Feb 1 - re-tired

Ok, I couldn't resist the pun. How excited can one get about new tires ? Well, if they are bicycle tires, pretty excited. I a) spend more time on my bicycle tires than my car tires; b) can feel the differences more readily between different tires; c) spend more on bicycle tires than car tires, even with the miles that we put in driving.

The new Grand Bois tires came in today and I now have them installed on the Hummer. Grand Bois sounds French, right ? Well, would you believe that they're manufactured in Kyoto ? The tires are very retro looking, with gumwall rather than black or another color. Interestingly enough, the 28mm Grand Bois weighs 5 grams less than the 23mm Specialized Armadillo Elite that I took off the front wheel. It still has a lot of life in it but at this point it will be a spare. The back tire is in the garbage now. It was not only well worn, but upon close inspection it had a deep cut across it that could have easily given way at some point. Some point won't happen now, at least not to me !

I'm looking forward to trying out these tires. Hopefully today's rain will blow through and I'll get out tomorrow. Then I'll hang up these wheels and reserve them for the upcoming brevets. I mounted my new, spare, 25mm Specialized tire on the front Mavic Helium and am awaiting the 28mm for the rear. I have 23's on the Lynsky but am wondering if I should think about wider tires for that bike too. The type of riding that I do, and the terrain, lend themselves to wider tires at lower pressures. They're also easier on the butt !

I did round one work on my taxes this morning, since I have most of what I need from online sources. Now I have to wait for the actual snail-mail forms to come in for final review, input and e-file.

After the taxes, before the rain, I took a trip up to Radio Shack on the Harley to pickup a 1/8" stereo plug to repair my favorite riding earbuds. Yesterday the right channel failed ... broken wire right at the plug. I do want to repair them, and it was an excuse to go for a ride.

So far, that's about it ... oh yes, I did make a few phone calls. Fidelity, to ask a couple of questions; Shane up north (talked to Cynthia), to confirm that Bonnie & Jimmy have left and he can now start monitoring our house up there; and Debbie at BMW of the Mainline, in Bala Cynwyd. I find that Debbie is now in service ... but left her a message anyway. Basically I'm starting to put out initial feelers to say that if the right car comes along at the right price, perhaps I'd be interested. In this case, I'm thinking X5 Diesel. That doesn't mean that I'll go through with it, but if something came off lease early, it might be an option. Lastly, I made a couple of additional Facebook connections.

I heard from a fellow Randonneur from Iowa that he might be in the area with his wife late February, the same time that Jerry is here. He's interested in riding a couple of my Permanents, so I sent him suggested routes, Permanent cards, application and waiver. He's also looking for a place to stay locally, since his wife will be at a conference in Jacksonville. No, I didn't suggest our house :) but I did suggest the Holiday Inn. If Jerry feels up to it, perhaps we'll ride together.

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It's morning again.

Shortly after I wrote the above, my other tire on order arrived via Fedex. So my Mavics now have a 28 on the rear and 25 on the front; the PWW (Peter White Wheels, for want of a better name) both have 28's. My reaction to the 28's ? They look fat. It's the same reaction that I had moving from 23's to 25's. Soon I'll be able to do a ride test. We have some pretty heavy rain in the area right now so I'll probably wait until tomorrow. In that case I'll ride Wednesday and Thursday, take Friday off and then Saturday I have the 300k brevet.

We went over to "Touch of Italy" for dinner last night. Sandy had a yearning for Carbonara. I ordered an eggplant pizza. To say that I was disappointed is an understatement. Too much cheese, too little tomato, the eggplant "bits" were fried ... but in spite of that I ate too much. I felt awful (unintended pun -- awe-full) -- all night long. I ordered a large, so that I'd have leftovers. They are in the fridge. I should just dispose of them, but I'll try some Franks hot sauce and perhaps it will be edible ... but then again, why torture myself.

I did get a call back from Debbie yesterday. She moved from sales to service (that's where she started in the business) before the recession so that she'd have more regular hours for her teenage son (aka be home in the evenings). As she put it, moving into service at that point allowed her to write her own ticket, had she been forced to do so during the recession, she'd have been lucky to have found a place. She's passing the lead onto a fellow in sales with whom she worked. It remains to be seen if this approach makes any sense.

That's about it. The rain just started. Sandy said yesterday that this weather reminds her of being at the cottage late fall -- cool and wet. I should probably get organized and paint the bathroom, since our opportunities to do outside activities are limited on these types of days. Global warming strikes again -- every year seems to be colder and wetter than the one before. If I didn't have nice days soon in the forecast I'd grit my teeth, put on my rain jacket and go for a ride.

Onward !