Back In the Saddle

Well, another month, another Critical Mass ride. I was planning on doing the Midnight Mass on Thurs. 28th, but my belated Christmas dinner at Frances' went a little later than anticipated, and I didn't feel like riding with a full stomach, so I didn't go.

During Critical Mass, a cop decided to cause problems while we were on Commercial Drive. Normally they just ignore The Mass, but this guy for some reason decided to block half the road, and when the majority had gone by, he picked one of the stragglers out and stopped him for not wearing a helmet (it turned out to be the guy's 1st day in Vancouver, moving here from Montreal). So Ifny, who happened to be near the back as well, turned back to see what was going on. Although the cops did not see her actually riding, they decided that they would give her a ticket too for being helmetless (she was, however, wearing bunny-ears and an Elmer Fudd cap and was riding a 14" mini, so it was a farcical sight). When she refused to give her name (as they actually had no grounds for detaining her, since they did not see her riding), they called for a Paddy Wagon, hand-cuffed her (she's 5'3" tall), and hauled her away. They later let her out at Clark Dr & E Hastings St. All this nonsence took over 1/2 an hour, "requiring" 4 cop cars, the Paddy Wagon, and 7 cops.

I went to the after party for a while at the Anza Club, but left a few mins after 10pm as I needed to get up early for work.

I got up at 3am (OK, the alarm went off then. I didn't actually get up till 0330. I think my Christmas present from one of the drivers had only just worn off as I was woke up, because I was really tired). I left just about 0403, and the ride was mostly uneventful. I did get a puncture just before getting to the Alex Fraser, so that took 15 mins to fix. This made me 5 mins late (mainly because my tire wasn't fully re-inlated so I couldn't ride quite as fast. My shoulder still doesn't like using the mini-pump. I guess I'll have to do some re-hab type excercises). And upon arrival, the surprise waiting for me was that the schedule got changed (as somebody quit, and things are in a state of flux for a while) and nobody informed me to come in the afternoon shift instead. Ah well, the company will have to recompense me for the error, and I will leave shortly (as the buses are just now starting to run for Saturday service) and do some errands.

The really annoying thing about the new guy leaving, is that he did it just before New Year's. Now I have to work the afternoon/evening of NYE. But the good news is that afer the new new guy is trained, I will get some different shifts so I won't have to ride in if I don't want to. At least that is the plan. Oh well, enough for now.