East Bay Bike Party

On April 14 I wrote that the day before, in the afternoon, I made Ride to Larkspur fliers and tidied before going to the apartment to get some time to myself. I grab the beers and ate leftovers before putting on my tweed jacket and catching a train to West Oakland. I was going to East Bay Bike Party.

I saw a lot of regulars. At first I gave flyers to people who had whiskey that I knew. Some of the people I sort of knew but later I just gave them to everybody. The ride zigged West Oakland and zagged into downtown before skirting Jacqueline and square for Embarcadero.

We ended up at the pure that they go to a lot. The party was nice. It was dominated by Scraper Bike Team – they were leading the ride. I walked around giving flyers to people and saw a lot of good friends. I hung out with one of them until the ride moved.

We headed towards Embarcadero and out towards Fruitvale. We ended up at Chavez Park. I like that one. I had a borrow a beer and hung out with the guy that always shows up late. We discussed urban planning. We went looking for the pianist but he was missing. I saw that the guys were leaving though so we headed to Fruitvale BART.

On the way up to the platform I slipped and the bike hit me in the mouth. I was really troubled. I asked random people for a tissue and while stopping the blood I went and found the guys. They saw I was bloody and did what they could to comfort me.

On the train the blood stopped flowing but my front tooth was chipped – I was really bummed. There was blood on my jacket and I texted my friend-she ho was having trouble sleeping. When I got home I did what I could to stop blood and went to bed at 11:30.

In the morning of the day that I wrote this I was worried I would be late to meet one of my cycling companions – we had agreed to go on a ride together. However, I was relieved to find out I was up with an hour to spare. My friend went to the coffee shop and when she returned I headed to BART.

My acquaintance was bummed when he saw my tooth but basically said that the same had happened to him. We boarded the Pittsburgh Bay point train after some discussion and rode it to Rockridge. We talked about stuff to a guy having quiet time on his way to Oakland from SFO.

At Rockridge the two of us made small talk about housing policy over coffee. I insisted we get useless biking items at the shop. Then we rode up to Broadway and onward to Lake Temescal. There we had some water and continued. He noted the place was a bit like Maryland. I pointed out signs of faulting.

We crossed 13 and wandered to Montclair center. Only a couple of motorists were rude. We stopped at the bike shop and climbed onto the Shepherd Canyon Bike Path. We stopped at each information panel. At Gunn I showed him where the old train tunnel was - now retaining wall behind the house at that corner. Then we climbed Saroni to Arrowhead and on to the top.

We hung out for a bit and chatted with some people and took a picture of Mount Diablo. As we weren’t certain about continuing on to Lafayette, we got ready and descended to Montclair again - a ride which could’ve been super crazy but we deliberately went slow.

We said and have some coffee and talked about science fiction. Later we returned to Rockridge and then caught the first train. We rode Valencia to the empanada place and he told me about his job. I had a beer.

When I said bye to him I brought empanadas to my friend. She had been quietly at the apartment all day and wanted to get loud at the park – she left me alone for three hours. I tidied and considered the evening. When she got back I finished tidying and tried to help her wind the house down but she had to go outside so I did it as normal.

This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.

Look for Eggs

On 2 April I wrote that the saturday before I had finished writing at nearly 10 after having a meal of pancakes and bacon. My sister came over a little later and we all got ready to go to to the coffee shop. I saw an old high school classmate on the way and my friend saw and old

coworker.

The coffee was great and we made sure the owners knew it before we walked to the west playground and found my brother waiting for us. I enjoyed myself and about 45 minutes later and we headed back to the house. I started quiet time and was alone for an hour. When I got back upstairs my brother was having a lot of problems emailing a large video to his wife.

We spoke about it and I agreed to walk to the park with the my nibblings. He said he would try and get things done at the library. My friend wanted to come with me. We brought red wagon and the walk was fun. The park was better but my friend left halfway through.

When we were finished at the park my brother had returned from the library but had not accomplished much. My friend had made a meal and my nephew ordered pizza. We ate for a while and then my brother took the bus to my sister’s house.

My mom had gone to church. My friend and and I wound the house down and tidied. She had been having a lot of trouble that day. We went to the beer place next to the morning's coffee shop.  My brother texted as she was calling it a night so I walked to a bar and met him. We had a beer and I went to bed.

