Don't tell Senator Joseph McCarthy

In addition to riding a bike for transportation instead of driving (and not mowing a lawn), I also practice the seemingly Un-American activity of fixing articles that other people discard. Yes, if everyone was like me, the economy would completely and utterly collapse, but I'm going to refrain from that colossal tangent, except for mentioning that Small is Beautiful.

My rack is just barely as big as my eyes.

A couple miles, happily uphill, from returning home today, someone had deposited a shop vac at the end of their driveway. Yes, I already had one, and with just the right thickness of material wedged under the suction filter (What did I say about fixing discards?), it was fully functional, but this one was a bit or two nicer than that, despite the power cord that had pulled out of its strain relief.

Why fix tomorrow

what you can throw out today?

I consider stashing it in the nearby woods and returning when not already laden, but as a wise person from the New Britain afterschool bike program once advised me when I was contemplating if a bike from their stock, equipped with my beloved Suntour XC Pro parts, would fit for the ride home, "With bikes, where there's a will, there's a way." I replied with my favorite line from the movie Sexy Beast, which my friend Peter ordained as his favorite movie when he lent it to me, "Where there's a will, there's a way, and there is a f___ing will, and there is a f___ing way." I bought the bike.

And today, I stretched a spare bungy over the mass of shop vac and rode gently, gently down the hill home, after stopping ten feet into the ride to strap it a bit better. It worked, both the transportation and the vacuum, and with the superior strain relief of a knot tied in the cord, I will likely serve me for years, and years, and so on.

Not good as new, better!