Stupid Hurts

Looking at my bike, it took the worse of it, but my eye is trying its best to swell shut.

I was leaving a store with Ben when we saw a group of messengers who knew me and told us about a bicycle race that was coming up in a few hours. The race was part of a benefit to raise money for a messenger who had been hit by a car and had his neck broken.  I think some people just need a small excuse to get drunk and some of us just need a small reason to race. Before the race had started some of the guys where already getting started drinking.

The race started with four people. There would have been five, but one of the guys popped both of his tires in the process of getting ready. (Probably a sign you need to stay home.) I was a little unfamiliar with Atlanta so I had a map drawn for me. We got moving and were holding a pretty fast pace. I didn’t feel really good and several times I thought about quitting, but I couldn’t just let myself quit. Somewhere shortly before the third stop I pulled out my manifest so I could check my map, and figure out where I was. I probably should have slowed to below twenty mph. I got hit by another bicyclist in the race who was going to cut through the parking lot I was in front of. I was moving fast enough to hit the ground and slid and have time to think “I hope I don’t slide into that curb.”  Once everything settled I was hoping I didn’t have a seizure on the side of the road, then I thought about my camera since it was in my bag. The other guy who crashed was one a brakeless fixed gear, so there were not a whole lot of moving parts. So once he got stretched out he was able to get moving again. We were both in first so I was hoping he would make, I found out he and someone else caught a flat tire later. So Ben won by default.

I picked up my bike, and was hoping to ride it to the next stop. It didn’t agree with me in the slightest bit. My bike looked like the back of a dress on prom night, There is no happy word it.  Even after adjusting the brakes and screwing with the drivetrain it was obviously not being pedaled anywhere. So I just threw it over my shoulder and started walking to the next stop. I stopped by a Krispy Kreme on the way when blood started getting into my eye, and I have learned people take their doughnuts pretty seriously in Atlanta, and you can get to the front of bathroom line pretty easily when you are dripping blood. It was swarming with people in the Krispy Kreme, and I had never seen someone sit down with the intention of eating an entire box of doughnuts. Apparently this is a fairly common thing.

The worst part of all of this, is the fact I spent a solid hour getting lectured by my dad about racing, crashing and hurting myself on my bicycle a few days ago.

I really want to attend this.
Their statement

This ride, on behalf of the Atlanta Percent for Art Coalition, intends to bring more awareness of local public art to our allies, the urban cyclist. If you see the value of bike friendly and culturally vibrant public spaces, you will enjoy this ride.
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Riders will meet in East Atlanta at the workshop of the SOPO Bike Collective. We will work our way west to downtown and end at Eyedrum Art + Music Gallery in the Old Fourth Ward. North and South boundaries of the route are Highland Ave. and Memorial Dr. A complete map will be made available in print and online April 6th.
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The ride will last 1 1/2 hours and we will cover 10 miles with some steep hills. All riders should wear a helmet. Expect a casually paced, fun and informative ride.

SInce atl recently wowed us with Broken Hearts, let’s show them how we can do things here in Birmingham.

this is being thrown by the Birmingham bicycle company be sure to thank those guys

On a side note, I am also donating my favorite messenger bag as a prize to the fixed winner to make it interesting

I had just gotten my [tag]lucky[/tag] [tag]socks[/tag] on and was tossing stuff into my [tag]backpack[/tag] in an effort to get ready for [tag]work[/tag], and I thought to myself, “I haven’t taken my [tag]camera[/tag] anywhere in a bit.” Well, tonight I am glad I did. (And before anyone even bothers to ask, I really do have a pair of lucky socks, I wonder if my life would be different had I taken them to [tag]Oklahoma[/tag] with me?)
I decided to head into work early. Partly because of the fact I am sick and I wasn’t sure if I was physically capable or getting to work or staying at work, and partly because I wasn’t sure if I even had a job anymore.

Friday night I choose to start celebrating [tag]Halloween[/tag] a little early and went to the 4th annual Witches ball instead of going to work. A bunch of my friends went with me and we even managed to talk my mom into going and having a little fun.[newline]
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I got to see a lot of interesting costumes and well thought out costumes, and a lot of people who were well..just running around half [tag]naked[/tag].
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It was really worth skipping out of work for.

So I went into work tonight and found out due to a scandal that had nothing to do with me directly. No one noticed that I didn’t show up to fill my post last night. I decided there was no real reason for me to point that fact out for anyone.

On the note of upgrading Stupidhurts.org I decided it was best to let well enough be. I looked over the documentation and over the back end code. As my buddy Jake pointed out to me a bit back, this site is held together by spit and love. So if it ain’t broke I really shouldn’t be trying to fix it. Plus I would lose several rarely used but very awesome features like the Stupidhurts map and voicecasting.

The [tag]trees[/tag] were high enough that they towered above me and I couldn’t see the road. The sun played lightly through the branches and painted patterns playfully across the road. The bird songs sounded like symphony. Every [tag]pedal[/tag] stroke rocketed me ahead and my [tag]bicycle[/tag] felt perfect between my legs. But no matter how amazing this scene was I had to accept one simple fact. I was now [tag]lost[/tag].

I was riding to a bicycle shop across town that I never go to because they were the only place in town that had the final parts I needed for my [tag]fixie[/tag]. Instead of sticking to the route I had plotted out on my [tag]map[/tag], I chose to follow the directions given to me by a guy I met on the side of the road on a gorgeous time trial [tag]bike[/tag]. The directions involved cutting across a parking lot and looking for a gate, several really fun hill climbs, and lots of great descents. It turned out to be loads more fun than the route I had originally planned. But unfortunately I had to stop several times and scratch my head while I consulted my map of the area.

I think that road is a secret gemstone among cyclist in the area. Heading back I realized all the signs mark it as a dead end and I think passed more people out on their bicycles on that one stretch than I have seen in the city total.

Eventually I did make my way to the bike shop and my fixed gear is finally built now. I think maybe I will go out and play with it instead of writing more.

Don’t know if anyone noticed but the stupid hurts map was broken, I finally got my sorry ass around to fixing it. Check it out, I think it is sorta cool still.

in my haste I have been forgetting to add map info to my post, that has been fixed now.

check out the map page

As I am sure you can tell, the general site design and layout has changed once again. I am pretty happy with the overall presentation for now so I may stick with it for a bit. If anyone thinks they have a better idea or another way i could try things please don’t hesitate to leave a comment.

Well my first day at the water park turned out interesting enough aside from making sure no one killed themselves I got to watch my trainer go out of his way to harass every single person that came through our line. He even managed to get two Canadian girls to invite us both out to dinner with them. He didn’t go because his girlfriend takes him home from work, and I neglected to go because I am both shy and a prude. Luckily the day went fairly quickly. Which is mainly what I was hoping for when I took the job. Since I only plan on being there for 20-25 more days. I doubt I will have a chance to get bored with the job.

As far as plotting for my cross country trip, I have changed my mind about riding cross country on a bicycle with a carbon-fiber frame after reading a number of reports of catastrophic frame failure after being subjected to impact. Unfortunately since I am very hard on essentially everything I own, and prone to spectacular crashes I can realistically see myself in tears on the side of the road after breaking a 1000 plus dollar bicycle in half. So after four hours of looking and two bike shops later I ended up with this a Motobecane Vent Noir

I will get pics of mine up later when it is light out, I took the chance to ride tonight so it was dark by the time I settled in.

Post ride report
miles:30 or so according to my map (i need a new cycle computer)
number of loaves of bread eaten: 1
number of items dropped: 2 (i miss my little blinky light already, and I don’t need no stinkin map)