Yum – the beginnings of fall are in the air (just in time for the equinox tomorrow morning). Temps in the 70s, blue sky with big cottony clouds. I thought I’d use the excuse of needing a new tire gauge to take a run up to Lawrenceville Auto Parts, my old auto mecca. I’ve long thought that they have a vast underground cave with every part on Earth; in almost 30 years, I’ve almost never come out of there empty-handed. Until today, that is. They’ve been taken over by CarQuest, and now it looks like every other parts place inside. After all these years, all my old familiar counter guys are gone, and it no longer feels like the familiar Saturday destination it once was. In the old days, they’d have had 8 different tire gauges and I’d have to choose. No such problem today: just one stiff-necked short gauge, and one enormous unwieldy device that might work if I pulled the wheel off first. Shucks.
So I kept going north, up to Cycle Gear. Thanks to the pretty weather, I passed a bike about every other block, exchanging the ceremonial wave. The shop was full, but I managed to find a perfectly decent gauge with a hose and a relief valve. (I have an AccuGage, but its readings have been erratic lately, and I’ve started to suspect it isn’t so Accu. Seems to leak a bit around the relief valve.)
I took the back way home, sailing down Lawrenceville-Suwannee road, which is just a few years old and consists of a series of nice, smooth long sweepers. Yum. I slowed to a stop at the light with a grin on my face. After a year, I think less and sail more. I don’t lean on the handlebars like I did in the early days. So little bumps don’t jerk my throttle hand, and I turn more effortlessly. A lot has happened in the last year…