I was standing in the 'travel' aisle of the drug store last evening and had finally determined the cheapest of the small toothpaste tubes and was in the process of reaching forward when 300-lb guy walks right in between me and said-chosen toothpaste. Then he just stood there trying to decide which to buy. Anyway, it was really weird and very rude, so I not-so-quietly muttered 'dip-shit', reached around him and grabbed my toothpaste. I don't think I've said anything like that out loud to a stranger while not on a bicycle. But, a) it was really annoying and b) being hypothyroid makes patience very short, especially in the evening.Then as I was walking out, realized that I had just exposed the dude to a miniature Chernobyl. Quite literally; Chernobyl (look it up, I-131). A couple of the things I'm supposed to do over the next few days are stay at least an arm's distance away from people, pee sitting down (yeah, that one really hurts the man-hood ego and is very hard to remember), and flush the toilet 2x. There's definitely other things, but those are the only ones I can think of.
It was hard to get out of bed this morning. I felt some nausea and a case of the feel-bads as we almost-doctor folk like to say. I pulled myself up around 7:30 had some coffee and then went out to breakfast. I'm finally allowed to eat a normal diet again. Today for breakfast were scrambled eggs (I thought about requesting only egg yolks) cooked in butter, toast with butter, and some hash browns, all salted generously with regular iodized salt.
Around 10am I headed out on a ride to what I had heard was a paved, flat, car-free trail connecting Baltymoar to Annapolis.
The interweb said it was a 15ish mile trail one-way and feeling a bit ambitious I decided to give 'er a shot. Truly an awesome trail running through some pretty woods but it certainly felt like I was in the suburbs the whole time. The whole east coast seems like it would require either a little imagination or a lot of time in order to truly find some solitude. There's so many people here. On the way back from Annapolis I began to pay for having a bike that was too large and not a good fit at all. Everything started to hurt: knees first, then wrists, then shoulders. Yikes. I had seen one bike shop on the way out so I stopped there to at least move the seat forward. The guy was stoked to see my Kona jacket and we shot the shit for a little while and talked about how sweet of a company Kona is (seriously, I'm not putting a plug in...he did most the talking cus I was starting to feel really tired and shitty and wanted him to STFU).
The last few miles were pretty painful both because of the bike fit and just b/c I'm still hypothyroid. I stopped to grab a 1/2 gallon of chocolate milk and chugged the whole thing in about a minute. Well, that's exaggerating, but I drank it fast and it was good cus I hadn't had dairy since before christmas. Can you believe that? Not christmas cookies b/c the butter!
Anyway, the milk helped but I was still really tired. I did manage to head back to light street cycles and see what could be done. The owner took one look at me and said that I should take a different bike:
Can't wait to ride it tomorrow!
As a city, Baltimore is a lot like St Louis. There's tons of really poor out-of-work folks, a few dip shits who drive way to fast in nice cars, and people who are trying really hard to be cool and revitalize the downtown area. The poverty however, is totally in your face here. I keep reading about how much money is being given to Hati (a very just and noble cause) and can't help but wonder if there's money to give, why can't we have more jobs?
Around 10am I headed out on a ride to what I had heard was a paved, flat, car-free trail connecting Baltymoar to Annapolis.
The interweb said it was a 15ish mile trail one-way and feeling a bit ambitious I decided to give 'er a shot. Truly an awesome trail running through some pretty woods but it certainly felt like I was in the suburbs the whole time. The whole east coast seems like it would require either a little imagination or a lot of time in order to truly find some solitude. There's so many people here. On the way back from Annapolis I began to pay for having a bike that was too large and not a good fit at all. Everything started to hurt: knees first, then wrists, then shoulders. Yikes. I had seen one bike shop on the way out so I stopped there to at least move the seat forward. The guy was stoked to see my Kona jacket and we shot the shit for a little while and talked about how sweet of a company Kona is (seriously, I'm not putting a plug in...he did most the talking cus I was starting to feel really tired and shitty and wanted him to STFU).The last few miles were pretty painful both because of the bike fit and just b/c I'm still hypothyroid. I stopped to grab a 1/2 gallon of chocolate milk and chugged the whole thing in about a minute. Well, that's exaggerating, but I drank it fast and it was good cus I hadn't had dairy since before christmas. Can you believe that? Not christmas cookies b/c the butter!
Anyway, the milk helped but I was still really tired. I did manage to head back to light street cycles and see what could be done. The owner took one look at me and said that I should take a different bike:
Can't wait to ride it tomorrow!As a city, Baltimore is a lot like St Louis. There's tons of really poor out-of-work folks, a few dip shits who drive way to fast in nice cars, and people who are trying really hard to be cool and revitalize the downtown area. The poverty however, is totally in your face here. I keep reading about how much money is being given to Hati (a very just and noble cause) and can't help but wonder if there's money to give, why can't we have more jobs?
4 comments:
right on professor.
Another sweet looking Lemond. The service manager at the shop has a nice one. It is OX platinum and carbon. I think the model is Versailles. They sure made some nice looking bikes. Hang in there man. (sounds like the fat dude had it coming)
Well Professor. Nice job nukin' the douchbag. I would have done the same thing. Do not tell the east coasters that there is space to roam around here...or else we will have a ton of dipshits wandering around our sweet singletrack. Good move getting a better fitting bike. No dairy...damn. No Butter? I'll make ya some sweet ass brownies. ;)
Your right Haiti is a worthy cause...but it's an island right...half is shitty the other half sweet resorts...guess who they would have to shoot to keep out of some sweet as Punta Cana swim up bar. Like they say...you can lead em to water...but ya can't make em work for it. 200 miles is not that far to walk when all Haiti breaks loose around ya. Just sayin'...
Hope ya come home soon. Until then we will lay down some tracks in the gravel for you follow...catch up quickly.
Hello Professor. Great to hear the diet is off. Eat up! On the bike front, I like the idea of gettin a group for the ti bike. Although, you might find it is possible to roll a new kona hardtail 29er w gears for about same cost. Ask Gino about his. I am likely to go that route, too. Oh, and you have to get a sizer of Odell Hop Slam. Holy crap that is GOOD. And it's a 10% abv. Lator......
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