This morning was shaping up to suck outrageously. I was about halfway to work, and my back tire blew out. 2″ long rip in one sidewall; you could see daylight all the way through. I tried to boot it with one of those extra-big patches from one of my patch kits, but no dice. In re-inflating the tire with a fresh tube, I managed to blow out my remaining good 26″ tube, leaving me with nothing but two 700C 18-23 one of which I tried to make-do-with to limp the bike the rest of the way in to town. It couldn’t be ridden, of course, with a completely blown-out tire and a weensy tube kind of rattling around inside the meaty 26 x 2.0 tire. It was enough to make the bike pushable, but that was it.
I ended up being exactly one hour late for work, which really points up the efficiency of riding a bike versus walking. Walking does have some advantages inasmuch as you see a lot of details and small weird things you don’t see from a bike. Like goats. I saw goats this morning. Frolicking, in fact. Goats, frolicking in an empty but fenced-in lot I pass every time I ride this particular stretch of street. I will be returning with a camera, perhaps on my lunch break tomorrow, to record the existence of urban goats for posterity. They’re little buggers, too. I think they might be pygmy goats, or some sort of similar breed. They’re around the size of a border collie, minus the big plumy tail and plus a set of horns. You wouldn’t believe how much my day improved when I saw the goats. I actually stopped and greeted the goats. “Hi, small goats. What the hell are small goats doing here in the middle of the city?” The goats declined to answer, or even to acknowledge the greeting.
As I was moving on from the impromptu goat-pen, another cycle-commuter pulled up alongside of me and offered assistance, but since the man wasn’t carrying another tire (and who regularly does) there wasn’t much he could do for me. I stated my intention to stop in at ACME either on my lunch break or after work and see if they had a used tire I could buy and pick up some more spare tubes.
Further on in my walk to work, I passed a fun window display consisting of an electric train-set and a fairly elaborate model countryside. It’s got a motion activated switch so passers by can send the train on its rounds by passing their hand across the sensor. It put me in mind of those stylized Christmas shop window displays you see on the “old-fashioned” style Christmas greeting cards. Except for there not being a herd of muffler-bedecked urchins pressing their noses against the window to try to get a closer look. I’ll probably swing by and set the train in motion and shoot a little video of it someday soon.
As per intention, I stopped in at ACME after work and procured extra inner tubes and borrowed a used tire. It so happens that I have an extra set of knobbies for my bike at home, so I’ll return the spare tomorrow. Christi and I rode east together, since we live all of two blocks apart. It’s fun to have a riding buddy, and it was a glorious night for a ride, being moderate in temperature, with a fluffy, thick snowfall in progress. Falling snowflakes look especially cool when illuminated by the combined forces of Christi’s Niterider HID and my Niterider TriNewt. We were very well-lit women. We also sported full compliments of blinky lights, front and rear, and a fine selection of reflective items. If anybody ever said of either of us “Oh, I didn’t see her,” that person would be lying through his or her teeth!
I’ve since done a bit of organizing in my workroom. It was necessary, though it was prompted by purely frivolous motives. I was looking for my fluorescent topstitching thread, because I wanted to see if I could set my machine up for double-needle topstitching with four threads run through the two needles (two per). Indeed, it can be set up that way, and now I am debating whether it would slaughter all rules of decency, decorum, and taste to do topstitch trim in that style on my next pair of bluejeans. What do you think, based on the following swatch?
Oh, and by the way, the colors did not scan accurately. In reality, the top row of stitching is day-glo orange and yellow, and the bottom row is day-glo pink and lime green. It is monstrously whacky and I am seriously digging it. I might actually do a pair of jeans this way, unless I receive vast public outcry in the next couple of days.