Detour

Today just seems to be one of those days full of obstacles!

The morning training ride group was big but a little lazy at first. I had gotten a call from John last night who wanted to warn me and the morning group about a support wire along the levee bike path. He and Realdo had been riding that evening and had come across support cable for a phone pole that had been snagged by a tree that had fallen during the storm. It was stretched across the bike path about eight or nine feet above the road, and they were worried that if it got any lower somebody was going to be decapitated! Luckily, it was quite high enough for everyone to ride under this morning. I was feeling particularly sluggish today as often happens when I have a lot of things on my mind, and every time the pace surged my legs were reluctant to cooperate. Maybe it had something to do with the extra glass of wine last night. Since we ended up with my sister, brother-in-law, and mother at the house last night for dinner (they were still waiting for their electricity to be restored), The Wife went out and bought a bunch of Shrimp on Steriods. We fixed them up with olive oil and seasoning and I slid them into our classic old O'Keefe & Merrit Stove with the "Grillevator" and we had a nice big dinner.

On my way to work on the commuter, which BTW has about 15 psi in the tires right now, I had to detour around two fallen trees on Fontainbleau that had still not been removed and were completely blocking the road. Just when I though I was in the clear and was flying down the Broad St. overpass, I noticed some trucks in the median and some water on the road ahead of me. Thinking it was nothing much, I continued on, only to find that there was a broken water main that was pouring tons of water across the road. It wasn't much of a problem, but I couldn't slow down fast enough to keep from getting my pant legs good and wet. I get to work and realize I've forgotten the key to the bike lock, but since the bike's in the "bike room," that shouldn't be too much of a problem.

So I get to work and my 11:00 meeting gets pushed back to 12:00 and then to 12:15 over lunch, so now I've got to go get some cash out of the ATM. I get on the phone to line up a service call from the cable company and after being on hold for 28 minutes I finally speak with a human who tells me the next available appointment is the evening of the 20th!! Damn, I'm glad I'm not paying for digital cable and missing all the good stages of the Tour de France on TV, 'cause I'd be really pissed about that. The cable got so stretched during the storm that it is currently held onto the house only by the copper core wire. The grounding sheath, insulation, etc. is all pulled back about an inch, so the chances that the thing will stay up there at all until the 20th are slim. Luckily I've still got antennas around the house, so we're back to broadcast TV for a while.