Biking goals

I have withdrawn my application from the Lovely Bicycle contest.  I didn't really think it was fair to be applying for a bike contest for women in need when I just voluntarily spent almost a Belle Ciao on my husband.  I had meant to do that as soon as I got home, but E came home from gramma's house with a tummy bug, and I have spent the day running loads of laundry.

Based on my new "work with what I have" philosophy I have decided to set some bicycle goals.  Yeah, cheesy huh?

1. Try to work two extra shifts at the clinic so I can afford a Velo Orange saddle.  Yes, a Brooks saddle would be nice, but that's almost a week of extra shifts and it isn't realistic to think I could get that much child care organized for free.  Or that there would be that many shifts available.  And, yes, I also know this isn't strictly speaking "working with what I have" but a new seat is a lot less than a new bike

2. I want to learn a more graceful dismount technique.  I have to get the new saddle first because when I tried it with my current cracked and falling apart synthetic saddle I just slid off and fell over.  (Interesting, my current saddle is a Brooks.  It's just a Brooks for the times of troubles when Brooks was making bad vinyl saddles)

3.  I want to learn to start my bike the way Dottie does over at Let's go Ride a Bike.

4.  I want to organize my life so that I only use the car one day week.  I'm going to choose Tuesdays, since that's game night and also discount day at the local grocery store.  I want to stick to this transportation plan until snow at least.

5.  I want to find out what other good biking techniques I have somehow missed learning and learn them.

6.  I want to either trade in the Chariot on a toddler seat or have a garage sale or something to fund one.  The chariot can be towed by anyone in the family for recreation rides, but it is really hard to park at the grocery store.  Plus, someone suggested that it might be causing the problems I've been having with the CCM (aka Victoria) and a little comparative testing has so far indicated I don't have problems with the old girl when toddler girl isn't in tow.  Since a child seat would attach to my rear rack and prevent me from using rear baskets, I would also need a front basket and front wheel stabilizer to be able to bring groceries home or carry a toddler survival pack or whatever.  I'm not even really sure Victoria can even carry a toddler seat, but I'm going to look into it.

7.  I want to go out there and have T tighten up everything on Victoria so she stops rattling so badly.

Not strictly bicycle related but up and coming in my life, I need to start planning the garden.  I always grow one to supplement our groceries in the summer.  This year I want to try square foot gardening.  Whatever configuration I plant in, I need to get some seeds started.

Last year, I biked home from the farmers market with E in the trailer and 10 kg of peaches strapped to my back rack on more than one occasion.  We are almost out of peach preserves and I will miss them when they are gone.  It really makes me glad that I have some old fashioned skills.  Those skills will get us through times of old bikes better than new bikes would get us through times of having to pay for ready made food.