Someone bring some sugar; I’m making lemonade!!

Some days things just never go the way you want them.

For me, today is was one of those days.

Oh it started out with good intentions. Up early to make sure everything was ready to go for Meegan. Plans made for nice easy bike ride out to one of my most favorite places in Herring Cove; Pavia Gallery. A little blogging, a little coffee and a whole lot of relaxing in a nice quiet place hoping for my thoughts to come together and for blog posts to go from my chaotic highway called the brain down my fingers and onto these very pages…

It was 7 1/2 miles to get there.

Around mile 6.463537223 I noticed Peppermint Patty (my bike) was not riding as smoothly as I am used too. At mile 7 I finally had to pull off the road and investigate….Dammit, a flat.

Okay so here’s where I start making confessions: I have no idea how to take care of my bike when it comes to repairs. I mean coming from Seattle/Tacoma you can pretty much find a bike shop with in a stone’s throw away from anywhere and I’m one of those people that would rather pay someone to fix it than figure it out myself.

But now I’m in Halifax.

Once you leave the limits of the city you’re pretty much on your own and that’s how I found myself today. Oh I play the big shot bike rider with the air pump/tire kit at the ready but as long as I’ve been biking both the pump and the kit had gone unused. I try not to panic as would be my usual emm ohh reaction because seriously nothing is worse than panicking out in the middle of nowhere. Hooray for me, after a few attempts at “what the hell am I doing wrong” I was able to figure out the bike pump (my tires have the French Valves) only to confirm that I indeed had a flat tire that would need to be taken apart, stomped on, cried over, thrown into the nearby lake fixed.

Ever tried to do something for the first time and have no idea even where to begin?

So I googled; How to repair a bike tire.

I youtubed; how to take a bike tire off the rim

And for the next 60 minutes little while I set out to take my wheel off, fix it and then get back to riding. If only it would have gone that easy. Just like trying something new, the first step was the hardest. It took forever to get that rim off. Oh they make it look easy on the videos don’t they? They mock me in their “just do this” instructions as I try…

And try…

And try…

Oh there we go!

The second step wasn’t too bad as they instructed me to find where the air is escaping from. Wait, you want me to find a puddle on this sunny day and look for air bubbles? No puddle? You suggest a sink full of water? Oh for pete’s sake if I was near a sink you think I would be bothering with this damn wheel? As with trying something new you have to improvise with what works for you. I threw my tire in the near by lake and lo and behold; AIR BUBBLES!

I’m feeling pretty bad ass by this point because I am secure in my ability to fix my tire and get on my way back home (because seriously my excitement for blogging and coffee had worn off right quick!) I use the little square of sandpaper, some rubber cement and the patch that came in the kit and BAM fixed.

Tube back in the tire.

Tire back on the rim.

Inflate with pump…

WTF?!?

The tire deflated and I was back at square one.

As with trying anything new, the outcome may not be the one you were hoping for. It would have been easy for me to feel as deflated as that damn tire. It would have been easy for me to just sit there in the middle of no where and feel sorry for myself and say things like “You suck at this shit”, “Just give up” “You can’t do anything right” but what I’ve learned on this Life Changing Journey is sometimes you can’t look at the final outcome and judge your abilities on what you THINK should be the final product.

Sometimes the process of trying is where you find success.

Once I knew the tire was shot and it was beyond my control I resolved myself to walking  the 3,635 7 miles back home. I put my back pack on, flipped Peppermint Patty right side up and instead of putting myself down for not being able to “get it right the first time” I smiled a little and may have even pumped my fist in the air just a tiny bit because I had taken the tire off the rim, found where the problem was and tried my best to fix it.

When we are setting out to try new things we have to give ourselves credit where credit is due. Are you just starting to run and feeling frustrated because you’re out of breath after a few minutes? Can you smile a little (and pump your fist in the air just a bit) because for a few minutes you are running and when you keep at it those few minutes will turn into 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 60 minutes, a marathon.  Are you starting your weight loss journey and feeling frustrated because the numbers aren’t moving the way you hoped? Can you smile a little (and pump your fist in the air just a bit) because even if the numbers aren’t moving the way you want, you’re moving your body the way it NEEDS to be moved and that one pound loss will turn into 5 pounds, 10 pounds, 50 pounds, a life changing journey.

As with anything new, when it’s not going the way you think it should, resort to what works for you. I couldn’t fix my tire and ride peppermint patty home but I know how to walk. I do it all the time and instead of being upset that I couldn’t just make the problem go away I took the time to enjoy the walk as much as possible.

As with anything new, the first time can be scary, frustrating, upsetting, embarrassing, confusing, and down right crappy. When we keep at it that new becomes a thing of old…of practiced…of improvement. Keep at it. Ask someone to help you with what you don’t understand. I should have asked for help a long time ago on how to fix a flat but sometimes I’m too stubborn to admit I don’t know what I’m doing. Now a good friend knows my inability and she’s gonna make sure I know the “how to” so well I can do it in my sleep.

When I got back into town (but not quite home) I found a bike shop that was able to help me on the spot. Seems Peppermint had a small sliver of something sharp in the tire and the hole I fixed had actually been successful but as soon as I put the tire back on the bike it had punctured the tube again. A few minutes later I was back in the saddle and riding home, knowing that the next time this happened I’d be better prepared…

And able to change my own tire like a pro!

Do me a favor. Take a few minutes and think not about how frustrating this life changing process can be at times but rather spend some time thinking about what you are good at doing. All of those things you’re good at had a beginning. Everything you can do like it’s nothing, took some learning. Some practice. Some over and over again. All of these new things you’re trying to do take the same kind of learning. The same kind of practice. The same kind of over and over…

Smile and give yourself credit where it’s due.

And pump your fist in the air

(Just a bit)