Rambling Through Santa Cruz

the day ended with me being cat-called by a woman who looked like a lesbian but i smiled nonetheless as i was hauling a trailer uphill and sweaty. "Yeah, slap that ass!" she yelled from the shotgun side of a jeep and left me with a "wooooo!" i've had worse things said to me from people in cars.

the day began with me freeing a damselfly from a cobweb, the spider was taking too long and i guess i felt like saving a damselfly in distress.

in the afternoon i had a nasty exchange with one of the downtown hall monitor snitches, a.k.a. Santa Cruz "hospitality hosts" - she was nice about telling me to not sit on the planter the way people with authority and the full violent power of the state can be; this was after i'd picked up a card table from a friend, stashed it in my trailer, and was taking a break to watch a jug punk band play outside Borders. I told in her so many ways to fuck off and felt bad about it later but then didn't so much.

i rode past a friend on a bike who yelled out "May 1st! May 1st!" A reference to May Day or Beltane or both. I imagine most SC folks will more likely be celebrating 4/20 next week. pity.

i pulled that trailer and table and box of books south on Soquel, saw a friend jogging, pulled over. we chatted about books. she was sweaty, it was nice.

i pulled over to talk to a homeless girl i'd seen at an intersection for a few weeks now. i guess she caught my attention cause' she's young and looks pretty together and i couldn't help but wonder what's her story. between the scream of cars, we chatted briefly, she was upbeat about life though she admitted it was hard out here - people yell shit at her and one person spit on her. only car drivers i tell ya. the cops had already come by and told her to move but she had to come back, this was her spot. i told her about my encounter w/ the "hospitality hosts" of downtown and she laughed. oh, the things other human beings do to each other.

but the cool thing was she said overall lots of folks have been supportive and that the experience gave her hope and a different outlook on humanity. i gave her a dollar, asked if she needed anything, she patted me on the shoulder and said no. i got back on the bike with the trailer and the table and the books and all that bullshit weight of authoritarian assholes in uniforms and callous people in cars and those who are destitute and without power on the margins of society, those margins always seem to be getting smaller, and i hauled it home. it wasn't even 6pm yet...

Bike Riding in Post-Racial Amerika

Portland friend calls me up all flustered. Apparently, he got called the N-word by a dude in a car. The way he tells it, he'd been riding behind some delivery truck in a residential area, the truck came to a stop sign and my friend was gonna hang a left so he pulls to the left of the truck but stays behind to wait for the truck to continue. But the truck don't move.

The truck driver apparently expects mi amigo to pull up ahead and make the turn and so he waits and waits and then starts yelling. Amigo doesn't know what's going on, but the dude in the truck is swearing up a storm, like, "What? you gonna f#$kin' hit me with your bike lock?!!"

Amigo is like, "Um...are you talking to me?"

Truck driver, "Yeah I'm talking to you! GO ALREADY! GO!"

At this point, amigo (who's usually the person to do the fight picking) is nonplussed for as he puts it, "The guy could have put it in reverse and backed over me." So amigo starts moving away from the truck. Truck driver is way agitated now and people are starting to look and gesture to move as it's just a stop sign - That's when yells out, "YOU F@#KIN N*GGER!" and screeches away.

Amigo is like, whoah as he relates this to me over the phone.

I'm like whoah, dude, did he realize you're white?

Amigo: I believe so. I do have a beard now though, I kinda look like Jesus.

Me: I mean, I know you grew up in Peedro so you got soul, but you do also look like a Confederate general when you had your lambchops...

Amigo: I do have a black brother in law...but yeah, the whole thing was weird. The guy was freakin' crazy.

Me: You sure he didn't call you cracka?

Amigo: Nah, I mean, I guess he thought it was the worse thing he could call me. Cracka doesn't have the same gravity.

Me: True dat you cracka ass cracka.

Amigo: Shut yo' Mexican ass up.

* * *

50 Cents Richer

Last night I found myself stitching up my sketchers and trying to clean poo off one of the chickies behinds. The shoes are the main pair I wear with shorts and since it's almost shorts-wearin' season again I gotta patch these puppies up one more time - I swear it feels like I'm living in the corporate equivalent of East Berlin circa 1965, the way these damn shoes keep falling apart, the way everything produced in the world these days seems to break down quickly. Like, the infrared heat lamp I bought for the chickies brooder burned out after a week. *sigh* Maybe I'm just getting poorer...

Anyway, I'm failing at getting the poo off my chicky but it's cool cuz' the vent is technically still clear and she's really not enjoying the bide treatment. The water heater also broke so I got no hot water which means after approximately 2 cumulative hours worth of riding yesterday, I couldn't take a shower. And the $20 bike I bought from the Bike Church at the beginning of this month got sold cuz' I left it there for a week without working on it; and my wool gloves have a gaping hole in the middle finger that I also gotta patch up lest I become a full time hobo; and the Surly cross-check in black I ordered and plan to pay for via a Bike Loan is out of stock, so I'm stuck riding clunkers; but check this out:

Last night while riding back from the pet store w/ another infrared light bulb, I found a quarter - Rhode Island, "the ocean state." Score! Then again this morning, between trying to pull slack wool over my bare middle finger with my teeth, another quarter! This time Colorado - former Cheyenne country. It's been a rough week, but hey, I now got 50 cents more than I had 24 hours ago, I'm reee-atch!

