Entries this day: stream_of_conscious_skate_with_blood

stream of conscious skate with blood

22 May 1998

I am home from work.

Take this damn button down shirt off. Damn pants. Damn leather shoes but they are kinda comfortable and would make good slippers. Damn socks. Damn undershirt.
Freedom. Underwear stays on because I want to go skate but first: refrigerator grab a quick something.

No. close the door. I am not hungry.

Okay. I'm cool. Where's my skates? Um I think they're outside hafto get my keys where's my keys?

first refrigerator and grab

No! Close the door. You are not hungry.

Close the eyes. Feel. Stomach is not hungry. Okay. Thank you.

Skate. yes good god yes. Taft Allen Parkway Yes that will be rad to fly through there. Fly!

Grab the skates be sure to put knee pads on first. 'kay.

Favorite shorts go on. Grab my favorite NO Fear shirt. The one with rips that has been resewn. Wait not my favorite shorts. Might mess them up. Where are those others? here under the computer chair. Shorts on. Got two pairs of socks. Shirt on. Feels good.

Move the fan so you can chill in it when you get back. 'kay.

Sit. Right sock. Nice and tight almost up to my knee. Left sock. yes. Right sock stretches over the other. Left sock stretches. Perfect. Right knee pad. The one with the crack. velcro on. Left knee pad. the other. velcro on. feels good.

Right foot slides into right skate. wiggle the toes in and tighten it up. clickclickclickclick. click.
Left foot. wiggle. clickclickclick. click. click.

Helmet. Right wrist pad. velcro on. Left. Click the helmet strap under chin.

Stand. Analysis: good. need keys. let's go.

CD player: click. Sir Mix-A-Lot "Posse On Broadway" off.

Out the door. lock the door. There's Spot! He's so fuckin brazen that he won't even move out of my way. Spotty I have skates on that are each bigger than you. I could crush you

Step carefully down the steps over Spot. Yes. Now he is at eye level.

"Hi Spot" He loves to be scritched. I love my Spotty. "hey spot" scritchy scritchy "I'll be back."

clunk clunk clunk clunk down the steps. Down. Let's go!

Smooth sailing out of the parking lot. down the drive to the street. cars coming I turn sharp onto the sidewalk.

Over cracks, sticks, little seed pod things. Why do people have trouble with these? I just skate over them.

Woman at the bus stop. "HI"

She smiles. Probably doesn't speak English. Probably is jealous I'm on skates.

Cross the street. cars? behind me is clear. Slide across to the other sidewalk cause there is a car coming from ahead.

Intersection I just sail around the corner of the boat shop. No one on the sidewalk. good.

HI person in car in traffic wearing shirt and tie! I'm on skates, fucker! hahahaha! That would be rude. He's probably jealous too.

Rocks on sidewalk. why are they always right here? sail right over them.

need to cross Montrose. No cars coming at me step off curb slide across the street uh oh cars leaving the intersection like greyhounds. Slide across to the next sidewalk.

oh man what a crappy-ass sidewalk. Bushes hanging in my way. stand up and slide past and the leaves scutter across my NO Fear shirt. grass growing into the sidewalk all broken up. step from piece to piece no problem.

Greyhounds that passed are now stuck at this light. I turn right onto Dallas. Cars behind? No. Hop off curb into street. Get longer strides.

Ahhh.

push push push.

Past the fence I hop back onto the sidewalk for a car to go by. See I can be nice too.

No cars. back onto street.

push push push

Okay clear. wait for greyhounds to go by. Across Taft to my ramp. My precisely timed acceleration runway.

What was that time again? I think 20 seconds. Yeah 20. stop and wait for the count.

Okay. cars on left are stopped at the light. Once they take off, count 20. Is that it? I think so. Feels right.

There they go. one. Go cars. two. go go go. three. four. five. cars coming (six) down my ramp. seven. eight. nine. calibrate counter. ten. am I right? eleven. yes. it's all good. twelve. thirteen. fourteen. fifteen. More cars (sixteen) coming down (seventeen) my ramp. right after (eighteen) them I'll go. nineteen. twenty. perfect.

