Today's Activities include: bicycles!

R., A. and I had lunch at the Walden Grille, then I went to the bank. From there, with a sleeping child, we decided to go down to Belmont Wheelworks to Spend Money. Today's purchases included: 1 Specialized Globe (3 spd, cream), with some addons, and 1 Brooks #67. The add ons included fenders, a wire basket with quick release, some blinky LED lights front and back (which were installed in such a way that they are not tremendously visible so we may be making some adjustments), a kickstand (the Specialized one the bike has bosses for, which seems pretty decent actually), a bottle cage, a bike helmet (because this bike, sadly, is not for me), and a U-lock + cable. I'm hoping I didn't forget anything. I wanted to put a rear rack on it (specifically, the one that came off the Bianchi) but don't currently have one (and, obviously, don't intend to buy one). The rear rack would be so T.'s bike could be carried on the back.

The Brooks #67 is the replacement saddle for the Townie. The remaining question is whether we need to get a second seatpost, or if I'm really okay with giving up the Only Bike Seat I Have Ever Loved to put on a bike seat that R. can tolerate. We'll See. It'll be an easy choice if I love the Brooks, and so many people do I figure there's at least a chance.

Young Cyclist Tricks

T.'s latest two tricks are:

(1) Resting his left foot on the tube. There's only one tube, so it's difficult to call it a top tube.

(2) Resting both his feet on the hub of the rear wheel. He's not completely successful with this. He's also experimenting with dragging a foot along the side of the rear wheel.

I don't want to suggest that this is My Brilliant Child Inventing New Things because, in much the same way I discovered the law of the pendulum, someone else (in fact, judging by Bike Snob NYC, aka BSYNC, quite a lot of people) has already Been There Done That And Built an Annoying Subculture Around That.

Still. I can't imagine the population of 3 year olds doing this is all that large. Heck, the population of 4 year olds doing this is presumably not huge.

a republican I could learn to like

http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/stories/2009/06/14/bernarded_0614.html

I have no idea what else this Republican supports or opposes. But this _particular_ opinion piece I can find absolutely nothing to disagree with.

Go figure. A Republican arguing we should make Medicare cover everyone, then we could immediately save the marketing costs associated with private insurance. AND arguing that, "more savings will be possible if the effort to identify the best, most cost-effective treatments, now underway in the Medicare program, are expanded under a single-payer system." Pointing out that no one covered under Medicare or the VA wants those to go away, and that the people traveling to the US for medical care are coming from the Middle East, South America etc., not from Europe.

Wonder how long he'll stay Republican? OTOH, he says, "38 percent of Republicans" want health care reform, which is low compared to Democrats and Independents -- but more than the 1/3 necessary to accomplish change.