Mono rail in vegas
i was riding home in pure darkness lastnight. i still had lights and all, but it was a pretty dark night for some reason. as i looked up into the sky i saw the most beautiful shooting star. it was pretty cool, because usually they catch you off guard, but i was actually thinking about this one before it happened. i made another wish and rode on [note: i made the same wish last week, which was the same wish i made on my birthday]. i kind of zoned out after that, until i started thinking about this television show i was watching the other night, it was a very compelling show about ufo’s. then i thought, hey what if that shooting star i saw was really a ufo, and i was abducted? it could be, i don’t really remember the last half hour, and my butt really hurts! :)
after i broke out of this stupid thought, i noticed someone in the shoulder kneeling down, doing something. this is pretty creepy at night, especially after having all these alien thoughts. it was really exciting to think i may be coming up to an alien! of course it may a little uncomfortable if it was the same one that abducted me. anyway, it wasn’t an alien at all!
it turned out to be some guy fixing his flat. i stopped buy to see if he needed any help. he was pretty well prepared, so i was ready to move on. i decided to stop and talk with him a little bit. it seemed kind of dangerous for him to be where he was, and i had all my flashing lights, and reflectors, i thought i would be a little safer.
this guy looked to be in his 50’s and in pretty good shape. his skin was a little weather beaten like he has spent a few summers on his bike. he wasn’t a regular lycra wearing carbon fiber riding cyclist, in fact he was kind of an ex-cyclist. in fact he seeed to be more of an ex-cyclist than me. he had some very practical clothing, and his bike was equipped for anything. he had drop bars with some extra padding under the tape. his seat was a bit wider and softer than i like [second thought maybe that’s why my butt was hurting]. the bike itself was an older trek touring bike. nothing special really. the real impressive part, was that this guy was finishing up a round trip from ft. collins to golden. he said the whole day would turn out to be 150miles. he said that he had to drop off some papers at the the office, or something like that. his day began at 5am and here it was 8:15pm with a flat, on the side of the road, an hour or so from home. this guy makes my adventures seem like amateur bowling.
i parted, and rode off thinking, “loveland to golden…..hmmm”
on the days when i don’t ride my bike into work, i usually throw it on top of my car and hope for a lunch ride or an early release. this hardly ever happens and i think i just end up posing instead. telling the local world that i am “into” cycling… so i am better than you. my car has almost become an icon around here, like those big plastic bugs mounted on the top of an exterminator van. i always start to feel pretty lame if i ever do this more than two days in a row. i don’t think anyone really notices, but i don’t want to give them the chance. … “hey, it’s the black-car-white-bike guy!”
it was kind of a low key day at work so i snuck out about 5. everyone but two guys were left. i guess the sense of urgency and dedication drop off after the bosses leave. i headed out to my favorite trail, and got there within a half hour. the lot was kind of sparse so i parked next to a forrunner for some privacy. after all i had to get into my cycling clothes. parking-lot-changing is kind of a lost art. some people are so subtle you hardly know they even changed. others are so obvious that it usually creates a scene and everyone knows to look away. some people fall somewhere in between. this is the most dangerous style of the two styles. this is where you start the change very discreetly, perhaps a little too discreetly, and no one knows you are changing and turns the corner and ….”hello”.
yesterday i was trying to like the the former group. i tried not to bring any attention to myself and organized all my stuff, ready for the pants-shorts swap. just as i unbuckle, the owner of the forrunner arrives. turns out it’s a young twenty something female. i think it’s rather inappropriate to be showing my business in this setting, and she wasn’t here for the “pre-show-warning” where i got into my car wearing my engineering clothes and carrying my cycling cloths in my hand. i was going to get out and do it all over again, but my pants were already pretty unbuckled and i couldn’t even take care of that without witnesses. besides, i couldn’t keep track of her. she kept appearing out of no where from the back of her vehicle to the side.
i was just waiting for someone to come over to me and ask if i had tire pump they could borrow, or trail info or something, and me sitting there like a pervert with my pants open. it was going to be getting dark soon and she was in no apparent hurry to take off. finally when i thought she was out of sight, i just went for it. i was pretty fast, but hardly subtle. i was really rushing through it and of course the cycling shorts were not in the ready position, so i had to quickly turn them right side out, and put them on. not more than thirty seconds after i committed to the change, she started up her car , and almost peeled out of the lot like it was on fire or something. jeeze….was it something i did?
