Catching up with my thoughts

I was out of town visiting my parents for Easter and so I didn't manage to post anything. It was a pretty good weekend, took a day off the bike, and saw all my relations. It seems that my parents' mailbox was struck by lighting and their lawn furniture melted into puddles under mysterious circumstances. I don't know what to make of it, but all signs point to space aliens.

Speaking of space aliens, I seem to have misplaced my Arrowhead race write-up. Hopefully it's still on my roommate's computer. If not it might be gone forever. I'll see about it tomorrow.

In biking news, I've got Transiowa on the brain. I'm feeling confident about Algona, but beyond that is new territory for me mileage-wise. My knee started mysteriously hurting after a day off the bike. I think it was all the walking I did at my parents' while wearing shoes I don't normally wear (ie. not cycling shoes). I'm also worried about the weather which has been pretty violent lately with winds out of the East. Prevailing winds in IA are supposed to be out of the West. Dang global warming. In any case I'm as ready as I'll ever be. Time to rest hard.

I've also got the Dirty Kanza race coming up. 200 miles in 20 hours. I'm planning on riding the cross bike again, but I hear the roads in the Flint Hills are pretty rough. I've driven through the area on the highway and it looks really hilly. I was also expecting more people from IA to sign up for the Kansas race. I don't own a car and was hoping someone would be driving through and give me a lift. So far it looks like Guitar Ted is the only other Iowan in the thing. I'll have to talk with him at TI and see what his plans are.

With all these lectures I've been going to I've been giving thought to resurrecting my "I don't care" fixie commuter. Parking my bike on the university campus makes me nervous especially on Friday and Saturday nights, plus I have a habit of forgetting my lock. Thus, about a year ago I had an old Specialized Hard Rock built up with a fixed gear and no brakes. The whole thing was built out of parts I already owned or found. The only thing I had to buy was a cheap SS chain. The idea was that nobody would steal it, if they did they couldn't ride it, and if they did make off with it I wouldn't care. I miss it a little for days when I just don't want to worry. The only thing is I sold the fixed wheel which was the heart of the bike. Maybe I'll have to do loctite & a BB lockring on an old freewheel hub and see how that goes.

In non-bike news I finished the book Metaphysical Club, by Louis Menand. I haven't completely digested it yet, but as soon as I do I expect to write some sort of book review. That's all for now.