On Tuesday I'm rushing home to lift weights and do shopping before the resourcescout meeting. I'm riding along at about 80 or 85 mph and coming up on a slower car. I decide to make it a fun pass and I put in a microburst of speed up to about 100 mph to make the pass. When I complete the pass I look in my rearview mirrors and see two motorcycles coming up to me. Cool - pack riding. But I look again and realize that these are police motorcycles. I very carefully drift down towards 80 or 85 mph again - not wanting to make any sudden speed changes. The police officers stay behind me as I hold a constant ~80 mph. This goes on for a few miles until one police motorcycle breaks off and heads for the freeway interchange and the other creeps up to me, gives me a slight nod of his head, and speeds up to go on his merry way. There is no mention made of the excessive speed, the illegal turn signals, or the license plate thing.
I dread getting out of bed on Thursday. Not because it is a bicycle commute day, but because it is an anticipated 22 hour day as Person J_VKPI and I have plans to go out and stay out late tonight. The bicycle ride to work goes well. The ride from work is going well also - I'm cranking along with a slight tailwind and making good time. As I'm cranking I pass over some rough train tracks near the Alameda corridor and hear a large snap. "Oh great, there goes a few more rear spokes." And the rear end of the bicycle feels like I've broken some spokes AND have the rear tire going soft. I look down and don't see any obvious broken spokes so I keep going. The bicycle feels wobbly but I'm only a few miles from home. When I get home I inspect each and every rear spoke and see no broken ones. And spinning the wheel doesn't produce any wobble. "Well, I'll just debug it on Saturday's Aquarium ride."
Person J_VKPI speak on the telephone on Thursday night and we both decide that we are too tired to go out. We'll hang out on Saturday night,
Friday night some former ice hockey teammates are having a practice session and I join in. This is the first time that I've played ice hockey in thirteen months. The session goes well and I play well. This was actually a trial where I wanted to see if it might be possible to start playing again. We'll see how sore I am on Saturday and Sunday.
Saturday morning starts with the Aquarium ride. I start out on the mountain bicycle and feel something terribly amiss with the rear end (as expected after Thursday's incident). I continue to ride for a while as I look down at the rear end to debug the problem. Finally I see the problem: The frame, where the longitudinal tube attaches to the rearset has snapped in two! The frame has broken right near a weld. This would certainly explain all of the flexibility on the rear end! (Picture shown below.) Now, unfortunately, we're looking at an expensive solution because there is no reliable way to repair this. I have been looking for an excuse to buy a new mountain bicycle, but it never comes at a good time.
Saturday continues with a session with the weights, a few errands, and an hour nap (as I recover from the late Friday night). I head out for an hour of rollerblading - though uninspired because I'm still physically hung over from the Friday night ice hockey. As I finish Person M_C calls and we agree to meet for desert in an hour.
Person M_C and I split three deserts among us as we talk about careers, life, and S vs C corporations. I drag Person M_C into the resourcescout discussion and he agrees to come and meet the other partners and see what kind of a mess we've gotten into.
After desert is finished I'm heading towards K-Town to pick up Person J_VKPI to head to a club. There's a near-panic stop that I have to make as an SUV runs a red light directly in front of me. I have the brakes of the truck clamped on tight and I'm a bit sideways as I take evasive action. But in the midst of the near-panic I have the thought, "Maybe I should just go ahead and hit the SUV broadside. My truck is old and the SUV is brand new. I'd hit the SUV in the side where there isn't as much strength and stiffness as a head-on for my truck. I'd get a new vehicle out of the process and maybe I'd teach the stupid SUV driver a lesson about red and green." But I make the evasive action and continue on - just a hand gesture letting the SUV driver know what his IQ is.
Person J_VKPI is only 20 minutes late this time. We get to the club and have to wait outside in line as a concert finished prior to us going in. There are a number of acquaintances and friends at the club including Person W. Person J_VKPI asks me, "Who's that?" after I shake hands or hug each and every acquaintance. Person J_VKPI is escpecially interested in Person W with the line of questioning, "Did you two go out?", "How did you meet?", "When did you meet?"
And every answer that I give is, "That's just a friend". But Person J_VKPI wants more details and I prefer to avoid any of the discussions.
When we leave the club Person J_VKPI and I have the second version of "The Talk". This version is a little less conclusive then I would have hoped.
Sunday I sleep in late and hit the weights before running errands. A Formula One race from Monza Italy is missed prior to the afternoon rollerblading session. Just as I'm heading out the door Person M_USC calls and now I have to wait for him to arrive. We rollerblade for about an hour (slower than usual though) as I point out interesting sites along the path. We go back to my house and relax and talk about a few other things.
I call it an early weekend as I'm in bed by 9pm. I want this madness to end.