oh man, how could i not do this. boston, july 15th:

thursday night was possibly the most eventful .83 night in recent memory, both in terms of fun and in terms of drama. i spent the day riding around running errands and picking up parts to fix the broken brake bolt on the fixie, got ‘r dun and then made it down to mobius to meet up with the crew. by the time we all arrived at westlake it was just about flawless – the weather was beautiful and we had amassed a sizeable crowd of riders. florangela davila from the seattle times was even on hand to interview us for an upcoming story on fixed gear culture, which we of course tried to push towards a discussion of the recent increase in hit and run “accidents” as well as harassment from irate motorists. hopefully our friendly, jovial, and egalitarian attitude will be reflected, rather than the idea that cyclists are arrogant elitists. (well, i mean, i am, but i can fake it.)

after talking to her for some time, our group finally gained momentum and headed down first out towards west seattle for a little ride along alki to lincoln park. en route we convinced a rider heading home into the city to swing around and join us. after a good deal of chatting and a few beers at alki, we continued along when things started going a little pear shaped. a van was behind us honking and being belligerent – fair enough, he didn’t expect to see this much traffic out on a thursday evening, but it’s a quiet road and he could pass – we gave him plenty of room. instead he pulled into the middle of the group and started yelling at me. which was good and well, until he hit joby.

yeah, joby. this guy:

yes, that’s how he really dresses every time he rides a bike, too. ruins every nighttime photo that he gets into. the guy wasn’t paying attention, was too busy being angry and CRACK ran right into joby’s bike, throwing him to the ground and tacoing the rear wheel. that was pretty bad. when he started to drive away, well… we had to physically restrain some folks to keep them from bashing in his car with u-locks while we surrounded him and raz called the police. turns out the driver had previously had his license revoked for having a dui. we gave our statements and then headed up the hill to aaron’s bike repair. joby got a ride from seattle’s finest, and we set about trying to determine if his whole bike was totaled or not. eventually it got late, and with a stop at the grand central bread dumpster for some delicious campagnolo and bolo roll resupplying it was time to go home.

friday came then and my legs were weary, but nobody was interested in greek food so i went and did the wa legal weight loss program alleycat. it was a pretty serious race, hard enough that only four or five folks actually completed all six (!) manifests. really the checkpoints wouldn’t have been so hard except they kept sending you back to the same places which just gets tedious and there is little to do but grind back up the hill every single time. i made some bad route choices here and there and had to consult my map more than once – which was probably for the best since it gave my legs a rest. in all i covered 18 miles all over downtown. i dawdled a bit and didn’t get every checkpoint but came in quick enough to score one of the original esp t-shirts from cadence clothing. sure it’s printed on the inside of a used t-shirt, but it’s a pimp design and i won it fair and square.

this week looks like it’s more of the same – tuesday and thursday point83 rides should be a blast, and then friday is critical mass and the greenlake race. will denny defend his amazing trophy? my current plan is to bring out my road bike and try to pull it off this month, i long for a quaff of beer from that magnificent artifact. plus it would look stunning on the mantle of the blakeley. win or lose, next week will be the best though – daylight saving time kicks in and suddenly it’s still light at 730pm. oh beautiful.

fun fact for those of you who like to play along with the lee-drama game at home: st. patrick’s day featured not only all kinds of fun and frivolity, but also was attended by basically every lady i’ve had a crush on since about 1999. there were a few notable exceptions, but the truth of the matter is we’ll likely never know what happened to the pizza ragazzi pizza girl, woah-hoh-o, my pizza girl. and honestly, i can’t very well expect pam beesly to show up, what with her being a fictional character and all.

i’m not sure what that says about me, ultimately? perhaps nothing.