It just keeps getting better.

This morning, the people from the Internet company NTT came to my apartment to analyze whether I could get Internet service from them. Nope.

After mulling over some other options and cooking breakfast, I spent a moment musing about the new light system I've got coming for my bike, and how I might run the wires. I sat beside my bike, taking in the small design details and subtleties you'd only notice after having spent so much time doing so (not that I have over the past year or so, of course). Imagine me having a staring contest with my bike, my face a few inches from whatever catches my eye. Silence. "Cool." Yup, I think engineering was definitely the way to go.

"I wonder who makes Bontrager tires." I know that someone else makes them, but who? I started looking at the writing on the wall (the sidewall, that is). The only thing new to me was the pressure: 130 psig. Huh. Higher than I thought by 10.

But then, wait, what's that? I looked closer. "No way. That tire's got less than 500 miles on it. Is that a puncture where the inner tube is protruding?" yup. *sigh*

I can't trust a tire with a rip, even if I put a boot behind it. And this is the same tire type I used last year to cross the country (with only two flats, might I add). "I wonder if there are any more."

Bad idea.

I took the wheel off the bike, and spun it by hand. "What the hell?!" No no no, that can't be right! This wheel has fewer than 1,000 miles on it; there's no way it should have a rough spot in the bearing! Incredible. This is supposed to be the best stuff!

It's notable when spinning by hand, but not when riding. But from experience I know that a failing bearing does so exponentially: slow at first, then nearly suddenly as it comes to the end of its life.

Time to go to work.