July 24th, 2005
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Two year/two thousand mile warranty, or how my dad can fix anything
My always reliable commuter bicycle, the 2003 Enjoy has recently been anything but. The increased stress from daily rides to and from work since our office moved in April has apparently accelerated my ride’s decline and a lot of parts have met their limit. About a month ago my headlight burnt out, and since not having a working one is a good way to get stopped (or in an accident), I took it to the shop near my house and had it replaced for about five dollars. This was not so bad by itself, but unfortunately it seems to have been a harbinger for other problems. My front brake pads were worn to the limit, requiring me to use my rear (disc) brake with a lot more force. It makes perfect sense that the rear would be used more, but the disc brake seems to be more of a curse than a blessing. After wearing beyond a certain point it has become, like most cheap bicycles, incredibly loud, apt to screech to incredibly noisily that I find myself often placing myself in a moderate amount of danger from being reluctant to use it. To complicate things, the cable on my front brake line snapped completely, partially from the added tension of having the pads worn down, and partially from rust. I suppose it’s only a matter of time before the rear cable breaks as well. I’m all for maintenance of useful tools, but the bill for a five minute job of replacing a bit of rubber and wire came to twenty six dollars, about 20% of the initial cost of bicycle. Fixing the rear brake so it doesn’t squeal essentially requires replacing it, which would cost over fifty dollars. I’m thinking the parts for these operations probably wouldn’t even come close to the cost I’m paying for the five minutes of service at the bicycle shop, given the mass production and low precision of the pieces involved, so in the future I guess I just need to start taking better care of my bike.
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Although my dad’s college degree was of the electrical sort, like most engineers he has an inclination and the talent to fix just about anything. As a result our family has probably saved tens of thousands of dollars in automobile service over the years thanks to his do-it-yourself attitude. One of his most notable achievements involves dismantling and rebuilding an entire motorcycle in one night, right down to the gaskets. More recently he replaced the triangle joints on my mother’s Accord, quite a considerable task even for a mechanic.
For the most part I spent today in Akiba, initially looking for some Evangelion figurines. Unfortunately, the store where I bought all my precious Love Hina characters moved, and I couldn’t find anything that wasn’t forty dollars. At first I didn’t see how anyone could afford actually paying for anime’ and character goods, but then it dawned on me that most of the people that really buy this stuff are so obsessed with it they don’t have a social life really, so if the only thing you spend money on is ramen and body pillows bearing the image of Rei Ayanami, I guess it may all come out in the wash. Either that or I just really need a raise.
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Anyway, I was feeling contemplative and not so much in the Akiba mood (quite a mysterious set of circumstances indeed!), so I took the Sobu line to Iidabashi and spent a long while staring into the sotobori (outer moat) canal and watching lovers rent row boats as the classicly staid red Chuo line rambled past. Afterwards I planned on taking a stroll south through Chiyoda-ku, where I formerly had a contract on an apartment, and take photographs of all the schoolyards, but a bookstore caught my eye and I got motivated to buy some Japanese children’s literature to practice my reading. I ended up with San Nen Sei no Mukashi Banashi (Old Stories for Third Year Students), and Boku wa Osama (I Am King), two books for 8-10 year olds roughly at my fiction reading level. The truth is I can read kanji equivalent to an entry-level high school student, but the grammatical phrasings of novels continue to elude me and I get really tired reading small print. So I figured it was best to get something I could actually get through to build my confidence. I may very well go back to manga after this, since I really haven’t read any since finishing Dr. Slump last fall.
