Inspector Gadget

I will admit to a love-hate relationship with gadgets. Last week I was treated to dinner by one of my favorite law firms, and the "rainmaker" had the new I-phone. I was in love. That sucker seemed to know what you wanted it to do, before you knew. Or maybe it's user actually knew how to use the sucker. Me, I generally figure out how to do about 10% of what my gizmos can do. Like I can use my cell phone, but for the life of me I can't pick up call waiting. It's especially problematic when I'm calling J, and she is calling me. Since we are both phone stupid... we have to wait until we both hang up and try to call each other again.

So you can imagine my frustration trying to get to the State Age Graded TT. There is one stinking exit that always gets me. And Cliff bought me a Garmin for Christmas since I'm always getting lost. I frustrate the hell out of the lady in the box and she is always, "recalculating." That one exit is 15B, for which there is a sign that says 15B over exit 13. (Why, I don't know.) Today it got me. So after waiting 30 minutes at the Monitor Merrimac, my cushion that I always give myself was rapidly evaporating. When I took exit 13, instead of 15B, and the Garmin lady had to start "recalculating" I knew we were going to be in trouble. After some round and rounds, Bill and I made it. He got my bike ready while I signed in.

Ok, that's Garmin #1. Then I have the Garmin 305 for the bike that I bought when the silly magnets kept falling off my Hed Tri-spokes. Without a magnet, you'd think I'd be safe. You know, except for that little tree problem that Garmin's have. Go under a tree line stretch, and the satellite link gets lost and all of a sudden the mileage readings start going all over the place. First 22, then 9, 17, etc... Except today, it just decided to keep shutting off. So I'm riding as hard as I can, trying to reboot the damn thing, while not hitting any of the craters in the road, and riding hard. Reboot, reset, reboot, reset.

Oh, and top that off with smoke from the Dismal Swamp fires, a dead deer, and generalized Dismal Swamp rot. I was sure I was having a suck-fest kind of day. So I kept pumping, and decided the hell with gadgets, I'd go with the flow.

The 4th chick I passed... I thought that maybe I might not suck but so much. Then one of the guys passed me, and I used him as a marker. I got the Garmin going again when we hit blue sky, and I know that I was going 28 mph when I crossed the line. Ending up 58:13 for a new pr by a minute.

And Maria decided to do better this week too, leaving me still some 90 seconds plus in the hole. One day, I'm going to be as fast as Maria.

Bill decided to kill the course today by a minute as well, but Sharon, for her birthday took a whopping 6 minutes off her best time. Just wait til she actually gets a tt bike, and maybe some decent wheels. I think Sonya pr'd as well. Needless to say, the ride home was a happy one, with no gadget failures.

Next up is the State Masters Road Race and I hear it's a bear. Ruth told me she's riding it as well. So somehow I've got to transform myself into a climber by next week. I'm not sure that there is a gadget for that!