hbi2 is 80 days from today. i have been setting this up for a while now and i thought i was ready to go. i am not.

last weekend after i finished the 25th aniversary tour de cure diabetes ride, my bike rim was bent. it was not anyone specifically that did it, it was a design flaw. my co-worker had offered to chauffeur bikes and people to and from the ride. he had just purchased a new rack for his vehicle and was excited to try it out. it was one of those racks that have nylon webbing, hooks and three bike capacity. on the way back, going through forest park in portland, there was a bump in the road that caused the rack to flex. heartstop. the hooks at the end of the nylon webbing ripped the top of the rear gate on the car, then disconnected. my bicylce, the awolxpoler, fell to the ground, supporting the other bicycles and rack above the ground as we slowed down. before we came to a complete halt, my bicycle was about thirty feet behind us.

looking over my bicycle now, three days later, it isn’t as bad as it could have been. i am actually glad that it was my bike. my steel, heavy, beast of a bicycle that has caused pain, joy, love and accompanied me on amazing adventures. if it was either of the other bicycles on the rack, they probably would have been decimated. the other benefit of it being mine was that i have other bicycles. i can ride those until i have mine in full repair. the other two bicycles are not from multibike owners.

there are only a few things that i need to do to get elsie back in working order. i will post and include the information about those as days count down.

also: i had braces put in my mouth today.