I never used to be as freaskishly anal-retentive about the weather as I have been since I started riding. Seriously. I'm not talking like "oh, pooh, it's supposed to rain again tomorrow, I guess I'll take the car." I'm talking "well, it's 4pm now and weather.com claims that a front is moving through and we'll get scattered showers by evening, but maybe tomorrow morning will be clear and now weather.yahoo.com claims that it's supposed to clear up by afternoon, so I guess I'll take the cage to get my allergy shot but then maybe I'll have time to run home [Note: 10 miles] and get the bike to drive over to Peter's [Note: 4 blocks from the allergy shot] but if the front moves through more quickly, then I'll...."
Bikes make you mental, people. I swear it.
welcome, chai!
And when something makes you mental, and makes you spend all your money, and
makes you the most boring person in the world to talk to, and did I mention
makes you spend all your money....well, what's the very most important thing
that you should do?
That's right, get all your friends to do it too!
My friend Chai bought a bike yesterday. I'm so proud. He took the MSF course at the end of March, and passed with flying colors (so he claims!). He was over at my Easter party last weekend, talking about bike-shopping with some other rider friends of his, and we chatted for a while about makes and models and V-twins and parallel twins and all the other huzzahfuzzah that bike nerds care about but no one else does (luckily, the easter party consisted of quite a few bike nerds, so this conversation really wasn't as pathetic as it sounds).
So last night I come out of orchestra rehearsal, and there's voicemail from Chai on my cell phone. "Poooooof! We need to talk! Call me!" Being the caring friend that I am, I don't. This afternoon, there's email waiting for me: "Pooooooof!" Eventually, I corner Chai on IM. "What's up?" said I. I'd expected something bike-related, but I was pretty surprised to hear that he'd just up and bought the motorcycle. Got a great deal, too -- apparently some guy had bought a brand-new 2001 Kawasaki 500R Ninja to commute on, but then decided he'd rather carpool. So Chai got this essentially brand-new bike (190 miles!) and a bunch of good gear for a really good price. He is now the proud owner of a Shoei RF-800 helmet (same kind as mine, only his has cool graphics), a FirstGear Kilimanjaro jacket, some FirstGear gloves ("they even have a little squeegie!") and other assorted crap. I'm glad this is working out for him -- he'd been a little worried because his dad (a doctor) was really against him owning a motorcycle, and Chai's pretty close to his family, so he didn't want to just strike out at them that way. But I guess he worked it out with his dad, who's happy knowing that Chai got himself some good gear and good training and a bike that won't kick his ass halfway back to Israel. So that's a good thing.
this weekend's ride.
Chai's very brave; he's planning on coming with Kim and I on our ride through
the twisties on Sunday. If it stops raining. I'm really looking forward to
this ride. It's too bad that Peter can't come with us, but -- sweetie, stop
reading here for just a second, OK? -- it'll be really nice to ride with some
different people, too. Sometimes when I'm riding with Peter, I get all nervous
because I want to Ride Real Well Dammit; I think I'll be more relaxed with
"just friends." I really want Peter to think that I do things well, so I
sometimes tend to over-analyze and over-focus on how I'm riding (concentration
is a good thing, but it doesn't do anyone any good when I berate myself because
"he *must* have seen my brake light on in that corner and now he's going to
think I'm a horrible rider"). Anyway, it'll be nice to get some low-key
practice in so that I really do keep improving.
Plus, I'm excited about the route we're talking about taking. Kim and I (and Chai if he joins us) are meeting up with a couple people from a bike message board that I frequent, and then we'll all go up Highway 9 into the foothills. Paul, one of the message board guys, says he knows a great deli halfway between the foothills and the Pacific coast, so we'll probably head over there. It'll definitely be a much longer twisties-ride than any I've ever done before, but I think it'll still be fun. I'm a little nervous because I'm still a twistie novice, but I know for sure there'll be a couple others there too, so hopefully it won't be all stressful. Yay!
Now, if only it'll stop raining by then....