I’m an only child. So when a parent is due for surgery, I head out for support – both moral and physical.
Since my mom has surgery coming up, I’d started making plans around the scheduled surgery date: looking at airfares, looking into a cat sitter, and arranging to rent a hardshell bike case to ship my bike.
All was set.
Until my mom’s surgeon re-scheduled her surgery, pushing the date back 8 days.
Fortunately, I hadn’t yet booked my flight. But the rental of the bike case is now a no-go: my original booking just fit into the club’s schedule.
So now I’m at a loss as to how to get my bike out to Utah. I could buy a hard case for $200-300 – not cheap. I could have a local shop pack and ship the bike, which would cost about the same as buying my own hard case. I could get a bike shipping box (cardboard) from a local shop and do it myself – which often results in broken or missing bike parts, from personal experience (not to mention the likelihood of airline or shipper mishandling). Or I could rent a bike out there, which would limit me to mountain biking (fine, but not the same kind of workout that my fitness plan calls for) and would be equally cost-prohibitive (they don’t rent road bikes in Utah).
So I’m really ticked at my mom’s doctor for being wholly unprofessional in his handling of my mom’s surgery. The scheduling was finalized in January, and then the surgeon books a family vacation for that date.
“Oops” my ass.
I hope it rains on him the entire time he’s on vacation.
And if I incur any major costs, I’m going to present him with a bill, to be paid immediately and without question.
Jenn
4 May 2007 — 06:17
That’s really annoying – blasted doctor!
Grand Poobah
4 May 2007 — 08:43
Yeah, I’m not happy. But there’s not much I can do about it, so it’s best to just keep movin’. After all, my mom’s isn’t going to self-administer surgery, so….
jank
4 May 2007 — 09:07
I vote for singletrack. There’s plenty of roads in DC.
For me, stuff like that’s worse for the mental blow – all prepared to go under the knife, and then having to sit and dread for another week – bleh.
Hope your mom comes through well.
Grand Poobah
4 May 2007 — 09:45
Singletrack is definitely inviting. But it doesn’t really fit into my endurance training regimen. Riding the foothills of SLC has a lot of climbing, that’s for sure, but it’s not really aerobic. While I could use some anaerobic workouts, having that be the sum-total of what I do over two weeks could effectively wreck my buildup to bigger, longer road rides from August to October.
Plus, there’s the elevation factor: climbing long canyon roads on my skinny-wheel bike would be incredibly beneficial for my aerobic base in a way I can’t get here on the east coast. The lowest elevation I can ride in the SLC area is 4,200 feet, and my favorite road climbs top out at 8,000 feet – good for the heart and lungs, that.
And before you suggest running: it’s not my thing. I love trail running, for sure, but that would require about 1.5 miles of uphill pavement running to get there, and my ankles would not be happy.
Also: renting a full-suspension rig while out there (and these days, riding the trails local to my mom’s place pretty much requires full-sus) would be pricey in the long run. While I’m sure that my friend who runs a shop out there would cut me a break, it’d still be a fairly costly endeavor.
And here’s another reason to go road while in SLC: it works better with the time constraints I’ll have. My rides will need to fit into early morning hours, by and large. Local teams train in the early morning hours, so I wouldn’t be alone on he road. On the trails, however, riding alone only works when there are other people around to bail me out if things go awry. It’s not quite like New England, where you sneeze and you’re in the next town.
We’ll see what happens, though. I’m still trying to figure it all out.