Meant to be's

My Mom is always going around professing her faith in "meant to be's". Such as "If you didn't get the job then it wasn't meant to be" or that girl will sleep with you "if it's meant to be". Actually being the Irish Catholic she is, Mom would never discuss the prospects of a little pre-marital coitus; she wouldn't even think it. She's probably sensing I just typed that with her Catholic Mom super sixth senses.
Anyways...
Doing my "cross practice" yesterday, or what I perceive is good practice for cross, I got another flat. I was running OVER 50 PSI in my tires and I got a flat. On a fireroad.
No problem, I'll just throw in this tube I had lying the shop before the rain starts. Shraeder valve? How the fook did I get a shraeder valve tube? Guess I'll patch this tube before the rain starts.
Afterward, sorest legs I can remember. Different than after a mtb race, more of a about to cramp tightness.
Tubes are for the birds I decide, lets give tubeless a go. Been tubeless on the mtb for 9 years, converting some cross tires can't be that bad can it?
Since I have wheels all set up for tubeless on the Karate Monkey, I decide to try converting the cross tires on those wheels, and running the KM with skinny tires.
Very silly looking but whatever.
I put a 16 on it to give me a 58" gear; just a little lighter than what I've been running on the Fun Machine.
Tubeless ain't happening I decide after 15 minutes of squirting Stan's out of the rim / tire bead joint, so I decide to move on to running a minimum mtb tire, in my case a Kenda Karma 1.9.
Bead seals up nicely, but there is a pin hole in the tread. As I add more air to get some sealant over to the hole BOOM!
I assume I just blew the bead off the rim, but on closer inspection the valve stem exploded. Not the core, but the actual stem.
Alright, good thing I brought both disc wheelsets. Let's just go back to good old reliable Conti Race Kings. That'll give me a 63" gear, but at least I'll know what it's like (to pedal a 63" gear offroad).
Easy peasy, on, sealed, done.
My shop is in Crazytown, I mean Southington, and I'm only a couple of miles from Camp Sloper where they are holding the Wednesday Night cross training races. Tomorrow is week 3 of 4. Week 1 I missed because it was Kim and my 20th anniversary. Week 2, last week, I missed due to the Parent Senate meeting at Lillian's school. So today I figured I'd pedal over do a little course recon on an extended lunch.
Pedalling over, I hear the tell tale pft, pft, pft,pft, and feel a skirt on my leg. F'ing Crazytown! Animals in this town throwing bottles out their windows while they drink and drive.
Well Stan's does it's job and I make it to Sloper with minimal pressure loss.
Also on the ride over, I'm noticing how easy pedaling is. Is it the tires? Am I suddenly strong? Did I put the wrong cog on?
Back at camp Sloper...
Where's the course? They take it down every week?
Well, I guess I can check out some of the trails around the camp since I'm here. Good thing I did put the wrong cog on right? Wrong.
Even with the 18 I mistakenly put on, the rocky, moss covered, greasy climbs ain't happening with 42 cm drop bars.
Get to some flatter trails... that lead to a rock slide...a blazed rock slide.
Find some more trails around camp, and again pft, pft, pft...
F'ing Crazytown!
So it seems my cross infatuation is leading me to frustration. Maybe I should try and get over it and end the race season here before I start something tomorrow? I still don't know how to gear for it, and I don't know what to ride.
Maybe it's not meant to be?
Maybe I just need to get a real cross bike? I've got 2 sets of tubular wheels all set to go if I go geared, and a single speed tubular wheel too.
Hmmm.