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my mother called me this morning, asking if could swing by the supermarket and buy some carrots for the cafe. turns out she wanted regular carrots (for juicing); instead i bought two large bags of baby carrots. also while i was out i dropped by the bike store to pick up a pair of shifter cables ($3/each) for the trek 850.

my father rode the ross 10-speed to work again. he's pretty sure it won't get stolen and just leaves it in the parking lot. he said he has a chain lock but just needs to find it.

i went to the watertown home depot to look for some screws to attach the rear bike rack to the trek 850. for some reason it only had 2 screws remaining (it needs 4 total). not sure how those could've just fallen out; i think somebody took them off for parts. it look me a long time at the screw department, going through all the different drawers, looking for the right size. fortunately i had the old ones with me so i could make an exact match. i settled on a pair of stainless steel cap screws with button sockets (needs an allen wrench) size #10-32 X 1/2" ($1.72).

next stop was belmont, where nobody was home (i assumed my sister took the dog out for a walk). i watered the plants and did some weeding before leaving (my sister was back by that point).

something was off when i came back home. i couldn't get the door to open, which immediately clued me in to what was going on: bram was home. he didn't lock the door, so i accidentally locked it when i thought i was opening it. this actually isn't the first time this has happened. at least he was home at the time. he's gone out at least twice where it sounded like he was locking the door but turns out he didn't. anyway, he was back, no more wondering when he'd return. not sure how long he'd been home since i'd been gone for more than 3 hours, but he left for the office soon afterwards, leaving me with an empty house for the time being.

it was pretty easy installing the rear rack on the trek 850 only because at one time it'd already been installed so all i had to do was to put on the screws. the ones i bought were an exact match. i put some grease on the threaded before i tightened them. the only weird thing was the socket size was slightly different than the previous ones, so i had to use two sizes of allen wrench to attach the rack (not a big deal).

next i moved on to the shifter cables. rusted and frayed, i had to take off the old ones before i could put on the cables. i used an old pair of wirecutter. suddenly i heard a loud snap. i looked down to see the cut was still attached but one of the blades of the cutter had broken off. where the missing piece was i don't know, i'm just lucky it didn't ricochet into my eye like shrapnel. i used another wire cutter that had more power to finally snip the cables. i even managed to stab my hand with a rust piece of frayed wire, as i tried to remember when was the last time i had my tetanus shot (6 years ago i think). i was just replacing the cables and not the housings. i used a spare length of shifter cable and some triflow oil to clean the inside of the housings.

sometimes i see myself as an unlicensed bicycle mechanic. i can do most fixes but i'm never quite sure if it's 100% correct. since it was getting a little late, i decided to forgo the repair work until tomorrow.

i was going to eat the last two slices of my barbecued chicken pizza for dinner but was dismayed to see some mold already growing. i'm actually not too surprised: i left the pizza in the oven since thursday night and didn't put it in the refrigerator until last night monday when i suddenly realized where they were. by then it was probably already too late. i hope i learned my lesson! so instead i just had some clam chowder from a can. i'll revisit the supermarket tomorrow and cook something else.

i actually ran into bram while i was taking out the trash. this is the 3rd or 4th time this has happened, that he happened to be coming home right when i was outside. it's starting to get kind of weird, like maybe he waits for me on a street corner. he actually got some groceries, stocking his half of the cupboard. he made some dinner but was so quiet about it that i couldn't tell what it was he was making from the nonexistent kitchen sounds (i didn't try to peek either; i've learned long ago not to watch roommates cook, it's more stress-free that way).

did some amazon.com shopping tonight, all bike-related items: a spool of reflective tape ($3.78), a new nickel plated chain for the 10-speed ($8.99), a spare 26 x 1-2/8" inner tube ($4.69), and finally a combination lock cable ($8.62). the cable is a brand i've never heard of before (trimax) but the thickness is pretty substantial at 12mm; i couldn't find anything comparable at that price.