Gritty Snitty

Gritty....That's the only word that comes to mind when thinking about my riding lately. The roads need a rain like Lindsey Lohan needs rehab. My poor drivetrain is screaming to be cleaned (which I just accomplished prior to sitting down to write this), and washing my bike after every ride is starting to get old. It's not that I'm complaing. On the contrary, I'll take riding outside over riding inside anyday, but it just gets to be a bit of a hassle when every time you ride, regardless of how long, you have to spend a half hour cleaning your bike-and that only gets it halfway clean!
This evening I spent easily another hour taking my drivetrain apart, cleaning my chain, cassette, and chainrings, and then putting it all back together. Then, because I had all the cleaning stuff out anyway, I decided to do a little more cleaning and did just about everything else. Satisfying, yes, but I know after the next ride it's only going to go back to being gritty and sandy all over again. Such is life...
I'm still looking forward to getting my Epic HD cam in the mail one of these days. I've been waiting anxiously for it and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it'll arrive tomorrow, though I know that by just having said that it'll be another two weeks before I see it. On that subject, I'm a little disappointed with the customer service they offer. Maybe I'm jumping the gun a bit, but I sent them an email asking for a tracking number for my order a week ago and haven't recieved any sort of response. It's a little thing, and again, maybe I'm being picky, but when you send a company a request, you expect some kind of response within a week, right?
Anyway, time is moving along and I'm looking forward to a weekend of good weather and maybe, just maybe, getting out on the trails by Sunday or Monday. Today was Spring-like and we're suppossed to get more of the same tomorrow before the temps settle in the low 40's/high 30's. Regardless of the temperature drop, it'll still be above freezing which means snowmelt...all good in my book! Hell, it could stay in the 40's for the next two months as long as it means no more snow and open trails!