Stupid stupid eastside promenade
On the way home from work today, I took a bunch of pictures of a northbound Coast Starlight, followed by a bunch of pictures of a southbound Cascades, and then to top it off I took a bunch of pictures of a Ross Island Sand & Gravel tugboat pushing a couple of barges north on the Willamette.
But I can’t show them to you.
Why?
Well, it’s like this. The stupid stupid eastside promenade has a floating bridge that takes it under the Burnside bridge, and that floating bridge has adjustable ramps that have sharp bumps on them. And it turns out that when I ride slowly over those g-dd-mn-ed bumps, the combination of my braking and the bumps bounces my bicycle energetically up and down.
Did my $3 battery flasher come out of my handlebar bag?
No.
Did my $6 cellphone come out of the handlebar bag?
No.
How about the $10 battery I use to boost power to my GPS on reasonably long brevets?
Well, that one came out of the handlebar bag, but then it skittered along the deck of the bridge and came to a stop in the middle of the walkway so I could pick it up.
What about the $130 camera?
Well, that one jumped out of the handlebar bag, and then, apparently, leapt through the railings on the bridge and fell in the g-dd-mn Willamette River.
And then the handlebar bag latched itself closed again, so I could get the surprise of discovering that the camera wasn’t there after I opened it up and stuffed the stupid booster battery in.
Imagine my delight when I discovered this.
Imagine my delight when I looked carefully around the bridge (including climbing over the railings and looking on the nice wide aprons that sit on top of the pontoons) and saw no sign of the now submersible Nikon point and shoot camera. I did see an amazing collection of AA and AAA batteries, so I’m not the only person who’s had his bicycle spontaneously eject components when riding over this particular deathtrap. But I’m still not very effing happy about this turn of events.
And now I get to order a fistful of used point and shoot cameras from KEH and, under the 15 day return deadline, evaluate them to see which ones will work as a replacement for the Nikon point and shoot that went to its watery doom today, and then return the ones that don’t work out (if all of them work out, I’ll just tuck the others aside for the inevitable day when the preferred one dies for one reason or another.)
And I’m going to stop riding my bicycle on the eastside promenade. It might be slower to run up 12th Ave, but at least that street wasn’t built with square-edged expansion joints.