Stupid Hurts….trust me I know!

Sorry for disapeareing apparently I ran out the up to 114 or 115 degrees and I am really not sure what happeneded next only but what the have rerecorded in the hospital later. you really are going to have to deal wiil bear with me till I am deal with cerebellar cognitive failures. I really do not feel all that sharpe as I should be.

sarah is working extremely hard and my mom is putting up with insanity and my shit in spectacular amounts of my doing bat shit insane on several occasions nightly

So late last month I gave serious mountain biking a few tries before deciding it really wasn’t for me. While out on each excursion one of the things i had to contend with was the massive tick population in Ok. I didn’t think much of it because we don;t have aggressive ticks in Alabama. Anyway a few weeks later I developed a rash but it went away in a few days. Then on Saturday I had to leave work early because my knee really hurt. I got home iced my knee and pretty much passed out there. When I woke up later on that night I felt like hell. I had an insane headache it hurt to move my eyes, and a fever that was quickly ramping up. I figured it was just the flu or something and that I would try to sleep it off. Sunday passed and I still had a fever, Sarah told me she was afraid I was going to burn her.

Monday came and my fever broke that morning after near overdosing myself on Aspirin. We went to an unrelated doctors appointment I had, and then headed back home. On the way home she was speaking with her mom who told her that if my fever was above 103 to take me to the hospital. We stopped got thermometer and proceeded to check myself. I got pissed because it read 104. So I went and wasted nearly 3 hours in a clinic for “We don’t know whats wrong with you, it might be ticks take these pills pay the nurse out front, if it gets worse don’t come back to us. go strait to the emergency room.”

And the pills are the best part, you have to take them on an empty stomach or you will throw up, if you eat any dairy product while on them you get severe diarrhea, and they make me too dizzy to ride my bike, not that I had a lot of that planned but it would be nice.

I had a problem finding a good description online on how to tape up road bike handle bars. Luckily I know how to tape bars already so I decided to write my own.

Step One:

First off flip your rubber brake hoods up and out of the way. Then find the two short strips of bar tape in your package, or cut two three inch pieces of tape. Place each of the short pieces of tape over the brackets on the rear of each brake lever.

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Technorati Tags: description, tape, road, bike, handle, bars, brake, hoods

“A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” - Antoine de Saint-Exup’ery

So the bike I ordered finally arrived a few days ago. I decided to give a fixed gear bicycle a try because I have been curious about them for some time, and I really need to work on evening out my pedal stroke. Plus I keep hearing people relate the simplicity of having only one gear as an enlighting experience.

Not being able to coast has taken some getting used to, and of course I have managed to fall off of my langster already. While negotiating a stop in front of a store, I couldn’t get my foot off the pedals in time and found myself having a really close encounter with a barbecue grill.

Technorati Tags: perfection, Antoine, Exup’ery, fixed, gear, bicycle, simplicity, langster

I am feeling a bit lazy right now, so here is my last week or so in pictures

and most importantly

there are loads more pictures up in the gallery, not dont be a stranger

Maybe riding in the rain last week wasn’t such a good idea. Since then I have had to pull my Allez apart several times to lube parts and chase out phantom creaks and groans. After the most recent two hour stint in the shop I thought I had finally gotten rid of all the noises, only to find out my crank arms have essentially started to fail. The noises they are making is pretty appalling. When I pedal the chearing of metal sounds like my bike is crying almost.

After further inspection I need at least a new set of cranks and probably a bottom bracket. I would be pissed about it, but I ordered a new bike the middle of last week and it got here today. Or so I thought.

I walked up front at work to enter a ticket I had just completed and I saw the package I have been waiting for. I got really excited, but when I checked the packing slip I realized they sent the wrong size and the wrong color. Which means I have to send this one back and what another week or two to get the correct one in. For some reason brown got mistaken for silver.

Unfortunately I started weighing my options while deciding what I was going to do with the bike that was mistakenly sent to me. And I got to look at all sorts of things I don’t need to spend my money onm

The weather here has sucked lately. It has been raining hard for the past few days so flooded streets today came as no real surprise. My roommates and I were all out on the front porch watching the water race down the sidewalk and joking about the weather. When someone brought up ” Why do runners run in the rain? We let the conversation trail off. But once I got inside, the insanity set in and an idea formed. I asked my roomie Mel, “how about we race our bikes to the lake?” And for some odd reason she said yes.

So a few minutes later we pushed out bikes out into the flood swollen roads. It only took a few blocks and several car parts floating by for us to see the flaws in our plan. The water was now surging up past our axles and with every rotation of the pedals our feet dipped below the fast moving surface.

We rode for about five miles before self preservation instincts forced us home. While sitting in the living room all giggles and wet socks we lubed our bikes and waxed poetically about playing in puddles as kids. The fun memories and the ensuing colds.

Maybe next time we will stop and splash in a puddle or two.