Bicycle ride. Tarp.

This afternoon I rode my bicycle to town to pay my property taxes.   I tried to pay them last Friday but the county office was closed on Friday due to Veteran's Day on Saturday.  On the ride home today I was almost run over.  I was riding on a road near a curve and also that has a dead-end street on my right.  On the dead-end street a pickup was waiting at the stop sign.  I saw a car coming on the road from the other direction.  Then I paid more attention to the pickup as cars seldom turn onto the dead-end road, and vehicles don't like waiting at stop signs as will pull out in front of me.

As I got to the intersection the oncoming car did also and then it made a left turn to go onto the dead-end street.  I braked hard and turned right as much as I could to avoid the car.  It wasn't looking good but I slowed and turned enough that I went against and then along with the side of the car.  I put my left hand on and against the car to keep from falling over and into it.  I made it as the car passed and I was able to stop without falling over.   Barely.

I was going to chew the driver out as I was not happy, but he was nice and sorry and apologetic and said that he didn't see me as he was also watching that the pickup didn't pull out in front of him.  I had braked so hard that my left brake cable broke.  He offered to buy me a new cable.  I gave him my name and number, so we'll see.   I rode home the seven miles carefully as I had only one working brake on my bicycle.

This was really close, and it could have been really bad for me.

When I got home I replaced the brake cable as I have extra cables from bicycles I had made into parts.

Yesterday when Donna and I went to Mable's place for me to fix her roof, I saw a tarp in the ditch as Donna was waiting at a stop sign to turn onto the highway.   Maybe some tears, but the tarp looked good.  So I jump out of her car and grabbed the tarp and put it in her car trunk. Yet another thing I found on the side of the road.   I think Donna rolled her eyes when I wanted to get the tarp.   While I was on my bicycle ride today Donna stopped by and dropped off the tarp.

A minor tear or two.  The tarp is much better than my previous tarp I had used to cover the hay baler last Winter.   So I put the tarp over the baler and tied it down to keep it from blowing off in strong winds.  I used a broom to sweep the leaves off the baler.  I put the broom down on the back of the baler while I pulled the tarp onto the baler.  Then the broom was missing.  It somehow slipped into the baler somewhere.  I had to get a flashlight to look into the baler as the broom couldn't be found.   I thought I may have to get the tractor hooked up to the baler to open it so I could search it better.  But I finally felt the broom and could pull it out.

The broom had fallen in where the belts are located.

Covered for the Winter.

The previous tarp I had used on the baler I had draped over the haybine earlier.   The cattle, of course, had 'played' with the tarp.   I had to sweep leaves off that tarp and the haybine as the haybine wasn't completely covered.   That tarp was so bad I had to cut it into sections, and also throw away some parts of the tarp.   Finally I got the haybine covered again.

So... did I work on my fence today?  What do you think?   Nope.   Another waste of a good weather day.  Rain and cold are forecasted for tomorrow.