Simple?

Today's weigh in was another shocker, 242. My last day at Petrie's before the Quest to the West, as I'm dubbing it, and an adventurous one it was. I started out with a pink girls bike complete with tassels on the bars, trued the wheels and set up the brakes, cake. Next a simple flat repair, simple my a**. First of all there was lots of pressure in the tire which is odd if it's flat. I took the wheel out of the frame and the shear weight of it told me it would be full of anti-flat compound, a slimy goo that is supposed to seal small leaks. I pressed on the valve...nothing. So I got out my trusty knife and cut off the valve as I could not get at the tube with the pressure still in it. A sticky, runny liquid like beige latex paint oozed out. I got over a garbage can and let it run. It stopped and I poked it with the knife and a 1 inch high fountain formed as the contents drained. Then it blew. Good thing I was wearing my glasses. So the 'simple' 10 minute flat repair became a 45 minute clean up. Later on I put together a new bike, trued another wheel, boxed a bike for shipping, swept up and called it a day as things had ground to a halt.

I grabbed a bike rack for the Quest to the West as Mike and Mel have decided to make the trip to BC so Eowyn will have somewhere to ride. It hold 3 bikes so Sal and I will be able to take both of our bikes a little further from the house for a ride.

One Week To Go

I can't believe it's been so long since last posting. Putting up meals everyday got to be a chore. My weight has gone up a couple then down four over the last two Mondays so I'm definitely on the rollercoaster, at 246 this week. We leave on our western adventure next Thursday and are really looking forward to getting away. Hopefully the Trans-Canada is above water and the wet weather moves on.

I received e-mail from Conquer Cancer last week after 4100+ riders collected more than $16 million. I was tempted to jump right on it and sign up but haven't yet. Still might but I'm more nervous about the financial end of fundraising and travel than the actual ride. I'll make up my mind soon, or the spots will be gone.

For father's day Sal and Jen teamed up and gave me a Garmin hand held. I checked out bike mounts and they make one but no stock anywhere. So I went with a new smart phone, Sony Experia X10. It's built on Google's Android platform and does everything from wi-fi to gmail, has an 8mpixel camera, came with 16gig memory card and a ton of things to learn. It multitasks (right now I'm listening to my fav jazz album -Wynton Marsalis, Standard Time Vol. 2) and uploading the pix of a gaggle I rode over on Tuesday). Once Rogers and TBaytel get their stuff together it will be the best of both.

The geese were passing under the bridge on Balmoral as I was going over. There were two huge groups of gosslings and only a few adults. They take over the paths as the males will make hissing charges at anyone passing near. Not to mention the land mines they leave behind.