Bomb treat at school, Weird dreams, Phones, and More Assholes in Cars

           Normally, if I had a choice I would prefer not to dream. I find them to be uncontrolled and annoying but last night was different, I didn't have a 'happy' dream it was just odd enough to question what was really going on in my head. I understand you can not dream of anyone you have never seen before so these people must of passed me by at some point but they seemed to be my friends. They all seemed to be a bunch of recent college graduate yuppies that had become extremely fond of having my friend and I around, one girl in particular. The friend that was with me was a friend of mine from Richmond who is a tattoo artist, the image of him I kept getting was him answering this phone in a hotel hallways and trying to inform the person on the other line that the hotel did not have a lobby, as soon as he says this the man on the other line says "oh really?"Then the fire alarm goes off in the building and I realize that it is my actual alarm clock. The farthest back I can remember of events in this dream are at a wedding for a couple that is friends with all the recently new friends I have. I was not friends with any of them yet, but that friendship is about to spark right after the wedding pictures are being taken and the couple getting married are complete assholes. As I am walking away from that in the dark there are people all around me and I just say randomly "wow this is why I hope I'm sterile," she laughs and agrees. I do not intend to analyze this dream and find out what it means I just thought it was more strange and vivid than usual.

          Phone broke this weekend, just the touch screen though, I can still see whats on it and that I have messages and calls but I can not do anything about it. Since I haven't been working for over 2 months now I don't have the Bones to go buy a new smart phone unless my old roommate sends me the money he owes me. He isn't the most advanced specimen of the human race so asking him to use paypal to send me my money if like asking a 4 year old the volume of a sphere. However I am going to start working this week, FINALLY, all weekend. Just to know there is money on the way is satisfying enough, even thought I should probably put in my paid time off just for a security blanket, oh, and for all the shit I have to pay for. My life is like a small sail boat, when things are going well and the wind is in my sail everything is great but recently it seems like iv'e been sprouting holes in my hull and money is the only thing that will plug it. Well I am out of money, have been for a minute now, and I am going insane because of it. Iv'e been working full time and supporting myself for a while now and now agreed to go back to school and drop down to part time to accommodate the time I will need for class and studying. I guess I am just not used to being this broke.

          Enough whiny college student bullshit, weather has been great for riding lately. Went to class this morning and took my final for a math class that had to of been the easiest test Iv'e taken and no where close to as hard as the homework. Rode the bmx bike out there without my backpack so that I could go through town and have some fun afterwords on campus and check out the locations of the local tattoo shops. Ever since I was hit by the car this time I have been extremely paranoid of the Coffin drivers and how poorly they pay attention to what is around them. I have been hit by cars before in various ways and never had this sense of mistrust towards fellow human beings, but when they're driving 2 ton anvils I guess I should always mistrust their judgement and sense of awareness. This town is a hugely bike friendly place in certain areas, others are a deathtrap of speeding cars and ineffective individuals paying more close attention to their phone than to the unprotected, fully exposed living thing on 2 wheels less that 2 feet from their passenger door. Which if you did not know the law in VA for passing a bicycle is 2 feet which is extremely uncomfortable if you have ever had a car fly past you at 55 while you're sweating through your shirt climbing up a hill. Recently I have been able to reach out and touch some of the cars that have been passing me, which is way too close, even though I have a 6'7" arm span.

Carytown Bikes in Richmond made this,

I think it is a great idea to remind people that the person on that bike have a family an people who care about them. 

This week is nuts

              This week has thrown every possible thing at me to deter me from my path, but I follow the rules of leave no trace and there will be no trail blazing. I am done with classes for the week which just means that its time to bear down and get my home work done. I can not say that I have ever had this much work to do, but I am not worried about it, it is all just busy work.

