cold outside is cold...

so...
i did my first cold weather ride this morning. it wasn't all that bad really except for my ears and my fingers.
those two extremities were not happy.
at all.

i see a pair of full fingered gloves in my near future.

and something to cover my damned ears.

ouch.

anyway, it was a very brisk 45 degrees out this morning. and i was hungry. so i decided to make my morning trek to McD's in the hopes that it would warm me up a bit.
well...i don't think i'd say that it warmed me up all that much. but i still feel better after the ride.

did notice a couple of things about my bike though. for some reason the seat isn't staying adjusted to the right height so my left knee hurts a bit now. i'm not sure what exactly is going on here since i've never really had this problem before. best i can come up with is that it's something to do with the cold?
i'll just have to keep an eye on it.

past that, things are normal. currently taking a break from school (i had to reboot the computer and haven't started it back up yet) and being amused that i may actually buy something along the lines of tights in order to keep my legs warm when i'm riding this winter.

apparently layers are the winter chic type of look. so i've been reading up on good ways to keep yourself warm in the winter riding months. really, for the most part, it just seems to be common sense and do the same things you'd do if you're walking a lot.

if it keeps me warm, i'm ok with that.

on a totally unrelated note, the guinea pigs are making some weird ass noises this morning. not sure what that's all about, but they're worked up about something.
i'll just go out on a limb and blame the solar flares.

anyway, back to work.

so.....the tire/tube changing didn't go quite as successfully as i thought at the time.
turns out there was actually a hole in the tire itself. was a pretty good sized hole. unfortunately i didn't find out about it till my son and i went for a ride the next day.

and of course, i didn't find it till about almost 1/2 of a mile from home.

that was a long walk back. :-\

anyway.....took the whole wheel, tire and all up to the shop. got a new tire (more on that in a sec) and a new tube.
the tube has slime in it. it's supposed to be self healing.
we'll see how this goes.
it was all of $1 more than the regular tubes so i figured it couldn't hurt to try.

the tube deal that amused me was a tube that was "guaranteed to not go flat!" and yet it came 2 to a package? er.....yeah. somehow that didn't quite sell me.

so....i had to get a new tire. there's a downside to this, and that's mainly my OCD when it comes to things matching.
apparently my tire size is not entirely common (it's 700x28c...i've seen quite a few of these so i'm not sure how they're not common? (at least according to that guy)) so he had to hunt around a bit for a tire.
the tire i got has the exact same tread (or rather, lack of) however.....it has very nice and pretty lettering on the side.
my front tire doesn't.

this is driving me insane. i notice it every damned time i look at my bike.
it's like my bike has a big zit right in the center of it's forehead or something.
so as soon as i can i'm going to take the front wheel up and have them swap it out.

and then yesterday was just great. first i got pulled over in a parking lot for exceeding the speed limit.
swear to $deity
the cop flashed his lights and his siren and i actually said out loud "what the fuck?"
so he walks up to me and i actually said "is there a problem officer?" (i've always wanted to say that)
he explained to me that there is an ordinance that covers speed limits in parking lots where there is no posted limit.
i got off with a warning.

somewhere along the same ride my bike computer and i broke up. no warning it just left with out even saying good bye.
searched everywhere i went yesterday morning (did the same this morning) and have no idea where the hell the damned thing jumped off my bike at.
so there's something i'm going to have to replace.
there's another cheezy component install that i'm not looking forward to. maybe this time i can figure out how to make it look a bit nicer.

then later on yesterday as i was coming back from school i managed to blow a stop sign right in front of a cop. hopefully it was a different one.
so yeah.

and...yesterday (all my troubles seemed so far away) was the first time i've managed to actually do 99% of my commuting on my bike. the only time i got in a car was when we went out for dinner after everyone finally got home.
i was rather proud of that.
all in all i probably rode upwards of 10 miles yesterday.

