Note To Future Self

Hey little lady.

You seem … different somehow.

No, not the cornball grin.

Ah-ha!

I was warned this would happen, but somehow today was the first time.

Well, we’ll see how long it lasts.

We had out first (non-self-induced) accident in the trailer this morning. Pretty close to campus, it was ye traditionale dooring, I swerved but it caught the tongue on the trailer pretty hard, then the side wheel. We came to a swift halt and I went OTH (over the handlebars, thankee). My ankle doesn’t feel well and the sprouticus was shaken, but there was no apparent physiological or mechanical damage to things that matter (i.e. the kinder or the bike).

In my mind, this validates the trailer approach relative to the bike seat. OK, so a single bike would have probably missed the door. Or the extra 18kg of high-mounted weight would cause a Hammond-esque Scandanavian flick.

On the other hand I was able to sprawl out silly like all over the bike lane (for future reference — giving a barbarian “yop!” while flying through the air makes the landing hurt a lot less), while the sprout remained safely upright in the roll cage. Actually, come to think of it, after we had decamped to the sidewalk and I had done the obligatory “two arms – two legs” check, she hopped down, crawled back into the trailer and put her helmet back on. I discovered later that the accident had made all of the pee come out, all at once.

Strangely, I feel bad that the door on his car won’t close anymore.

Hm. Adrenaline is wearing off. Might be nap time.

It was gorgeous this weekend, so the GB and I did a little 100 Miles of Nowhere in the backyard. By little, I mean it was really the 200 ft of nowhere.

Unfortunately, our staff photographer was in movie mode. So I have only this scant evidence (16MB), in finest Patterson-Gimlin style.

Thanks to a generous grant from the grandparental sports and recreation fund, the bean sprout has her first set of wheels.

And not just any wheels, but poncy, design-tastic wheels. What? You want more nauseating buzzwords? It’s also eco-green-wooden-sustainable, FSC and Flash-tastic (and yet, somehow still made in China). Oh, and low VOC. I think. Everyone knows sustainably grown wooden bikes are the future of bike snobbery.

Sadly, early trials were interrupted by a drivetrain failure.

At Anna’s suggestion, I filmed the assembly procedure. At 18 minutes long, it was quite boring, so I’ve posted a version in accel-o-vision.

Tomorrow: Intervals in zone 3 (whatever the heck that means)

p.s. Yes, I’ve already put her name on Matt’s build queue. It might be ready by graduation!

aka Oh, Snap!

This weekend we discovered our Burley is insufficiently burly for our X-treme lifestyle. Well, the trailer hitch isn’t burly enough, at least. That’s the last time I let her talk me into the double black diamond downhill.

Bummer.

Coincidentally, my parents are on a plane right now, delivering a new trailer hitch. How’s that for service?

Oh, and they’ll probably spend some time with their granddaughter, too.

Since I know it will keep you up on night, it looks like the new hitch is much more burly. We can hardly wait.

Am I the only one who feels guilty after ranting at cars?

Am I the only one who rants at cars?

In any case: Pink Mitsubishi Mirage, eastbound on Kilmarnock at the Deans Ave lights, 5-ish on Thursday, two female occupants. I’m sorry I yelled at you. You did cut us off really rather badly, though.

Winter might be right around the corner, but it’s no match for Super Commuter(!) and his faithful sidekick High-Viz Girl(!)

The GB and I have successfully completed four round-trips to work (out of a possible six) in the last two weeks, a grueling 8 urban kms each way. Hey, it’s a start. Yes, it’s quite flat, and yes, we do stop to commune with the ducks in the park at the halfway point.

The weather has been superb thus far. We’ll see how my resolve holds once the winter nasties come in.

On a bike-geek note, it’s actually quite a bad idea to attach a bike trailer to a singlespeed (36×16, thanks for asking). Starting from a standstill requires volcanic torque. I expect my thighs to be the size of the mighty Tōtara by spring. That should make shopping for trousers interesting.

Oh yes.

Happy Fourth Anniversary, big guy.
And welcome back.
Glad you’ve decided to rejoin the party.
Now get back to work.