Now It's Personal (Self I, i)

To save you the painful reading of heavy-handed analyses, I thought I would throw in a little about my days. Also, I was bit unsure about any Dada features I could present this week.

We shall begin with Sunday:

The first thing my dad told me to do was "Get some exercise!" Which I thought was very good advice. I could certainly use a few extra muscles, here and there (although, to be honest, I remember a nightmare where I was really buff. I looked goofy, and felt awkward wearing t-shirts. I'll keep away from that angle of fitness).

I decided to ride my bike, in honor of the great weather we're seeing. Rather than just ride for a short while, I chose to ride the furthest I have to date. I found a park just outside of Chili (Black Creek Park), which I thought was worthy of investigation. It would be about 12 miles (or so) (It intrigues me to think that I can place a compass on any home I've been in, draw a circle 12 miles in radius, and know I've never exceeded that on a bike.).

The ride there was nice, although I felt like I was never going to get off Chili Ave. The park was also nice. 1500 acres is a lot of space, so I could stretch out and get lost in the dense woods, marshes, wetlands, swamps. Being early spring, I didn't see too many people, and those that were there were staying in the more cultivated areas (i.e. the cut grasslands).

It was the ride back that became interesting. Returning via Chili Ave. I realized I was peddling awfully hard. Knowing this is often because of a lack of air in the tire, I pulled off the road. Aha! Not only did I have little air in my rear tire, whatever I added didn't want to stay in. A FLAT!

This created about the most frustrating 1/2 hour of my life. I had to take off the rear wheel (Always more difficult than the front), remove the tread, then the inner tube; patch the inner tube, and put it all back together.

Even more unfortunate was manner the tube was broken. One leak was patched fine; a second was located on the nozzle, and couldn't be repaired. What was I to do? It's at times like this that one finds their options are quite limited:

1. Ride bike despite flat (Not desirable)
2. Hitchhike (Not desirable, possible consequences)
3. Call a cab (No phone, Too expensive)
4. Walk (So much for the evening recitals I would attend)

Weighing the options, I decided for a combination of 1 & 4, with 3 as a back-up. It was in this manner that traveled back to the far-off land of Eastman. I certainly got my exercise (and some nice food from a local restaurant), and my bike made it clear without any destruction. All that was needed now was a new inner-tube and I would be ready to go!

//End of Post//