so other than that, i'm now officially pissed at open office. had a paper that i was working on and suddenly, it's gone. there is no trace of the fucking thing anywhere on my computer.
it's.
just.
gone.

so now i have to start over again and try to remember what the hell i'd done before. i was almost fucking finished with it and bah.
of course it's due tonight. :-\

meh. anyway, i think i just needed a jabber break. still trying to calm down from OO being a piece of shit.

ok, now having said all that, i'm back to my paper. i'm writing instructions on how to change a bike tire :-)

I WIN!!!

so...here's the latest skinny.
as we all know, i bought a bike some months ago and i have really come to enjoy using it to commute around town (made my first trip all the way across town yesterday. that fucking rocked) and i like to just ride.
it's fun.
it's like being a kid again only with out the banana seat and the big ass schwinn logo on the side of the bike.

so..the other night we got L. a bike. Now, keep in mind, she doesn't particularly like riding bikes, but it's good exercise and it gives us something to do together in the evenings rather than playing LoTRO or WoW. and semi-fresh air is always nice.

we were walking through wally world and i was looking for something specifically bike related so we were in that section. i pointed at a couple and said "ya know you might actually like these if you gave them a chance..." next thing i know "IT'S BLUE!!! and it's the right shade too!"
so we had them pull it out. it was amusing watching her ride it around the store.
it was probably amusing watching me ride through the automotive aisles and the sporting goods section as well.

concensus? that damn bike is comfy. it's really stable (it's got tires that are probably twice as wide as mine if not more) and the saddle is pretty sweet too.
almost makes me want to get one of them there comfort bikes.

my bike doesn't like to go slow. it tends to get all squirrelly on me. but then, it's designed to go fast. /shrug
street bikes ftw!

anyway, what this rant was leading up to was...after we got L's bike and got home we went for a ride. it was a good little ride and it gave her a chance to get used to her bike, so it wasn't very long. we sat in the front yard and talked for a while after we got done. much water was consumed.
i got up the next morning. decided i wanted to go to mcd's for some "fat fewdz" and sure as shit, my back tire was flat. wouldn't hold air for anything.

so yesterday she stopped at the bike shop that we favor (Springfield Bicycle Co. is fuckin awesome guys. if you're in town and want anything bike related, check them out. seriously.) and got me a new tube. my bike uses the tubes with the funky valves so i couldn't get one at wally world. and besides, they know what i have and what i need there, so...it works out.

so, this leads up to this morning.

i decide to change the tire myself. oh man, what the hell was i thinking...

so....started out i managed to get the tire off the bike with out destroying anything. this was actually something i was worried about, and it turns out i shouldn't have been. was cake.

anyway i was taking the tire off the rim right? good way to start. couldn't get the fucker all the way off of the rim for some reason. no idea why. just. wouldn't. work.
so i pull the tube out and try to stuff the new one in under the tire to see if it'll work that way (i've seen people do this so i know it can work. i'm apparently not that smart though.)
so.....that kinda worked except that when i put air in the tube there were spots that were all nice and inflated and then there were spots that were flatter than kate moss. :-(

so i decided to start the whole process over again and take the whole tire off this time even if i had to take the fucker off with scissors.
it apparently heard the threats because it came right off.
so i thought "hey, what if i put some air in the tube before i put the tire back on the rim to get it to stay conformed to the tire."
that actually worked out pretty well.
except......the tire wouldn't go back on the rim. at all.

this was the point where i decided to go inside, have some coffee, and leave my fairly expensive wheel outside in the hopes that someone would come along and steal it for me so that i'd have to go buy another one rather than admit defeat.

that or some neighbor hood kid could come by and fix the fucking thing for me.

finished my coffee and wandered outside, e-cig in hand, and neither of my hopes were fulfilled.

imagine my shock.

after some threats and some cursing and almost a full carto of juice, i got my tire on and the tube aired completely up. ...it was holding air. it wasn't hissing.

