I broke my bike

Actually, I broke the chain.



So there I was climbing out of the Bear Trap at Thomson tonight when all of a sudden the chain gave way. I thought at first that I'd dropped the chain as I shifted out of granny back into the middle, but when I got off and looked, this is what I found. (If you don't bike much you may not realize, but the chain should not look like that. ;)

Ouch.



So I ended up pushing The Prettiest Bike on the Planet (tm) out to the field and then to the truck. It's a good thing my new bike shoes are comfortable for walking. Well, comfortable enough. I hope in the future that I'm not walking all that much in them.

What am I doing up so late? I'll tell you. After I got home from the Wednesday Social at Thomson, I spent about ten minutes out with the horses getting Zen. I needed the Zen to find the truck keys. You see, I slid the key ring onto my finger and grabbed my purse and bag o'bike gear as I went out the door to head to Thomson. I got to the shop and realized I'd not fed the horses. So, I put the stuff in the truck and fed the horses and then realized I couldn't find the truck key. Not in the truck. Not on the truck bumper. Not in the horse feed. Not in the Corvette. Not in my skort pocket. Not in my jersey pocket. Not in the house. Not on the cement between the house and the shop. (I felt very Green Eggs and Ham.) Not anywhere.

So, I went into the house and got the spare and drove to Thomson and had a lovely ride until the chain failed. Dave told me his theory that if you look too hard for something like lost keys, the object of the hunt will slip into an alternate dimension and never be found because you're looking too hard for it. I think Dave is onto something, so I got home, let the dogs out, got some treats for the mares and walked out to the field. Asia and Babe were happy to get their fly masks off and I spent ten minutes just being with them. Asia licked all over my hand hoping for more treats. Babe stood off to the side and her chestnut coat gleamed. I buried my face in Asia's mane and inhaled and calm and Zen were my rewards.

I went back to the shop. I looked in the truck. No key. I opened the Rubbermaid trashcan that holds the sweet feed and looked in. No key. I shut the trashcan and looked straight ahead at the horse supplements (biotin for their hooves; daily wormer for parasites; garlic to ward off bugs) and there on the supplements was the key ring.It had slipped back into this dimension and was waiting to be found, plain as day. Thanks, Dave.

So, I came in and watched two episodes of Farscape (I'm up to season 4 now) and John called from Taiwan. He's back in Taipei and has Thursday off. He called after finishing breakfast; they're 12 hours ahead of us and we had a lovely chat about porcelains and jade. The prettiest porcelains he's brought back before have come from Korea, but he's going to go out looking. Keep your fingers crossed.

Oh, and as I was driving to work this morning a mouse ran all around me in the Miata. I was very startled but did not wreck because the mouse was not a snake nor being chased by one. It was quite tiny and cute but not what I want to see in my car as I'm merging onto 75 with morning rush hour traffic. I normally leave the top up while I'm at work, but today I left it down and the windows too and hoped that the country mouse decided to become a city mouse.

Six a.m. is going to get here mighty darn fast. May your chains not break and your keys stay in this reality and may it always be mice and not snakes.