cruising up the river on a Sunday afternoon

Yesterday, mechanic Kristoff helped me disassemble my bike's freewheel, but neither of us could figure out why it was freewheeling in both directions. I'm hoping bike repair guru Sheldon Brown can enlighten me.

Meanwhile, after helping the Boatlord shuffle boats around the harbour until I could get Sam Suffi out, I was too tired to enjoy the summery weather. But this morning, I was up and out the door at dawn.
The river Ill is draped with dulling fall colours, and the only leaves on many trees are the parasitic mistletoe.

My excuse for heading upstream was to get to the laundromat in Montagne Vert. Unfortunately, this plan was aborted when locals counseled me to avoid going up a side channel under a low bridge. I backed through the underbrush into the Ill and took a sampling of the vegetation with me. I tried another side stream and was flagged off by an alarmed fisherman. I'm short, but Sam Suffi has this danged frame overhead. Of course, I would never attempt anything like this with crew aboard.

I continued on for almost 2 hours to Ostwald amid swans, grebes and herons before the chill air got to me.


With a warm muff and a thermos of hot chocolate, I'll try to venture farther next time.


I spent this evening hard at work at school, but it's not so hard to take after a weekend like this. New things I learned this week:

1. Parametric cost models are statistical, so you can include any number of prototypes you like.
   
2. Don't grease freewheel pawls if you want them to actually move.
3. Save your coinage for laundry day - there is a low probability of getting change for 50€ on a Sunday.
   

"Never-say-die" Boileau