Thursday, October 2, 2008

Transportation Troubles

Yesterday morning I rode my bike downhill to work, which took about 7 minutes, and resulted in my inner ears being in pain for nearly an hour. I need to go spend my REI gift card on those ear warmer things that I can wear with a bicycle helmet.

Yesterday evening I rode my bike uphill to my house, which took about 18 minutes, including the time spent on the side of the rode when, in the midst of shifting, my chain popped off and took the plastic thing with it, smashed into pieces along the road. Luckily I managed to get the chain back on, but I was in the middle of a very steep hill, so I decided to walk to the top rather than having shifting issues in the middle of the hill. I felt like such a wuss, as all the other bikers passed me and stared. So I also need to go to find a bike shop and purchase some Tri Flow to get my bike working properly, since I managed to leave mine in Albuquerque.

Finally, since my bike is in need of some minor maintenance and it was raining this morning, I decided to drive to work. My car wouldn't start. Luckily my roommate was home and had a jumper cable and he started me right up. However, he didn't know where any auto shops were, but I figured I should go to one right away or I might need another jump. So I decided to call somebody with internet access while I headed down to Sausalito to look for a shop. Matt was prepping for an overnight shift and I didn't want to wake him up, so I tried my sister who was apparently still asleep. So I had to turn to my mother, who is not terribly good at internet research. By the time she figured it out, I had already found a gas station with a service bay right on the main drag. I rolled in right as they were opening (8:10 AM!), and had my car back, with a brand new battery, in 30 minutes. It only cost me everything I have made in my first three days here...

I might just walk everywhere, but there aren't any pedestrians allowed in my tunnel.

1 comment:

Karen said...

I would like to clarify for the record that I was not, in fact, sleeping. I had arisen at least 45 minutes earlier and was on my way to my 3x weekly hike in South Mountain Park which has a trailhead parking lot conveniently close to my new home. Who knew?