Brent & Trent and Wet Trays

This is the funniest thing I've seen in at least 1.3 weeks:

Frisky Dingo Pilot Episode

This is the 2nd funniest:

Mechanical Failure Sunday

Woke up at 6am for the Sunday Team McAllen ride. Not too early, but it helps me make sure I'm ready to roll with the group at 7am, even though we usually leave at least 15 minutes late. I filled the water bottles, grabbed a banana and a room temperature Coke Zero (forgot to make the coffee), and headed out the door. But when I started loading my bike into my truck, I realized I had a flat. Ain't that something.

Once I removed the tire and inspected the tube, I easily found the hole in the tube. I tried to find the offending problem with the rim or tire, but found nothing. No nail. No hole in the tire. No problem with the rim. Hmmmm. Maybe the tube was just old? I changed the tube, pumped it to 110 psi, and everything seemed copacetic. But during the ride, somewhere around Decker Lane & I-Road, I flatted out again. With the help of the team and the bright daylight, we found a teensy-tiny piece of wire that had penetrated the tire, and had caused both flats. A teammate pulled the wire out with his teeth (Joe's a monster), I put a dollar bill in the tire as insurance against a push-through repeat flat, and all was good.

After the stop in Granjeno, I decided to 'man up' and ride with the 'elite' group. I figured I could avoid the pulls and hang on for 20 miles. I usually feel stronger on the 2nd half of the ride, plus the elites are usually riding slower on the 2nd half because they're all attacked out after the first half of the ride. My plan was working for me, until somewhere on Bicentennail my pedals wouldn't turn. When I backed off and pushed, I heard a big clunk. Weird. I stopped, a buddy stopped with me, and I quickly found a busted link in my chain. One side had broken loose of a link, and I was very close to the other half breaking loose. I almost had a catastrophic failure, which would have been very fun had it happened when I was out of the saddle.

Since I wasn't carrying a 2nd chain, I gave up and caught a ride with the SAG wagon for the last 5 miles or so. Thank goodness this didn't happen on the Saturday ride, as I would have been calling my spouse and eating serious crow begging for a ride back home. Only good news is that earlier in the week I had noticed some chain jump and shifting problems, but I had attributed them to loosening cables. I had been making micro barrel adjustments, with some luck, but it wasn't fixing the whole problem. I felt like a piss-poor bike mechanic, and was getting ready to take it in to the shop to let the expert paid professionals correct the problem. After today, it's a stretch, but I'm guessing the chain was creating some of the problem. Ya think?

A Good Week to Be Chased by Bees

My cycling frequency has been decreasing since Christmas. I could create excuses, but there's no one good excuse. Instead, there's a swarm of excuses that just overwhelm me like bees. I've never been overwhelmed by bees, but I bet it's overwhelming. Really.

So this week I outran the bees. I rode 20 miles in Granjeno on Tuesday. Another 20 on Thursday. Did about 60 on Saturday when I rode with some Team McAllen folks from Burger King to Progreso. And then a casual 40 with the Intermediate group on Sunday. I'm not keeping track of mileage this year, but if I were, I'd be happy with this week. I won't break any records, but what matters is that I outran the swarm.

P.S. Do you remember a movie about killer bees that had a scene in the Astrodome? When I was a kid growing up in the Houston area, I thought that was some crazy sh**.