Busy Times, Good Times

The AquaVelva's been out of commission for a little over a week. A rear bearing problem that forced me to seek nearby professional help.




It's been killing me . . . I've only had the bike what, about three weeks, and my happiness is totally dependent on it. I picked up the wheel and a cuppa jo from Joe this morning. I'm jacked to get this bike back on the road and hyped up on caffeine. Good wired times.


Brandy, the "take-me-to-Manito-and-let-me-chase-anything" dog, is slightly more excited than I am. Good dog times.



Last night my club hosted the Double Trouble Twilight Race. I'm pretty involved with that and so it's been a couple of super-hectic days of running around town, moving a lot of equipment from here to there. We had 48 racers turn out. Things went well.



I want to write more about the process of organizing a race in a separate post. It's pretty interesting stuff. Today I returned the last of the equipment, so I'm free to park the truck and ride again! Good times.

Just prior to all the race business, we were camping in the Twisp neighborhood over the holiday weekend. We were there with non-bikey relatives, but we managed to get out for a couple of rides. The first was from our camp at 2800' up to Blackpine lake, at about 4000', over a distance of about 3 miles. That was enough climbing for Patty for one vacation. But she'd have to admit she had a good time on the way down.




The next day I snuck away on my own and pedalled up to Buttermilk Butte (is that a cool name, or what) at 5600'. Two hours going up (at one point I was busting ass to do 3.3 mph), and half an hour coming down. Spectacular scenery and 9 miles of super-fast double-track windey all-downhill fun. Super good times.




These showers in downtown Twisp are the total bomb. I emerged lean, mean and clean. Well, clean at least. Real good times.




The geniune (non-TG) Parelas came in last week and then sat there in a box all weekend. If I'm gonna check out John's supple tire theory, I need to do it right.




The half-ass TG thing was leaving me to wonder. I finally managed to get 'em mounted late Monday night.





I won't get to do any real testing for a couple of days, but I concocted a lame excuse to get out on them for at least a couple of miles (a bill that had to be paid and deliverd to the PO on Grand immediately).




Couldn't tell much about the tires, but I did pass a guy on 29th riding with no lights or reflectors. I'm all about the thrill of taking risks, but dude, you're an organ donor. I hope the next guy treats them better than you. Yeah, so I sound like a grandma, whatever. But I also have some experience of having to go through, and watching other people go through, a lot of reconstruction. That whole experience totally sucks and you should at least do what can to reasonably increase your odds of survival. Riding with zero lights or reflectors isn't it. That dipshit pissed me off for a minute, but then I let it go and it was good times again.

Haven't had time to catch one minute of TdF television coverage. I've just followed via some crappy, boring blogs. Now that things are slowing down just a bit, I'm looking for some places to watch. Good times, good times.

Euphoria

This was the best day in the history of the world.

Yeah, I'm exaggerating, but a pretty dang good day. This was the perfect weather we were dreaming about through all those MANY months of garbage that we thought would never end, and just about didn't. I just thoroughly enjoyed being on my bike today.

Today I found out that the AquaVelva, an old soul, has some kind of very weird spiritual past life that compels it to run stop signs and ride on the sidewalk. I just wish I could do something to stop it.

I'm getting sucked into the GDR. Last night I found out that my wife's sister went to grade school with David and at the same time I made the connection that his dad is the deacon at our church. So even though I don't know David at all, now it's a tiny bit third-party-personal. The Spokane guys who do know David and are all over this are Jason and John. You should check it out, because it's pretty epic stuff.

De Leon Downtown is open. This is major, to quote the 80's.




I picked up a set of Panaracer Paselas (35c's, cause that's what they had), on the way home from work. The stoic self-portrait is something to behold, I know.





I was so proud, riding up the SH with my new rubber draped over my shoulder. That is, until I got home and found out that in all my excitement, I failed to realize they were Tour Guards. I was specifically instructed to stay away from the TG's, and I blew it. But it's too beautiful a day to dwell on mistakes and beat myself up, and besides, I already got the krap kicked out of me at work, so I put it behind me . . . they're already mounted and ready for tomorrow's ride. I'm going with the "everything happens for a reason" theory.

I stopped at Rosauer's on the way up the hill. PBR light? Who knew. Like this day couldn't get any better.