** sigh **

There have been a few setbacks to my bike-and-swim vacation. Douglas and I discovered the first one yesterday when we walked up to the community pool, as I noted. Today, I discovered the second.

I took my Dahon out of its carrying bag, unfolded it, and set off on a tour of the neighborhood. Immediately I noticed a sound that made me think the chain was rubbing somewhere . . . I took a closer look, didn't see anything, and continued on. Within a few pedal strokes, the chain fell off the chainring - and when I looked again, I could see that the chainring is most definitely bent. So that's pretty much that, as far as riding the Dahon goes . . .

And much depended on it: There's another pool in the town somewhere, but it would be a bit far to walk, Kevin says; he'd been thinking I could bike up there. Also, I'd been counting on having a bike in Palo Alto later in the week. So now I don't know what to do . . . there are several places to rent bikes in Palo Alto, apparently, so maybe I'll just wait until I get there . . . and I can BART into SF tomorrow and rent a bike at Fisherman's Wharf if I want to get in some riding before then. I might possibly even be able to get the Dahon fixed - but there's not much point to that, seeing as how I have to take it back on the plane and the same thing might happen again. (Or: I could throw it away and get a Brompton instead . . . Hmm . . . )

Ah, well. Despite the setbacks we had a pleasant day; we had a leisurely morning, then had lunch in Concord, then went out to the Marin headlands for a few hours. I'd had a fantasy about swimming in the ocean, but both the air and water were far too cold even for me. (Lots of people were surfing, though - they had wetsuits. I can see that if I lived here, I would have to get a wetsuit . . . ) Nonetheless, it was extraordinarily pleasant to lie on the beach and listen to the surf . . .