Thought Sausage

Well, once again, and for the first time in a long while, your hero is 30,000 feet over the earth somewhere between Las Vegas and San Francisco. We connected in Vegas, which turned out to be a lot less painful than I thought (if you aren't there to party, and just want to get the fuck where you are going, vegas kinda sucks). The past 3 hours I've basically been finalizing a Powerpoint, and reading On a Pale Horse (Piers Anthony...I've been meaning to dig into this series, as I have the whole thing on loan from Natalia). It's actually been since about early October since I was last in San Francisco. This oughta be an interesting encounter, as a lot of those people haven't seen me since i got my tooth fixed, took a pipe upside the head and dropped about 20 pounds. Bringin' Sexy Back!!

God this time of year (post holiday) is a good time to fly. As I type this, I'm sitting in a window seat with NOBODY next to me, other than my bag and the big ipod (Downard Spiral is on repeat for the curious). In the summer, every airline (for the record, the man stuck me on America West this time) crams every flight to the gills with vacationing idiots who prove the theory that humans were not meant to be herd animals. No more does that notion make itself apparent than when you watch 150 or so fat Americans attempt to board or get off a plane. They even TELL you to stand inside a row if you are waiting for somebody or going to put your luggage overhead. This never happens, and the carnival of idiots continues. But I digress... Last year, it seems like I had to travel a ton right around the holidays, and then not so much in January, but then I was everywhere (New York, Boston and San Fran) in Feb/March. This is good stuff. I'd even be up for a red eye or two this time of year (I have an algorithm in my brain that allows me to sleep like a baby on flights, I even took a 10 minute nap before we took off out of Chicago and Vegas).

Since I won't have a pool to speak of (the man has me @ the Palace Hotel in SF this week...very posh, if you're like 80, like velvet ropes, marble, and gold trim) It looks like Butkus and I will be spending our nights running up and down the streets of Union Square. This would be fine if it weren't for the fact that San Francisco is one of the hilliest/curviest cities in the country. It's famous for this. Lombard street is the curviest street in the world (true, look it up). So I guess I'll get to practice my uphill/downhill running this week.....meh.

It seems all this fly has done a number on my lower back. I'm basically in intense pain anytime I bend at the waist. In short, this sucks like a platter full of ass sandwiches. I've tried stretching etc. The coach says it's just something I'll have to put up with until my body gets with the program, but all this get up/get down shit I do when I'm not swimming ain't havin it. Luckily for me, Chinatown happens to be just north of Union Square, so it is quite possible your hero may be heading up to a Vietnamese "spa" to get these knots rubbed out (happy endings? har har!)

Also took Bertha out this morning for her second voyage to swim practice. During that journey, I discovered that the backpedal brake doesn't seem to be calibrated right. It tries to trigger before you push back. That could likely be a result of the burnouts Drew and I did with it in the Dick's Sporting Goods parking lot. Even better is that I have a 2 year service agreement on it, which basically means I get to take it to Dicks and make their tech fix it. That only sucks because I still don't have an effective way of getting bertha out to Dicks, short of riding her. And well, fuck, a 80-100 mile roundtrip on a fucking beach cruiser ain't my idea of a lovely time (that'd be reserved for the roadbike). So it looks like any kind of maintenance on this thing is gonna require I get that bike rack installed first (although it is tempting to take it to gear snobs @ Village Cyclery in Old Town just for the comedic value).

Upon this ride, I decided on another feature for Bertha. She needs a proper cup holder on the handlebar. Capable of holding a "soda" can, "soda" bottle or a "soda" tallboy. I don't know if it's going to be possible for her to hold a "soda" 40oz, but hey, why the fuck do I need all that beer (I mean soda) when I'll have a cooler mounted right behind me? Allz I'm sayin, is a bottle/can cupholder is essential.

Prior to leaving for this flight, I also came upon an unfortunate incongruency. It seems Bertha's tubing isn't standard sizing (crossbar obviously, I'm talking about the stem). I was going to slap a U-Lock bracket on there, but damned if the shims and the bracket aren't small enough. So it's back to the drawing board on that idea (I decided since my mountain bike was going to be relegated to off-road only, Bertha would be getting my best locks). This is going to pose a number of problems because I am going to need a way mount all kinds of odd sized stuff without looking all ghetto. Any ideas?

Tomorrow I have an 8am meeting, and I'm probably not going to get into the city until around 11. I still have yet to steam my suit (they never pack right), and as luck would have it, tomorrow is the day I need it. So chalk this one up to another late night in SF. I'm so happy I could just shit.

UPDATE: Have arrived at the Palace, and it appears they do indeed have a gym (or installed one since I last stayed here). On the 4th floor. I'll check it out tomorrow after work, but hey, if there's a steam room, count me the fuck in.