Tuesday, May 30, 2023

Boosters, Flowers, and Axle Traps

Today was the second bivalent Covid booster.  After I got it, I looked up how it went last time and sort of wished I hadn't.  Too late now!  Jim and I both are feeling pretty whooped three hours after the fact.  Tomorrow could be bad.  So, this is me, writing it down, so I'll remember in the future.

Wednesday update:  My arm actually hurts more than it did from the Shingrex.  Raising my arm up straight and then over my head is not great.  We're both feeling a little sluggish today.

Friday update:  My arm is fairly tender, with a good sized red streak.  I don't have any swollen lymph nodes like last time.  So, this round has been easier to tolerate.

Here are flowers in the front yard. The fried egg peony has opened up a bunch of blossoms.

The burgundy peony is only putting out two blossoms this year.  Last year was better.  This is a phone macro shot of it, that's kind of cool.


We spent this morning looking for parts to make a bike rack to go in the trailer for transport to Tucson.  Talk about your basic time suck.  We ordered two Saris axle traps from REI that were on sale, but they're going back.  They're a very sub-optimal design.  The problem is that you have to hold the forks up in line with the holes in the axle trap while simultaneously threading the through-axle through the holes and the fork while crouching down in a 5x8 trailer.  The advantage to this style, is that it will fit four different axle sizes.  However, I don't intend to acquire that many more bikes in what time I have left on this planet.

This is better, and more expensive.  Unaka makes stuff for outfitting your van to carry bicycles.  Their design allows you to pull out the through axle, drop the wheel, and immediately replace the through axle.  Then you carry the bike to the rack, open the axle holder, put in the axle, and close it up.  It's better, trust me on this.  The copper colored part is where the axle sits, the gray and black things are spacers that go inside to allow you to carry 12mm, 15mm, and 20mm diameter axles.  You can read about it here, should the need arise.


I have to say, as I have said before, things were simpler with rim brakes and quick release skewers.

Other than this, I have not too much to say.


7 comments:

  1. Fried egg peonies- made my day!!!

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  2. Hope you're feeling better soon and that fried egg peony is beautiful. I might need to get one of those:)

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  3. the flowers are beautiful. I haven't gotten the bivalent booster yet and may not. and the bike stuff you might as well have been speaking a foreign language.

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  4. I've been so fortunate, having little to no reaction to the boosters. I do hope you're feeling better soon.
    I'm with Ellen, the bicycle information is in an entirely different language for me. I think it has been 45 years since I've ridden a bicycle - they were far more simple then.

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  5. Hi Allison, yes I've been using the Nikon Coolpix for many years now. I replaced the first one with the newer model about 5 years ago. I like it because it does so many things, macro, telephoto, wide angle, etc. I've just about worn this one out but it still chugs along.
    I love those fried egg peonies. They really do look like fried eggs.

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  6. Fried egg peonies, indeed. Love them.

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  7. The fried egg peonies look great! Our peonies did much better this year than last, I think because we had more rain early in the season. Hope the shot hasn't kicked you around too much.

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