Did you ever have one of those days where you were inadvisably flatulent and you couldn’t find any reasonably socially acceptable place to relieve pressure? Because I can tell you that those days really suck. Now, I’ve been known to deploy retaliatory flatulence when fighting dirty, but thankfully those days are behind me now, and I was doing my utmost to avoid causing respiratory distress among my co-workers and fellow citizens today.
In all ways, today was just kind of jacked-up and off kilter. Of all things, this morning, I forgot my work clothes at home. This would be the day that I test-drive my new tights and base-layer shirt, so after I take my jacket off, I’m left wearing this dorky red-and-black Star Trek number which really leaves absolutely nothing to the imagination. Skin-tight is the phrase to describe it. So I left my jacket, gloves, muffler, and helmet on, and went and asked my boss if it would be cool if I cashed in an hour of vacation time and ran home and got some proper clothes. She said it was fine, and so I did. While I was at home, I went and grabbed a spare dress, in case such an emergency should ever occur again. I can’t believe myself. In 5 years of regular bicycle commuting, I have never before left my work clothes at home. I either ride in wearing whatever I am going to wear, or else I wear grubbies and pack my normal clothes along. I have no idea how I managed not to today. My routine is to pack my lunch, stick it in the bottom of my bag, then lay my clothes on top, on the theory that if something in my lunch leaks, it will go to the bottom of my backpack, and with any luck, my clothes will stay above the muck.
The other kind of weird thing for me today, aside from the flatulence and the lack of clothing, was that I was incredibly sleepy all day. I was yawning on my trip to work, my trip home, and my trip back, and I was yawning all day. I made a little pot of coffee after my second trip to work this morning, and worked my way through it by noon. There was an office party for a man who got promoted and is moving to a different department, and I drank about four of those little styrofoam cups of Diet Pepsi (mmmmm-chemicals!) and I was still dragging ass. I finally took my afternoon break at 2:30 and put my head down for 15 minutes, which helped me get through the rest of the day, but seriously right now, I could go to sleep, though it is only 7:00 p.m.
One good thing. When I got home tonight, I decided tonight was the night to put the shifter cable and housings on my Schwinn, and it now has shifter-cable housings and shifter cable, and it will shift through all five gears handily. I had it standing on its head in the living room, cranking a pedal with one hand and twisting on the shifter with the other, adjusting the little thumbscrew-thingy on the derailleur until it would hop from one gear to the next with reasonable grace and not make any annoying rattly noises in any gear. It actually shifts quite tidily, and stringing the cable and performing the adjustments was gratifyingly simple and straightforward. I like vintage bikes. I’ll probably do the brakes later. I also put the chainguard back on after I ran the cable, and I will put the fenders back after I do the brake cables. It’s nice not to have anything in the way.