Stupid Hurts

I’m sitting in one of my favorite lunch spots that the bank execs and help desk guys go to during the day for milk shakes and chicken nuggets. It is the only fast food fast place I know of that they open the door for you and refills your soda at the table. I normally don’t eat there because of the crowd during the short time they are are open, but I had a meeting downtown today. This is one of the best places to eavesdrop during the day. You get to hear gems like; “I didn’t find out it was illegal till later, I have to worry about internal spooks now” and, “do you think she just does coke to fit into those dresses?”

I was also riding the high this morning from getting my name in the paper without breaking any laws or dying a horrible death. This picture was published in the “Seen“ section of the Birmingham Weekly.

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And lastly I managed to bluff my way into a job as a poker dealer. Now if I only knew anything about poker.

I really need to come up with a better name for it. But this is the seventh reiteration of my current bag design. Not the current bag I have made. Unfortunately I lost count of that ages ago. This one has several improvements over my sacred heart bag which thankfully saw lots of use, but unfortunately failed in lots of places.
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The Mark7 was built with strength in mind so all of the seams were rolled over and double stitched. I also tried a few new things with the compression straps this time. I am curious how it holds up over time. In the mean time, I am debating if I am going to be using my sacred heart bag a little less, or if I am going to cut it up and recycle that hardware for my next bag. I know it will be a bit before I embroider anything that detailed, and it is my favorite bag for purely that reason.
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My uncle chose fairly late in the day to tell me he didn’t have anything for me to do so I essentially had a free day for a change. I believe this ruins my weekend plans. But I really shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth. I had felt cooped up lately and wanted to get out, several people had done little for my patience, and this would be my first time to get out and actually ride my bike hard in several weeks. So I made it a point to try and enjoy myself.
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The highlights included the fact I now have a new useless skill. I got called out over the fact I had never ever bother learning how to do “leg over the bar” skids. Which is odd, because I had taught one of the people at the shop I hang out at how to do them. My usual excuse was the fact I ride with bullhorns on my bike, but that wasn’t enough to get me by tonight. So I finally got up and pulled out a few. After learning you are pretty much guaranteed to get your pants leg caught between the bars and your hands if you are wearing wide leg jeans. I revised my strategy and got pretty decent at them fairly quickly. Only later on to hear,“isn’t that hard with bullhorns?” I also proved the fact I can sorta ride in a backwards circle. I just don’t because it is a bicycle and it goes forward.
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I also got to watch a bunch of what I am hoping were drunk cyclist play “Lean on me” in a studio. If they were not drunk, they may have been the back up band. But they are good cyclist, and they did call to check up me while I was in the hospital. I left after getting a phone call from Ben,“ we are in the fountain in Woodruff park!” There is a reason I hang out with him.

And on my way home after splitting up with everyone, I fell down a flight stairs I didn’t see while riding my bicycle.The killing part is that everyone else was drinking and I was sober. The take off wasn’t so bad, but the landing sorta screwed my ankle up.

I ambled up to the registration point trying my best to affect my usual cocky swagger.
“Is this where I register for the Rwanda alleycat?“
”Yeah, but ummmm, you can’t walk.“ Pointing out the fact I had limped up to the place they were sitting, and that I was currently leaning all of my weight on my bike.
”It is ok this isn’t not a foot race.“
”Ok sign the waiver“
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At first I was going to pass on this race due to the torn leg muscle in my left leg thats been giving me grief for the past week or so. But when I got to the start point and started listening to people talk strategy I couldn’t pass on a chance to ride hard. I got out and soon got past the pain, and I was reminded why I love doing this. For the first three check points I paced the guys who would go on to place 1st and 2nd. I think I threw the race away for myself because the guy who came in first ran away from while I was getting my manifest signed at a check point and I passed the guy who came in 2nd when he crashed. I think I should have waited for him to get up. Instead I tried to pace someone else who turned out to not be fast enough for me his 16-17mph to my 20-23, which in the end resulted in me being lost by myself in Candler Park. [newline]

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The after party was pretty awesome. In fact that was one of the best burgers someone has grilled for me in a long time. The Octane coffee shop hosted us in their parking lot. My leg was thoroughly trashed by the time I found a chair, and I was lost from being in an unfamiliar part of town. But, I wouldn’t have changed it. [newline]

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Once it got too cold to hangout outside we saddled up and crashed several other parties before calling it a night. So much for proper post race recovery. I actually didn’t get off my bike till 4 a.m.

Now I just have to repair the damage I did to my road bike.
Looking back.

I basically broke my right shifter, and I can’t find one for less than $200

I can’t believe This didn’t get a post when I finished it. I must have been distracted. I have been saying I have wanted to do a messenger bag with a sacred heart for ages. So I finally did it. This was my first time trying intricate applicate embroidery and I think it came out ok for the most part, I have a few things left to learn, but I did learn a lot in making this one. It did take me longer than any other bag to date to finish, but honestly it is my best bag so far. it did take twice as much fabric as my last bag, but I am still glad with the results.
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A few of my pictures are also hosted over in a Flickr account as well for a little more exposure. Today this picture received a Best Of Magic City nod.

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Take a look at some of the other photos in that group, and you can see why I am proud of the distinction. Getting that also makes me want to get out and take increasingly better pictures.

Thanks.