with one eye on the weather, i biked to belmont to get my bicycle fixed. it was yet another warm day, mild enough that i only wore a t-shirt. in the garage i pulled out the portable vise attached to a piece of wood. i locked the freewheel remover in the grips, and then fit the rear bike wheel onto the remover (the remover fits into the freewheel without needing to remove the cone nut). unfortunately i was turning in the wrong direction (clockwise instead of counter-clockwise) so i wasn't able to remove the old freewheel.

since it'd soon rain, i packed up my things and got ready to return to cambridge. that's when my father came home. i enlisted his help to try and remove the freewheel one more time. once again, we were turning in the wrong direction, so we had no success. finally we tried an adjustable wrench with a long piece of pipe handle to give it more torque. working from the front (the freewheel side) we did manage to turn in the right direction (counter-clockwise) but one of the jaw snapped in half, so that was it for the torque wrench idea.

by that point it was already raining. since my bike was still rideable with a busted freewheel (it just makes an annoying sound plus it might fail at any moment), i wasn't in a rush to replace the freewheel. i gathered up my things for a second time and returned to cambridge. my clothes were soaked by the time i got back. i did a load of laundry and took a shower.

while i was in belmont i brought along my new thermos. i've only had it for less than a day but i feel compelled to bring it with me where ever i go, to impress people with its amazing insulating capability. i filled it with hot water at 4:00 yesterday and it was still piping hot 20+ hours later. it wasn't scalding so there was a bit of heat loss, but still hot enough to brew tea. my parents were both impressed. when i asked them if they wanted one, they said no, they already have too many (i also returned the dunkin' donut thermos now that i have my new one).

my sister was also home at the time, preoccupied with hailey after discovering 2 ticks.

i found a socket wrench with a head that fits the freewheel remover. i tried turning it by hand but the freewheel wouldn't budge. i looked around in the basement but couldn't find any pipes. i kept the wheel with the socket wrench in the kitchen, and throughout the day, whenever i felt bored or strong, i'd go and try to turn the wrench. i'll take it back to belmont tomorrow, where hopefully now that i know the right direction to turn, i'll manage to finally remove the freewheel.

it rained for the rest of the day. i had a pulled pork sandwich for lunch and then another one for dinner. i'll be eating pulled pork for the rest of the week.