              Let me get back to my week, Tuesday I got out of class and had to go to a meeting with the store manager at my job. I wasn't exactly nervous, just curious as to what information he needed from me to allow my transfer from another store to process and further more clear me to start working. Well, it seemed that all he wanted to do was bring up things that I had taken the blame for when they were not entirely my fault, worst of all it was over a year ago that these isolated events occurred but they were already expunged from my work record. I leave my meeting after proving all of his doubts to be feeble in an extremely sour mood, I just could not understand how he thought he had the right to question those things. On top of that question my ability to do my job when most of the time I do at least 2 other peoples jobs as well. water under the bridge now, so I left mad which is rare for me recently and knew I needed to go blow off some steam and ride my bike. I get home, change, grab my 20" BMX and start peddling as fast as I can towards anything that I could jump over or off.

             This was working, I was feeling so much better, so much like nothing could hurt me and that my mind was clear. However I stayed out later than expected and it got dark. I was not far from home, maybe a little more than a mile, so I start on my way home with Brody from the Distillers screaming out of my earbuds. I am on the sidewalk coming around a turn, hop of the curb, and start heading for the intersection ahead of me. Yes, I checked over my should to make sure there was no traffic. Well the woman in the car at the stop sign on the street to right of me didn't, or she did not see me (I'm going with the later). Luckily she was probably going about 10 mph, yes rolling through the stop sign, when she hit me.

              I go rolling, she comes to an abrupt halt, bike goes flying. Only thought going through my head is the famous family curse "SHIT," so I get up, pick up my bike, and toss it as far as my skinny arms will allow me to. Brody is still in my ear, I cant feel any pain, the woman in the car is hollering at me but all I can see is her mouth moving. I rip out my now almost torn earbuds, and ask her if she even saw the stop sign, I am screaming, she's crying telling me she is sick, and exhausted and got called back into work. I'm not exactly screaming anymore at this point but I started to feel like a parent when their kids gets their first driving infraction. Also the is balling her eyes out and I could not keep putting her down about why she was even driving if she was sick and exhausted and obviously not alert enough. So she gives me a ride home, I get her phone number, not for insurance purposes but because she is going to make me dinner. Bike is fine, I am fine except for a could minor patches of road rash and a bruised hip and shoulder, this pour girl is still texting me to make sure I am okay, and I'm not mad about it. What can I say, she was cute, even crying.

              Wake up the next morning more sore than I have ever been in my life and walking with a gait in my step. Popped some ibuprofin, ate breakfast, and got on my road bike to be on my way to school. I make it to the same intersection that I got hit at the night before and my bike decides to throw 2 rear spokes on the drive side close enough together that my wheel locks up. 45 minutes till class. Change shoes, pick up bike, start walking home. I get home, change my shoes, dump the extra stuff out of my backpack that I do not need and run out the door with my BMX that I was hit on the night before with 25 minutes till class. This is what we call pure desperation if you knew how short the elevation change is at PVCC from rt20. Made it to class 5 minutes early, which means I made it to the school in the same time it takes me on my road bike. I couldn't fix my spokes last night so I had to do it again today at 8:30 this morning. Funny thing is that even sitting here typing this when my body is bruised, bloody, and exhausted I still really only want to ride.

Forgot I had nothing for breakfast

               Woke up this morning later than intended, around 10 am. Went downstairs to make some coffee and to make my normal morning bowl of oatmeal, started my coffee like normal, went to the cabinet and grabbed a bowl but then couldn't find the oatmeal. Oh yea... I'm out of that, well looks like a Clif bar for breakfast kind of day. Kind of made this day drag on more than Mondays already do. 3 classes on Monday starting at 2, another at 5, then the last one at 7 that doesn't end till 10 pm. It never fails though that every Monday on the way to school, while listening to music on my phone commuting on my bike, Manic Monday by the Bangles plays while my android shuffles through the immense variety of music it has to choose from.

               The reason I forgot that I was out of my precious oatmeal was because on Thursday night I made my way back to Richmond for the weekend to take care of a couple things and relax. Got home Thursday and spent some time catching up with my parents, spoiling my dog with scratches, and of course raiding their fridge to make a giant late night snack/2nd dinner. Woke up early Friday morning to get down to the city and walked around till my really good friend got off work, then rode bikes around with him for an hour or two while the sun went down since I did not bring mine back from Cville. That night we had made plans to go to a cookout at my former bosses house, well he was planning on going and after hearing that she was having a cookout I decided that I would pop in and say hello to everyone from work that I had not seen in a few months. I have not laughed that much in a few months and the hospitality was amazing, so was the food but that wouldn't need to be said if you know the couple who was throwing the cookout.