Go go go go go go

push push push push push push push push

push push push push

up onto curb

push push push push

cut

jump-onto-curb-feet-planted-to-stop

slide crunch into wall

Ow fuck. Van just went by. Jump up you are okay. I'm okay everyone! see look at me fuckin bad ass skater jump up and skate. fuck that hurt!

shake it off. analysis: everything moves okay. Skinned my right forearm. skinned my left forearm and upper arm. bruised my right hip. base of my right pinky hurts. Bones okay? I do a gentle all over body wiggle-dance. All bones are okay. Any deep bruised muscles? All muscles okay. I'm still skating. clothing? NO Fear shirt is fine. I look down and my shorts have three shredded holes on the right leg. fuckit. let's go.

panting. skating. adrenaline electrifies. I can barely feel any pain. Hi jogger. yes, I'm quite fine. these? oh - nothing at all. mere scratches.

rolling slow around the bend and up the hill. gentle pushes on this small asphalt sidewalk.

Along Allen Parkway. Look it coulda been her in that little red car instead of the minivan. coulda been anyone.

two teen age bicyclist chillin' watching me approach. do they see? did they whisper a comment? Probably. they're impressed that I'm still going.

Across the small entrance to Allen Parkway. No cars. no problem. down the slight hill.

Car coming toward the next entrance. too far away to matter. I cross no problem.

Up around Sam Houston Park real slow just sliding through.

Not at the intersection but no cars so I cross the street to the library in view of a bus pulling away from the stop.

hey Mr Bus Driver look at my scrapes. He's probably busy.

Down McKinney all the way to Louisiana Street. Lights are still timed for rush hour traffic. Cool. I don't get to skate that very often.

Skate gently on the sacred white marble. Will they shoo me off this time? apparently not. I'm just skatin casual.

Curb. Street. traffic trying to go home across my path. Last car goes by and I push across the intersection before the greyhounds get a chance to invade my space.

Along another construction fence. man this one's been here forever. Here comes my next hill, down to Jones Plaza.

In the lee of the fence I wait at the next intersection for my green light. Their light turns yellow and I go! Greyhounds will be attacking from behind. go go go go

push push push push push

push push push push

cop car is parked ahead does he care? Sail across next intersection cars are overtaking me but I'm sliding along the left hand side parked cars I am safe.

Sideways jump

Across the red carpet of Birraporetti's, turn left around the corner, where they can all see me while they're eating. Look at my blood, pasta eating nicely dressed folks. I'm skating and you're not.

Sneak around the blind corner up the Alley Theater driveway thing. The building on the right is gutted. but two nicely dressed folks are walking out the door. hmmm.

back around onto Jones Plaza I go in search of water. Gotta wash this shit off. oh it's going to sting. I can tell.

up the steps

clunk clunk clunk

There's a guy chillin against the wall. Probably homeless. I ask him if he knows where I can get some water. He points out there are more faucets to try in each corner of the Plaza. cool.

I check and the first two have no handles. Third one does. Turn it and it works. relief.

rip the three velcro strips to get my right wrist pad off.

rip rip riiip

look at pinky. holy shit! I have a hole scraped the size of a nickel under my right pinky. That's why it hurt so much! I let the water flow over it and relax into the pain, no it's not pain, just sensations coming from my hand. rinse rinse rinse it out.

Okay, left elbow forearm scrapes. splash water up to rinse them off. I stick my elbow in the water flow for a second and relish the coolness of the water. Back out and feel the sting sensation. Relax into it. no pain.

Right forearm scrapes. This one's not as bad. I splash water and gently wipe my watery hand over it. Not too bad at all.

I turn the water off and go sit on the wall by a sign that begins "NO SKATES OR SKATEBOARDS ON PLAZA"

I'm not skating I'm rinsing my arms. Oh Mr Politician would you rather I go to the hospital and cost the city five hundred dollars to get all bandaged up instead of a few pennies of water? I'm not hurting anything.

Dude, chill. There is no one here. It's just a sign.

My brain quiets as I watch a man painting a concrete wall.

Across the street is Bayou Place, Houston's latest loveliest entertainment complex in downtown. Houston's going to be like San Antonio someday. Someday. I love the city when it's alive.

