Tundra_Man 

Consecutive bicycle work commute number 1251:

Ever have one of those days? This was one.

Had an echocardiogram scheduled for this morning. Just a yearly routine check, which I will have to have for the rest of my life after my open heart surgery. I was supposed to have it done in June, but they were booked solid until today. Echo wasn't scheduled until 8:30, so I thought "Hey! I get an extra half an hour to sleep!"

But then I woke up at my normal time needing the restroom. These situations are a lose-lose because if I don't get up, the need to pee will keep me awake. But if I do get up and pee, the activity will wake me up enough that I can't go back to sleep. I got up.

Started to ride to the hospital, and was about 1.5 miles from home when I got a flat tire. It was one of those where I heard exactly when it happened, and knew my tire was going to be flat in a few hundred yards. Most of my flats happen right in this same area where there is a lot of construction traffic that cuts across the MUP and the path is always covered with rocks and debris.

Attempted to patch the tube, but the patch didn't hold. You would think after all these years that my success rate at patching tubes would be greater than 50%, but it's always a coin flip for me whether or not the patch is going to hold. That was my last patch in my kit, too. Out of frustration I threw the tube in the trash.

I called the hospital and explained that I could still get there, but I would be late. They said that they were too full to handle me getting there late, so they cancelled my appointment and I will have to reschedule. I have a bad feeling I'm going to get billed for a last minute cancellation.

Walked the bike the mile and a half back home, as fast as I could in bike shoes. At home I grabbed my last spare tube and installed it. (Note to self: order more tubes and patches.) While I had the bike on the stand I noticed my front headset was loose. I figured as long as I was blowing a couple of hours of vacation time I might as well take the extra five minutes to fix that. So at least I accomplished something.

Once the bike was repaired I left the garage only to have my front headlight go dead before the end of the driveway. I've noticed that my headlight switch is no longer turning red every time when the battery gets low. By this time it was plenty light outside so I just finished the ride to work without the light and took extra care to make sure oncoming traffic saw me before I made any turns.

Hopefully I got all the ugly stuff out of the way for today.