new bike

Not my favorite day, this day.

 A friend moved recently and gave me his mountain bike. I was glad, since I had recklessly lost my previous bike (actually, I left it too long with a friend in South Carolina and I believe he has since sold it). This new mountain bike was no beauty- heavy, old, plastic pedals- but it was a bike and I was glad to ride it. 

Being a former cyclist snob, I felt it necessary to get clipless pedals for this bike. These are the type of pedals that you lock into with fancy shoes. I think it's the only way to go. I bid on and won a smokin deal on ebay- 2 pairs of pedals for $10!! So Jesse could have one pair as well. I couldn't believe my luck. These pedals normally run between $45 and a million dollars, so I was pretty pleased. 

Well, I took my bike in to the bike shop so they could change my pedals this morning. Free of charge, which was nice. But when I got my bike outside and tried to step into the pedals with my old shoes, they did not agree. Which was not nice. I was disappointed, but not bummed, as I had spent a mere 10 bucks for the pedals and they came with a pair of cleats. I would just change the cleats on my shoes when I got home. Or tomorrow. Whatever.

Also, as I rode home from the bike shop, my bike started making crazy sounds. I think the guy banged into my rear wheel one too many times and set it off course, so it was rubbing all over the place. Which was not nice. But I was cranky about the cleats and just wanted to get home. 

Which I did.

That night, I headed out for field work. Which is a 30+ minute drive to the middle of nowhere. I got there just after sunset, so the park's gate was closed, which was not nice. So I tossed my equipment over the fence and hiked into my field (not far at all, maybe 100 feet, but I was cranky, so it was a cranky hundred feet). I started setting up to find that I had neglected to replace my batteries after charging them all. So my headlamps were completely without batteries. That's alright, I have a flashlight and light isn't really that necessary. It's too far to drive out there and back for nothing. I checked my cd player and speakers (the two critical elements for attracting my flies) and they had batteries. Phew. So I turned on my cd player. No go. Switched batteries from my little flashlight to the cd player- still no go. THAT SUCKS. I'm more than cranky now. Nothing can be done for field work tonight, so I pack up my stuff, toss it back over the fence, and drive home. Boo. That sucks. A waste of a night.

So I get home. You may be wondering why the 2 stories- bike and field work. Well, because when I got home, my bike was gone. Which was strange. Our apartment building has underground parking with secure gates. But apparently that's no problem for bike thieves. And most strangely, Jesse's bike was leaning against the wall immediately behind my bike, but his was still there. 

Ugh. So my new pedals that didn't work with my shoes are gone on the bike that was too heavy. Maybe I didn't appreciate it all enough. 

Oh, and here's the kicker. After I've been home a while and I'm just sitting on the couch wondering how my bike got stolen from our secure garage in a good neighborhood, it occurs to me that I didn't check the "hold" button on the cd player. You know how the little "walkman" style cd players have the "hold" button to prevent you from accidentally turning them on? Yeah, well I forgot about that. So I pull out my cd player, flip the hold button, and the thing turns on, happy as a clam. 

So I could have done my field work after all and not wasted tonight and tomorrow night (because I'll have to go out again now). 

And I don't have a bike, and one less pair of pedals.

I'm pretty cranky.