It is hard to notice small changes that happen everyday. When you only come to town once per week, you can notice things. For one thing, you notice the price increases at the grocery store.
But on a more cheerful note, I noticed that I barely felt tempted to squander money on former vices of mine. There were several drive-through coffee shacks in town. They try to lure you to perdition by making them cute and appealing. But I drove right by them and didn't even feel tempted. (For people who have seen "Raising Arizona," think of the Nicholas Gage character trying to give up holding-up convenience stores, and trying to look nonchalant as he drove by one!) Hell, I don't even feel tempted to buy coffee at a gas station or a senior coffee at McDonalds. Eating at a restaurant has become unthinkable.
Giving up breakfast burritos is taking a little more effort, but I will probably give up this vice too because they keep getting more boring and tortilla-like.
Giving up this-and-that is not as grim as it sounds. There is something empowering about it. A puny little individual can do nothing about the big disasters in the world. But they can do something about their own life. It is an opportunity to put Stoicism to a practical test.
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It can even be quite fun and inspiring to liberate yourself from unnecessary purchases, that is, learning to solve problems without instantly clicking on Amazon or driving to town. For instance, it is easy to put up with something for years that only half-works, and put-off fixing it for real?
As a camper who mountain bikes, I am always dragging the bike out of the van and then leaning it against something or laying it on the ground. You can easily imagine the drawbacks of that approach.
Why the hell haven't I built a bike-stand out of wood or PVC pipes? It would be kind of fun, except for the 50 mile round trips to a hardware store in town, at over $5 per gallon. You could also buy something inexpensive online, except that it probably won't fit my big tires. In either case, bike-stands are awkward to store.
Hmmm...let's see. Is there a simpler and more elegantly minimalist way to do it? How about using a telescoping hiking pole? After all, most campers already own one.
Notice that the hiking pole isn't quite perpendicular to the bike -- it points forward a little (towards the bow). This causes the bike to roll in the opposite direction, and that can be cured by finding a nearby rock or stick to put behind the tire. Conversely, if the pole was pointed slightly rearward (towards the stern), the bike will try to roll forward until you chock it with a rock or stick. And if you don't have a hiking pole, just find the right stick in the forest.
I got more satisfaction from this DIY project than any in a long time. You can thank the 'Putin Price Hike' for it. (Facetious.) It was so pleasing the way I could adjust the angle of the pole to get the bike to do what I wanted.
It was the same satisfaction that a sailor gets: just by adjusting the tightness of some ropes and the angle of the sail or rudder, they have immediate and noticeable control over their puny little boat. No longer must they feel afraid and overwhelmed by the vast surrounding sea.
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| It is more stable than it looks! |
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| Good for comparing the lean of the bike to the vertical tree. |
Comments
What ever happened to 'kick stands'? That was once standard equipment on bicycles. Not that they worked all that well but they were standard equipment.
I had kickstands on bicycles when I was a kid. But the frames were steel back them. These modern aluminum frames would be chewed up or crushed by a kickstand. Nor will a kickstand work well on soft or uneven ground.