Revelations

1) It takes a very long time to get a cheap bike that's intact in the suburbs of Chicago. Walmart's selection is iffy and I'd have had to spend more than I felt like for what's going to be used probably relatively rarely, and compounded by the fact that the Walmart in Niles is a pretty interesting experiment in anarchy and that when a bike's going to be placed on the top rack, it's probably better to print the price in something larger than size 5 font. So off to Target. Reasonably priced bike there, but the gearshift has been snapped off. They've got another, but it's going to be ok because there's one in the back. Unfortunately, that had no front wheel (which, I've found, is at least somewhat necessary). They sent us off to another Target, which, we were told, had eleven of the same bike (or did that morning.) Our arrival to the bike department was marked by the last of those bikes being sold, the explanation of the Target employee in the bike department that they're the top seller in the Western Hemisphere or something, followed by some more yammering, and finally, price matching another bike. It's a bit heavier than I'd like, and not as standard-road-bike as I'd like, but it's what I've got. So there's that.

2) I live too far away from the school to ride there. I found this out after doing just that this morning, and I'm incredibly tired. So I apologize if this makes no sense.

3) A win for the Pirates. From Victor Santos? From what I was able to see, it was a pretty solid ball game, with Santos throwing a solid game with sufficient run support. I'm hoping Hernandez closing isn't something that's going to go on consistently, but still, he put together a reasonable 9th (that is, he succeeded in his charge, which was closing out the game). Nice jack from Jack, and I'm glad we're not going into the Home Opener 0-7.

85 game winning streak, starting now. I'm calling it.