Entries this day: skate_met_Jim_and_Nancy

skate met Jim and Nancy

24 November 1995

Wednesday night I went skating downtown to check out all the floats for the Thanksgiving day parade. I parked at Fuzzy's and put my skates on. Didn't see anyone out. I skated to Party on the Plaza area and there were a couple of skateboard dudes on skateboards goofing around and a couple of security guards guarding a lot of empty chairs. I talked to one of them and was like, "where's the floats?" He said they were not out yet; that this year they had them in a warehouse until the parade started. Hmmmm. Sounded kinda weird to me; I didn't know of any warehouses close enough or big enough to hold floats until the parade.. maybe they're in the Collesium.

I skated to UH Downtown and muscled my way up the hill past a wrecker with a cop car behind it. They both had their lights on, but there was no car being towed.. Was the cop car being towed? Was the wrecker being ticketted? Probably the latter, if either, because they both drove away as I came back out of the building.

It's fun inside UHD. Smooooth linoleum floors and lamp posts in the middle of the hallway. Usually very few or no people in there at that time of night. There were two college age (what does that mean?) women on a bench that maybe commented or maybe it was my ego as I skated by. I didn't go to my usual water fountain; there was a guy mopping in there. Didn't want to piss him off, plus water is really bad for skates. Especially on linoleum.

The cop car and wrecker were pulling away as I came out. I was glad, because I didn't know how the cop would react to me whizzing past him in a few seconds. The light at the bottom turned red, my cue to count 10 seconds, although I found that 8 works just as well. "six, seven, eight, go! go! go!" and I pushed as *fast* as I could down the hill. Stroke stroke stroke faster faster faster, light turns green, avoid the line-of-death, push push push, tuck! Sail through the intersection, actually passing the car which was at the bottom waiting for the light. I *love* that. I love it. Stay tucked until the speed drops somewhat and then push push push up to Franklin and turn right back toward the Brewery Tap.

The line-of-death, which in this case I jumped over to avoid, will stop an inline skate in an instant if one hits it. The wheels just get stuck in that little trench and you're toast. I've done it. I have a scar from a big strawberry on my butt/hip to prove it.

I skated into the Tap, but there were no skaters in there that I recognized, and the ones I saw were being all private so I didn't talk to them.

I skated back toward the Plaza and now there were two security guards and (finally!) some skaters that I could talk to. I knew I could talk with them because they were all sitting in the middle of the street laughing as one guy lay on his back with his hands and skates up in the air. Roadkill, I presume. I sat down with them and we talked and they asked how long I had been skating and they found that yes, *I* was the guy who busted his head open at Jones Hall a little over a year ago.

I asked if I could join them skating tonight and Jim said yes, if I could keep up with them. I smiled, "I can keep up with you," hoping that I would find that to be a challenge.

I looked up the street and saw the silhouette of a giant turkey. "The floats!" I announced and we all agreed to go see them. I skated up there and Nancy was close behind me. The three guys trailed way behind us. No challenge. Oh well. We checked out the floats and talked to the guards who were making sure we didn't steal them.

I noticed we were right by Luther's garage, but they didn't want to skate it. I said well, we can skate down Allen Center or Jesus Saves. Nancy thought that sounded pretty interesting, so we skated to the church after which Jesus Saves is named.

"That's Allen Center and that's Jesus Saves. Allen Center is pretty nice. You can see how Jesus Saves goes down two levels at a time. It's pretty tough." Nancy and Jim wanted to skate down Allen Center so I led them to the elevators and we went up. Keith didn't want to go. We skated past the camera and up the elevator and up the stairs and to the roof of Allen Center. I showed them where they had painted a giant Houston Rockets logo on the roof about 60 feet in diameter. The only proof was squiggly scars from sandblasting it off.

We skated up there for a while and then I told them what to look out for on the way down. I described the posts that designate where pedestrians can walk without worrying about cars. (Apparently they have to worry about skaters though.) "Don't hit the posts. They are quite securely fastened."

We skated down the thing pretty slowly and I told them about the chain that forces a tight turn at the bottom. Halfway down, someone shouted "security!" so we scooted over across to the "other" ramp forcing the security truck to go all the way down and back up or all the way up and back down before he could get to us. Heh. They skated out, and I took one quick skate down to the almost half pipe shaped concrete at the bottom. Have to do that when I do Allen Center.

Keith was pretty entertained at how we avoided security.

We skated to the garage where I have *never* seen security and did that one. I don't know what it's called, and it's pretty tame, so I think that must be why security is never there. I skated it once with my group sans Keith and when we got to the bottom, a different group of skaters went into the garage so I skated down with them. Heath and Tex were two of their names. Apparently I had met them before. Half of their group stayed on top to smoke a joint. I was all "see ya!" and I raced Tex down the garage. He and I were about evenly paced all the way down, but I noted he only liked to turn left. I passed him when it came time to do a right hand turn.

As we zipped past "my" group at the bottom, they said jokingly that we passed the test, that we were allowed to skate with them. They were ready to go home, so I skated with them back to their vehicle, which happened to be parked near Luther's. We exchanged numbers and promised to call each other.

Two guys had just skated into Luther's so I said bye to my group and joined the two guys at the top of Luther's. We skated down the thing pretty fast but had to be really careful at the third level because it was all soaking wet. They went back up the elevator and I skated out past the gaurd booth.

Skated back to the Plaza and found some guys skating toward the Tap. so I joined them and it turns out that one of them recognized me from UH when I coordinated Recycling Day two years ago. Wow. We skated down the UH Downtown hill and then to the Houston Chronicle area where there is a flat wall that is short on one end and tall on the other due to the fact that the sidewalk sinks below it. I suggested to a guy who was skating toward the end that he didn't jump off it unless he had before. He hadn't, so he didn't. The security guard came out of that building as he normally does, so we skated off the premises. Tex and Heath skated up.

They were going to skate a garage I had never skated before so I joined them. I don't know what it's called, but it is 10 stories tall and entirely enclosed down at the end of Milam. It's pretty cool. We skated down it twice. I skated back to where I had left the other group, but they were gone.

Skated back to the Plaza, but no one was there. Skated back to Fuzzy's by way of the YMCA to get some water. I got to my car and it was like 2am. Time to go home.

See ya
- Rob