patience is for weenies.
Winter can be over any day now. I'm not very consoled by the fact that
soon, it'll be like 8 million degrees and sunny every day and I'll spend all
my time here whining about how warm my armored leather pants are. I want it
to stop raining. Now. Except that I want it to keep snowing in Tahoe so that
we can still snowboard. 70 and sunny here, 40 and sunny in Tahoe, that's
the ticket. Yeah.
So, back over here in reality, well, it's been raining. A lot. And if there's one thing I ain't doin', it's riding my brand new bike in the rain. So there. Sorry that that ends up meaning less entries. I haven't really been doing much bike-wise lately; I finished Jupiter's Travels, and Riding High just came in the mail, but I haven't started it yet. I'm actually reading some non-bike related books right now, as sort of a break. Which is nice. [In case anyone cares, which I know you all do, I'm reading The Last Man on the Moon, by Eugene Cernan. I can't recommend it enough. It's incredibly interesting and gives a really fascinating look at the American space program in the late 1960's.]
So it was really nice to have a break in the rain yesterday and actually take the bike to work. The ride there was completely uneventful, other than the usual feelings of (a) absolute amazement at how smooth and sleek and graceful the bike is, and (b) absolute pain in my neck and shoulders as I try to figure out how to sit on the damn thing. I was wearing my armored pants, so I was wearing a backpack with jeans for work in it; I think the backpack might have contributed to the back pain. Feh. I've talked to some people about the neck pain, but from what I gather, it's just a matter of getting used to the posture and training separate muscles to support my weight differently. And relaxing.
The way home was sort of interesting; Peter was following me back to my place in his car, so I pawned the backpack off on him (and had less neck pain, which is why I suspect the backpack might be contributing. I'll have to get a bungee net for the SVS and carry the pack that way). About halfway home, I went over a pothole, and I guess my feet must have been resting on the levers, because the next thing I know, I hear a THUNK! and I've downshifted! This scared the bejeezus out of me, since I was in no way shape or form intended to shift at that time. I know that shifting without the clutch isn't *bad* for the bike per se, but, damn, when you're not intending to, and you're suddenly in too low a gear, that's sorta freaky. According to Peter, I was also riding the brake for part of the way (I think around the same stretch of road as my accidental shifting), so I'll need to remember not to rest my feet so far forward on the pegs that they rest on the levers. Oops.
Nothing else really to report; today was nice too, but I had orchestra rehearsal (and no bungee net for the bike yet), so I had to bring my viola in the car. :( And, of course, it's supposed to rain all weekend. Feh. Well, here's hoping that it clears up next week...