Trying to Finish It Off

...(meanwhile, back at the ranch) Sept 22 sometime after 9pm and we all had our prizes from the alley cat race, we headed to the Velomutation party at 2nd & Manitoba (the party was supposed to be at Pedal Play's place, but somehow the fire dept. heard about it and came for a surprise inspection of the venue. They nixed it. So it had to be held somewhere else.). The good news about the new venue was that it would be better for the performances and more room in general, the bad news that this place would be keeping ALL the monies generated by the bar. Since it was a PEDAL fundraiser, this was bad news indeed (at least the gate receipts wouldn't too bad). The idea hatched by many was a significant BYOB element and bar boycott. Unfortunately the venue operator had other ideas. We got the word shortly before heading to the party that there was a bag-check at the door. After socialising for awhile without, I went within. There were 2 different rooms with music, one of them was the one with the bar. The other was dance/performance area for our purposes, but it was just a big empty warehouse area, decorated with bike-themed items. There really isn't too much to say about the party, other than it was great, so were the performances, and I was struggling to stay awake as I had been up for about 40 hrs. Ok, it was about 39.5 at the start of the party, and 44 when I left. I rode to Anna's place to crash for a bit before riding to work. When she saw that I came on the mini, she was shocked. Anna (and a belated thank-you for the concern) had been trying to get me to come back with her for about an hour because I looked about to collapse (so she said, and I have no reason to doubt her). I think she was afraid I wouldn't be able to make it to her place (near Knight & Kingsway) without some serious mishap. But we did, in quite good time, and I zonked out promptly (arrived 0240, lights out 0245, and I guess asleep 0250). I was a little worried about waking up as I had forgotten previously to charge my phone and thus the battery was dead. My only working alarm (ever since I changed the battery in my watch, its alarm won't work?) had no juice, I was seriously sleep deprived, and needed to be up in 2 hours. I figured I would need an hour to get to work, the extra time due to lethargy, the cold, not being able to ride quickly for fear of irreparably damaging my seatpost (which bent a bit during the Alley Cat), plus I was going to go Oak St rather than Knight St bridge (less elevation climbing). Amazingly enough, I woke up just at the right time, and was out the door at 0500. I didn't have my jacket, nor arm nor leg warmers, and it was chilly and the air damp outside. I snitched a plastic bag from Anna's recycling and put it inside my jersey to cut down on the wind chill. I really wanted a newspaper for the job (insulation as well as windbreaking), but all I could see were the damp/wet ones outside. Not what I wanted. After stopping at the Mohawk in Richmond for milk for my breakfast cereal, I arrived at work right on time.

After work, which was the same old stuff, and fairly busy but not too bad, I headed North again on the mini. Unfortunately I was delayed a little leaving, by about 25 mins (I forget why), and was going as quickly as I dared considering the seatpost. I stopped at Himalaya Restaurant on Main by 49th for some samose (plural of 'samosa') for my afternoon's food supply. I did have some fun on the ride, zipping down Main northward from about King Ed, past stopped traffic and such, bombing down the hill from 12th to 2nd. When I got to the vicinity of the Via rail station I made a few phone calls to contact those going on the "Alpine Bombtastic" down Mount Seymour. No luck. Just hope that they are sufficiently behind schedule to catch them

(more tomorrow)