All that broken stuff on Thursday in the last post? The train, as they say, keeps rollin’, though thankfully, it’s nothing that can’t be recovered from, though some things are rougher than others.

To start with, I’ve been watching my lovely spouse deal with the stressful realization that something that’s been a significant part of her life for a while just isn’t delivering the joy it used to. I won’t elaborate further (it’s not my place), but it’s tough to watch, and there’s not a lot I can do to help apart from being there if she needs me.

Saturday, the “check engine” light came on in my car (which, for this particular manufacturer, includes a bonus “traction control turned off” status!), which had me scrambling for a few hours, increasingly frustrated because I couldn’t find my OBDII reader to diagnose and clear the codes. I don’t know what happened to it; it’s small and easliy dropped, and as my kindly neighbor to the west suggested, it might have gotten lifted by an unscrupulous mechanic and I didn’t notice (I haven’t needed it in a while). Still, I got exasperatedly invested trying to find it, and raised all sorts of other latent frustrations, though I eventually ended up riding off on the trail Saturday afternoon, positively sprinting 17 miles at less than four minutes per.

Oh, it turns out the warning light was a loose gas cap (ugh). Cleared it the old fashioned way by disconnecting the battery for a minute.

Sunday, I went ahead and did one last long ride before the Cap2Cap on Friday; 45 miles. It was a beautiful day (I can only hope it’ll be that nice this coming Friday), and a really nice ride, though I’d be dishonest if I said that I wasn’t a little sore in the glutes and quads (and other places) this morning. At least the bike didn’t break this time.

I also got to hear the almost final version of the new Humdingers record – you guys, it’s going to be something special; very different than past stuff, and my bandmate/producer has made my parts (that I struggled with confidence on) sounds really damned good. That’s nice. Keep an eye out on Friday.

The week ahead is going to be short – I’m taking the back half off, in part for the Cap2Cap on Friday, but also because (ever-shifting-schedule willing…alas), there’s a run out west to grab the kid; I just hope I have enough room in the car for all her crap.

Here’s hoping the breakages get filled with gold going forward, and that my two-day work week doesn’t feel longer than the usual five.