saturday evening i headed over to main street. first, i stopped by sig’s lagoon and picked up a centro-matic cd he’d ordered for me. it’s their latest, the operation motorcide ep. it’s unreleased cuts from the fort recovery sessions (which i will probably purchase sometime in the near future).
from sig’s i went next door to tacos-a-go-go, where i had the taco plate. my selections were the picadillo and the pollo guisado, both on corn tortillas. both were good, but the picadillo (seasoned, ground beef) was excellent. while there, some amazing flashes of lightning started — a precursor to the rain that lasted pretty much the rest of the night.
after the meal, i walked next door to the continental club. there i saw whiskey river revival, followed by scott biram. i liked whiskey river revival. kind of an alt-country act in the vein of maybe hank iii but with more Texas music influence, they had dan johnson on steel. (that guy gets around!) i wasn’t sure what to expect from scott biram. he does a one-man show with an impressive amount of gear onstage surrounding him. he uses a road case (from what i could tell) as a bass drum, and sings through what appeared to be several mics, which had what sounded like varying levels of vocal effects. he was pretty crude, drank, cussed, etc. it was interesting, but i guess overall it’s just not meant to be for me. i stayed until about 1am and then headed back to the house. i guess i should also mention this was the first evening of the city smoking ban. the continental had a big red “no smoking” sign on the front door. there were some interesting conversations throughout the evening about the ban, as well as various smokers standing under the front awning trying to smoke and stay out of the rain.
sunday morning i planned to sleep in, since i was going to miss church to go to brad and kelli’s wedding in galveston, which i had put in my calendar as being at 1pm. my body managed to wake me up earlier than i’d set the alarm, so i contemplated going to church but decided it’d be cutting things too close. i took my time getting ready, and as i was leaving i realized it’d probably be a good idea to have the invitation to look at. it was then i realized the wedding actually wasn’t until 7:30pm. oops. i had already missed 30 or 45 minutes of church, so i decided to not show up for the ending of it. but i had a lot of time suddenly.
so i got in element and headed to border’s to use a 25% off coupon i had. i was originally hoping to use it on a bear family box set, but the two i was interested in (the 2nd bob wills box and the sarg records box) weren’t available in the warehouse so i had to improvise. i ended up using it on the rhino rockin’ bones “1950’s punk & rockabilly” 4-disc set.
from there i headed down kirby to the bike barn in rice village. if you recall, a number of months ago i’d gone and looked at mountain bikes, but ended up dropping it before i made a purchase. i even test rode one then. i ended up talking to the same guy this time, although i doubt he remembers me (and i didn’t mention he’d talked to me before). he talked with me a bit, but then i ended up talking with another guy. we talked for quite a bit, and he had a much more low key personality and i enjoyed the conversation and information. i also didn’t feel rushed or pressured by him at all. i eventually decided i might as well go ahead and jump in, so i bought a bike. he didn’t try to do much in add-on sales (which they evidently are supposed to do), but i ended up asking about various things and bought a few accessories. one thing i did not buy is a helmet. i don’t wear a helmet on my motorcycle, i don’t wear a seatbelt in my pickup — i’m not going to suddenly switch and wear a helmet on a bike. but enough on that. the bike i bought is a gary fisher mountain bike — it’s the 2007 hoo koo e koo (specs).
my hope is that the price i paid will force me to use it, then i will realize how much i enjoy it. because honestly, biking is about the only form of exercise that seems in any way enjoyable. running? ick! walking? boring. weights? painfully repetitious and horribly boring. etc. plus, off-road bike riding has always seemed like it should still be fun. i used to love riding my cheap huffy bmx bike around when i was a kid, i used to ride trail and dirt bikes (motorcycles), and i love riding my cruiser — so this seems like as good a fit for me as any.
from the bike barn, with my newly purchased bike in the back of my element, i headed across the parking lot to fuzzy’s pizza. apparently this one is moving soon, but i managed to get to them before they did. after that, i headed to the gap to try and use a $10 off coupon i had for jeans. unfortunately, nothing both struck my fancy and was available on the shelf in my size so i left empty handed.
i came back home and dropped off my bike, then jumped in the pickup and took off for galveston, and brad and kelli’s wedding.
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failure is not an option. it's a requirement.
Why don’t you wear a helmet when on your motorcycle?
well, on some level it’s a freedom thing. it’s the same reason i’d rather not wear my seatbelt if i don’t want to. and since i currently do have a choice with a helmet, i’d like to take advantage of it.
the bigger reason is that it really is a different experience. riding with a helmet (well, a full face or 3/4) you feel isolated or cut-off from being on a motorcycle. or at least i do. with no helmet, your senses are right there — the sound, the wind, the unaltered feeling of head motion. having your head not surrounded by foam and plastic just makes for a different (and imo better) experience. imagine going for a hike in the woods in a helmet. it’d just change the whole thing.
but that’s me. i’ve got other smaller reasons and qualifiers, but those are the main two.
Thanks for not getting defensive about my question. I was truly curious.
I haven’t ridden a motorcycle since I was a kid. Sounds like a very freeing experience. 🙂