I have found that the best antidote to getting depressed about my road bike that doesn't fit (grrr ... stupid shorter stem shipped to wrong address, second shorter stem not short enough, third one taking two weeks to ship, husband out test riding my bike to see if maybe he'll buy it from me so I can buy one that fits) is to take the mixte on a ride around town to some place that I have previously been too afraid to ride. Today I rode to the bank, which doesn't sound particularly scary, especially since it's only about ten blocks from home, but it goes through a big traffic snarl and a spot where the bike lanes tend to be blocked by construction. It also involves a couple of left turns in heavy-ish traffic.

But I did it and it was a breeze. Good idea trying it for the first time on a Saturday, but since I have to go through a hospital zone there was still a ton of traffic.

Then I rode across town to buy coffee and groceries, and I stopped at a coffee shop to finish the short story I've been trying to finish for weeks, but every weekend has been taken up by trying to make my stupid road bike fit. The bike rack at the grocery store was full, which always makes me happy since I bugged my city councilman for a solid year to get that bike rack installed. In the process of coming and going I had conversations with one cyclist about my folding Wald baskets, with another (who had the same baskets) about my reusable grocery bags, and with a very cute dad and his very cute little girl in a very cute kid trailer behind their very cute Surly Cross Check about our matching handlebars. (His were upside down and chopped.)

And then I rode home, with the toilet paper and bread barely secured in my baskets with a complex arrangement of bungees and the ties on my bags (I always, always buy too much, and I need to remember that canned goods are HEAVY), and I got a workout pedaling my very heavy and very loaded single speed up a tiny little hill, and I impressed myself by changing across three lanes in traffic without wimping out, and I came home with no flat tires.

It wasn't very exciting, but it sure beat spending three hours on the trainer while my husband makes miniscule adjustments to my road bike trying to make it fit. I am done with that noise.