Sunday morning I was awake at like 830. My brother was about to drive out of state. I enjoyed the morning after he left but at 10:30 I slacked off. By 11 my friend was having quiet time. I was only able to have 45 minutes alone before my sister showed up. We hung out in the living room for going to the yard to look for eggs.

After that we went upstairs and had lunch. My friend returned to the yard around two and by four we had started walking to the south playground. That was fun. My sister and niece said bye and my friend and I and we walked back to the house. A short while later she ran off with her old coworker then.

I did what needed to be done until 630 and then she returned. We wound the house down and later we went to the living room and hung out with mom and dad. We watched an X-Men movie.

This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.

We saw Angel Island.

On 25 March I took the bikes down and got ready for our trip and for the next two hours made sure the dishes were done and some laundry run. We packed in the front room and eventually brought the bikes down. We texted our companions. Market was strangely easy.

At the ferry the coffee took too long and our companions were waiting at the gate. We parked downstairs on the boat. It was a different deal for this trip going out. I noted that there were lots of happy noises and views of the bay. I was full of energy and voiced as much. People around the boat introduce themselves to us. We drank our coffee and we played catch-up. My friend had seen them only the day before. We saw Angel Island.

We descended to the bikes and quietly packed before being the first to disembark. We fixed our stuff at the waterfront and headed to the local park near the library. Me and one of our companions quietly ducked out and went to Cibo for coffee. We talked about doing taxes.

I got some fresh air while the others hung out at the park. Later we packed up and rode past the baby model. The tall ship installation had been dismantled. We went to a grocer where I got sparkly wine. It was quiet time as we rode through the marshes. One of our companions had a pretty strong recollection of many parts of the ride – it turned out later they had gone from Sausalito to Tiburon.

When we got to the park on the marsh the ladies did a bunch of circling while I unpacked at the picnic tables. We settled in then for a picnic. There was a bag of goodies I quietly looked through. It had obviously been left in the rain the night before. We ate the cheese and sandwiches we had brought. We also drank the wine I had brought. The park nearby was awesome.

A little later we headed up the old railroad right-of-way near Lomita. Horsehill was work and I was surprised my friend had to walk her bike. Our companions were having trouble but they made it up the hill easy. At the top they waited for each other.

After meadowsweet the ride became a challenge. The ride up to this point had been easy but everyone was awake and working hard so we went really fast. At Tamalpais we turned into the Lakeshore Drive neighborhood. It was about a mile of silent riding through the streets when we crossed the bike path at Miller and entered Larkspur. My friend wanted to know why we didn’t use the bike path.

We crossed the bridge over Corte Madera Creek on Bon Aire. We found a spot with an all right view and rested for a little bit before we headed to the boat. While waiting to board I noted that the ride had been great. Our companions said they had enjoyed themselves. On the boat I got us drinks.

This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.

His Cuckoo Clocks

On March 11 I wrote that I woke up after a full night sleep at seven. I thought my friend had gone but I could hear her in the front room. Later I realized it was actually 8 and daylight savings time. I prepared the leftover baked eggs and a carafe of coffee. At 1030 we got our equipment our and walked through Sunday Streets to the coffee shop on 18th and Valencia.

On the way we saw the bike advocates and someone mistook my friend for a well known bike fashion personality. I also said hi to a couple of people I knew that ride bikes. At the café we sat outside and quietly ate our monster pastries before heading to Mission Playground. We watched soccer and cheered on some random mom’s kid. Later, after we returned to the apartment for quiet time, I was sad to be home while Sunday Streets was still going on. However, I fell asleep while playing Minesweeper.

I awoke shortly before my riding partner texted so I told my friend, who had just returned from a run, and walked up Valencia to meet him. I saw a lot of people I knew before we settled in at the South American Bar. We talked about relationships and I was frank with him about his ex. I told the bartender that he was going to have to change the time on all twelve of his cuckoo clocks. We were joined by his roomate and we talked for a bit.

Later I heard my friend was going to Mission Playground again so I said goodbye to the guys and went to meet her. She had an appointment for a haircut so I took over.

This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.