Monday, February 22, 2010

Tool

Ah yes, the dual meaning title...

I've become a reasonably ok bike mechanic. When I say reasonably ok I do not in any way mean that you should trust me to work on your $5000 bike and not eff it up, but I at least trust myself to work on my own expensive bike and then ride it. I do have a bad habit though of letting maintenance type stuff go way too long and then of course it ends up being more expensive and a big pain in the ass. Case in point: I finally got around to pulling apart the whole front end of my steel cross bike for the first time in 2 years. Let's just say that I got some quality time with some sandpaper while I cleaned the rust off of the steerer tube. Anyways... so my latest is that the rear shifting on my road bike has been getting kinda stiff and flaky for a while. I knew it was time to change out the lower piece of housing at least and probably replace the cable too. Well tonight I tried to just swap out the housing and grease up the cable a little. Lacking a very good cutter (the proper TOOL), the ends of the housing were a little ragged. In the process of threading the used cable through with it's imperfect end, I got a couple of strands caught and proceeded to peel them a ways back and basically destroy the cable. Of course I didn't have a spare on hand. So I have now disabled my bike over a $2 part because I procrastinated and wasn't careful (I am a TOOL). Ah well... easy problem to back out of at least.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

whyidonotplayhoops

Two weekends ago I played basketball twice in 3 days. I had fun. I even played respectably well, then again it wasn't exactly a high caliber game. The day after the second game I felt like I had pulled a muscle in the right side of my chest. It got progressively more acute over the next few days and I finally reached the conclusion that I probably cracked a rib. I can tell I've turned the corner and it's getting better as long as I don't do anything stupid (unlikely). That'll teach skinny guys like me to jump in with the big boys.

Oh, and I missed the window of opportunity on the hideous looking elbow. More or less picture implanting a Twinkie in your arm. Now picture what your arm would look like once all that blood/fluid distributes itself throughout your elbow and forearm. Guess I'll just have to get on the pictures right away the next time I hurt myself. You know by now it won't be that long of a wait.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Fail

I can't remember if I made it public, but I had put my name in for Leadville this year. I got the "We regret to inform you..." email today. Major bummer since a guy from the club that I really enjoy riding with got in. Of the 7 of us I know that put in, it looks like he may have been the only lucky one. Sadly, there's no way I can burn a hall pass to go out to crew for him and/or help with the race. Have to save those for the events I'm in. Ah well... better luck next year.

If I get ambitious tonight I have to get a picture of my arm up here. I took a huge hit on my elbow 10 days ago when I hit a patch of ice and it's still hideous. Definitely worst contusion I've ever had and that's saying sumthin.

Thursday, February 04, 2010

Bear with me

I'm going to be doing some redecorating around here so bear with me while I get things in order.

Speaking of redecorating, you can go check out some exciting news over here. That will also double as my pre-built excuse for why I suck this season.

Monday, February 01, 2010

That was weird

If you've ever even met me you've probably figured out that I don't sleep much. I can carry on with what sounds like not a lot of sleep for quite a while, but it does catch up with me now and then. Yesterday I pulled a marathon day where I got up at 4 to go to a teammate's house for a spin and CX Worlds viewing party. Who could say no to a trainer workout with company while watching the best of the best and chasing it with beer and waffles? Anywho... by late afternoon I was pretty beat, but hung in there until maybe 9:30. This morning I got up at 4 (typical for work day) and I just could. not. wake. up. On the drive to work I almost turned around 3 times because I felt like I was not all that safe to be driving. Chugging my first cup of joe wasn't helping. 2 more cups when I got to work and there was still nothing firing. I found myself apologizing to everyone because I was being a grouchy jerk and I just generally avoided people. Finally around 11:30 I just admitted I was just wasting the electricity to light my office and went home. I basically went right to bed and slept for the better part of 4 hours. I think that did the trick, but I'm still trying to get over the groggy daytime sleeping feeling. Definitely seem more coherent. We'll see how it goes when the kid circus starts in a little while.