              Saturday morning is what I had been looking forward to since Thursday night. After deciding to retreat to Richmond for the weekend I received a call from my friend (different one than the one listed above) that I used to run a Moped shop with that he was clearing out the shop and I needed to come and get my stuff out of it. Well I had been trying to get my bike and things out of the shop for months now but he just had a little girl and was starting a new job so I gave him a little slack on not being able to let me in the shop. When I say shop, what I mean is a garage he rented from a former neighbor of his that he only had a key to, not the smartest business plan on my part to leave my valuables in a place where I had no access to them. However, I got my things and headed back to my parents house. I spent all day Saturday tearing my 80's Puch Maxi apart, rewiring it, and trying to solve the problems it was having. This is what I love to do though, and mopeds are just beyond fun, but what they say is true. Mopeds Mo-problems.

             Back in Cville now, out of oatmeal, have a few more bits of homework left to complete, but after the amazing weekend I had I am more than happy to be slammed with a little bit of work for a few hours.

Oh one more thing, if you like Turbonegro, the Norwegian Punk band as much as I do and would like to be part of an awesome community of similar people please contact me about the Turbojugend that I have started in Charlottesville. 

www.turbojugend.org

Taking the night off and going to the motorcycle shop.

                   If I cant build a moped at least I can help my roommate put together his motorcycle. Now I say I cant build a new moped, buuuuuuuut that does not mean that I have built enough in my head for ideas. I've got one planned out, not my dream bike but something for next summer. Building one for Cville is going to be a completely different build than for one in Richmond, cant afford to have a weak low end here. I am going to need a strong bottom end and a strong mid to be sure to climb these hills as well as stop and go traffic in the city. I am not too concerned with top speed in this one. Of course I am going to do a Puch, as much as I would like to do a Hobbit or another variated bike I do not know too much about them at the moment and feel more comfortable with Puchs. Seeing as how scooters and mopeds are stolen here quite often due to the mass amount of scooters on UVA campus I want something that is not a step-through so that I have a sold frame to lock up instead of being able to take off the front wheel and bars and slide the bike out of the lock. I am thinking I will get a Free-Spirit frame and put a top tube on it. Don't have a tank idea yet, could be a top tank and run with the fad but Ive got a few original ideas that Ive never seen that I want to do.

                I am the kind of person that can not sit down and not do anything, I need to be wrenching on something or putting a build list together to at least keep me sane and focused. I've finally got time to do this because I made sure to power though a lot of my school work, as well as getting a quiz and a test out of the way. Got a 95 on one and a 100 on math which is amazing because I had to reteach myself algebra, which I was never really good at, In one night when it took me 2 years to learn the stuff originally and 6 years to forget it all.


                                                           
                                 

Short catch up from the weekend.

Sitting in the hallway at school waiting for economics to start, still sweating from the ride here but feeling really good about it. Made it here 2 gears lower and 5 minutes faster than last week, 20% increase is pretty good after just a week of consistently commuting to school.  Got to get away this weekend as well though, met the family out in pearisburg at woodshole to enjoy the mountains and a few short day hikes. It would be nice to be able to do things like that every few weekends but with both work and school it seems like those kind of getaways are going to before more and more rare. On an awesome note though I stopped at a goodwill on my way out of town Friday and found a flannel lined jean jacket to make another vest for 3 bucks...  On top of all of that I think I am finally gaining weight back and actually had to move up a belt size. Being a skinny guy with a bottomless pit of a stomach its nice to finally see some improvement and results from sch a short amount of time spent back in the saddle. This is my first post from my tablet so I really didn't have shit to as, just wanted to see how it worked, glad I could waste a few minutes of your busy life with my boring ranting haha