A Curious Sight

I suppose that is a title that could be used for most days to describe me. Today I was a curious sight because I procured a pair of metallic-looking plastic fenders at my favorite used bike place and then rode home with them in my Land's End "professional" briefcase that I got from my favorite uncle for high school graduation and have been using extensively ever since. Only half of the fender fit in the bag so the rear fender started out curved over my head like an iconic halo. Soon, however, because of my height and the flexibility of this thing, it sagged into my face, making me out to be a Jordi La Forge like character. It bonked against my forehead the entire way home and from the expression on most people's faces, it looked like I was being bonked by a heavy metal fender.

I raised the seat on my Schwinn Traveler which was a really good idea. Now I don't have the labia pains that I used to complain of.

I was obsessed last week with finding a good foul weather bicycle that I could potentially crap up. My biking coworker is a hard-core winter fixie fan. I was really curious about it for a while, but this week I decided to try the whole "riding through winter" thing with a Ross Compact that I bought for $20 this week. Maybe next year I will make it a fixie so I have a summer of practice before I'm carreening on icy roads. It has a decent derailler and everything. I put upside-down upright handlebars on it. It is blue with salmon and violet decals. I'm in denial about its salmon decals so I bought bright pink handlebar tape to go with the blue. The faux-metal fenders are for the Ross.

I was entertained today by a young man who came up to me at the Homecoming lunch on the McNamara lawn. I was reading the Women's Press and he came up unexpectedly. He thought that I was someone else but didn't realize it until he squatted down to talk and I looked up. I was friendly (not "why the fuck are you bothering me" or anything) He told me that he thought that he met me at the University Pegging Society. I asked him what that was and he didn't want to tell me. I said he didn't have to and to change the subject he asked me about my shirt. I happened to be wearing my favorite shirt today. My friends and I made it to commemerate the first and only trip taken by a baby elephant on public transportation. You see, in Wuppertal, Germany there is a monorail called the Schwebebahn. My friend and I became intrigued by it a few years about because of the movie "The Princess and the Warrior" The Schwebebahn is suspended over the River Wupper for a number of miles. In 1950, when the circus was in town, they thought that it would be a good idea to take the elephant for a ride on this monorail. It panicked, pushed out the wall of the carriage and jumped out into the river. The elephant was ok and apparently lived until the 1980s, according to the wikipedia article. This guy thought it was cool and got up to say good bye. After he had walked about 10 feet away, he turned around and said, "I'm going to tell my friends about your shirt".