shoes

Monday, I was at work between my normal workday and a community meeting I had to go to at night.  My knee was bothering me again, so I read up on what a trainer in college told me I had.  She was crazy, but I think she was right.  Except about the part about surgery.  Turns out it’s almost always exercise/PT, often involving cycling.  The inflamation is worse when sitting.  Yes.  So I took the long way to the meeting, and my knee felt a good bit better.  Yesterday also.  But I thought I’d rest it today and took the bus, which I’ll do for the rest of the week.  Okay, maybe it’s a wuss move, but at least I’m not driving, right?  The bus is its own kind of fun, actually.

And I met another cyclist in the church basement at the community meeting Monday who wears the reflective ankle straps I wear to keep my pants out of my chainrings.  I told him I was glad to not be the only one to have them, and we talked about favorite jeans ruined by chainrings and chains.  I also became less anal about wear-and-tear on my bike yesterday, through realizing that getting upset about a new scratch on my fork blade, when there are dozens all over my bike and that it had some from the shop anyway, is just stupid.

Either deal with it, or hate my bike and never ride.  Never ride?  F@#$ that.

And I finally have shoes on!  I realize there are people at work who have never ever seen me in shoes.  This is funny.  The purchase process was almost too good to be true, for someone who doesn’t wear leather but doesn’t want to drop $150 on shoes either.  First place I looked, got em.  Very nice price, too, with free shipping to boot.  Picked up my package at someone else’s house, strapped a large box to my bike (bought two sizes to try) and rode home in rush hour.  It was awesome.

But I don’t want to portray myself as a constant consumer, at least not of anything but notebooks, coffee/tea and bike innertubes.

I have had some low-cut Chucks since 2004. They are black, since they match my favorite socks, which are puke/lime green. They were super dorky and too-clean for a long time. Then they got broken in a little. I discovered that they are the best cycling shoes; at least, that I like them best. This year, finally, they were awesome. Falling apart and beaten-up just right. But the week before last, I realized why my feet were so freaking cold. A big ole’ hole in the back of my right shoe.

So I started all over and bought some new ones. I kicked around a dozen colors, from red (”chili”) to tan to green. I picked grey. “Charcoal.” I debated tying them to my bike and running them through some mud and road dirt, but that just felt kind of inauthentic and stupid. And that I might rip them and have to buy more. The color makes them look almost faded already, and I’m not one of those dorky dudes with shiny Chucks. Plus, they totally match those socks.