My Morning

Commence day with a shout from my alarm at 7AM. Battle back temptation to hit the snooze button, and roll out of bed. Boil water for coffee and pop bread in the toaster. Lie down on the couch, and nearly fall back asleep, only to be awakened by the sound of boiling water. Eat breakfast of toast with cream cheese and jelly, and drink coffee with cream and sugar. Squeeze into spandex, and pack pockets with energy food. Search for hand-pump, unsuccessfully. Hop onto TT bike, and hit the road to go meet Kai. Get flat tire roughly ten minutes after leaving house. Call Kai, and inform him that I'm going to be late. Change flat tire, using my one canister of Co2. Meet up with Kai, and roll out of town to meet Robert, who agreed to motor-pace us. Morning Robert, thanks for motor-pacing us! Flog myself behind the bumper of Robert's Audi, trading "pulls" with Kai. Go over series of cattle guards. Kai gets a flat tire. Bask briefly in the irony that moments before flatting Kai informed me that "we're about to go over a series of cattle guards, but that they're fine so long as we avoid the center of the road." Watch as Kai fixes his flat tire. Are we ready? Flog myself behind the bumper of Robert's Audi, spinning out my 55X12 for almost 40 minutes. Curse the friggin' gods of flat tires when I get ANOTHER flat tire -- CHRIST, ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Patch my first flat tube with my one patch, and then pump it up with Kai's hand-pump. Break Kai's hand pump just as I get the thing up to pressure. Remove pump and break valve in the process, forcefully ejecting all the air from the tube. Fuck. Assess situation: no more tubes, no more patches, no more Co2, broken hand-pump. Guess it's just one of those days. Sheepishly ask Robert if he'll give me a lift back to the service course. Accept lift back to the service course. Tell Remi about our adventure, and get new tube. Thanks Remi. Ride home. Shower, eat a can of soup, look at the clock. Noon. Now that's what I call a good morning.