:)
i ran out of light pretty quickly and only got about 4 miles in.
p.s. i am way behind on my cycling post, i still have a bunch of rides with the new bike to write about. please aware that they may show up out of order.
today was kind of a rest day of sorts. it was a little too cold and i was a little too late to ride in, so i just drove. i didn’t have anything too pressing since my robot shipped out yesterday. what happens when it gets there is another story. i got to work and before work had a chance to start, i had a great conversation with someone. a little later in the day an old friend called out of the blue. didn’t get to talk much, but it was cool to talk for a bit. over all, not bad for a monday. i was feeling pretty good, until…. i’m not sure i even want to talk about it. i’d better talk about it so it doesn’t cause any serious problems.
i had just gotten up to go to the little engineer’s room. i was happily walking across the office, and i think i was even whistling, i don’t remember what song it was. it could have been if i had a million dollars, maybe it was something by johnny cash or rick james…. anyway that’s not important. i went over to the restroom, and opened the handle. every time i open the door there is always something out of order. most of the time it just smells. other times something is plugging it, and other times it’s just a mess. in every case its something gross. today i wished there were such trivial matters behind these doors. i opened the door as if to take a step inside when i heard and saw at the same time someone sitting down taking care of “business”, yelling, “no….no…wait…”. i stood there frozen in shock. kind of a deer-in-headlights look on my face i’m sure. as if the situation on its own merrit wasn’t deservant of being horrible and traumatic, the person sitting down was my boss!
i went back to my desk and buried my head behind my undersized monitor…. and tried to stay out of sight for a while. the next few hours were pretty disturbing, but eventually it left my memory. i had all these work related questions to ask my boss, but decided to just take a stab at the answers on my own to avoid any awkward situations. i almost made it to the end of the day, until just before i was about to leave he called me over to discuss something with another one of my bosses [“i’ve got 8 bosses bob”]. earlier i had told the other boss about the situation, and so he laughingly brought it up during this meeting. he though it was pretty funny…. i’m actually glad he brought it up. i think the situation will be long forgotten by tomorrow…. i hope.
the end
…if i didn’t get to ride my bike home in the middle of the night. it’s always a creepy feeling being the only one in the building late at night. that’s how i usually work, but sometimes it’s one other person, and last night there were 5 of us. i left about 10pm and had every light and reflector that i own somehow attached to either me or my bike. i think i was pretty visible…. i seemed to be getting a lot of room from the cars.
i was a bit tired, stiff and full of pizza during the ride, but i still managed to unwind. there was a full collection of stars out and i think i saw a shooting star. i wasn’t sure, but i went ahead and made a wish anyway.
i have to work today [saturday] too, but probably not as much.
later
ok the rest of the day turned out to be crap, but the ride home…. just awesome. i had to work late because something i was working on broke at the last minute, and we can’t get another one in time for my big show in vegas. it was almost dark by the time i left, because i had to put all my lights on. i had taken them off for my weekend riding. the weather was perfect again, i could still wear shorts and short sleeve jersey. once again i wore the ipod ear buds to make the trip a little more relaxing. tonight i used the same music i had for for breakfast… it didn’t let me down. i was going to take an awesome picture of the sunset, but my camera’s battery was low and it refused to snap the shot.
everything was so smooth. the gears shifted effortlessly as i climbed the gentle hill out to the first light. as i waited at the top for straight green i could see the under-anxious faces of the motorist as they turned right in front of me. through the green i started my crossing of the merge lane. the usual is pretty tricky since the mergers are pretty nervous about merging and no one wants to wait for an ex-cyclist. tonight i was preparing for the mergers when i looked back to see if i could cross and there was an suv with a super cute lady inside just smiling and waiting for me to pass in front of her. if you insist :) flying down the back side of the hill towards the bottom i have no bike lane so i join the cars to make a sharp right hand. the bike is so light on top that leaning it over to turn feels like it’s not even there. the whole turn was just pretty neat. i don’t know why it was so much better than last week, or the week before. that’s the coolest thing about cycling a lot…. if you just keep doing it sooner or later you will have a ride like this and when you get home you won’t even remember the work day.
ride
ride
…. ride
this morning i had the most awesome ride in to work. the weather was perfect, i was pretty well rested, and my bike was dialed. the music from the ipod was like blood dope in my system. the other thing that may have led to one of my most enjoyable ride in a long time, was the album by broken social scene. this was the same music from the bike courier video i posted the other day.
what a sweet day so far.
and i think i just found it! this is perhaps the coolest video i’ve ever seen on youtube.
here is another video about the same bike “gang”. there is a guy in boulder that makes tall bikes… i wonder if he’s in the gang… hmm.