Tonight I bent three teaspoons, got my fingernails very very dirty, punctured two tire tubes, and said many very bad words. There are few things I hate as much as changing my bicycle tires. I miss the days when my rims took my tires without any issue. Now, maybe that was because I didn't always own wire bead tires, but I think it's because my front rim is a ****** **** of ****, the ******* *******. Or a very high quality product that is just a few ******** too big. I can't believe I just thought that last word.
I am out of unpunctured tubes, I can't find a patch kit where the glue hasn't dried up, and my tire is not on my ******* rim. I feel incompetent, and, worse, I have to walk to work tomorrow. ****.
Ok. Enough of the stupid asterisks. Let's talk of something more pleasant. Or, at least, let's lie with pictures. See me? See how happy I look? See how relaxed I am in that picture? Yeah, that picture lies. About ten seconds before I took that picture for my on-going series of goofy self portraits, I blew my nose. As soon as the shutter clicked, I broke out in a spasm of coughing. Thus was last week in Chile.
What? I was in South America last week. The weather was in the 26-33C range. There was nothing but blue skies and balmy breezes. I was with a group of people I really quite enjoy. The rest of these pictures? Within a ten minute walk of where we were staying, and where we were staying had thermal pools and twittering birds and fluffy bathrobes. I ate the tastiest squid of my life in a Peruvian restaurant in Santiago. Clearly, I am a spoiled brat, because I can still find a way to complain about the stupid cold that took over most of my week and prevented me from drinking lovely Chilean wine, or at least drinking as much of it as I would have liked.
What I should be saying is - hey, I went to Chile last week. I got to stay in a great place, with access to Andean foothills without so much as having to cross a road. I got to spend a week thinking about a project that never fails to engage my brain when I do so. I learned new stuff. I got to spend time with people I admire both personally and professionally. I remembered that, all things considered, I probably have the Best Job in the World.
And I would say all that. Or, more likely, I'd be burbling on about how *great* it is to ride my bike when it's warm enough to not have to wear gloves, and how good it feels to finally have slick tires on again. Instead, though, I look at my disassembled bike in the garage and want to kick something and say everything sucks. Or something that involves a lot of asterisks.
And then people wonder why I don't rotate the tires on my car myself... ha!
I am an opportunist.
On the weekend, I walked into Lorenz's condo at Blue Mountain, and right after "hi" I said "I want a cappuccino". Because, you see, a) I do not have my own proper way of making cappucino; b) I like cappucino a whole lot; c) my place of work has a borderline unacceptable coffee culture and there is *no* place to go for a frothy treat; d) I refuse to be one of the people who pilgrimages to Starbucks; and e) Lorenz has always prided himself on his frothy coffee-making appliances. Thus, seeing Lorenz is an opportunity for cappucino drinking, and I no longer wait for him to offer to make one, I ask.
And after I demand ask for my cappuccino, I go into waiting mode and make impatient motions toward the coffee-making-machine if Lorenz wants to chit-chat and doesn't get right down to it. Thus, I don't really register everything that goes on until a mug is handed to me, and I only half heard Lorenz go on about the spaceship coffeemaking appliance he bought for the house. There was something about "Italian" and "grinds the beans" and probably "reads my mind and makes the coffee before I get up", but I was staring at the chicken mug in Lorenz's hand trying to will him to move it closer to the not nearly as newfangled espressomaker on the counter at the condo.
And then I came to my senses. I wanted to know what happened to the previous coffee machine! It was probably the fourth or fifth espresso/cappuccino maker gracing the house since I've known Lorenz, and it was my favourite to date. It was red! It could steam milk infinitely, even if you weren't making coffee! I wanted to know a) did it break? and b) if it didn't, could I have it?
And last night, I drove to the farm and picked up my accumulated mail, which I did not care about that much, and the bright red coffee machine. And random accumulated chocolates that Lorenz and the kids don't like (how can you not like Mozartkugeln?) And now, my kitchen is so much prettier, and I am drinking my second self-made cappuccino.
(You should also know, before I agreed to drive to Collingwood and visit at the condo, I whined at Lorenz to go to Highlands Nordic and check on the trail conditions - he sent a text message from there - because I didn't want to go unless the skiing was acceptable. I also wanted to know what was for dinner before I made my decision.)
(It's a wonder I have any friends at all, isn't it?)