My scrapes are pretty much dry and I put my wrist pads back on. Now down the steps I gently step. Don't want to fall right now. Hey you won't fall unless you're nervous about falling. Okay. I'm not nervous all the way safely to the sidewalk.

Across the street now on the back side of Alley Theater. Still rush hour traffic.

What do I want to do? Go home? No way. not yet.

University of Houston is only several blocks away. Yeah. I love the hill. Across another street I cross while traffic is fully two blocks away.

Up a hill I slowly push. Wow I am pretty trudgefully tired.

I step up onto the sidewalk. It's a crappy one but I don't want to mess with traffic right now.

I pass some people chilling by La Caraf. See my scrapes? Look, and I'm still skating. See? They don't comment.

I reach Travis Street and stop for traffic. They are sailing down the hill to Interstate 45 to take them home. Their light turns red, so I hop out onto the street around another construction fenced off sidewalk and wait at the light with the cars.

Other traffic light turns yellow as a van sneaks through at the last minute. I go.

push push push push push

Is that it? I look and that's it. I slide across to the right hand side of the street to the sidewalk and down the hill under the railroad tracks faster faster faster and I pull out my cell phone to call Wende.

I push the buttons and listen as I sail to the bottom and back up the hill.

push push

phone is still ringing. She must not be there. Oh well. back into my pocket it goes.

I cross the railroad tracks that are there and holy cow they've been ripped up! I look down the path where the tracks used to be and they are totally ripped up. All the ties are gone and the rails lay on the side like shoestrings. Extremely heavy shoestrings.

I trudge up the driveway to street level, past two guys walking down wearing military looking uniforms. "HI" I say to each. See my arms? Look. see?? They don't comment.

I arrive up at Main Street. I still have to trudge up the Main Street hill. A bus rumbles by. Another. I still press up toward the top, where people are waiting for even another bus.

At the top. I chill and look out over where the railway used to be. The main line is still there. I wonder where the ripped up one goes. Or where it doesn't go anymore.

I'm rested and ready to go down the hill. Not just go down. To fly down the hill at breakneck speeds, except I will not wreck. That was years ago that I wrecked on this hill. No worries. I've done it twenty times since then and never had a problem.

But it is rush hour and the light is timed differently. I sit on the wall beside a sign that says "FORTY FOOT DROP DO NOT SIT ON WALL" or something like that. I didn't pay attention to it.

Light turns red. I count. I get to 30 and it turns green. Perfect. I chill while it's green and wait for it to turn red again. I count. Fifteen seconds and 4 cars and a bus go by.

No traffic is headed down the hill so I jump off the wall. Sixteen. Seventeen. Eighteen. Nineteen. I go. Twenty.

push push push push

jump

push push push push

Crap. There were no cars to watch me go by.

Oh well. I coast most of the way up the hill and then turn right on Franklin.

I slide up to red light and it turns green as I approach. Perfect. Again

push push push push push

Up the hill into cars stuck at the red light. I manuever in between them and over to the sidewalk. Traffic is done crossing in front of us so I go while we still have a red light.

It's not red for long and the greyhounds race to pass me. Fine. I'm not racing uphill. You win.

Up beside Kim Son I skate, past The Chronicle building on the other side of the street.

Traffic is less crazy now as I get back to Jones Hall and Jones Plaza. One more time down the hill. Okay.

Back up to the lee of the construction fence I go and wait. Light turns green and I go go go go god i'm tired go go go down the hill watch the lumpy manhole cover tuck like a skiier down the hill I barely have any speed and don't even make it to the red carpet. That sucked. Time to go home.

Back up Louisiana street I push past people and cars. I had a great time and I'm going home people. Thank you. Yes, I'm going home.

But one more hill will be mine first. to Lamar Street which will scoop down and dump out onto Allen Parkway. I ride slowly along the sidewalks to get to the starting place.

Two cars are at the intersection. Maybe three; I only care about the white car on the right, not the others. Light turns green and I take off and she tries to turn right in front of me.

Hey! Where's your blinker?? I cut my acceleration and she stops and I take off again in a wide birth around her.

push push push

hey weird, they are tearing down the building there. Another construction fence blocks the sidewalk. That's okay, I'm going to use the street anyway, thank you.

