the heat of LA

I was in LA this past weekend for the Long Beach dragonboat race. This year, it was also the site of the PDBA championships (pacific dragonboat assoc) which meant we all had a few more races to do each day. I had bought these really really cool beach chairs which made me the envy of everyone around me. I bought them from http://www.everywherechair.com - They were the Kelsyus recline beach chair - what made them so special was the canopy you could attach so you had instant shade. Wonderfully comfortable for napping too due to the headrest. I should get commission for promoting these things. Anyhow, the big thing about the PDBA championships was that if we won, we qualified for the world dragonboat races in Toronto last year. In the mixed division, we came so so very close. Came in second by 1 sec to this very strong team from Portland. So the interesting thing was that the coaches put me on the top crew boat a few times during the race weekend despite my having missed a lot of practices and only going on Saturdays. Very unfair I think to the other people who go so much more than me. Maybe I somehow just give the impression of being dedicated. Hmm.

Enough about that. I'm signed up to do a bike tour this Sunday and will probably do a triathlon in Sept. For those 2 reasons, I'm trying to just get on my bike more. I meant to bike to work today but I discovered my tire was flat last night and went through the exercise of changing the tube for the first time in my life. I finally figured out how my tire tool worked! Unfortunately it was the back tire, so in removing the tire, I had a hell of a time trying to figure out how to put it back on with the chains and such and got extremely greasy in the process. How do people not get greasy when they change tires on the road? Do they just carry a cloth with them? things to ponder. I was so proud to have successfully changed my tire and put it back on last night. But on my way to work today, I'm going along and I hear this pop. There went the tire. I was only a mile away from home so walked home thinking "what did I do wrong? Did I pinch the tube?" I immediately took it to the bike shop who took one look and said, "There's your problem" and pointed to the bigass nail sticking out of my tire. Huh.