Wagner, sand, perforated rubber and other stuff
a right old mixed bag today as I review
the weekend......
You know, I wish I hadn't cooked that rabbit on
Friday night now.... it's my brother's fault (thanks Tim...) for bringing it up
really, I think he fancies himself as a bit of an Elmer Fudd you know... Ever
since Friday evening I've been unable to get that image of Elmer in the cartoon
rendition of Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" out of my head... the bit after
Bugs' deception is revealed and Elmer realises the fair maiden he's been chasing
is just a rabbit in a fetching viking helmet.... he's summoning up the
storms to wreak his revenge... I've been wondering, is there an entire
generation out there who think the true words to Ride of the Valkyries are "Kill
the wabbit, kill the wabbit......"? (and you were expecting high culture having
seen 'Wagner' in the heading...!)
Now,
perforated rubber is not (yet another) reference to some weird and possibly
wonderful perversion... (one day I really will write something rude...) but
rather a boring old flat tyre. They always seem to come in threes which means
after today's ride I can expect one more.... It's annoying, I managed to ride
1000's of km all winter through some terrible conditions without a single
flat,,, and then this morning I get my first of the winter without even leaving
the house. It's horrible when that happens... You're all kitted up ready to go,
then just before you wheel the bike out the door, pump the tyres up... and as
you remove the pump head from the valve.... PSSSssssssst.... bugger! (how d'ya
like my sound effects?!). This morning it was a valve failure so that tube is
now assigned to the garbage along with the teabags left from the vast quantities
of the stuff drunk since the ride... The second flat of the day came 70 miles
into my ride... this time it was a nasty sharp bit of metal embedded in my
tyre... It was a bugger to remove, in the end, lacking pliers, I had to resort
to my teeth - I did get a few comments from passersby wondering what I was doing
apparently sucking a tyre. I told them I was hungry and liked the taste of
rubber and cowshit....
What else was I
going to write about... errrm, oh yes - sand! It was a bit windy today (actually
that's an understatement, it was blowing a bl00dy hooly I tell you!). I thought
I'd mention it due to the pleasure I had today, while riding past Gwithian
Towans, of having wet wind-blown sand from the beach 200 metres away sting my
cheeks and accumulate under my crash helmet, while I battled in the crosswinds,
bike leaning over at 30 degrees off the vertical in the wind.... No wonder the
motorists were smiling.
Hope your weekend
was good, tune in again soon for more nonsense....
Posted: Sun - March 18, 2007 at 06:26 PM