.

We opened presents:
is that one for me?
How about this one?
Do you need any help unwrapping that?


One of a couple of bike-related presents I received was a Yakkay helmet- something I've been wanting for some time now,  and which are now available in the US, in a US approved model, the smart 2.  I rode in it to work today,  but I think it needs some adjustment still-  the crazy winds were catching the brim and blowing it up out of position.  But overall, I'm very excited about the look of it, and it's incredibly light compared to my Bern.




It's gonna be a cold one tomorrow- the temperatures dropped dramatically this afternoon, and it was cold and very very windy on the ride home- I think we're going to get some real winter after all!




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5 comments:

  1. AnonymousDecember 28, 2011 at 11:25 PM

    Love your hat! I've tried on a Yakkay helmet too, but a different model. I like the one that you have, its really smart! Nice to see your Dad on taking a ride on your bicycle - that is very special!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Steve ADecember 29, 2011 at 12:45 AM

    Those look like the wires in my parents' house. That helmet looks perfect for winter!

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  3. crisDecember 29, 2011 at 9:47 AM

    that headwind was rather brutal on the ride home, but quite nifty on the way in this morning.

    I'd be curious about how effective the brim of your hat may be in inclement weather. I'm always on the lookout for something that'll keep my glasses relatively dry but I fear that may be a fantasy product.

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  4. cyclerDecember 29, 2011 at 10:00 AM

    Cris,
    The brim on my bern does a decent job of keeping drizzle off my face- it would gather on the brim, and drip off, or slide to the side and drip. It was also useful at certain angles for keeping the sun out of my eyes. Don't know if it would help with the glasses, especially with "real" rain, though.

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  5. portlandize.comJanuary 11, 2012 at 1:07 PM

    Merry (belated) Christmas! Also, that photo of your dad makes me very happy, as it means I may be able to put that new Sturmey Archer front hub on the right way around, and still have the rods work (I saw someone else who apparently had to install the hub backwards, and then flip the rods over so it went down the right side of the wheel instead of the left).

    I'm getting closer and closer to wanting to do this, as my front rim is getting more rusty (original steel), and my tire generator is working kind of sporadically sometimes.

    The last apartment we lived in here in Portland was a mid-40's building, and when we were there, it still had fuses, not circuit breakers, and only one grounded plug in the entire apartment! Thankfully hardware stores still sell fuses. (We're now in a 1927 apartment, but they've updated the wiring).

    Hope that all went well, if I opened the electrical box and it looked like that, no way I'd be sticking my hand in there.

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