licking/skitching

Licking:

I was given a lunch break at around 2:00 today. I'd just cleaned up (dropped off my last package) at the Getty's, so I decided to cruise down Divisadero and look for something that struck my fancy.

First though I popped into Fresh Air Cycles to ask the mechanic's advice about a recent problem I'd been having with my bike. When I was talking to the guy, the shop dog walked over and started licking my leg.

I guess he liked the flavor - sort of a taste of the city. At first I was going to shoo him away, but you know what, it felt good, dude! I think I'm going to start dropping by regularly. It's a win/win for me and the dog. I mean, it was ridiculous. The dog would not stop licking. OCDog.

The mechanic confirmed that the reason my chain was slipping was due to my whole drive train being worn the fuck out, not any specific issue. Earlier at the statue I'd gotten a few arcane tips - "your chain is too long" and, the "pauls1 in your cassette are worn." But really it's just that I've put too many miles on these parts.

Then I went further down Divis and got a lamb shwarma that was too big and too expensive. After lunch I was bushed and went outside to look for a place to nap for a minute. Seeing no perfect spots, I walked around the corner and lay down on the sidewalk near a driveway. At one point I opened my eyes to see a homeless guy glance at me over his shoulder as he walked by with a look that seemed to say "what's this motherfucker doing in my territory - oh wait, he's not a bum" which led me to ponder my position in the world for a second.

Just as I was wishing I'd taken a picture of that dog licking my leg because, despite what you've just read, I thought it would make a good blog entry, I noticed that I'd somehow spilled some shwarma juice on my calf and hadn't noticed. What a shame, the dog would have loved that. Then I remembered I left my water bottle at the shop so after checking back in and getting a tag on Shrader, I headed back to the shop. But for whatever reason, the dog wasn't feeling my leg this time. I had to go anyway.

Skitching:

As the weather gets better, I find myself skitching more often. Skitching is when you grab onto a car (or other type of vehicle as you'll see below) and let it pull you along. I don't like the term either. It reminds me of this:

Remember when that game came out on the Genesis? I do. I was in Jr. High and rollerblading everyday.

Skitching can save time and energy. Yesterday I'd just dropped off another bag of cookies at the Magic Theatre in Fort Mason and was holding a Dede Wilsey (2500 block of Jackson). That means the most direct route would have me climbing some of the steepest hillage in the city. The easier way would be to double back to Van Ness and head up Pacific then cut over to Jackson at some point, but that would take time as it's out of the way. What I did was grab onto the door handle of a black Explorer and get pulled all the way from Filbert to the top of Fillmore. Somewhere around Green the driver saw me and gave the "thumbs up" which is about the best possible skitch scenario2.

Saving time, saving energy.

Today I skitched up Broadway from Battery on the back of this:

At the light, the driver gave me a "c'mon man, are you serious?" type of look, to which I responded with a "dude, please?" sort of look and he took off, grudgingly. And slowly. Those things don't go that fast. But you see, I didn't have to pedal up the hill, so who wins? Me.

This is from today:


So is this3:

This is also from today:

I don't think I've ever done this before, but I saw this wrapped in tinfoil lying on the ground at 1 EC when I was picking up a Getty tag. I mean, it was wrapped in tinfoil, right? I was hungry (before lunch). It was still warm. I thought, "maybe a tamale?". It ended up being just a bunch of flower tortillas, like at least 8 thick. But good ones!


1: I don't know either. Pauls? No idea.
2: Actually, later that day, I was skitching down the Embarcadero and at a red light the passenger offered me a hit off his joint!
3: Even dumber than skitching, is taking these pictures. It means I have no hands on my bike when I'm taking the snapshot, so if the light suddenly changed, I'd be retarded. So there will be no more pictures like this.