So it was just one of those days today. The ones that you don't know if you'll make it through the day or not.
I got up early to go to work, I had to drive for 3 hours both ways today to get to this client I have near Wyoming. That goes great and I rush home so that I can go ride. I get home and decide to give ol Trill (my bike) her bi weekly detail and polish. She's looking great, so I start to head out when the evil evil cell phone rings, it's another client who *****ed me out. Oh well such is life (I really should learn not to pick up when I get down with work). He delays me for an hour and I head out around 5.
Then things go from fairly meh after talking to that dude to downright BAD.
I get about 4 miles from the house and I hear what sounds like a GUN shot. My back tube blew out, and scared the crap out of me when it made that noise while I was going around 25. This caused me to wobble out of control INTO traffic. I get it back under control and thank god the car saw me loose control and swerved. I stop and I'm ok. I let me heart pund out of my chest for a bit and walk up a little ways to this parking lot. I pull off the tire, pop the tire off and pull the tube out . . . and realize that I have no air. When I was cleaning the bike I left my CO2 canisters and pump on the back lawn. *sigh* I pull the phone out to call the wife to pick me up when a nice pair of guys stop buy and lend me their pump. I get the new tube in, and pump it up to about 90PSI (mini pump hard to tell) and decide that I'll keep going as my route takes me right past the LBS in about 2 miles and I can get some more air from them and that's closer to home.
I ride for about half a mile and BANG! Another gunshot sound. This time I'm going 30 down a hill and loose control and tumble into the grass near the bike path.
I lay there for a minute or so thinking "you know this is going to be a long rest of the day".
I get up and I'm ok due to the soft landing, and I have to make a decision, I can walk home or walk to the LBS and have them take a look at it and see what the hell is up. The LBS is still closer so I walk the 2 miles there.
I get there and talk to a mechanic. As it turns out (I had kept the orginal tube) the 1st blow looked like it had been caused by a pot hole and over inflation. I guess I got too distracted while I was talking to the jerk on the phone and didn't notice I was above 100PSI when I was pumping up my tires before the ride. It then turns out that when I inspected the tire after the 1st flat I missed that one of the edges of the tire got slightly shredded in the 1st blow out, and that caused the 2nd blow out.
I end up having to buy a new tire.
By you know what? It turned out great because my LBS gives great service. I love my LBS, as they took the time to inspect the tire gave me a great selection of new tires, waved the install fee, and then flipped the stem when I asked them too. (I just got back from Cali riding on a friends bike while he rode his other, and I must say his flipped stem rocked.) I bought myself a new tire and an extra tube and was back on my way. I had to head home because it was now getting dark, so I only got about 12 miles in today, and the ride mostly sucked, and I had to spend 50 bucks I really didn't have, and I made a bunch of dumb mistakes, but at least my LBS took care of me.
So a bad day ended on a high note, so with all the crap that happened, nice people stop to ask me if I was okay and lend me air and my LBS was great, and that's part of the reason I love cycling.