lazy days of summer

So far, it's been a hot (almost 30 degrees) and lazy July 1st. Hubby couldn't be persuaded to venture out to one of the nearby Canada Day celebrations so we are having an in-house BBQ instead.

Teenage Son wanted to ride his bike to meet some friends. Problem: his mountain bike is out of commission. We bought it in the spring and it has been in the shop more than out of it. Still not working properly. Hopefully we can get it taken care of once and for all this week, but not today; the shop is closed. His road bike had two flat tires and Presta valves. Our air compressor doesn't work with Prestas, so we watched a YouTube video on how to use adapters. The front tire inflated lickety-split. Not so the back. Turns out the valve was broken. We needed tubes for some of the other bikes anyway (I think each of our bikes uses a different tube) so I decided to ride Bonnie Blue to Canadian Tire to get some. The only ones they had in stock were the road bike tubes, so I bought two of those. When I returned home, I got to pass on what I learned earlier this season about changing tire tubes by showing Teenage Son how to do it. It was a little harder with the road bike tire; in fact, it took two of us to both take off and put on the tire. But we got it done. And he was happy.

At Canadian Tire as I was unlocking my bike and getting ready to leave, I met an older couple on their bikes. We chatted a bit, and then they asked about my Basil panniers, wondering where I'd bought them, so I told them about MEC and their amazing selection of bicycle bags. (Unfortunately, there is no local shop that carries this sort of thing.) I love to encourage others to ride a bike more often!

Last week I also bought a front basket and fenders for Bonnie Blue, so I plan to test my skills again and attach them during the next couple of days. 

And tomorrow it's back to work, so my mind has been busy planning the first day of classes. Flexibility is always paramount when teaching ESL, but especially so on the first day in a program such as ours. Registration occurs during the session's first week, so we are never sure until the last minute exactly who our students will be or how many students we'll have. And since our students are all ages and come from such varied backgrounds, the composition of the classes can be quite different from session to session. I always plan a variety of things and use the ones that seem suitable. It's been nice to have a week off, but I'm looking forward to going back, to riding my bike to and from work, and to seeing old students again and meeting new ones. My co-worker is a great person, too, so it's always nice to see her again as well.