I decided to just deal with it and go for a ride. It was nice. Until the downpour. And then I nearly broke myself and the bike while carrying it down the basement stairs (clipless shoes do not good walking shoes make).
But the first 5 miles of my ride were quite enjoyable.
Ok. The rain and the clouds and the wind and the generally nasty weather needs to stop for a while. I really want to go for a ride today, but cleaning my bike after a ride in the rain is such a pain in the ass...
I could ride on my trainer down in the basement, but the "drains" down there haven't lately and it's rather ripe. I'm somewhat reluctant to undertake a hard workout whilst breathing in poo fumes (or as a former favorite cartoon character of mine used to call it, 'poo gas' - name the character in the comments section and I'll think you're really cool).
This is the last time I will live in an apartment building this old, and the last time I will rent from this property management company.
Anyway, maybe I'll just get the bike out, cross my fingers for 45 minutes off dry-time, and ride.
There's a guy in Seattle who's been waiting in line FOUR MONTHS to be the first to see Episode III. This strikes me as excessive. I'm excited, too. But I needs my bed and my coffee and my shower and a long list of other creature comforts. I think of this sort of like camping. I hate camping, therefore I don't camp. I figure that we didn't spend generations evolving out of e.g., caves for no reason.
At any rate, Hollywood Stock Exchange (a/k/a my reason-for-being in between class and work), is predicting Episode III will bring in more than $100 million this weekend, and I'm hoping they're right. I'm optioned up to my ears. It's all fake money, so who cares, right? I'm hoping George Lucas has pulled his head out of wherever it was firmly stuck. I mean, hey, Star Wars is his gig, he can do whatever he wants. But if Episodes I and II showed anything, it was that just b/c Lucas can, doesn't mean he should. As long as there's no Jar-Jar, nobody gets hurt.
No matter how lazy I may feel, how broke I may be, and how out of coffee beans my pantry may become, I will never, ever, EVER microwave coffee from last night again. Blecchhhh!!!
Rough duty today. Went to the law school's honors and awards brunch this morning to collect an award. I still don't really know what I did, but it comes with $200, so as long as nobody asks, I'll just take the money and be happy with another item for my resume. I know, I know. That's really jaded of me. Hey, at least I went to the brunch.
The coffee was pretty good. The food looked fine, but I've had bad experiences at 'brunch' before, so I was content with my mug o'joe. A friend said to me, "this is like the Academy Awards, but with lower stakes and less attractive people." Indeed.
It was like drive-by awards - we all lined up and the presenters called our names and made statements based on some permutation of "I'm really/very honored/happy/overjoyed to present this award/certificate/check to X because he/she is such a wonderful/hard-working ..." you get the idea. It reminded me of Mad-Libs - you know, that game where you have a story with missing words and you have to fill in the words according to the prompt under the blank (i.e., adverb, verb, noun, pronoun).
It does strike me as a little strange that we get awarded for things we're supposed to be doing anyway.
At any rate, it was fun to see people all dressed up and excited for the recognition. As for me, I'd prefer my own office and uninterrupted time to work on client matters.
I finally got my bike repaired. A while back I was out for a ride and had to swerve to avoid traffic. I nailed a large crack in the pavement just right and dinged the rim on my bike's rear wheel. The damage wasn't extensive, so I kept riding. I took the bike to several shops and they all agreed: gotta get a new wheel eventually.
So, I rode on it some more, but the rim damage made the bike unstable at higher speeds and also made the rear brake a little sketchy b/c the brake pads didn't make full contact with the deformed rim. I took my bike to a shop yesterday and, as luck would have it, someone had recently upgraded his/her wheel set and left the old (essentially brand new - less than 20 miles on 'em) wheel set behind. Best of all, the wheel set came off a cyclocross bike, which should mean that they're built to withstand a little more punishment than racing rims. I got a deal on some nice wheels, and the bike rides like new.
Madison is in an uproar over Mayor Dave's plans to shut down the city (I use the word loosely) on Halloween. He's tired of drunken destruction and riots breaking out every year. The pro-Halloween groups are saying that kids will be kids, the police provoke problems, etc...The anti-Halloween groups are saying that its wrong to trash private property and tie up police resources, especially when most of the rioters come from out of town.
Here's the deal: people are stupid and Madison is a town. It is not large enough to handle the kind of street parties it has grown notorious for. People in Madison like to blow about how great it is - first class city, what a safe city we have, etc., etc. Reality check! Madison has about 250,000 people. It's having growing pains. In another 10 or 15 years, Madison will be large enough to absorb things like street parties and football games and high school tournaments without shutting down the city.
But for now the party, at least Halloween, needs to stop. Chicago and Milwaukee are both close by. They have bars and streets - go play there. If you think Madison cops are tough, go riot in Milwaukee or Chicago.