Arana Gulch

Rode out to Arana Gulch late last night to watch the stars and say goodbye. See, it's one of the few places in town within easy riding distance and not a ton of light pollution. At the entrance there was a big sign by the Friends of the Arana Gulch making one last ditch effort to stop the city's plan to pave a bike path through it. The Coastal Commission had met earlier that day and I was all but sure, they'd give the green light for the "development" which was cause for my visit.

And ah, how wonderfully the stars shine! Orion and Leo and Canis Major, vast, epic constellations - The same ones that watched over all those who have come before us. How capricious, how arrogant the street lights seem by comparison. Bah, the ground is muddy and not great for riding but I'm okay with that. I get off my bike and walk, listening to the night birds, watching for shooting stars and the skunk people. I like wild places. I'm okay with sacrificing a little bit of my own convenience for the sake of total freedom.

Arana Gulch, the good folks of People Power want a paved bike path through you. One with little street lights and easy access for pigs to chase me down. I don't know if this is a good thing. Won't the rail trail accomplish the same goal? And yeah, I'm a bicyclist, and I guess I'm suppose to support any bike-oriented development but I just don't, cuz' I can't say riding a bike is the only thing that defines me. I could be wrong though, I could be wrong...

On that note, this morning, the headline from the Sentinel reads: California Coastal Commission delays Arana Gulch vote, asks city to study other option http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/ci_14661492

Chicken Ride

I've hauled a lot of strange things with my bike trailers - lawn chairs, wine barrels (for gardening), and a conga but I think yesterday took the cake. In retrospect, I probably could have used the basket on the Townie for the little peeping box containing 4 baby chickens but you know, new parents are always real protective. So, I clipped on the Burley and made my way to the post-office.

The line is long and I'm annoyed as the postal service drones initially said the package would be delivered to my address but then said I needed to come pick them up. They also had called me from Watsonville and told me a truck wouldn't be out to SC until 2:30 but then I got another call at 1pm saying my package had arrived in SC - WTF? *sigh* Thankfully a mail clerk picked me out of the line, had me sign a slip, and I gently carried my new babies to the Burley and strapped them in. Had I taken streets with less auto traffic (i.e. less noise), I would have been a sight with a baby trailer behind me cheep cheep cheeping.

At home, I search for a proper brooder set up. The heat lamp can't be left on cardboard and I need something as a buffer. (I've also been told baby chicks can fly pretty high so putting a lid on their cage is a good idea). I rummage through the garage, try a myriad of methods, and finally find something that works.

Bike Advocacy Groups Weigh In on Cell Phone Laws

From sfstreetblog.org

"A bill introduced last month by State Senator Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto), who has been a steady advocate for reducing the dangers of distracted driving, would increase first-time and repeat fines for drivers who text while driving or who don’t use hands-free devices, and would extend the prohibition of cell phone use to cyclists. This last move has cycling advocates baffled and on the defensive."

My initial thoughts after reading this piece are it's good to see mainstream bicycle advocates like the California Bicycle Coalition and SF Bicycle Coalition being more than a tad skeptical over Joe Simitian's silly law, even if they use nice measured terms like "premature" and "theoretical risks" versus "actual risks." Why not "excessive" or "superfluous" or "fucking stupid"?

But yeah, it's good to know I'm not completely insane for calling bullshit on Joe Simitian in the first place. I suspect the CBC may get behind this proposal if it gets watered down enough, like, they'll be okay with lesser fines for bicyclists riding w/ cell phones or texting. Hell, they may be fine w/ putting points on one's driving record too.

In which case, I suspect the legal precedent for licensing bicycles will be set. And with it, all the other parasitic industries that follow - insurance companies, dmv registration (though, they'll have to call it the "Department of Motorized and Non-Motorized Vehicles"), and tons of lobbyists. ugh.

I bought a bike.

It would seem fitting that the first and only bicycle I've purchased in my adult life would be a twenty dolla' clunky-ass beach cruiser from the Bike Church. Everything else I own has been a hand-me-down or donation, all of which, were in better shape when I received them than the one I just purchased. It's faded red, with a step through top tube, the tires are cracking, the wheels need truing, the chain isn't too rusty but the chain wheel scrapes the chain stay like grinding teeth. It needs work like a contestant on extreme makeover (this reference is further proof you don't need to watch television to know what's on television...mainly cuz' most americans only talk about what's on television).

Now, you're probably wondering - why buy a crappy slow bike when you already have a bunch of crappy fast ones? Well, it's like this, the crappy fast bikes serve various commuting purposes. The townie has fenders and a basket while the Bridgestone is faster but lacks a rack or fenders (i.e. I have to ride w/ a backback...ugh). And the Trek is for the occasional low-intensity off-roading-get-me-to-the-base-of-a-hiking-trail. But the cruiser, once I bring it up to speed (no pun intended), will be reserved for Burning Man.

For those reading this from the Bay Area, no explanation is needed. If you took UC Davis and wiped out the buildings and all the pavement, erected tents and giant art sculptures, and turned up the heat and music, you'd have Black Rock City, a.k.a. Burning Man - the only "city" in the United States that explicitly states no automobiles allowed on the "streets" - bikes and pedestrians only. Think about that - A place dedicated to moving people via their own body energy (and yeah, I know there are exceptions for the "mutant vehicles" but humor me). If that doesn't say a lot about this fading republic, the fact that Black Rock City only exists for a week out of the year surely does.

And so, the crusty red cruiser will be brought to Black Rock City as a sacrificial lamb. For as the rumors go, the climate there is particularly harsh on a bicycle...as in the dust gets into every orifice and is practically impossible to get out. Well, I got a low-income ticket, and now I have a low-income bicycle. Now I just gotta find a low-income way to get there...