Wheel Problems, Wheel Solutions

I've been training for my upcoming unicycle race ("Ride the Lobster"), but the last week wasn't easy because of two flat tires and one achy seat. The flats were caused by a puncture in the tire of my geared unicycle; Mike the Bike told me that he thought his repair work would hold while the replacement tire was on order, but today, during what was to be a 19-mile ride, I got a flat towards the end and had to be Shirra-lifted to safety. She picked me up in the next-over town. So tomorrow I'll have to exercise on my other unicycle, the Coker, which I took for a training ride a few days ago. The larger wheel (36" rather than the 29" of the geared uni) smooths out a lot of bumps and makes for a nice ride, for the most part. The only problem with my Coker is the seat, which has caused me some discomfort over the years. Let's just say that I'm glad I already have my three kids, because enough riding on that unicycle ... well, you get the picture. I definitely need to get that seat replaced.

Then there's the car. I'm still driving my 2001 Aztek. That thing didn't get a lot of use until this year, when I started driving in 5 days a week for work. Thanks to little trips around New Paltz (as when I drive the kids to school), I also tack on another 20-30 miles a day, for a total of about 900 per week. As a result, I've now reached nearly 75,000 miles on the odometer; it was around 40,000 when the school year started. So the car has developed some aches and pains, as well as causing me some. In addition to my broken gas gauge, there is the anti-lock brake system that has failed a couple times and the fact that parking, while nowhere near as painful as I'd initially feared, is still as much of a pain as that unicycle seat. So I decided to look into getting a Smart Car. The things are tiny, measuring in at under 9', and this makes many more parking spaces available. In fact, on my mom's block, the doormen like to park their own cars so that they leave a huge space in front of the building that's just large enough for a Smart Car....



The only question is whether the tiny car has enough space to carry my unicycle!