I’m not really sure what else the universe could have done to warn me. Maybe an advert in the paper. Or hire a sky-writer. But I’d have found, in my muppetry, a way of explaining away that too. For I am human, all too human…
When you start cycling to work and your front tyre is flat, you should get on the bus. But noooo… I had to pump up the tyre cos I was late. And guess what, it was fine for the ten minute commute (10 minutes! How cool is that!!!).
Flat when I finished work but. So had to walk home. Should somewhere on that journey have thought “hmm, that seems like a slow leak to me.” But noooooo…
Damn. Why didn’t the universe send me an email?
So, I pump up the tyre and cycle to the bike shop (10 minute s the other direction). Both tyres are low on pressure, which leaves them at increase risk of pinching, corroding etc. At THIS point I really should have had a synapse or two firing. “Look, you’ve pumped it up, it went flat. You have a leak.”
But the wishful thinking (wtf???) was strong in this one. Tyre inflated to full whack, stayed firm, no tell-tale hissing or deflating. So off I go…
Except two hours later, it’s flat. Who knew?
Now, all this mistake cost me was a) some shoe leather, b) about £12 (once you also factor the bus ticket today that I wouldn’t have needed if I had bitten the goddam bullet yesterday), and, well, c) my pride. But given that my pride was based on a lie (competent non-wishful-thinking Dwight), I guess I am best shot of it.
And if Mr “Cognitive Humility” Tag can be so fricking stoopid, about something that has such a simple solution, and is not a threat to his values/self-image (a puncture, I ask you), then what hope when it’s an expensive thing that needs changing, and/or is to do with the way I want to see myself in the universe? Oh boy.
