the tao of cycling: experts

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

experts

today I call the experts.
because as much as I've learned, as far as I've stretched and grown, as capable as I now am, there are still some things I just can't fix by myself.
here's the list of what in my house is currently in need of expert help:

my reverse osmosis water filtration system. overflow valve flows all the time. also needs a new filter. number two I can solve, number one I cannot.
my bathroom sink drain. I have two sinks, and they drain at the rate of one-half teaspoon per second. try it, you'll see, this is not good. I've taken every connection I can reach apart and pulled out all the goop I can find. I give.
my icemaker. this hasn't worked for months and months, and I'm finally giving in.
my dishwasher. it's never worked like one would hope a dishwasher should, but it's been tolerable until a week or two ago when everything plastic started coming out with a dry, white film on it. I've googled until I can't take it anymore and tried just about everything suggested, and guess what? white film remains. I give.
my computer B. sunday evening it stopped conversing with the internet. monday I switched computer A with computer B and now A is speaking with the internet, but the wireless router won't play along. I have been through this before, and can barely stand it. last time (a mere 9 months ago) it cost me $300 and computer B's month-long absence. you know, there's really nothing that great about conversing with the internet anyway. I know, sarcasm doesn't get you anywhere. I give.

two interesting observations: first, most of my issues have something to do with water (hmmm), and second, everything is crashing around here right when power camp came to a close. it's like everything---all of us---held on, by the fingernails if necessary, to get me through the end of the the too-short-of-nights and weary-days experience.
and now all hell has broken loose.
so, I'm beginning today with the icemaker and the dishwasher. I'm calling in an expert.
and then I'm calling the orthodontist to make the appointment to get my daughter a new retainer to replace the one she lost sometime in the last few weeks.
then, perhaps, I might get on my bike and ride away to a land where there are no computers, dishwashers, water filtration systems, drains, icemakers, or orthodontists.

and that might just be enough for today.

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the Male Ego

The other day I was coming down a canyon in my drop bars (two years ago I would have said, 'what's a drop bar?'), working hard, when I came up on two guys who were also heading downhill but at a more leisurely pace. I passed them, said hello as I did so, and pulled back into the bike lane. a few minutes later they went flying past me, faces looking dead ahead, not a single bit of acknowledgment that I even existed on this planet let alone was involved in and enjoying the same sport they were.
I have to attribute this to the male ego. what else can it be? now I know we all have egos, myself included. and mine even shows its ridiculous little head once in a while, or perhaps more often. but the difference between mine and say, those of certain men on bicycles, is that I KNOW mine exists and I can LAUGH at mine. I know my ego was quite excited to pass those guys, and I could also smile because I knew if the men had really been working like I was, they would have kicked my butt down the hill.
I think I pissed them off.
and I'm sure I will be sharing with you much more of my thoughts about the male ego . . .

a little history

I was married, and I had a mountain bike which I rarely rode. we separated, I moved out, and four months later someone stole my bike. the next spring, 2005, I bought myself a new mountain bike. I rode occasionally, and in april 2006 I rode in my first century, the Cactus Hugger in St. George, Utah. I made it 54 miles on that mountain bike, and it took me about 6 hours. I think that included the rest stops where I prayed that someone would steal my bike again . . .
in june 2006 I started riding my mountain bike five mornings a week, a 45-55 minute loop that was intended to be all about exercise. and what I found was that I loved the quiet, peaceful morning full of bird chatter and barely breaking sunrises. by that fall I was hooked, and began considering the purchase of a road bike. I rode up emigration canyon for the first time that Labor Day of 2006, panting and plowing along on my trusty (heavy) bike, and a month later I was the proud owner of my own road bike: I had become a two-bike girl!
a 17-week-long "power camp" over the winter and a handful of new friends kept bicycling front and center in my life, and when spring of 2007 rolled around I was ready to hit the pavement. I rode my first century the end of april, when I again went to St. George and completed that Cactus Hugger. it took me about 7 hours, but this time I rode the entire 100 miles with about 9300 feet of vertical gain. woo hoo!
I started riding canyons around our area, emigration and millcreek, city creek, big cottonwood, little mountain and big mountain, and once--yes, only once--little cottonwood.
then in september of 2007, I rode from Logan, Utah, to Jackson, Wyoming, in the slightly infamous LOTOJA race. I rode, I did not race. and I completed the thing, crediting my good training buddies, the incredibly perfect weather, my support team, and an amazing convergence of all things positive in the universe.
I put in about 3500 miles last season, and as of today, july 19, 2008, I have about 1700 in, adding to it every day.
I have again signed on to ride the LOTOJA race, and my goal is to have just somewhere near as great a ride as I did last year. oh, and to have someone fun to talk with along the way as I got incredibly bored last year . . . star valley is still a nightmare scene in my biking memories . . .
and here is a picture of the machine that has helped me reclaim my life.