barefoot pedaler on college street

tonight nolan came over to help tune up my bike. this is what we got done:

• cleaned the chain with my toothbrush
  

nolan noticed the chain rubbing against the front derailleur while in the middle gear and started to fiddle with some screws. some of the gears stopped switching. his neck started hurting from lying on his back and staring at the derailleur. we watched a youtube video on how to fix bike chains from rubbing on the derailleur. we kept trying to fix it. then heidi called. nolan talked to her. i talked to her and welcomed her home from the congo. we kept trying to tighten and loosen screws, and lifting and lowering, and turning the derailleur. i finally told nols i was going to take my bike to a shop. i gotta hand it to him, he does still know his stuff, and i learned a few things as well, but my bike is just slightly more messed up than before. and when i decided at least to try and pump up the tires, air was leaking everywhere, and the stupid pump kept flying off the tire. finally i collapsed on the couch in a sweaty defeat.

the whole ordeal reminded me of an afternoon 5 years ago where everything that could go wrong, went wrong. it was my summer of leisure (aka the first time i ever got laid off and learned what a severance was). here's an except i found from my old blog archives:


august 23, 2003

lastnight i asked my sister to wake me up early so that i could get out of my bed before 11 a.m. as groggy as i was, i got myself up at 8 a.m. and even speedwalked her to work. i brought along my harry potter book and had breakfast in the bagel shop at richmond and spadina. i then leisure walked around the rest of downtown and came back up to nathan phillips square to take in the weekly farmer's market. $$$$. i walked home and made plans to go visit sarah in the afternoon. i proceeded to fall asleep on my bed for about an hour. after being so proud of myself for getting up early. argh.

at 2 p.m., i finally got into the elevator with my bike. i called sarah to let her know that i was moving a little slow and that i was on my way. when the elevator arrived in the lobby, by chance, i reached back to feel my back tire and found it without air. none. after pumping it up, i found myself peddaling along college street. somewhere near st. george st. my shoe flew off. my toe scraped against the metal teeth on my pedal as i realized, i just lost my shoe. very bewildered. i walked back a few metres with one barefoot to collect it. i continued to pedal, but my bike had seized up. i noticed my chain had fallen off. it fell off a second time after i put it back on. the only good thing about all of this is that it happened in front of a hotdog vendor. he gave me serviettes to clean the grease off my hands... and most likely laughed at me as i walked away.

finally made it to sarah's after this huge ordeal. she had just finished baking, so we had a nice snack and a glass of wine each. and we got to watch pride and prejudice on dvd. what a treat - wine and colin firth. soon it was time to leave for volleyball, and by the time i tried to push my bike out the door, the back tire was flat once again. at that exact moment, sarah's upstairs neighbour was at his front door with his bike. he (thank god) had a pump and filled the stupid tire with air. i gunned it along college, just as the tire began deflating again.

got home in time for rhonda's call to leave for volleyball. on the streetcar, we read some newspaper headlines over the shoulders of other passengers. did you know that you can no longer smile for passport photos in canada?

we won one, we lost one. that last game. yeah, we completely bombed. oh well. it's volleyball, we're not saving babies as cristina would say. these were our final games of the regular season and also our final ones with jode. he is leaving for graduate school in calgary on saturday. he was a ball hog anyways. jk. no, i'm serious.


those last bits have nothing to do with the bike issues, but help remind me of what a good summer that was. sometimes being laid off isn't as bad as some may think! (that's my bike hitching a ride on the centre island ferry, also in the summer of 2003. ah, thems were the days. holy shit, that was FIVE years ago???)