repairs, bike and pc

Our bike and our pc need some repairs. Old Blue, the daily ride, is noisily requesting bottom bracket lubrication, and the PC's video card's fan was making a noise we can describe as a chainsaw cutting open a half-full can of ball bearings.

The video card got our attention first, and is the reason our blog seems so stale and in need of a new posting.

The bottom bracket is easier to ignore, since it makes noise outside of the home. But lately it's noise levels have increased, and it too will get some lovin'. Real soon, we promise.

Blue isn't being totally ignored, it inherited a newer rear wheel, and a shiny new tire to go with it. The old tire and wheel were completely depreciated, and the old rim danced around better than Michael Jackson.

Which brings us to our adventure after work today. Instead of returning home after wirk on a same old, same old kind of ride, we found ourself with the mission to ride out to the UPS warehouse in Lachine's vast industrial park to pick up the parcel containing the new video card. This journey was required because UPS failed to successfully deliver the video card to our home, three times, two of which required the UPS deliver person to be a higher level of imbecile than we are familiar with. Our suggestion is always to avoid UPS when someone wants to send you something. We genuinely love canada post.

Coming back from lachine industrial park area via Autoroute Cote de Liesse we arrived a the end of the autoroute where bikes and pedestrians can cross under the elevated Autoroute 40 and the train tracks at the giant Kraft foods plant (if you've been there, you know what we are talking about,m and if you have never, well, you have a project for saturday morning.

Here we met a dude who was just finishing the successful repair of a flat tire. We had a chat... He had a new bike this year. In the last month he has had six flats. SIX flats. He was trying to get me to suggest bigger or better tires. Yes, to both I said.

I also suggested getting some plastic tire levers, since cold temperatures, metal, and human fingers do not a happy combination make.

Then a frenzied ride along Jean Talon from Decarie and we were home and making our PC whole again. Then we pushed the power button... and nothing happened. Until the power cord was reinserted into the wall, thus connecting us to Hydro-Quebec's vast grid of hydro dam generated
electricity. Woohoo!

The ride to Lachine had the added bonus of being a dry run for next weeks Sport Dinaco warehouse sale, November 19-21. Click here for more info. They are a distributor for a variety of outdoor and ski-related products. Recommended.