February 16th, 2018:

	My tires and axle spacers arrived yesterday, and were almost 
immediately installed on the 20" wheel I've had waiting.  Unfortunately, I 
seem to have misplaced my large adjustable (crescent) wrench, and I wasn't 
able to properly install the axle spacer (cap nut is stuck).  I had to 
bring the wheel and my bike toolbox with me to work this morning, and I'll 
probably spend my lunch hour in the shop, making use of the workbench and 
vise...

I'm rather glad Mrs. IPX told me to take the car to work today instead of 
bussing.  It certainly made lugging my toolbox and loose bike wheel 
easier!

I'm looking forward to this weekend, as it's a long weekend for us.  
Monday is Louis Riel Day in Manitoba (named after the father of the Metis 
nation and, more recently, named a Father of Confederation by Canada, 
while still branded a traitor to some), and so we have the day off.  We're 
largely going to spend the weekend on household drudgery: cleaning, 
organizing, sorting, and culling old stuff.  Sort of a pre-Spring 
Cleaning.

I figure it'd be best to take advantage of the long weekend to get things 
done, as next weekend I'm going to be busy following a couple of big bike 
races.  It's the start of the Flanders Classics next weekend, with Omloop 
het Nieuwsblad on Saturday, and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne on Sunday.  I 
started following the big races last year around this time and, despite 
being saddled with dodgy YouTube streams, rather enjoyed the races.  I 
follow both the men's race as well as the women's race, but I'm 
disappointed that the women's races get far less coverage than the men's 
race.  I guess it's true of most professional sports, which is sad, 
really.  

One of my favourite cyclists is Annemiek van Vleuten.  I started following 
her career a few years ago, shortly after her accident at the Olympics in 
Rio a few years back.  She'd misjudged a turn and crashed, fracturing her 
spine and sustaining a severe concussion... but was back on her bike a few 
days later, and winning the Belgium Tour a month later!

Compare that with certain soccer players who flop around like fish out of 
water at the slightest touch...

(No hate mail, please, I love soccer, favourite team being Eintracht 
Braunschweig, who currently play in the 2.Bundesliga)