Wednesday, September 01, 2004
End of the season
Argh. I'm in a funky, bilious mood, mostly due to work-chaos and the sense that I'm buried by badly-handled responsibilities in both work and at home. Nothing big is going wrong, but aside from the sheer volume of tasks, I feel beset by stupid screw-ups on all sides (many of my own making):
-I finally assembled the new bike and got it delivered to Proximate Drea's little sister, and it's really nice (pictures shortly). Packing that and my race bike into the Tercel was a trick, but it worked. Until I got impatient when delivering the bike to PD's little sister, pulled my bike out too forcefully, and completely tore up the back of my bike's saddle. And then when I pulled out the little black bike I'm selling, the brand new tube I had put in the front wheel was completely flat. Oh well, at least MEC was only a few blocks away. And I think PD's little sister really likes the bike. And I still got back in time to pick up The Lovely One after work.
-I had to borrow a hydrometer (hygrometer? No, that's for humidity) from my in-laws to check on my fermenting mess of stuff in the basement (which, on the upside, is fermenting, and smells more like wine than vinegar). After a fruitless search, I went looking in the wine cellar a second time, and found the hygrometer. Which I promptly dropped and broke. So I'll get a new one for them tonight. And then on my way out of the in-laws' house, I slipped down the steps and fell.
It seems like everything has been working out this way. Work has been chaotic all week, for reasons I won't go into here.
Oh well, at least the bike race last night was fun, even if it was also chaotic. Because it was the last race of the year, the organizers did two things to mix it up. The Cat 4 and Cat 3 races were united, so we got to compete as one big, fast, crazy group. And the format was changed to a points race, which meant that we were sprinting every second lap (to my surprise, my computer said the race pace was not unusually fast: 38 km/h, but it was hard efforts throughout). I wasn't a factor in the race, but I managed to hang on until the end, and that was better than some riders did, and much better than the unseen rider somewhere behind me who made "shopping-cart noises" (to use a phrase I overheard after the race) in one corner. Apparently he broke his collarbone.
As for me, the worst I managed was a highly embarrassing but very minor abrasion on my forearm. Before my race started I was riding up the course, but wanted to stay off the road so as to be out of the way of the racers. I was riding on sloped, dry grass, and overestimated the available traction. Whump.
On the upside, the SISU rep at the race, a charming young woman who shows up almost every week dispensing sweet, wonderful Hydrade, gave me a container of my favourite performance beverage just for being a swell guy. That made my day.
So, you know, it was one of those days.
-I finally assembled the new bike and got it delivered to Proximate Drea's little sister, and it's really nice (pictures shortly). Packing that and my race bike into the Tercel was a trick, but it worked. Until I got impatient when delivering the bike to PD's little sister, pulled my bike out too forcefully, and completely tore up the back of my bike's saddle. And then when I pulled out the little black bike I'm selling, the brand new tube I had put in the front wheel was completely flat. Oh well, at least MEC was only a few blocks away. And I think PD's little sister really likes the bike. And I still got back in time to pick up The Lovely One after work.
-I had to borrow a hydrometer (hygrometer? No, that's for humidity) from my in-laws to check on my fermenting mess of stuff in the basement (which, on the upside, is fermenting, and smells more like wine than vinegar). After a fruitless search, I went looking in the wine cellar a second time, and found the hygrometer. Which I promptly dropped and broke. So I'll get a new one for them tonight. And then on my way out of the in-laws' house, I slipped down the steps and fell.
It seems like everything has been working out this way. Work has been chaotic all week, for reasons I won't go into here.
Oh well, at least the bike race last night was fun, even if it was also chaotic. Because it was the last race of the year, the organizers did two things to mix it up. The Cat 4 and Cat 3 races were united, so we got to compete as one big, fast, crazy group. And the format was changed to a points race, which meant that we were sprinting every second lap (to my surprise, my computer said the race pace was not unusually fast: 38 km/h, but it was hard efforts throughout). I wasn't a factor in the race, but I managed to hang on until the end, and that was better than some riders did, and much better than the unseen rider somewhere behind me who made "shopping-cart noises" (to use a phrase I overheard after the race) in one corner. Apparently he broke his collarbone.
As for me, the worst I managed was a highly embarrassing but very minor abrasion on my forearm. Before my race started I was riding up the course, but wanted to stay off the road so as to be out of the way of the racers. I was riding on sloped, dry grass, and overestimated the available traction. Whump.
On the upside, the SISU rep at the race, a charming young woman who shows up almost every week dispensing sweet, wonderful Hydrade, gave me a container of my favourite performance beverage just for being a swell guy. That made my day.
So, you know, it was one of those days.
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