No more chumus: A eulogy.

L'Chaim!

Typically one rarely uses kind words to describe a landlord, but Heather and I have often been told that we were lucky exceptions to the typical standard. Mr. Rubin, though a grouchy blind man who never mastered English sentence structure (for example: “Hello Dave? The sink downstairs, it leaks. You do this for me. I pay you for this.”), was one of the most kind, fair, and involved landlords one could ever hope for. Due to our great relationship with him and Mrs. Rubin, he never had to worry about his building. When we ended up moving out, he had to turn the building over to his kids.

Mr. Rubin had operated a Kosher butchery in the building for 30 years. When he retired 15 years ago, the shop was turned over to Berkah, who operated it until last week. I had been watching the finals days of the shop play out as I went by each morning. On the last day, I saw Berkah and crew hauling stuff outside, so I decided to stop and say hi. I learned that the building had been sold and that the 45 year old business was no more. The new landlord had raised the rent to where Berkah (as well as our replacements) had to move out. Apparently much of the Kosher consumers community has been in tears over the loss.

Additional sad news that Mr. Rubin had died came from Berkah. Mr. Rubin had been one of the great survivors of WWII. It's just too unfortunate that the legacy of his profession couldn't live on in his absence. I have a hunch that if Mr. Rubin could have had his way, he would have sold the building to someone who could have kept the rent low.

While on the subject of store closings... We discovered a week or two ago that Morgan's Mexican and Lebanese Deli has also closed. So the search for local Mexican and Middle Eastern markets in our neighborhood that carry tasty chumus and/or spiced corn chips is finally on.

Work is a "biznatch".

My (David's) coworker is no longer absent, so it is back to the daily grind.

In other news, the Second Hand Ska Kings have made themselves available to TV soundtracks and will be on the Veronica Mars TV show this Wednesday evening. I'm not sure what track will be used or when it was recorded, so tune in to the show to find out if I can be heard or not. Check yer local listings, etc.

Winter slowdown?

Why has it been so long since my (David's) last update? Well there has been a vacation of sorts. Not for me, No. But rather for my co-worker. The partner's trip up north to shoot at deer, or whatever it is that he actually shoots at with any degree of success (trees perhaps), has left a vacancy on the night shift. This of course translates as a vacation for me, seeing as how the typical temporary night shift worker isn't always interested in work. So as of late, I've been a bit too entertained to devote much time to the blog. So far we haven't yet beaten the record for the number of movies one can watch in an 8 hour shift, but that doesn't mean we aren't trying. I also haven't had an abundance of time for reading others' blogs since it is my laptop that movies are watched on. Nevertheless I haven't been completely out of the loop. Not only have I read the news, but I'm proud to be the last to report that the Super Rookie now has his very own website.

101 uses for old bikes

Yet another use for unused bikes was added to the books yesterday. This time it wasn't a Bianchi though. All the necessary parts had already been removed from that bike.

Monday night our kitchen sink pipe became clogged. So I gave Andy a call, remembering that he once owned a flexible auger. I wasn't able to get a hold of Andy in a timely fashion, and I didn't want to pay a plumber. So I decided to build my own auger. When Heather's friend left for Chi-town she gave us her old Schwinn in exchange for one that is in better working order. So I took the brake cable and housing off her bike and fashioned it into an auger. Fortunately our drain pipe was short enough that the 3 foot cable could reach the clog.

So if you ever need to build a flexible auger, here is how it works:
(Note: if you have a longer pipe try a brake cable for a tandem bicycle)

Grease up the cable and slide it into the housing (make sure you have an inch or two of cable on each end of the housing). An inch or two from the leaded cable end, grab the cable tightly with a pliers. Then grab the leaded end piece of cable with another pliers and twist so that the cable unravels between the two pairs of pliers. Keep twisting until the memory of the cable is gone, and the cable stays in a frayed state. Then take the other end of the cable (the pointy side, sticking out of the other end of the cable housing) and secure it into a drill where the drill bit usually goes. And there you go, instant flexible auger.

Lastly, here is a bit of advice from and experienced user of this device: try to keep the cable housing as close to the drill as possible when the drill is turning. This will prevent the cable from becoming frayed on the drill side of the auger.

Italian stool

My (David's) coworker, being the ethnicity-boasting 20th generation American that he is, constantly plays up his Italian heritage. Of course, in doing so, he constantly boasts about the superiority of Italian bicycles. This faux nationalism on his part, combined with his preference to shun all things practical and utilitarian (especially if they're inexpensive) has led him to believe that apparently the more affordable British made Raleighs and American made Schwinns have a tendency to fall apart in a hefty head wind... this from a man who has managed to collapse his share of expensive Bianchis. In fact, this coworker has gone to such extremes as to correct my pronunciation of the word "green". To Bianchi aficionados and other crazy people, the proper way to say green is Celeste.

Now even though this coworker of mine is usually incorrect when it comes to just about everything, I began to think that maybe this one time he was partially correct, and that Bianchis were not entirely useless. So I decided to put my new theory to test. As it turns out, he was partially correct. I took an old Bianchi that the Super Rookie (soon to have his own blog) had left in my garage several years ago, and I made a couple of modifications so as to improve its overall utility.

As you can see from the photos below, the modified Bianchi now offers almost as much practical utility as some of my other bicycles. I can't wait to let my coworker know that he was actually correct for a change. I'm sure he'll be overjoyed with the news.