there are jobs - and there are jobs

I consult my list.  It’s an old list - probably predates my time on blip. 

I’ve been saving them up for this very moment; with Anniemay away, I can hammer and plane and saw to my heart's content.  The list is longer than I remember. I need a coffee as I go over it and start to prioritise.  I recall a job of my own and add that to the list.  After a bit of thought I decide to start with that one - just to get my eye in, so to speak.

It’s cold in the garage so bring my bike into the house.  A new set of front forks and my single-speed bike will be finished.  I say ‘new’ - they were secondhand on a well known online auction site.  In fact most of the bits on the bike came from the internet.  And when I say ‘finished’ I mean once the handlebars have had some new bar tape.

Anniemay works hard to keep the house clean so the least I can do is to put some newspaper down.  After I’ve read it.  

She also works hard to keep our clothes washed and ironed so I put an apron over my white jumper.  I pull on a pair of Marigolds and start work.

When I’ve finished I have another coffee and sit back and admire my handiwork.  I’m rather pleased with it.  Having just the one gear takes me back to the days of my youth.  (Hence the processing in film effect ‘Vintage’.)  

We all rode single-speed during the winter and the first race of the season was always on a bike with a single gear of 72 inches.  (That’s the distance the bike would travel in one rotation of the pedals).  That was the rule; not only one gear, but one size gear.

The idea behind this was that we would all have an equal chance of winning - the equipment we used should not confer any advantage.  What did confer advantage however - and blew this egalitarian ideal right out of the water - was fact that some of the older riders had thighs like Oak trees while I was a skinny school boy with a pair of bamboo canes projecting from my shorts.

I break from my reverie and decide that I should take a photograph of my first completed job.  Just for the record.

I consult my list; plenty of time before herself returns.  And with that, I call it a day.