Slight Disagreement

This summer seems to be slowly sapping away all of my energy. As I left this morning to meet the diminutive Friday ride group, I noted that my bike was filthy from the combination of sweat and multiple trips across the wet mud that the riversand folks keep creating for us up on the levee. The internal steel parts of my shifters are rusting and sticking despite frequent applications of spray lubricant, and my legs seem to be working no better than the shifters. I've needed to replace the chain for weeks, one of my cleats is getting pretty worn down, and of course the inside of my helmet smells like an old sock.



Our 4-rider group this morning did an acceptible Friday ride at the typical easy pace, fighting a moderate headwind all the way back. Locally, the interest level in Hurricane Dean is rising as the storm makes its way farther to the west. Originally, the forecasters were cautiously predicting that it would stay more or less on a westward track, ending up somewhere in Mexico or southwest Texas. But of course we all know that they all end up farther north and east than predicted, don't we? Indeed, the computer models seem to be in some "slight" disagreement this afternoon. By "slight," I mean a predicted landfall variation on the order of 700 miles. One track puts the center of the hurricane right in the middle of Louisiana, while another puts it in southern Mexico. Three out of the four models keep way down south, so hopefully the other model is missing something. Anyway, the bottom line is that we'll just have to wait and see.



Track events in Baton Rouge tomorrow night, but since I have never made it to the shop to get the glue I need to glue on new tires, I guess I'll be skipping it again. I've never had much trust in glue of any sort, and racing on tires that haven't been properly glued just isn't worth it any more. I guess deep down I'm really just a roadie anyway.