A couple of days ago, I was riding to work and got a flat tire. Over my lunch hour, I replaced the inner tube. I checked along the inside for anything stuck in the tire, but didn't find anything. But the next day, that innertube blew out as well. I pulled the tire and carefully inspected it. Eventually, I found a small hole where the cords were cut. Normally it wasn't visible, but if you flexed it just right, it was actually a pretty big hole. At first I was a bit grumpy. (Well, I'm still a bit grumpy). I only bought those tires back in April (and wasn't entirely happy about the experience. After I thought about it, I realized that you can ride out of the bike shop and over a piece of glass and wreck in tire in 2 blocks. And these cross-training tires are a lot lighter than the off-road tires I was using before. So I just went out and bought a new tire. The new tire is actually quite a bit like the tires I had wanted in the first place.
I got back with the tire and only had a few minutes to put it on to ride to a meeting. I tried reusing one of the innertubes, which I'd patched. I got the tire inflated, but when I went to put the wheel on the bike, I found that even with the brake cable fully relaxed, the tire was still too wide to install. So I had to deflate the tire and, when I reinflated it, the patch was leaking. By then, I was frustrated and late for my meeting. But I pulled it all apart again and used a new innertube and then it worked just fine.
Last week, Plato got a lump on his muppy. We watched it for a few days -- it just looked like an ingrown whisker or something -- it didn't seem to bother him. But over the weekend, he scratched it open, so we took him into the vet. So far, it does just look like an infection -- they put him on antibiotics. We're hoping it's not cancer. I tried to joke that Plato just wanted to be a member of the lumpen proletariat, but Alisa said it wasn't funny. I thought it was a little bit funny.
StevenBrewer