Fixing flats and myopic misfortunes
Sep. 1st, 2009 08:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sawylOne of the skills I really honed at university was my ability to fix a puncture. For various reasons, including the insanely dangerous main road to the faculty buildings, I used to ride a daily route that involved a bike trail that might as well have been paved with broken glass which, when combined with the endless Welsh rain, resulted in tires with more punctures than St Sebastian.
Not having practiced my skills for a few years, I wasn't really sure how long it was going to take me to fix the flat I managed to pick up yesterday. But I discovered that I hadn't really lost the knack. I was able to get the wheel fixed pretty quickly — although not nearly as quickly as my student self would have managed it — and fixed well enough to stand up to a twenty mile test ride without any loss real loss of pressure.
Unfortunately, while out on my test ride, I suffered another misfortune. On my way back, down by the quay, I managed to dislodge my right contact lens. Fortunately, the lens was caught by the lens of the wrap around sunnies I was wearing. Unfortunately, there was so much wind that I wasn't able to get the stupid thing back in my eye. In the end, I gave the whole thing up as a bad job, my judgement coloured by the fact that the lenses were at the end of their monthly lives anyway, chucked the lens and rode the last mile or two home extremely slowly and cautiously.
Not having practiced my skills for a few years, I wasn't really sure how long it was going to take me to fix the flat I managed to pick up yesterday. But I discovered that I hadn't really lost the knack. I was able to get the wheel fixed pretty quickly — although not nearly as quickly as my student self would have managed it — and fixed well enough to stand up to a twenty mile test ride without any loss real loss of pressure.
Unfortunately, while out on my test ride, I suffered another misfortune. On my way back, down by the quay, I managed to dislodge my right contact lens. Fortunately, the lens was caught by the lens of the wrap around sunnies I was wearing. Unfortunately, there was so much wind that I wasn't able to get the stupid thing back in my eye. In the end, I gave the whole thing up as a bad job, my judgement coloured by the fact that the lenses were at the end of their monthly lives anyway, chucked the lens and rode the last mile or two home extremely slowly and cautiously.
