There are worse places to flat

I walked out the front entrance at work yesterday ready to meet my coworkers at the pub for some happy hour drinks. I turned on my tunes, unlocked my bike, and threw on my helmet and gloves. I hopped on my bike, traveled a few short feet, and realized that I had a flat tire.

Shit.

Luckily, I always carry a spare tube, a mini-pump, and a multi-tool. The pub was just a few blocks away, so I used the mini-pump to inflate the tire enough that I could make it up the hill. When I reached my destination, I went in, ordered a quart-size beer and then went and fetched my supplies and my rear wheel.

I sat down with my enormous beer and my task at hand, and went to work. It took about 10 minutes or so for me to remove the tire and tube, find and remove the source of the puncture, install a new tube, and replace the tire. A few minutes more and the tire was mostly reinflated using the mini-pump - good enough to get me home, anyways. I left the rear wheel in the corner by our table while we ate, drank, and chatted.

When it came time to depart, I paid my tab, said my goodbyes, grabbed my wheel, and left. Cinching the wheel back on my bike was a snap, and then I headed for home.

Easiest thing in the world.

If you're going to bike, you might as well be fancy

Was just looking through files on my computer and found this:

Wowzers.

Cody always looks nice for work, but this was a special day back in June. There was a press conference and everything. Big research announcement.

Why didn't I post this back then? No idea. But I sure wish I did.

You guys, I lost my job

Y'all, nothing I'm about to write is related to bicycling. There's your disclaimer. I won't blame you for clicking away now.

Earlier this month I got laid off, and I still can't believe it.

While I was assured multiple times that the action was in no way related to my work performance, and merely a company-wide measure taken because of a lack of revenue, it still hurt. No one likes to be dumped.

Our family took a major gamble when I accepted the job last summer. We sold our house and moved our son from a loving in-home child care provider to a preschool environment. Fortunately, Cody found a job he loves -- one that matters. He's proud of his work, and I'm so proud of him. The kid misses his first sitter and his first friend, but he eventually adjusted to his new friends and his new class, and is now thriving. Cody and I both grew up in the area so we get to see a lot more of our friends and family.

It all seemed like the perfect life for our little family.

But now that I've had time to sit back and reflect on my time working for my former employer, I've come to realize that I didn't love my old job as much as I expected. For sure, I miss the friends I made there -- those smart, fun hardworking people -- but the actual work was less enjoyable than I hoped. Plus, I was stressed out all the time, working the second shift and missed spending evenings with my dudes.

While I'm looking for a new job, I'm spending a lot more time with Cody and the little dude. Our house is much cleaner than it has ever been. I even found out that I'm a pretty good cook.

I'm also a lot happier.

Maybe this whole unexpected life change has been a good thing after all. Sure, we're on a tighter budget now, and it's really weird for me to be unemployed and I sometimes lose sleep worrying about it all.

But, you know what? That's okay.

We may be living with a little less income. But we're also living with a lot more joy. And that's really a small price to pay.

We're really jamming now!

I've been jonesing for a way to listen to music on my bike for quite some time. Having a sound system on my machine would be sweet for group rides, pub crawls - both planned and impromptu, or just riding around town. So I pulled the trigger this week and bought a Photive Cyren portable bluetooth speaker. I looked at a number of speakers, and ended up settling on the Cyren due to its favorable reviews and its attractive price. It's basically just a blatant knockoff of the Jambox, but it feels sturdy, solid, and well-made. It's got a battery life of 10-12 hours, which is awesome. But most importantly, it sounds great.

For the last couple days, I've strapped the Cyren onto my bike's rear rack for my daily commutes to and from work. Even at full volume, it can be a little hard to hear when moving at a good clip. And it's definitely a prime theft target, so I have to remove it every time I leave my bike. Because of that, it's probably not something I'll continue to use every day, especially with my commute as short as it is (less than a mile). It'll be a necessary piece of equipment for weekend rides and future Cruisin' for a Brewsin' bike pub crawls, though. My guess is that I now have the loudest bicycle in town, and I'm very cool with that.

Cruisin' for a Brewsin' in August

Last night was the fourth Cruisin' for a Brewsin' bicycle pub crawl. The mild weather brought out a decent crowd - I'd guess there were 25-30 riders altogether, with a special appearance by a group of dudes on pennyfarthings. The evening started out at The Dugout, which I skipped so that I could spend a little extra time with the family. I met up with the pub-crawlers at the second stop, Lindberg's. After a couple beers up on C-street, we headed back into downtown for some fun at Dublin's Pass, and then on to Bugsy Malone's for some drinks and karaoke. The night was scheduled to wrap up back at The Dugout, but I went ahead and split for home after Bugsy's.

The weather couldn't possibly have been better last night, and it was a great crew that turned out. As a bonus, we happened to catch the lighting ceremony for the new history museum's big rooftop sign on the square on our way to Bugsy's. Since the trip between Dublin's and Bugsy's was short, we took a few hot laps around the square, with the lighting ceremony attendees gawking at us.

The best way to spend a birthday

Yesterday I turned 31, but it's okay because I got carded when I went to the store for beer.

It's also okay because I was the recipient of many, many kind birthday wishes from the people in my life.  Plus, Cody gave me a GoPro.

Cody also proposed that we go do something fancy, but all I really wanted to do was check out the Frisco Highline Trail and play with the new toy. Our friend Kenny joined us, and we had a great time.

It was only about six miles from Springfield to Willard, where we decided to turn around because that's where the pavement stopped. It was a quick ride, too quick really. We did our best to prolong it with pit stops for refreshments and snacks, but we were on our way back to Springfield in less than 45 minutes.

I discovered the best way to extend a day on the trail: Fall off your bike.

I was messing around with the new camera, and my front wheel went off the right side of the pavement. I tried to jump back on, but crashed instead. I scraped up my shoulder, both hands, both knees and broke a toe nail in half.

Kenny dashed on ahead to beg for first aid supplies from the Willard City Pool.

Cody later described my birthday wreck as epic.

Epic indeed.

Off to the farmers market

A couple weeks ago I rode my bike to the Farmers Market of the Ozarks down on the south side of town and then blogged about it for the HLA website. I realize that I'm like a full week late in getting to this, but I wanted to post a brief supplement here at home base. Mostly to share some additional anecdotes and other thoughts about the ride.

First off, as I was leaving Sequiota Park on my southbound trip, I ended up wheelsucking a young couple who were riding on the trail. They didn't seem to appreciate it, and as soon as they realized I was behind them, they slowed down and waved me on to pass. Whatever. I guess no one appreciates a freeloader.

I should also mention that it was really fuckin' hot that day. I think the heat index topped out at close to 100 degrees and it was muggy as hell. I left the house fairly early but decided to grab some breakfast and a bloody mary with the family before hitting the road, which put me in the saddle up until well after noon. I wasn't even close to halfway home when I ran out of water. I spent the rest of the trip cursing the heat and wishing summer was over.

I was pretty stoked to see that Copper Run distillery and Springfield Brew Co. had set up as vendors at the farmers market. This is probably the main reason I'd be interested in making the trip all the way down to this market - I'm guessing that this is the only Springfield-area farmers market that they are at. Pretty cool, though.