Wind up wet

Starting Friday our area has been receiving a litany of warnings about what is now hurricane Debbie however nothing significant was happening. I played pickleball both Friday and Saturday morning. As the day progressed Saturday we had a few minor periods of rain and it was mildly windy. Friday after work I hung out at a happy hour with Juan for awhile but just drank. I then went to Brunina’s and grabbed food while I chatted to Meaghan.

Saturday after pickleball I turned my attention to trying to get my Mten3 back together, using a tube instead of the tubeless configuration it was using before. It resulted in a couple frustrating hours where I was unable to get the tire back on the rim with the tube in there, no matter how much I struggled. I resigned myself to having to go back to the tubeless configuration but I needed to get a new tubeless valve to do so.

On Saturday night I did a casual and improptu live stream from my phone. It started out on the lanai but then moved inside once I tired of the humidity. Originally I thought it might go for an hour but wound up being two and a half instead.

Sunday was when the full tropical weather was in effect. It was windy with heavy rain off and on all day. Areas around Naples had some flooding as we received somewhere around 5-6 inches of rain. It was a mess. For some dumb reason during the afternoon I got the idea that it would be “interesting” to take one of my wheels out into the wet and windy weather. I chose my Veteran Patton which is supposed to be water resistant. Wow did I put it to the test.

When I left the rain was light but that did not last for long. Soon another band of heavy wind swept rain moved in and I found myself absolutely soaked. The coat I was wearing was thought to be waterproof. It absolutely is not. The wheel was subjected to deluge style rain. I only went out for 20-30 minutes or so, that was plenty. I was absolutely drenched. I blew out the wheel the best I could to try to minimize any residual water impact. The picture is how I protected my non-waterproof wireless mic receiver. The video demonstrates my level of decision making at time, which can be poor.

The air valve I ordered showed up later in the day Sunday so I took another shot at getting the Mten3 working. Without a tube in the tire and utilizing my zip tie method I was able to push the tire back onto the rim with absolutely no pry tool assistance which is amazing compared to how much I struggled the day before. However I ran into another issue, I could not fill the tire.

With a tubeless configuration you have to get the tire to seat it’s bead on the rim so it is airtight. There are various tricks to do it but I only had a portable air pump that does not push air fast enough to get the job done. I am going to either have to find a gas station that has a high flow inflator or just go to a tire shop and see if they can pop the bead on for me for a few bucks. This has been annoying, to say the least.

The weather made for an up and down weekend which sort of aligned with how my mental state has been recently. This has been a pretty consistent reality for me for at least two years. It’s not the type of consistency I am looking for however.