Why not to throw anything away

When I was sailing a while ago, Paul handed me a ball bearing that had just fallen out of a winch. I stuck it in my pocket like the father that I am having been handed things by children over the years and without questioning stuck them in my pocket.

At the softball field opening party later that evening, I felt the ball in my pocket, took it out and threw it into the trash. At the time, I remember thinking like "I'll never regret that, right?".

Well, now I do. In fixing up the other bike, I've noticed that the rear wheel makes a clicking sound as it turns. Or clunking more like it if there is weight on the wheel. I had noticed when I took the wheel off how tight the cones were and I think there is a broken ball. Need to take it off to be sure.

I got the axle out and sure enough a broken ball bearing. If only I had that bearing I threw away. I had asked around about where to get this repaired and was recommended to the place at the roundabout with a bunch on bikes outside. Now to the untrained eye this place may look like a shack with parts of bikes piled out front. And I guess that's what it is. But when I went over this morning, the guy took my wheel and immediately knew what needed doing. While he was at that I took a closer look around. It looked like I could find pretty much anything for a bike I would ever need there.

The guy had the wheel back together in a few minutes. So maybe I don't need to save every little thing since there are places like this around. They may not look like much, but they can do the job.

I guess I was a little disappointed how easy it all was. I was expecting (hoping) to make an adventure about getting my wheel fixed. It was actually a lot faster and cheaper ($4.85) than I could have gotten it done in California. Maybe I'm learning how to get around, moving from the "fresh fish" stage towards being an "old hand". Part of that is getting past what shops look like to what they can actually provide.

Wind howling and white caps on the lagoon this morning as I write this. Looked like rain earlier now just howling wind.