Accidental lockout

This past weekend was one of the first times I had three continuous days in DC off, and as it happens, Elly was out of town with her pal Tyger going hiking.

I had my weekend pretty set to not do much of anything. Which for me means reading, catching up on blog posts, responding to email, and engaging in one of the thousands of research projects I like doing when left to my own devices with a fast net connection.

I set of Saturday afternoon to get my bike fixed (the tire blew) and go on a long-ish ride. Ruond 1: I set out, thrilled to have the bike working again, get four miles out, the tire blows again. Now, it was a slow enough leak that I could limp my way back to the bike shop (at this point it's raining, but at least it was warm) and hand-pump the tire ever so often. I return, the guy apologetically fixes it again and finds the offending piece of glass. Off again for the C&O canal trail, and the weather has cleared up.

After a leisurely break at a park along on the way, happily reading a book about Weather Underground that I'd meant to read ages ago, I decide to see how far the trail goes. Pretty far, I find out, as I wind up in Bethesda, then Silver Spring, and wind my way back dow Rock Creek Park to my house.

I approach the door to the apartment with Elly's keys and realize to my dismay that it's not a complete set. Whoops! I'm locked out of the apartment, having just ridden 36 miles on my bike. I'm hungry, pretty tired, and not real sure where I'll sleep. At least I had the presence of mind to call up my pals the Georgetown students, who let me crash on their sofa for a couple of days.

So instead of my grand internet plans, I hung out with Georgetown folks, and read a bunch (which was nice), and biked around. All told, I did pretty much what I set out to do, but without the luxury of daytime naps on my sofa. In some ways, it prevented me from staying home and cleaning too much, which is a weird habit I've acquired with old age.

Elly returned Monday afternoon, so I spent the rest of the day with her and Tyger after we all were able to clean up bit.