instant karma
Aug. 28th, 2001 12:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jinianI got to work a bit late today. I'd had a flat on my front bike tire yesterday, so I went and got a replacement tube and a new tire slightly wider than the last one -- that's what they had, and the existing one was pretty worn so I wanted to replace it. Last night, I put the new tire and tube on, but I don't have a pump, so I left the bike upside-down for the night. This morning, I wheelbarrowed (not a word, but the most descriptive thing I can say about the process) the bike to the gas station and filled the new tire. All according to plan so far.
There were cars stopped all over the streets in the U District this morning. Good thing I was on my bike!, I thought to myself, but I wondered what was up. When I stopped at City Greens to buy breakfast, I noticed that a bit of the tire was poking out over the rim. No time to deal with that now. I went in, got breakfast, and found out that the stopped cars were due to I-5 being closed because of a jumper on the nearby bridge. I mentioned that I was on my bike, and how I was the only one who was always on time to our Monday morning meetings. Mistake! Hubris! Bad plan!
So when I got back to my bike parked in the rack outside, I noticed that while I was inside the tire had been quietly expanding out of the rim. It was popping out all over the place. Clearly I needed to deflate the tube. I groped for the tire pressure gauge in my backpack, and, just as I pulled it out, the tube blew up. Damn. My options were to walk the bike all the way home and put in another tube, which would probably do precisely the same thing, because this one had been on the low end of its inflation preference, or take the bus to work. (I later decided that I could have gone home, put on the old tire and a new tube, adn ridden to work. That might have been faster than the way things turned out.)
So I left my bike in the rack at City Greens. I doubt that it will be stolen, but if it is I can get one of the bikes I was eyeing last night. The buses to Fremont should be running okay, I figured... Well, no. They were running around 45 minutes late, because of gawkers under the bridge, people going to the express lanes, and diverted traffic. I eventually made it to work. Most people were still later than I was.
In other news from this morning, this is just silly: http://foxnews.com/story/0,2933,32970,00.html
There were cars stopped all over the streets in the U District this morning. Good thing I was on my bike!, I thought to myself, but I wondered what was up. When I stopped at City Greens to buy breakfast, I noticed that a bit of the tire was poking out over the rim. No time to deal with that now. I went in, got breakfast, and found out that the stopped cars were due to I-5 being closed because of a jumper on the nearby bridge. I mentioned that I was on my bike, and how I was the only one who was always on time to our Monday morning meetings. Mistake! Hubris! Bad plan!
So when I got back to my bike parked in the rack outside, I noticed that while I was inside the tire had been quietly expanding out of the rim. It was popping out all over the place. Clearly I needed to deflate the tube. I groped for the tire pressure gauge in my backpack, and, just as I pulled it out, the tube blew up. Damn. My options were to walk the bike all the way home and put in another tube, which would probably do precisely the same thing, because this one had been on the low end of its inflation preference, or take the bus to work. (I later decided that I could have gone home, put on the old tire and a new tube, adn ridden to work. That might have been faster than the way things turned out.)
So I left my bike in the rack at City Greens. I doubt that it will be stolen, but if it is I can get one of the bikes I was eyeing last night. The buses to Fremont should be running okay, I figured... Well, no. They were running around 45 minutes late, because of gawkers under the bridge, people going to the express lanes, and diverted traffic. I eventually made it to work. Most people were still later than I was.
In other news from this morning, this is just silly: http://foxnews.com/story/0,2933,32970,00.html
