so a day after committing to overflow with the milk of human kindness during my commute, the bolt on my seatpost cracked just as I was hitting Country Club Drive going through the Res. I thought the seat slipped a little on the last ride – no big deal, it happens – and when it slipped completely so the horn was poking me in the nards, I knew i was in for trouble. 200 yards later, the whole thing collapsed and the seat fell in the street.

So, 9 miles back home pedalling standing up, or 6 miles into the office pedalling standing up and then the challenge of the afternoon return trip?

I hoofed it to work, not able to sit or even lean back as a raw piece of metal was bumping my ass. I had to go in my biggest gear and hammer, or else i got bobbing between each pedal stroke. It was quite exhausting, and as I got closer to the office I definitely worried about 15 miles the other way.

I was busy busy today, and had to pick up G. First thing I did was reschedule my 4pm to 3pm, to give me 2.5 hrs to get home. I thought about riding to Rage, or another small shop nearby, but decided to try to make do and get home. I had to goto Rage the next day anyhow, and had some old parts in the ManCave. So in the bike closet – which is fast becoming my ManCave-Away-From-Home – I went to work with a roll of packing tape. It wouldn’t be solid, but it would be enough to give me something to rest my butt on and not cause a colostomy-bag-inducing trauma.

Sadly, the worst part of the entire experience went like this: one of my co-workers stuck her head in the door and started glaring at me. I figured she was bothered by the noise of the taping, but she has a reputation for being a noise-hypocrite around the pod-farm, and pushy as well. Unfortunately we are about to start working on a project together, and I’m dreading the inevitable confrontation where I will have to establish my boundaries with her. Frankly, I was offended that she sees me wrapping an entire roll of tape around anything and didn’t have sense enough to realize there was a problem afoot. DUH?!?! So I continued wrapping, until finally she says in that passive aggressive tone people take: “um, that is really really loud.” To which I replied “well, I’m sorry, but I have to get home somehow.” So she stared at me, and I stared back, and then tuned her out, and finally she stormed off. Her obnoxious tone aside, this woman is hugely obese. I take great pains to keep body-image and my lifestyle completely free of work — everyone at work is an asexual avatar who should be treated respectfully and strictly on a work-basis, and i think my teammates would agree that I don’t give off an air of disdain or anything about their size or looks.   But here I am riding an hour each way and facing a crappy ride home at 4pm in 107 degrees, and this giant St. Bernard of a woman is blocking out the doorway, bitching at me, too lazy to put on a pair of headphones.   It was really hard not to say “go fuck yourself you fat cow!!!”   I took Bob’s advice and said nothing more, and she quickly backed her zipcode-sized ass and 3 chins out of the doorway.

I hit the rode about 4:30, and i was oddly excited by the challenge.   The seat taping helped just enough. It eventually fell to the side, but still gave me just a little something other than metal to sit on so I didn’t have to stand up the entire ride. I hit a wall on the last mile, but it actually took about the same amount of time as normal, maybe cause I was hammering in my biggest gear to make as much time as I could and avoid the pedal bob.   Maybe the commuting and roadieing is starting to get me stronger again.   Picking up G made everything better.   She made a little watch – a piece of paper that the Miss Anna taped on her arm – and the whole way home all she could say was “i wanna give my watch to my mommy.”

Back home I trolled through the parts bin.   The post on the Superlight felt narrower to me than the ones on the Blur or the Heckler, which probably meant a non-standard mtb size, or just an older part.   I remembered i once threw out one that broke from my Sugar3 about 6 years ago, and i once took a brand new one off my roadie cause it was too short.   Lo, the old one from the roadie fit perfectly!   10 minutes later the bike was ready again.

Maybe it was good karma for not making a scene with my co-worker?