3 out of 4

wheels back up. But for how long? Not sure. Will definitely be traveling with a spoke wrench on the rides with those wheels in play. Heck I just should always add the extra spoke wrench now. the multi-tool works but just not quite as well or as easily.

Plans for getting some intensity on the bike sort of didn't work out. The Biodiesel place was only open from 7-11 sat am and the oldest headed out to visit cousins (her first solo flight) so the little one and I loaded the wagon up with empty fuel cans and headed up. Put some B100 in, first time this season, I'd been running B20 in the deep winter, then B50 through the spring. First time buying fuel since early June. 46 gallons covers a lot of ground. But the coolant leak is getting worse on the passat... gonna have to replace the head gasket sooner than later. Yes I had meant to get it done much sooner than now. But, well somehow things haven't exactly worked out to get that done. The suspension will have to wait until the engine is finished. Need to chop out part of the exhaust system too. Lots to do. Need time and money. But hey it works for now - top off the coolant before going anywhere and its fine.

So anyway - we filled up the car, the cans and headed south to Casters in search of some spokes. And well. We came up with some. No black bladed spokes for the one i snapped at Thompson, so i went with a round spoke just to get the wheel back in service. The only wheel not back in service is the front Rolf. Reed's checking to see if Trek has any parts left for those, not holding my breath but hey, they worked so damn well for me over these years. That's a solid testament for durability, if they've got something to replace them, well that'd be nice. Got a chance to watch the finish of the tour, and see George almost get into the yellow, while picking up the spokes.

We headed home with spokes in hand on the hot and humid day and went about making the wheels work. De-tensioned the whole wheel with the busted spoke from thursday, and started from scratch truing it up. going back and forth between round and straight. The wheel is in better shape than it was when I blew the spoke. So maybe there's hope that nice and round and straight and well tensioned means it is stronger this time out. I'll find out at the TT this week. Maybe without the rubbing wheel I can take a few more seconds off.

Then sunday E went to work and L and I hung out again all day. Did the weekly shopping cleaned up, just basically kept busy all day long. Then my little bro brought his girls over for dinner while his wife was out with her coworkers and we had a good time... then sleep and the morning came way too early.

I was thinking I might pre-reg for the VT CX weekend but, well the start doesn't sound too much of a bottleneck. I'm not going to be winning the 35+ race anyway (or at least not likely to) so I'll wait a bit longer before registering. It looks like Myette won the first race though. Nice job there Matt!

This weekend it hit me, I'm going to be at a conference at a hotel... what the hell am I going to eat from Sunday to Thursday? That's kind of scary for me. I make 95% of all my meals from ingredients that I selected... this is going to be the hardest part of the trip. Ah well no sense getting worked up about it - i'll figure it out. Time for Lunch.

Heddwch
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