Entries this day: Bike_wreck Have_a_seat Jason

Bike wreck

10:05am CDT Tuesday 20 August 2002

Woke up around 9am and flopped around in bed a bit until I was all, "whoah! Elise got a new bike!" and wanted to go ride bikes with her. So I woke her ass up and she was all, "ride bikes? But I just woke up!"

"Me too!" but I should have noticed that she had been up long enough to take her PJs off and clothes on. "Actually I've been up for a while, so you got more sleep than me, so let's go."

"I've been up for a while too," she admitted.

"C'mon c'mon c'mon" I pulled her out of bed.

- - - -

"Wow, you even have a helmet" she commented to me.

"Does this mean you don't have a helmet?" I tried to bully her into thinking she should get one. "Don't you like your little head?"

"Yeah,... But I only ride from Building A to Building B."

I conceded and said nothing.

"You have gloves too??"

- - - -

I rode around in circles outside, waiting for her to come out. Visions of us going down to the school and riding around, maybe playing a game of FTL, which we played for hours and hours back in the day; me, Fred, Danny, Shannon, anyone else, all following the leader, and whoever put their foot down had to go back to the end of the line. Along the curb, into little areas, up on benches (maybe not at that age), up ramps and down steps, everywhere we could think of. We even designed a multimillion dollar complex with perfect obstacles everywhere, and a floor that would light up as the leader bike wheels rolled across it, so people would know exactly where they had to ride. What a fabulous time that would be.

Elise rode out on her bike, a bit tentatively. "I've only had it for two weeks.."

Turns out that she hasn't ridden a bike since she was 8 years old or so. Wow.

We rolled slowly down the road and she queried how many gears I have.

"Three and Eight."

"Wow. I only have two and five."

??? no way. I looked over and saw three sprockets on the front of her bike. "You have three up front."

We stopped at the stop sign at the end of the road and I inspected her situation. Her front shifter stays in low gear. If she shifts it up to middle gear it sometimes stays, but pretty much just snaps down to first gear again. It won't stay in high gear at all. That's fucked up.

I got on hers and found that I could hold the front gear on high gear and it worked fine, but it won't stay there without being held. I also noticed the pedals are not aligned correctly. The pedal axels are not parallel to the crankshaft axel. That's fucked up.

In low gear I took off back toward Elise and instead of propelling me forward, the chain slipped off the back sprocket and I tumbled over the front of the bike to the ground. That's fucked up. That's also why I wear a helmet.

- - - -

Gently rode back to Elise, and was able to recreate the chain slipping problem, but this time I didn't fall off.

Back onto my bike and am very thankful for its awesomeness. That's worth a few dollars more.

Sat down on my seat and the seat broke off.

"Goddammit!" how many bike fuckups can happen in five minutes?

The bolt holding my seat to the stem simply sheared in two. I put all the pieces in my pocket (the seat in one pocket, the under-seat pouch in my other pocket) rode back.

"Can you ride like that for very long?"

"Sure; I just gotta remember not to sit down."

- - - -

My dad had a good suggestion when I asked if he had a replacement. "Get an aircraft grade bolt." Excellent.

Have a seat

10:32am CDT Tuesday 20 August 2002

Went with Elise to get her bike fixed (just needed to tighten the shifter) and then found a correctly sized bolt of hardened steel to replace the one that broke out from under my bike seat. 29 cents plus tax.

Drove by Tomball High School, the mammoth monstrosity of a school that used to be small and cute to see if Mr Bandecca was there. "He left a long time ago" (years). "Mr Reagh?" "no" "Mr Hamm?" "He retired last year." "Mrs Roach?" "Yes." "Twitchell?" "No; she teaches at the college now."

"So Mrs Roach is here?"

"Yes, but she's in a class and you can't go visit her now. She'll be done at 2:30."

"What about between classes?"

"We have block schedule now. The class ends at 2:30."

I left her a note and will go back at 2:30.

- - - -

Elise and I scavanged for lunch and Elise was eating a cold pancake from yesterday with almond butter on it. Her mom walked by and was all, "have a seat," in a way that sounded like, "we have to talk about something that you did." But she was just telling her to sit down to eat. What the fuck is that all about? We're just grazing. No company to impress. Damn.

Elise was like, "okay" and didn't do it. At least she didn't do it. One day she'll just say no.

Jason

7:05pm CDT Tuesday 20 August 2002

I'm at Jason's house now, but there's no Jason. His roommate LeeAnn (sp) let me in. Hopefully it wasn't too uncomfortable for her to have some guy sleeping in his car in their driveway when she drove up. She has a girl, about 2 years old maybe. I have intentionally not been too inquisitive until Leigh Anne (sp) knows for sure I'm a-okay. I did call Jason, though, and he was at his mom's house (nearby) getting food, so I told him to bring some here.

8:28pm

Jason and I have been talking; he told me all about the fucked up situation with the ex-restaurant in Wimberley, which he used to own. Turns out that the fat cat who bankrolled the whole operation is a huge fraud and has no assets but protects himself by filtering tons of money to corporations and trustfunds and shit that no one can touch. Nothing is in his name; he's stolen people's identity and all kinds of shit. He's apparently a business law genius and uses it to screw the fuck out of people via business.

Jason just dropped off the kids at the pool and now we're going to hang with Shawn Tuthill.

12:43am

Picked up Bryce and met Shawn and his girl Sarah at a cold bar with a loud band and lots of TVs. We watched a lot of X Games BMX and motorbike stunts. Some amazing stuff on there with double back flips and no hand 900 on a 1/2 pipe. Even the transitions between stunts were stunts in themselves. Incredible stuff.

Shawn's glass slipped and broke on the table. Sarah flirted a new drink from the bartender. Jason and Bryce saw two girl friends from junior high and hung out with them. Shawn, Sarah and I left and they dropped me off at Jason's house.

I gave Shawn two catalogs from Tuthill Motors, which I got from Dennis' work when he was throwing away a lot of competitive literature.

Shower for me and then bed.

1:17am

And by "bed," I mean Jason and I are now watching Dogma.

3:27am

Such a great movie. Kevin Smith rules. Jason fell asleep pretty quickly. This is my second time to see the movie, and I remember 1 or 2 lines I thought were really funny.

"That means Bethany is part black?"

and something else, but I don't remember it.

The end credits are on now.

"Sit down and pay your respects!"

Aw man, that's the one line they featured. I really liked it too.