Father's Day
Kristi was working. Emma woke up, took a quick bath, and told me we were taking a walk. So we walked (actually, she rode her scooter) down to the St. Clair Broiler, last year's winner of "Best Breakfast" in the CityPages. (This year's winner, Hell's Kitchen, looks a little too nontraditional. For me, a hearty breakfast is an omelette and hash browns, not "Bison Benedict" or "Mahnomin Porridge". Besides, Hell's Kitchen is hardly walking -- or scootering -- distance.)After breakfast, a break for cartoons and the Sunday Strib, and then a bike ride to one of our neighborhood parks. All good so far.
The afternoon plan was to go get Kristi's new bike before she got home. The plans got slightly complicated by the presence of the Grandchildren from Two Doors Down, who wanted to play with Emma. It's Father's Day, they're with their father and their grandfather, and they want to play with Emma. (And Emma wants to play with them.) So it was a battle to get Em to come with me for the bike -- but damn it, it was Father's Day, and her mom's birthday present. So yeah, she came. Reluctantly.
In order to go get the bike, though, I had to put the bike rack on the back of the RAV. It's a hitch mount. I already knew it wouldn't fit with the spare tire mounted on the door, so the spare came off and went behind the rear seats. But then the rack wouldn't fit fully into the receiver. I got some grease -- helped a bit, but not nearly enough. I got a couple of files and tried to clean up the rust inside the receiver as best I could, put the rack back in, walloped the thing numerous times with a hammer (with a 2x4 in between hammer and pricey rack), and got it in far enough to secure the pin. I never expected to need ear protection to put the rack on.
Getting it back out was fun, too. More loud hammering. At least I don't need to worry much about somebody stealing it while it's attached to the car.
posted by MeanMrMustard @ 8:10 AM
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