Thursday, August 28, 2008

Today's Ramblings

It was one of those days today. This morning, I was beginning to wonder if my ride was not meant to be. Yes, I'm still riding my bike. I've given myself until the end of the week to finish up before going into recluse. Saturday will be my last fling. It's going to be good. Probably West Mountain, west of Springville, or Hobble Creek, east of Springville, maybe both.

Anyway, I was all dressed and ready to go on my ride. I turned on my Garmin. It turned itself back off again. I tried again. No luck. Stupid thing! I don't know why it's such a pain. I knew that I needed to get it plugged into the computer and then press a certain combination of buttons to get it to reset itself. I tried to take it off my bike so I could go plug it in. The release lever snapped off. Great. Now, it's stuck on my bike. I moved my bike over to a power source and tried to plug it in, but because of the way it's mounted, I couldn't access the plug. Sigh.

So, I moved on to plan B. Actually, by this time I was ready to undress and go have a nap. But, instead, I put on my heart rate monitor and opted to ride without speed and distance information.

Before I left, I went to pump up my tires. I've got these new tubes in that have slick stems. The problem is that my pump won't hold onto it. So, pumping up my tires is a two-person job anymore. Since no one was around to help, I was letting out more air than I was putting in. But, by now I was pretty determined to ride. I ended up taping the pump to my tire to hold it on while I pumped. Pretty nerdy, but it worked.

I had a very pleasant ride up Provo Canyon. I rode to Vivian Park, where I decided to turn back since the park was crowded with about 70 elementary-age kids on a field trip. I really didn't feel like dodging them, so I turned around. I was, however, tempted to stop and ask silly questions along with the teacher such as, "Is this grasshopper we've found living or not living?" I could have made some good ones up given the chance.

The ride home was nice, even with a headwind. The weather couldn't have been nicer, and the scenery up Provo Canyon is unbeatable. I'm going to miss riding my bike.

Well...I'm off to the Boyz II Men concert. I'm sure you're all jealous.

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