Weekend Alone

Well, it’s hard to believe, but my first weekend alone after Phoebe arrived is almost over. Despite the ladies being out in Ohio visiting relatives, it’s been a pretty full couple of days. On Thursday, Jess left early from work and picked me up with the car. Then we headed back to Lafayette together to get miss P. from daycare in time to make it to DIA for a 7:05 flight to Akron/Canton. I was a little worried Jess would have trouble handling everything alone, but she’s so tough and competent I shouldn’t have been. In fact, there was a nice reassuring message on the answering machine when I got home letting me know they’d made it to the gate successfully and that the flight was still running on time. Personally, I had just enough time to scarf down some leftovers and brush my teeth before a 7:00 band rehearsal. At band, I was also able to finally drop off the registration form and check that had been living in my music folder for about a month. It seems a series of circumstances kept me and the director from both being present on the same day.

Over the previous weekend, we were able to enjoy most of the Steelers’ matchup against the Browns. The Steelers won again, sorry Jess, but it was a relatively close game until near the end when things broke open a bit more. Phoebe was the hit of Old Chicago in her mini Troy Polamalu jersey, and even Jess had to admit it was pretty darn cute. A couple of Steelers fans sitting behind me also thought it was pretty sweet, but I would guess that other Browns fans would have been less enthusiastic.

We also got a chance to play a little soccer following the game, but Phoebe was a bit on the cranky side and Jess and I again had to take turns. Nevertheless, it was pretty fun. Jess remarked that all of her running at work seemed to make a difference as she wasn’t really winded at all chasing after the ball.

Getting back to this weekend, I managed to spend a little time at the coffee shop on Saturday, but obviously didn’t get to writing this blog post. I was busy working on some other stuff. I made some plans with Elijah to attend the annual VeloSwap in Denver the next day, and had to generate a short list of “needs” that I could look for around the show. I also stopped by REI to pick up some advanced tickets, but discovered they were already sold out. While not a big deal, a bit of a bummer as I’d have to pay a couple of extra bucks at the door. That, on top of parking, raises the total cost of attending to about $15.00, so I was really hoping to find some worthwhile deals.

Of course without the benefit of Jess to look after me, I stayed up way too late Friday night watching junk on the television, and didn’t get to sleep until about 2:00 in the morning. At about 7:00 the alarm rang out and I wanted to throw it from the window. What a rude awakening! I managed to get a shower and make it to Elijah’s place by about 8:15, so I was only running about 15 minutes late. It took Elijah another 10 minutes to finish brewing coffee for the morning; we were en route by 8:30 and made it to the National Western Complex just in time to see the doors open at 9:00. By that point the lines to get in were easily the longest I’ve witnessed to date, but I hadn’t been to VeloSwap in a few years.

After getting through the line and into the exhibit hall, we made a plan to contend with all of the chaos: we’d walk down one isle and up the next. Pretty good plan, eh? For Elijah it worked almost perfectly. He was able to find not one but two wheel sets for project bikes he’s been “working” on. The first was a set of old Mavic rims laced to Dura-Ace hubs that I spotted. After a few minutes we were able to track down the owner and determine the current asking price (VeloSwap is a bit crazy sometimes). The wheels were probably a perfect fit for my Fuji road bike, and I have been wanting to replace the stock 27″ rims with 700c, but for some reason I just couldn’t part with me filthy lucre. It mattered not, as Elijah quickly offered that he’d gladly buy the wheels if I didn’t. He was desperately seeking a set with vintage Sun Tour Supremes, but had decided they were a low probability score, so image our surprise when one of the last tables in the place had just such a set for a mere $35.00. Well actually, they were Supreme Pros, but who’s splitting hairs? Since Elijah left packing a pair of wheel sets, I might have to buy the Dura-Ace set from him in order to prevent the universe from sinking into chaos. Otherwise, I left empty handed from a VeloSwap that seemed to have a lower gem to junk ratio than previous years. The only thing I bought was an overpriced Polish sausage!

Oddly, we followed someone sporting a Wittenberg sticker on their rear windshield most of the way back to Boulder. We also crawled about half of the distance due to a very minor fender-bender that couldn’t be moved from the innermost driving lane. Back in Boulder, we grabbed a cup of coffee and Elijah shared the photos from his trip to a bicycle history exhibit at the Longmont museum earlier in the summer. There were some pretty neat bikes, and it looked like they did a really awesome job with the displays. I’d really have liked to make it, but thinks have been so busy lately. In fact, I was just remarking the other day that I’ve had a flat tire on my Cannondale since January! This would have been unthinkable pre-Phoebe, but so far she seems to be worth it.

Originally I had planned to go on a mountain biking adventure to Moab or Fruita or some other enviable destination, but alas, it was not to be. Pretty much all of my riding partners were otherwise busy and the weather wasn’t looking too good. We also recently learned that our friends the Bronskis were going to be moving back to New York, and that their youngest daughter Charlotte was going to be baptized on Sunday. Clearly all signs indicated a stay-at-home kind of weekend, so I set the DVD burner to record the Steelers game, oddly on TV in Denver, and headed off to church alone. The baptism was really nice with Pastor Brian offering what I thought was a very nice and personal sermon. It’s a little sad to see your friends move away, but at the same time, it’s going to be great for them to be much closer to family. After church, I headed over to the combined Baptobvingfest (a combination of a baptism celebration, Oktoberfest, and a moving party). After enjoying some good German-style food and one of Pete’s new beers, I got to work it back off by stuffing every imaginable household item into a moving truck.

Now, I’m enjoying yet another cup of coffee while catching everybody up on the weekend’s activities. Tomorrow I’ll be heading back to work (unless I decide to play hooky and go mountain biking), and looking forward to picking up Jess and Phoebe back at DIA.