So there I am, Just Riding Along on the Ol’ Croton Aqueduct, when I come upon this open hatch:
The aqueduct was completed in like 1842, and it hasn’t been used since like the 1960s, so the only reasonable explanation for one of these hatches being open is that some demon or disgruntled undead maintenance worker or other malevolent force has escaped from it:
Eerily this is also mere yards from the Son Of Sam Satanic Ritual Spot:
Which is hidden behind iron bars:
Though easily accessed via an iron gate adorned with an Informative QR Code From Hell:
This infernal public garden is a delightful place for a family picnic.
Or to WORSHIP SATAN.
But mostly for picnics.
On this particular occasion I was riding the Roaduno, which is back in singlespeed mode for the foreseeable future:
I enjoy using both clipless and flat pedals (not at the same time of course, though somebody somewhere is probably riding around with a flat pedal on one side and a clipless pedal on the other), but when it’s this hot flat pedals are the clear winner, because they allow you to ride in sandals, which is one of the best ways there is to stay cool on the bike–or at least less hot.
I did have to repair a flat before heading out, as the rear tire seemed to have a slow leak. I generally try to repair a tube before replacing it with a new one, though if I inflate a tube with a slow leak and can’t find said leak immediately then I throw it away because few things are more infuriating than mysteriously leaking tubes. (This is where you tell me to go tubeless, and I tell you to shut up.) Especially frustrating is when a mysteriously leaking tube gets mixed in with your collection of used-but-perfectly-good tubes and you can’t tell the difference until you use it and then the next time you want to go for a ride the tire is flat. Speaking of which, in checking my various spare tubes for leaks, I inflated one of them and found this:
I’ve never encountered this sort of defect before, and it looks like a snake that’s digesting an egg:
I have no idea if its integrity is compromised or not, but I’ve installed it on another bike and we’ll see what happens.
As always I was surprised at just how fast the Roaduno felt, and I’ve decided to attribute it to the Power of Biopace:
Sorry, I focused on the wrong spot:
It’s a new phone and I’m still figuring it out.
Apart from the open Portal to Hell, the only other issue I encountered on the ride was a creaking sound:
You know how when your bike is creaking and one of the first things you check is the chainring bolts because that’s really easy, even though it’s never, ever the chainring bolts? Well, this time it was the chainring bolts, which were shockingly loose–like to the point I’m surprised the chainring didn’t fall off. I’m not sure how this happened, but maybe I forgot to tighten them in the first place. This seems unlikely since the bike only started creaking recently, yet it also sounds exactly like the sort of thing I’d do, so who knows? So it’s either that or a demon loosened them in the night.
Then when I got home all sweaty and disgusting and ready for a shower I discovered I had no running water because of a water main break. So my son and I got in the car and picked up eight gallons of bottled water, and by the time we got home the water was back on again. So between the broken water main and the open Portal to Hell along the old timey aqueduct, it seems pretty obvious to me that there are evil creatures lurking in the pipes.
Just something to keep in mind.