Yesterday at work one of my coworkers was complaining about people who never have anything to say when asked what's new. "Are you really so boring that you haven't done anything in the last three weeks since I last talked to you?" (and the mice chase each other around my ceiling as I type)

It hit a bit close to home, as I'm precisely the type to say something like that. I don't want to bore anybody with the quotidian details of my life, and nothing really big or exciting usually happens to me... the occasional bike crash or flat tire...

The other day my order arrived from Specialized. It included a new inner tube, a new tire, and some gloves. The former two items because of a mishap with my new brake pads. In short, I misadjusted one of them (well, failed to readjust it properly after it got knocked out of line, in my defense) and it rubbed the sidewall of the tire until it actually scraped through and punctured the inner tube. This happened in the middle of Rhode Island Ave, but luckily not a hilly or particularly busy part of it. Some guy riding by on the sidewalk: "Oh no, you musta hit a nail!" Yeah, a nail... that'll be my story!

Specialized doesn't make the Nimbus anymore, it's been replaced with the Nimbus Armadillo. The Armadillo line of tires are reinforced with a strip of teflon, so flat tires shouldn't be a big problem in my future. Even if they are, I've kept my old (four-times-patched) inner tube as a spare.

I've realized, now that I've spent money on them, that bicycle gloves are really meant for road bikes. The Crossroads has such an upright position that not much weight goes on the hands. Money not so well spent.

On the other hand, I also got a vertical bike rack and installed it in the basement. The bike is hanging by the door instead of blocking access to the dryer. 20 dollars well spent, I say.

Not much new that doesn't involve the bike... I changed my car's oil and got it washed in preparation for selling it, even cleaned out the trunk and suchlike. I could go up to Baltimore and see Hot Snakes tonight, but I'm really thinking more heading over to Logan to catch Q and not U. I don't trust my car-- and that's not mechanically so much as karmically. It knows, I suspect, that I plan to sell it (and to CarMax, no less, since I'm too lazy to do it myself) and will take any opportunity to punish me and try to foil my plans.

That doesn't sound paranoid.

Not at all.

I added a few old entries, as mentioned earlier. To find them go back to September and October of 2003. Yes, where I was a year ago. Was I ever really that young?

- posted by Bob @ 8:42 PM