sucked wheel like a famished cheetah chases down lunch

So I'm doing a loop around PI last evening and pull out of the spur that goes out to the floating pond houses and up comes a friendly racer type.  He asks why I don't have a rear brake and I give him some line like I don't ride fast enough to need both front and rear brakes.  (The real reason is that I hate maintaining the machine and the cable had rusted off last summer and I just disconnected it.)  He acknowledges and starts to pull away. 

A sudden testosterone rush comes over me and I jump on his wheel like a dung beetle to fresh shit.  I quickly notice that he probably weighs at least 50 pounds less than I do and he has the form of someone who can pound the snot out of his cranks.  We soon head west and catch a nice tailwind.  I'm still tucked into his slipstream like the rear pelican in a long bevy pushing a March headwind.  He's in the big ring and starts dropping the chain into the lower rear sprockets to take advantage of the friendly wind.  I'm stuck in the small ring for the same reason I don't have a rear brake.  My cycle computer is blank for the same reason I don't have a rear brake or a way to shift into the big ring but we have to be nearing at least 30 mph.  I'm sucking up air like a ramjet on takeoff.  He then pulls over to let me take a pull.  Shit! 

I take a feeble pull and then he quickly resumes.  A half mile later we come to a fork and I hang right knowing he'll bear left.  I wave him ado and coast to a sane pace for a near geriatic whose glory days were at least 2 decades ago.  I spin it back to the suburban and choke up throat mucus for awhile thinking perhaps I should do a little maintenance on the machine.

random rants

A comment or two on recent newsy items:

- Osama goes down!  This is a big deal and should have happened like on 9/12/2001.  The lip flappers are ranting on whether it was legal or not;  he shouldn't have been buried at sea; show the pics; he was unarmed.............  Only one thing matters.  The man poked the big bear and he got taken out. 

- Trump took the spot light for another 5 minutes and got owned.  He only proved one thing - again.  Idiots with money are still idiots.

- A long shot took the Kentucky Derby and by couple of lengths and there's already noise about a triple crown winner. Yawn. The winning time was 3 seconds off the record of Big Red run 38 years ago. 

- The Boston marathon was won in 2:03 ish.  For you non-runners that is unfreaking believeable!!  That's a 4:42 per mile pace.  There are many high school state champs that run slower 2 mile times at that pace.  Be impressed!

- A couple of local teachers get caught with child porn on their computers.  Another idiotism:  one does not need a freeze dried combover to be an idiot.

- GE pays no 2010 taxes.  Oil companies earn record profits while pump gas hits $4 per gallon.  Foreclosures continue to surge.  Don't piss and whine, change the damn rule makers and then the rules.