Riskus -- 12 hour days put a damper on everything. Hang in there and ride when you can. It's not like we're going to publicly shun you or stone you if you fail to live up to our mileage expectations! We'll just post snarky comments about you behind your back
Good luck with the riding and the workload!
I had a very nice ride this morning without wheel problems. A big improvement from last night's ride home. I got to my bike to find I had a flat -- but no broken or loose spokes so that's a plus. I replaced the tube and let another biker use my pump to try and pump up his flat for his short ride home. It didn't work, so I offered him a tube, but he had a pressing deadline to pick up his kid and opted for other transportation.
Evidently this was not enough of a good karma gesture since about a mile into the ride things start to feel very weird so I stop and check out the rear wheel. Turns out the tire bead has popped out of the rim in one spot. So I deflate the tire, pop everything into place and reinflate. I happily ride along for another 8 miles or so and it happens again. This time the fix holds until I get home. So after dinner I pull it apart and finally decide that with the narrower rim I am running temporarily on the back I should use tubes for the 28-35 range instead of the wider 35-40 that I usually run. Anyway the skinnier tube seemed to do the trick.
Finally, I must apologize in advance if the world spins off its axis and runs amok due to the inauspicious date. Some of the blame must rest firmly on my wife. You see for the past two days she has been up between 5:30 and 6 AM and done a 9 or 10 mile ride. In and of itself this is not such a big deal, but you have to understand that my wife views Rip Van Winkle as a good role model. She considers 9-10 hours of sleep an ideal minimum, so this is a huge departure from her normal routine. It may well be a sign of the end times. Hopefully we will all have a safe and happy ride home.