OK, tomorrow is my last day of teaching forever. So, I decided to commute today, as tomorrow I have a lunch, meetings, etc. On the way in I was overdressed, and was in a cold sweat when I got to work. I was in layers, so I stopped twice to peel a couple of things off, which was annoying. It was the first time I felt totally sweaty all over when getting there in the morning and ended up giving myself a pretty thorough sponge bath in the ladies room. I felt sticky all day. It stayed cloudy all day, but right before i left, I checked the weather and it said it was 64, feels like 61. And, the sun was poking through when I went to change. I had on arm warmers, but decided against the knee warmers and vest. Well, by the time i got outside, it felt really cold and it was windy. I decided I would stop at the first gas station, about 3.5 miles. I was freezing at first, but then I got warmed up, so it was really just my legs that were cool. I decided not to stop at the gas station and gave myself another few miles before I would stop. It was spitting little rain drops, but not enough for the cars to have their wipers on. But still, I was praying it didn't rain, since I had no rain jacket with me. I got to the half way point and stopped to take a really long drink, since my little sips weren't helping the horrible thirst I had. I decided not to take the time to put the knee warmers on. I got through some heavy traffic situations, making a left and then I had to cross a highway with a light. The light was green and cars were going through, but I was still aways off. I really sprinted, but the light turned yellow as i was about half way through. Thankfully, the cars going the other way had to still wait for people turning left on an arrow. After that little fright, I felt OK, but the shifting on my rear cassette has been getting progressively worse. Ever since my husband put a 12-27 on last August, there has been one cog that sort of skips. He has tried everything to fix it; it will be OK for awhile and then it goes back. A couple of weeks ago, my bike fell over in my classroom. The derailleur got bent a little, we fixed that, but then it started shifting by itself! It's been on and off worse for a couple of weeks. It started really going crazy during the last five miles of my commute. A nice moving van stopped to let me make a left across Rt. 2A and I climbed up Pope Rd with no problems, except feeling tired. Feeling glad that i was almost home, I zoomed down Strawberry Hill, approaching the climb on my street. I put it in the granny and the rear was in the middle cog; all of a sudden, I felt like "gee this feels kind of hard", so i went to shift down and it wouldn't move. I looked down, and it was in the hardest cog... how it got there, I don't know. I clipped out half way up the hill and scooted over to a driveway on the other side of the street. I could not move the thing at all . But, I was determined not to walk, so I slugged up the hill, coasted on the down part and climbed back up to my driveway. Knowing I wouldn't make it up the 15% grade in this gear, I accepted defeat and walked up the driveway.
When I got home, the thermometer said 58, so no wonder I was cold. I called my husband and he asked if a cable was snapped, but i don't see anything that is visibly broken. I guess I should be glad this happened on my street!