I WON!!!
me 1
tire 0

fuck yeah. /chicken dance.

so i take off on my bike to do a victory lap around the block (checking to make sure it holds air and everything spins freely and where it's supposed to.)

take off down the street. come to the corner where there's a much busier street. hit the break and fucked if i didn't just about go right out into traffic.

i kinda forgot to hook my back break back up after i put the tire back on.
so i guess, really...the bike itself almost won.

so the point of this very fucking long and meandering story (on the off chance that you're still reading) is that i did my very first mechanicy thing to my bike today.
i got all greasy and dirty and sweated and cursed and feel all manly now because i got something done.

next project?
don't fucking break anything so i don't have to go through this again.

lolwut?

ok, so i left chemistry early last night. not a big deal, we just got out early. so i sat down outside in the grass next to a tree because it was just such an awesome evening (absolutely fucking beautiful outside) and finished the book that i'd been reading. so about an hour goes by and i'm feeling pretty happy and laid back at this point. unwind time is good apparently.

after about an hour i decided i should leave school to walk up to the other college that's about 2 blocks away to meet L (she's getting her masters in special education! woo!!)

now, some back story here. around the school that i go to, there is roughly one intersection that it's actually safe to walk through. yup. one.
it's not there there aren't any crosswalks, and that they're not EXTREMELY clearly marked, it's just that people driving through the area don't seem to give two fucks about the fact that there are people walking through there.

so i had to walk through one of the absolute worst ones last night to get where i was going. it's this weird mini-roundabout thing and usually i just walk right across it but last night i decided to actually use the crosswalk for some reason. i made it about halfway through and some guy comes barreling through it like a bat out of hell, slams on his breaks and starts yelling at me to "get through the fucking crosswalk already!!!!"

so what did i do?
yup that's right. i stopped. right in the middle of the crosswalk. just stood there and tried not to laugh while this guy yelled an amazing amount of obscenities at me.

i was really impressed with his vocabulary actually.

so after a couple of minutes someone finally pulled up behind him and heard the yelling.
the thing that had seriously surprised up to this point was that the first guy didn't get out of his car and beat the ever lovin fuck out of me.
the second guy actually got out of his car and i'm like "ah shit maybe this was a worse idea than i originally thought..."
the second guy walks up to me and says "is everything ok?" i said "yeah, he's just being a dick." he turned around to the guy that was in the first car and still yelling and said "dude, shut the fuck up so we can go already?"
at which point i felt i had made my point (that was most likely totally lost on the asshat) so i exited the intersection.

for some reason last night i just felt the need to make the point that people have a right to the road as well. i ride my bike all over this side of town and downtown. typically when i'm riding my bike people are very respectful of me and give me a wide berth. and i ride fairly defensively so for the most part it works out. i've never had anyone honk at me, or throw things or splash me with a huge ass puddle. i've had people get pissed at me when i'm trying to go up a hill and i'm slowing down so they break several traffic laws and speed past me as fast as they possibly can, but to be totally honest, i don't blame them in that case. i'm not the fastest person when it comes to hills. especially when lugging my backpack around with all my books and my netbook in it.
but when walking, it's almost a totally different story. and i have no idea why. it's not like people walking or riding pay any less for the road than the people driving do, so why the hate?
even when i'm driving, i've missed lights because people were walking across the road. this really pisses people behind me off, but they'll live.
people in cars need to be more respectful i think.

but that's just my opinion. take it for what it's worth.

i think this would all probably fall into the category that one of my best friends classified as "only in brian's world..." this was after several really random events (most of which he was there for) happened to me all right in a row. like totally random shit...like spending an hour and a half on the phone with some girl who was originally a wrong number (she called me lol).
there were other things but i was really to drunk at the time (ok all the time) to remember what they were now.

so that was my evening. go to class. get out of class early. unwind. almost get the shit beaten out of me and then out to a nice dinner with L.

Good Times(tm).

maybe something interesting will happen today. just hopefully not quite as interesting as last night.