1 Ride, 4 Flats, 0 Luck

Everyone who rides bikes knows about the following situation:
It's a beautiful sunny day. You either don't have class at all, or don't have class until much later in the afternoon. You just woke up and feel energetic, so you hop on your bike to go for a long ride. On the way out, you grab the following: water, iPod, sunscreen (if you really think ahead), spare tubes, helmet, and... wait a minute... where is the bike pump? Under the kitchen counter? No. Next to your desk? Nope. Attached to your bike frame? Of course not.

The day is wasting, and you decide that a bike pump is probably not that necessary, right? I mean, the day is too nice and sunny for anyone to get a flat tire.

Wrong. It took no more than 30 minutes for disaster to strike: Mitch Funk, my UCSB go-to guy and cycling partner, gets the first flat. After searching long and hard, we make it to a bike shop and fix that right up. Or so I thought.

Heading back to campus from Downtown Santa Barbara is roughly 10 miles. Not too bad, especially with the limited amount of uphill. It's 5:03pm, and I have class at 6. Mitch gets another flat. Bummer. We stand on the side of the road for a bit - plenty enough time to talk about how bummed we were. The decision is made: he would find someone to come pick him up with a car while I would bike to campus and make it to class. And so it was.

Heading back now on a solo mission (you should never leave a man behind - this was an exception), the wind decides to pick up. A lot. It was almost like biking on the wrong side of the freeway during rush hour, without the danger of being taken out by a car. A bit dramatic, but you get the picture.

I make it to class, and attempt to quarantine myself somewhere off to the back of the room (I had just biked around 20 miles, so you can guess how great I smelled). Hungry, smelly, itchy, all I can imagine is getting out of class and making it back to my apartment for a long shower and a hot meal. Fate decided otherwise.

Walking out of class, I hop on my bike and immediately encounter a sticky situation: whatever air may have existed in my tires was long gone. Not just 1, but 2 flat tires. Front and back. I am miles from my apartment. Really should have looked harder for that pump...

Hah. So, that is the story of my Wednesday. The story of 2 guys with (apparantly) really bad luck. Now that I have gotten rid of all those bad vibes, I can expect at least a month of flawlessly good luck. That's the way I figure it. As long as my flight to Halifax stays "flat tire-free" this June, then I can comfortably make it to the ship on time. Knock on wood.

How about some good news?
Last Wednesday, after getting some time off from work, I headed down to Newport (home) for an extended weekend. From the moment I arrived (at 12:01am and catching the first showing of Indiana Jones), everything seemed to have been flawlessly planned. Despite the surprisingly terrible weather for Southern California in May, I consider my voyage home to resemble a mini-summer. Everything I've wanted to do in the past few months (record music, play basketball, see family, see friends, sit in a jacuzzi, relax, eat something besides chicken or cheerios, sleep in a comfortable bed, etc) was accomplished in a period of 3 or 4 days. It was perfect, and I finally feel ready to wrap up this year at UCSB and go to Europe. On a boat. With 600 other kids my age. Yeah.

If you have read this far, I commend you. You are currently up-to-date with my frustrations and my merriments, as well as my hopes for the next few weeks.

Until next time,
I'm off to eat chicken.
-Mark

(PS - feel free to click that "comments" link below, because I would love for you to post your mailing address for wherever I can send you postcards this summer. Don't say I never asked)