Oil Shock, Downed Cyclist and Kaput Electronics - It`s Geo`s Vacation!

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The black cloud that usually follows me about has once again rained on my parade heading into my first week of vacation. Friday I got the call that the year end statement from Esso arrived in the mail. We are on the budget plan where you pay a set payment every month for home heating oil with the final statement sent in July. I expected we would owe a balance but the tally of $660 due July 15 just plain sucks.Last July we owed just over $130 so it is a substantial increase no doubt the reality of high oil prices.To add insult to injury the oil company will double our monthly payment for the next calender year!UGH!

Not a great start for my week off but the club ride on Saturday was good. The weather was prime and I rode well. The fitness is starting to come along. That cheered me up somewhat until I heard the news that a good friend and clubmate was cut off by a left turning motorist and collided with the passenger door.UGH UGH!

(Last word was that she was OK.....stiff, sore and bruised but nothing serious. Her Lightspeed titanium Tuscany bike was a writeoff.Insurance should kick in but they have no concept that a top of the line bike costs several thousand dollars. No doubt they will balk at the replacement cost and make the whole process tiresome.)

Picture - CF on her Litespeed racing the 2007 Wentworth race

Today was supposed to be a great day so I was up early and heading out for a Sunday morning training ride. I attempted to turn on the TV to see the weather forecast only to discover the stupid thing was broken. Worked fine last night but kaput this morning. UGH UGH UGH!

On a positive note I did ride well today on a 78km fast training ride. Averaged about 33 kph for 70km but then sat up and rode in with a dropped rider the last 8km. Final average speed was 30.3 kph.Legs felt real good considering the fast club ride yesterday.

Comments

Cari said…
as steve would say...gotta calculate the henley factor. oh man geo, that's a rough couple of days! hope things get better for your coming week! who needs tv anyway in the summer!;) oh and steve is still cringing at the news of such a nice bike being "crumpled"! glad your friend was ok though!
3:31 AM
George said…
Thanks Cari. How do you heat in Brisbane? Oil or electric? Be thankful you are living in a temporate zone. I have no idea how folk can heat these big houses with the price of oil these days?

Yup....it was a beauty of a bike too....tell Steve to view the damage at......

http://picasaweb.google.com/peibikeguy/Sabrina
1:33 PM
Cari said…
ummmm...my problem at the moment is not the cost of heat but the fact that we don't have any!!!!! it blows my mind that homes don't have central heating here! it was 8 degrees yesterday morning in my kitchen!!! the few people that do have a form of heat, have air conditioners that can be used as heaters as well...so i'm sure that isn't cheap to run! on a positive note, at least ns doesn't require you to run an air conditioner all summer as well as heat all winter!
5:25 PM
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