House of Eratosthenes

Anticipating for yourself what will have to be done; gathering your gear; putting it where you can get to it when you need it; maintaining it properly.

Redundancy That’s me, clarifying the eighth rule for manly thinking, yesterday morning here at The Blog That Nobody Reads.

Wrong f**king goddamn valve type.

Me, to myself, in the park, upon unpacking my spare bicycle inner tube following a blow-out. Three miles from home. Today.

And that one…and THAT one.

Me again, an hour and a half later, in my living room, going through my entire inventory of spare inner tubes none of which had the correct valve.

Shopping tomorrow.

Today was a pretty nice day for a walk anyhow.

And we can all always use a little more humility.

Last week was a pain in the butt as far as my bicycle commute. Flat tire monday afternoon when I went to leave. Inflated with my can ‘o whip-ass tire-inflator fix-a-flat just enough to get home.

On the way home my wallett popped out of my clothes bag, unbeknownst to me. After two hours of looking for it, a nice, honest lady who’d found it called me. I thankfully picked it up at her place and gave her 1/3 of it’s cash contents.

Bought a new inner tube that night. And a bottle of slime. Tried adding it the next morning. Slit the bottle of slime, causing as much of it to ooze onto me as would go into the tire. Finally got it done to my satisfaction — put it all together, headed off to work.

That evening on the way home, my over-inflated tube I’d just replaced popped when I hit a thumb-sized stick. Had to walk it the rest of the way home … about half way.

New tube, new (un-slit) slime, on the road again the next day.

The followning day on my way to work I decided to take nicer shoes. Couldn’t zip up the side pouches, but figured the bungee cord would hold them

There was construction at the bottom of the hill which had the shoulder wiped out for a good 30 feet. Rough.

Got to work. No shoes. Rode back to that spot, and there they were about 30 feet apart.

On the way home, I braked to almost a complete stop when coming to that same spot, navigating my way to the muddy area where the construction was. Front wheel dropped into a very large pot hole. I almost fell off the bike — my right forearm slammed into the handlebars keeping me from falling off.

I have a HUGE, deep, nasty gnarly bruise that’s turning yellow, green, and purple this week.

But the bike ride has stablized this week. I got a new bag that accomodates the stuff I have to transport more readily (my work clothes, coffee, nice shoes, bike pump, lunch, and even a few other things on days I need to bring something else.

Unfortunately, they’ve now closed a bunch of the shoulder I ride on for more construction. We’ll see how that goes in the morning.
- philmon | 06/30/2008 @ 22:45
You know with me, bicycling isn’t about environmentalism. I’m a huge believer in the environment, but not in incrementalism; the socialist/”solidarity” aspect of what environmentalism has become. My brain works a certain way when I’m in a car, it works in a different way when I’m on a bike. I like the way my brain works better, when I’m on a bike. Every decision I make I have to make well, or I might get KILLED.

So for me to run into kind of a “hiccup” like this with my gear, is a humbling experience, hence the title of the post. It’s like the cat falling into the bathtub. A siamese cat. In a way, taking the steps to prepare for these contingencies, and leaving one detail of this kind uncovered, is more frustrating than not having preparing for it at all. Schrader valves…pfeh.

Good luck on that commute in the morning.
- mkfreeberg | 07/01/2008 @ 00:36
My bike ride is mostly about staying in shape.

If it helps “The Environment™”, yay. I dig “The Environment™” as much as the next guy. Maybe more.

If it helps my gasoline costs … well… considering my commute to and from work even with today’s gas prices is about $4 a week … I’m not too concerned about that, espcially because I typically only ride 3 days a week. This would bring my gas savings down to a whopping $2.40 a week, or ~$10 a month.

But if I ride and burn calories, I can keep drinking beer and eating steak, and as well as keep my ticker ticking strong so I can do things — hike, climb, etc … without tuckering out.

That’s what it’s all about.
- philmon | 07/02/2008 @ 14:40

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HumilitySunday, June 29th, 2008

Humility
Sunday, June 29th, 2008