Wake up with a morning show. They’re always so cheery and bright. Our students produce one of those. Here’s today’s episode.
I did a morning show for two years in college, and then I worked morning drive for pretty much my entire news career.
I’m a night owl and I think I’m still recovering.
I’ll spend some time from this year recovering, psychologically, from flat tires.
I had yet another one on Saturday. I think that’s six, maybe seven, this year. It’s always the back. And it’s probably entirely a mixture of bad luck and user error. Probably more the latter than I’d like to admit.
But there I sat, a brand new tube in the tire and it punctured about 15 miles in to its life, I was getting ready for a short, hard Strava segment when the tube gave way. The Yankee was right behind me and she stopped with me. I carry a hand pump and a spare tube, so I sent her on ahead. And I worked on this dumb thing a while, first in the sunshine, and then I crossed the street to sit in the shade.
A guy rode along on his bike and he offered to stop. We talked bikes and routes and I borrowed his better pump. And for a moment it seemed normal, and I think we both remembered at about the same time we should be standing a bit farther apart. About that time I had the new tube in place and inflated and so I soft pedaled my way home.
See, the thing is I ride at about 110 psi on a regular day, and a good hand pump will get you up to about 70 psi. And that’s just spongy enough to go a bit slower and smell the roses.
We went to get gas this morning. Made good use of those grocery store loyalty points, too.
We go and fill both cars up together to get the most of our savings. I said, As far as I can recall, this is the first time I’ve filled up since May 30th.
The Yankee thinks we got gas in July. Maybe. It’s hard to say. The point being, we’re driving so little that a tank of gas goes a long way. A normal week, right now, is four trips to campus and maybe a journey out to get takeout for Saturday lunch. That comes out to about 35 or 40 miles for me. I’ll take that.
And if I start riding my bike back to work … if I can avoid the flats …
