I’ve been having difficulty sleeping lately. And tomorrow at
dawn I’m leaving for the longest, hottest, hardest ride of my life (tale
pending). So I want to be able to sleep as well as I can beforehand.
Sometimes I lay awake at night going over the last minute
details of the day(s) ahead. Just last night I was thinking through the
contents of my seat bag. Everything checked out until I got to thinking about
the inner tubes. Although there are two in there, one of them being my only
backup for at least a year for rides near and far, I unraveled a few concerns.
The one I’d been carrying with me had already been patched. I can’t remember
how long ago. In fact, I can’t even remember the last time… wait, I better not
say that. Anyway, today I inspected the inner tube and there were these tiny
little wrinkles I guess you’d call them or cracks. I’m mostly sure that the
inner tube is fine – that it would work – even if it had a slow leak it would
get me going – probably.
As for the other inner tube, well, that one had been sitting
around in the shed for a long time, too – tucked inside an old tire. It looked
fine – no cracking. But the valve on that tube is slightly shorter – just
enough to create a minor problem for the 1 cm deeper rims I’ll be riding
tomorrow. Again, this tube would almost surely be fine and do the job if
needed.
But it’s these little doubts that keep me awake in the
night. They creep in after you think everything is fine and done and ready to
go. So, purely as a sleep aid, I bought two new inner tubes – I’m pretty sure
they have no known side effects.
3 comments:
Last night (well, this morning) I had tremendous difficulty going to sleep. The problem I'm having is that I have to push myself to stay awake to watch the Angels games from the West Coast - they often don't end until 1:30 AM here. After pushing myself to stay awake, it often proves difficult to fall asleep.
The easy solution is also the most obvious: just don't watch the baseball games. But that's as feasible as telling you not to go for a ride tomorrow; it's such a part of what I am that I cannot conceive of my life without baseball. And at this particular point, a new city with no friends other than Liz, 3000 miles from home, the Angels are perhaps the one thing keeping me sane.
So to sleep last night I tried counting sheep. I have never enjoyed that. Then I ran through the starting lineups of the AL West. Still awake. For some reason - well, I just remembered the reason, I saw it on 30 Rock last night - I started reciting the lyrics in my head to Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start The Fire." I was asleep before I finished the first verse.
Thanks, Justin. I’ve been into this Dodgers/Phillies series, myself. I’ll try to learn some Billy Joel songs before I go to bed. Sweet dreams…
Oh, I hate the sleepless nights, especially when they are those little thoughts that creep in and then you can't shake them out.
Can't wait to hear/read about your ride - enjoy the experience!
Post a Comment