i got a chance to finally take the newly renovated trek 800 for a ride today when my parents called asking me to pick them up from alewife station. even though the seat is still a little tall (replaced the old seat post with the new one), it actually rides quite smooth, and i may decide to keep the seat post as length, no cutting. the milk crate abuts the seat, but i don't notice it when i ride. if i lean back far enough i do touch it, but it's more of a backrest than an annoyance. i'm trying to decide whether i need fenders and collapsible rack baskets, which will another at least another $60 to a bike i'm trying to rebuild on the cheap. the front wheel is still the old 2" wide mountain bike tire, while the rear wheel is a new 1x5/8" road tire. i read that having mismatched tires is actually a special strategy for winter riding, so i'll be testing that out.

the trek rides so much faster than my bianchi, thanks to bigger wheels and a higher seat height. the front MTB wheel feels "spongy" even though the tire is properly inflated. it also feels sticky and makes this sort of puckering sound while riding. i rode with my rear light attached to the makeshift bracket; i'm happy to report it stayed in place, no problems.

i got the cafe, where i took the car and drove to alewife to get my parents (returning home from a weekend in new york). after we came back to the cafe, i rode the bike home.

i put my bianchi in the basement and locked up the trek outside; the official changing of the bikes.

i did some work today, but it's still a slow start. for dinner i cooked up some frozen chinese dumplings. i was going to have it with a chopped garlic sauce, but then i remembered i'm going to a focus group in boston tomorrow night, and i can't be having garlic breath, so i whipped up another bowl of sauce minus the garlic. i also had some peppercorn salt water duck my parents brought back from the new york city chinatown. for dessert, a defrosted piece of leftover thanksgiving tiramisu and a persimmon.

finally, since it's the last day of november, here's a wordle diagram for this month. most popular word? it's "bike"!