title: Signs, Portents, and Derailleurs
# category is optional, may be only one word, defaults to "main"
category: sport
content: |
    <p>I threw myself a birthday party this past weekend.</p>

    <p>Part of it was getting together with friends for yummy Afghan
    food.  That part went well.</p>

    <p>Before that, however, there was a bike ride.  Or at least a
    little piece of one.</p>

    <p>I should have known that the bike ride part of the day
    wouldn't go so well when only one other person (of the 30 or
    so I invited, and 14 others who bothered to show up at dinner)
    responded in the positive for bike ride.</p>

    <p>So we start on our way.  Finishing the first part of the
    ride -- a semi-loop from my house to the Quarry Lakes -- wasn't
    a problem.  Though we did notice that the back wheel of his
    bike was getting wobbly.  We think, maybe it's just out of true.
    So we come off the trail and go to the bicycle shop near my
    house.  They say that the whole rear wheel is, in fact, totally
    hosed, and may have to be rebuilt.  My friend was not happy
    about this, seeing how his bike was not very old at all.</p>

    <p>So after a walk back to my house and a brief bathroom break,
    I offer to resuscitate one of the bicycles in the garage.  After
    a seat post adjustment and some tire-pumping, my 11-year-old
    Univega upright hybrid bicycle -- a rather heavy bugger for
    something that looks so slender -- is brought back up to speed.<p>

    <p>We return to the Alameda Creek trail approximately where we
    left off.  After some distance, we pull over to take care of
    dust in eyes.</p>

    <p>And the seat pops off of the old bicycle.</p>

    <p>This, this is a sign.  This is a sign that we dare not
    continue the bike ride out to the end of the trail and around
    the Coyote Hills.  We are wise, and we decide to listen to the
    message that some spirit or deity is quite blatantly sending
    to us.</p>

    <p>We apply a temporary remedy, go home, and play Scrabble
    instead.  I get squished horribly, once again stuck with an
    unplayable Q.</p>