Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Saturday, June 17, 2006

Busted!

My seat broke. On my bicycle. Miles from home...
I've never broken a seat before, or a "saddle" as cyclists call them. This one just didn't like the fact that I am a clydesdale. 6'6" and 250 lbs. The saddle has a frame shaped like an A, with two cups holding the cylinders of the rail in back and another cup in front, on the top of the A. The cup on top split down the middle and when I got up out of my seat, the seat came up with me. Thanks to the guy who got me into cycling, office mate Chris M., who picked me up and gave me a ride home. The saintly wife was at the water park with the kids.
It was a nice seat. I didn't think I would like it but I really did. You can see a picture of a new one here. Yeah, it looks tiny, but it really works well, very comfortable if you can believe it. I got it used off of a local pro who was selling off stuff to pay bills. I had another saddle at home, but it's too padded. I feel like I'm bouncing when I ride. With the nice van in the shop I did 100 miles last week and 70 this week just in commuting. The van is back and fine, but I think I'm going to keep on riding. Maybe I won't be such a saddle breaker.

Thursday, June 08, 2006

Last weekend's incident = this week's pain

So last Friday, I was asked by a youth in the church choir to be his Confirmation Sponsor. Nice guy, Jeff. Afterwards, we're going out to get a bite to eat, and a totally unconnected teen girl driver decides that some totally unconnected teen guys in a truck in front of us are cute. What else does a teen girl do when she sees some guys in a truck and thinks that they are cute? That's right, get in front of them and perform a brake check. Twice. We passed the first one but not the second. So now the "nice" van is in the shop. It should cost us about $1900 or so to fix. Paint will have to wait for another paycheck or two. So, in order to sustain family harmony, my wife and five children are using the "not-so-nice" van and I use my bicycle. It's only about 12 miles each way, but in my '92 Astro that's close to five bucks in gas a day. I was leaning towards doing this for a while this summer anyway, to get in some more miles. So I pedal, and I ache, and when the wind is just right and I'm on the downward side of the hill, I fly.