Going Backwards

My cycling season is definitely going backwards, but hopefully will turn around soon. The weekend brought nearly endless rain and temperatures in the high 40s and low 50s. I kept thinking it would start snowing at any moment.

We've officially pulled out of Fitchburg, so there's a refund, minus processing fees, coming our way. The money we will save by not going to Fitchburg was spent promptly in two trips to Lowes on Saturday. Apparently if one has a back porch on one's house, one needs 2.5 gallons of cleaner, a pump sprayer, three gallons of stain/sealer, a barbeque, and an outdoor table/chairs/umbrella set. We threw in a weed whacker for good measure, some plywood and nails for a tool board and some hooks for wheels in the bike shop upstairs. By Saturday evening, we had a huge pile of new crap in the barn, and as we looked at it, like hunters back from a successful safari, I noted how that big pile plus a few hundred more bucks would buy a single pair of deep dish carbon wheels. Sorta put everything in perspective.

I was remounting light fixtures in the bike shop Sunday morning, as the previous owner had let them dangle when painting the ceiling and never put them back. I started cramming the wires back up into the ceiling when the rest of the lights went out. The radio I'd plugged in was still working, so there must be at least two circuits in the small room. Interesting. I kept wiggling wires until I found the one that was causing the problem. I wiggled it until the lights came back on and stayed on, then left it alone. So, a new task of figuring out which breaker that circuit is attached to, turning it off, and then recapping the loose wire is now on the "to do" list.

The bike shop is coming along, with most tools hung up and many wheels hanging up out of the way. I'll post some pics along the way sometime.

This time next week, I hope to have written a post about how the weather warmed up and dried up, how I've been training hard for a week, how the Syracuse Race Weekend went well, and how I was looking forward to a remote chance of making the ESG team at the qualifiers the next weekend. Basically, I need all the riders in shape to either stay home or decide they want to attend Altoona instead of the Games in August.

See you on the road!