Archive - May 29, 2008

Just over two years ago I bought a new road bike and if I had to guess, I'd say I've probably put somewhere around 2000 kms on it. In all that time, I've never got a flat tire. Well unfortunately that all changed this past Sunday. I was out for a ride, by myself, on the back roads around Stittsville. The plan was to do 60 kms - and I came close to that. I was on my way home from a there and back route, when I noticed that my bike was feeling a bit weird - riding much rougher than it normally does. I immediately suspected a flat and when I slowed down, sure enough that's what it was. I know exactly when it happened (I remember the bump my back wheel took) but I have no idea what caused it. Was it a large rock that I somehow missed with my front wheel but hit with my back? A pothole perhaps? No idea.

I had about 8.5 kms to go when this happened, so luckily I had completed just over 50 kms of the 60 kms I had hoped to do. I didn't have a lot of options at this point because although I had an extra tube, and the tools to make the change - I didn't have a pump or any other means to inflate the new tube. D'oh! Walking that distance in cycling shoes would be absolute insanity, so luckily I had brought my cell phone with me. I just called up Amy and asked her to come get me, which happily she did. Lesson learned - if you're going out alone, make sure you have the means to inflate your tires should the need arise. I'd rather not have to carry a pump so instead I'll be looking into CO2 cartridges. Steve first told me about them a while ago, and I confirmed with Grant that you can get them at MEC so I've added that to my list of things to do/get before my next solo ride.

Anyways, like I suggested in my post title, perhaps I was just due for a flat. :)

This past Saturday, JK, Dave and me spent about 4 hours playing disc golf. We started out the day (late morning) with a round at Camp Fortune where we filmed the majority of the holes - well the drives anyways. The bugs were brutal which took away some of the enjoyment of the game, but by the end of the round I had managed a personal best +6 for the course so I was pretty happy. After our round at CF, we headed to Jacques Cartier Parc and played another 18 holes there. Not sure what it is, but I always seem to play better at JCP if I've just played at CF. I ended up with another personal best of -1 for that course. All in all a pretty fantastic day of DG for sure! Really looking forward to our DG trip to Syracuse in the middle of June.

I applied the 10.5.3 update last night to both my iMac and my MacBook. One of the big issues that I was hoping would be addressed was the stability of the wifi connection on the macbook - ever since I got the thing, it randomly drops its connection to the AP on my network. In the release notes for the update, it did mention some improvements to 802.1x stability and reliability but alas - I have not seen any such improvements since updating. I am still seeing random drops of my wifi connection. :(

The other bummer is the fact that they updated Address Book to allow syncing with your gmail contacts, but it only seems to be available to those who have an iPhone. Huh?!