ahh the Fort Reno concert days of summer…
June 26, 2008 at 10:14 pmDC, Exteriors, People, Vivitar Ultra Wide and Slim, bands, music, parks
After work today I rode the one-wheel-newly-replaced and the other-wheel-newly-realigned bicycle over to Fort Reno Park in Tenleytown for one in a series of outdoor concerts… Why is the bike wheel new you might ask? Well that would be because the bikes crashed to the ground this morning while attached to our now-broken bike rack as we careened over a poorly marked speed bump on Gallatin Road NW. Let me present all the facts, fair and honest, and we’ll let our readers decide where to place the blame for my $80 spent at Silver Cycles repair shop today.
Throwing blame around is mostly healthy, so… is the offender: me (Lori)? is it Matt? the bike rack company? the DC government/road surfacing department? the early morning hour?
fact #1. Matt was driving. Lori was navigating. (For the record, this is already quite a backwards situation.)
fact #2. The speed bump is not painted. It is the same color as the road. The road is wider that most DC side streets. There is small sign indicating speed bump, it is on the side of the road. It is difficult to see the sign (this is unbiased).
fact #3. I have previously careened over the speed bump in question on a prior trip to the pool.
fact #4. It was 6 am. We were *almost* at the pool.
fact #5. Lori and Matt attached the trunk-mounted bike rack together this morning.
fact #6. Lori and Matt first trial-installed the bike rack 2 nights ago, while Lori read the instructions for doing so. Today it was discovered that Lori did not read aloud (this is important) the very last step, which involved tying off the straps, BUT
fact #7. the Straps had previously been tied off by Matt on a successful bike trip yesterday in which no bikes were spilled onto the road.
fact #8. Straps were not tied down this morning when the bikes flew off.
fact #9. Lori’s bike wheel got mangled.
fact #10. Matt’s seat, previously wobbly, got miraculously re-tightened during the flying-off of the bike rack and bikes!! Thank goodness for a silver lining.
fact #11. The bike rack is missing two pieces of plastic tie-downs. Actually, they’re broken, they’re not missing… because they are resting on the side of Gallatin Road where I flung them this morning.
So it’s up to our loyal readers to decide in the comments who is to blame here. Do remember, Matt was driving.
Ok, fine, I will say that, after writing out the facts, I think I am to blame. SAD FACE. 
If there was a moral or an end to this story, and there is, it would be this: it’s better to sleep in past 5:30 am like a normal human being instead of trying to bike *and* swim before working a 10 hour day.
I also just noticed that this post started out with the title of “ahh the Fort Reno concert days of summer…” and I didn’t even get to that part. In summation of the concert, there was a lot of mostly crappy acoustic singing, and lots of teenagers, so we went and got Thai food. Goodnight!
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June 27th, 2008 at 9:55 am
it’s clearly matt’s fault. first of all - it’s always the man’s fault. second of all - he tied down the straps the last time, right?
June 27th, 2008 at 10:31 am
Not enough info. Had you guys had your coffee yet?
June 27th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
clearly it is lori’s fault. it is also lori’s fault that i read the north pole will be melting this summer and my 401(k) is losing crazy value. thanks alot waz. but in other news that post was hilarious and more importantly very time consuming here at work. snaps!
June 27th, 2008 at 9:11 pm
matt’s fault; he was driving.