Eyes back on street as I crouch down like a skiier and whizz past the fence and down the hill. Yes I am tired and stop to look out over Sam Houston Park for a second.

Hey cool. they built a small wooden bridge over part of the water. Good deal. I like all this construction going on.

I visualize myself skating over the wooden bridge before I begin again to trudge up the hill to Allen Parkway.

No cars are coming and I'm safely across to the sidewalk.

Now it's just the long trek back toward where I had my accident. Will there be blood? will I be able to see it at all? I assume so, since the lamp post is my marker.

I see a bicyclist again in the parking area. Is he one of the same ones I saw earlier? I'm not sure.

Along the path I cruise, not slow, not fast. No worries and I'm just skating.

Down around the big field and up by some azaleas and back toward the straight bridge sidewalk again and there's my lamp post.

I roll up to it and clearly see two black streaks of plastic shreds on the concrete.

Ah. there. I see a smoother streak. I get down on my hands and kneepads. yes. hair. Little arm hairs shaved right off my arm. I smile. Wow.

I don't see any others. I get up. Wow.

One last big traffic crossing to get to Taft. Allen Parkway traffic does not have to stop, and they fly like fifty miles per hour down the hill.

I see a break in traffic and go for it, just as this traffic's left hand turn lane light turns green. Nice. I scoot across Allen Parkway and into then across the line of cars turning left. Up the curb then down the curb and I scoot across the other half of Allen Parkway and up the curb and down the curb and across the feeder road and up the curb to the sidewalk.

Practically home free. But still gotta trudge up this hill. I press my way up, past a woman carrying what looks like a cheesecake out of Antone's. Cool. Cheesecake.

Up to Dallas Street, the light is red for Taft so I cross over to the other side and along the Dallas Street sidewalk. No traffic so I cross Dallas Street to the other side. I like to face traffic when I skate so they can't sneak up on me.

All the way up Dallas I go to Montrose. I would just bust across but there's a cop car on the other side. No reason to get in trouble now after all this.

I pant and sweat and wait for the light to turn green.

Damn it's taking forever and I coulda crossed twenty times by now. It turns green and I cross once.

Along Montrose almost to West Gray, and finally someone who understands. A guy carrying skates is walking toward me. I bend my elbows to show my trophies. I smile, "How's it going?!"

"Damn" he says.

fwew. West Gray. Only one point five more blocks to go. No traffic so I slide across the street to my side. Up the driveway and around the back.

Do I take my skates off now or wait until I get upstairs? Wait. You don't want to carry them up. Good point.

Clunk clunk damn there's Spot again. At least he's on a different step this time. Sorry Spot I can't pet you right now. Gotta clean up.

Keys in my pocket? Yes. Chain wallet is in the way. I pull the chain and out it comes. The chain. No wallet??! What the hell, the wallet was ripped off my chain when I wrecked.

The wallet is still chillin' in my pocket, but wow. it got ripped off the chain!

keys. door. unlock. inside. turn on fan. sit.

Wow. Wrist guards off. One stinky skate off. Another stinky skate off. One, one, two, two stinky socks off. Helmet off. Sweat pours in a small stream onto my shorts and shirt.

Stinky shredded shorts off. Shirt off. Underwear off. Shower on. Oh this is going to sting.

No it's not. Chill. Relax into it.

Water feels cool on my feet and hands. Pinky doesn't hurt.

Right elbow in. Right elbow out. It doesn't hurt so I rinse it all out. I get the soapy soap and soap it all up. I just relax and feel no pain.

Left elbow same thing. Wow. just feel the sensation. Not pain. Just wash as if everything were normal. No pain. Amazing.

I get out and dry off with a clean towel. Neosporin and bandages all right where Wende put them in a medical kit for me months ago. Nice.

Right elbow first cause it's the smaller one. gauze, tape, forgot the neosporin. untape. neosporin. tape. done.

Left elbow. gauze tape forgot the neosporin. untape. neosporin. tape. done.

Pinky. neosporin. gauze. tape.

I'm too tired to clean up anything.

Phone off.

Lie gently in bed.

Relax.

Sleep.