Cycling Frustration

Yesterday I did a fun ride of about 20 miles (by my mileage computer) with the level 1 cyclists. I find that I really enjoy riding my bike in a group. I did better with stopping and starting and didn't fall once. I was able to talk to a couple of people. Kristin is a music teacher in Danville and it was interesting to hear about her career in Urbana and Danville as well as U of I. She is a cellist. This was her first group ride, but she is much more experienced in just riding than I am. The scenery riding out into the country is nice now with the corn high and lots of neat shadows on the road. The sunset was beautiful. I just find riding in and out of Champaign is a bit unnerving with all the cars around. In some places there isn't much space to ride and left turns are not a lot of fun. I don't know that I would want to risk them on my own, although some drivers are very nice. Then there are others who aren't. I find that I am much more careful around cyclists when I am driving, now that I am riding myself.

I still can't get the mirror to work on my helmet. No adjustment seems right. I suppose I will get it worked out in time. Either that or Peter will get a bike, take my helmet, and I will try again with a new one, preferably green.

Obviously my cycling frustration is not with riding. No, it is with cyclingtv.com. In the middle of the Tour of Germany race, they seem to have gone off the air, at least for me. And they are not replying to my e-mail. Of course they may be deluged with e-mail from people wanting to know what happened. When you are paying for the premium channel, it would be nice if they actually stayed on so that you could watch the race. I suppose it is technical difficulties somewhere, but that doesn't make it any less frustrating.

Today I got my first PCC newsletter via e-mail link. I hope that now I am on the list so I keep getting them. That is really the only way to know about the various rides. There is a newcomers ride tomorrow night leaving from the Assembly Hall. If it is not raining, I might do that one rather than go to the Simplicity book group. It was interesting to see that Jim and Jenny Barrett have just become members. I can see cycling taking up a lot of my time today.

I just got a response from cyclingtv.com. They had me do a settings change and now the race is back. I will have to remember that if I have a problem again. It is raining in Germany. Not so much fun for riding. On the other hand, we are supposed to get rain tonight and tomorrow, which should break the heat.

The scenery in Germany is nice. That's one of the good things about watching cycling. The courses are always nice to watch. I don't know that I would like to ride on some of those roads in the rain. Very slippery. The end was a bunch sprint, won by an Astana-Wurth rider from Kazahkstan--Assan Bazayev. Gusev stayed in the yellow jersey.

I hope to get more boxes packed now tht Peter has gotten them for me. The New York Times subscription started today and the new cleaners came today. Peter said they did a nice job. So even though there really isn't anything to do at work, a lot of stuff is going on in the rest of my life. Not anything particularly interesting, but better than nothing. Actually, after watching the Tour of Germany stage, I packed four boxes. The office is really starting to look empty.

I suggested to Peter that we rent "Match Point" and go to Persimmon for gelato on Sunday and he seemed amenable to that. But now I have requested the DVD from the library, so it will probably be weeks or months before we see it. I'm sure we can find something else to do besides getting gelato.

Lowe's seems to have a problem with our lawn mower. Evidently it was sent, sent back, and now has to be re-sent from Springfield. Peter is hoping he can get the old mower to work over the next couple of days and do a bit of lawn cutting since the grass (or weeds) is getting long from all the rain.

Lori and I had lunch at Cafe Luna. The meal was good, the noise was oppressive, and we talked mostly about our trips to Italy. They took some time over our salads, which we didn't really notice since we had already had an appetizer and soup, but they didn't charge us for them. I thought that was really unexpected. Lori has a new car, a Mini convertible. It is really nice but it would be impractical for us to have a really small car and nothing else. The Focus is probably just the right size, most of the time, especially now that we have the bike rack.

I have the second Pilates class at 5:30. At least it is inside. The walk to Luna was really hot. I am looking forward to cooler temperatures tomorrow, even if it comes with rain.