136. Alas poor Boris, I knew him well

Time to reflect on the past few weeks and months.

First, spend a decent amount of money on a new bike. Then spend a fair amount more on bits and pieces for the new bike. Then, today, take bike apart (somewhat randomly in the end) and shove him (with, ultimately, more brute force than care and attention) into a box and hand him over to a random courier to send him off to where he needs to be on Saturday. Where I get to try and put Humpty back together again... Well, that's one way to randomly fling a lot of good and bad money out the window!

I cannot truly express how stressful today was. I've never taken a bike apart before (frankly, I still find it somewhat anachronistic - I mean, I'm paying for a bike that works, not bike bits). In theory it is relatively simple. In practise... The first thing that you have to do is to remove the pedals. After several hours - and one broken spanner! - I had a bit of a meltdown. Possibly even a mini panic attack. In the end, I had to drive Boris to the bike shop where they (now fully convinced that I am the weirdest person that they've ever met) removed the pedals for me. With a bike spanner (only £10 at all good stockists! No, I didn't buy one), and more brute force than my puny arms would ever be able to apply to the problem.

Then there was the taking off of the wheels (which I managed, although I was kind of hoping not to have to do - no idea how to get the chain back on the sprockets... But since I can barely work them, will it matter if I don't have working gears?). And the removal of the handlebars (not as tricky as the other bits, but I doubt that I'll ever get the cables sorted again). And then, after much desperately trying to convince Boris that he did indeed fit in the box, removal of the front mudguard (which I paid for someone to put on in the first place!).

Then, somewhat desperate, I tried to fit all these bits into the one (really quite large box). And they kind of wouldn't go. I tried to be sensible about it, but after a few hours, I ended up shoving. I rather suspect there are quite a few delicate parts on Boris which will not be non-functional. And so if he arrives as scheduled (and the courier people were rather blase about the whole thing...) and I get him out of the box AND I work out how to put him back together... Odds on, he still won't work. Note to self: don't do this again. The stress alone may kill you!

As I clutch my caffeine-free (and allegedly soothing) cup of chamomile tea (hmph), I do have to wonder (again) what on earth I think that I'm doing...?

(@_O)

Today's stats
Taking Boris apart and putting him in a box - not sure how to measure this, but I was dripping with sweat by the end...

Monday's stats
Cycling (in gym) - 1 hr 0 mins, 11.2 miles [hill intervals at Level 3]