New Wheels

So a friend of mine gave me a new/old bike a few weeks ago.  It’s new to me, but old to him, and it had some issues, like flat tires and no pedals.

I took it to the bike shop yesterday for an overhaul.  It looks like it’ll cost less than $50 to get it in workable condition, though I may need to get a new fork at some point.  The suspension on the old one is shot.  But it’s fine for now—it’s not like I’m a rider that needs a high-quality bike.  Higher on the priority list is cargo space.

One thing I’m worried about is a bike rack.  I think, with the addition of pedals, the bike won’t fit in the back of my car.  I hate the idea of spending money on something that I’ll only rarely use, i.e., to get it to and from the bike shop once or twice.  (I doubt very much that I’ll need to transport it anywhere else.)  At the moment, it looks like I’m just going to scour the internet and local shops for the cheapest bike rack I can find.  If anyone has any ideas, particularly for a homemade solution, I’m open to suggestions.

In other news, my blender died last week when I was trying to puree a potato-based soup (radish soup, if you’re interested).  Unfortunately, a Blendtec blender, even their entry-model—currently heavily discounted—is quite firmly out of my price range.

Instead, I went with a KitchenAid immersion blender.  I think that style will actually be more useful for my typical blending tasks, and it came with some food processor-like attachments, which will broaden its uses in the kitchen.

I feel like quite the consumer this week.