Taking a break from studying. I am near the end of my first semester of the nursing program. There have been moments where I felt that I was Done With This Bullshit, mostly related to instructors who are probably better nurses than teachers.
Anyway…I am a 35 yr old man (still blows my mind). I have spent the last 15 years either in a band or as a bike messenger, both of which I am good at… but messengering only goes so far, and music has a fragile chemistry. At some point it became apparent to me that I wanted/needed to do Something Else- but it had to be something that I could respect myself for, which meant not going to school to learn how to tuck in my shirt and be a desk jockey- I saw enough of what that did to people younger than myself in my days as a messenger. I wanted something useful, and something empowering so that if the shit hit the fan I would keep cool and be a part of making it better. I went back to school and enrolled in the courses for people who haven’t been to school for a while. While shaking off the dust I met a number of people (mostly women) going for nursing. After some talking I thought ‘this fits’. –So, I am Going For It, and have been for 2 yrs. Only 1 1/2 to go.
My point in writing… it is discouraging to come across so much dissatisfaction! I am thankful for those of you who try to turn it around and remind a sinking person that their race isn’t run yet. Those of you who have been around and have the MO of ‘grimace and bear it’ scare me as much as those who are bailing out.
I don’t blame anyone for their feelings… I haven’t even got a clue what it is really like. But seriously, folks… am I just going to be miserable because of administrative issues and attitudes of the staff I work with?
Yes, Of course I must decide for myself how well I perform in this environment. Nevertheless, I keep feeling like I am trying to overcome thoughts about the next 5 years of my life being all rain and uphill pedaling

It's been a month since the last time I even looked at this.  

School has been kicking my ass.  I tell ya hwat (not misspelled), I wish that I was better at this.  My house is trashed.  My bikes need some love.  Songs are half written.  I haven't cooked anything but maintenance meals for 2 months.  

I can't wait until December 12th.

There have been a few good parts to the last few months:

-Got a Townes Van Zandt reissue of his self titled album, walked to the Blue Moon Diner, had beer, heard the A side of the record, then Jim Waive played and acoustic set.

-Got a still sealed copy of Lookout records PUNK USA album (Screeching Weasel, Jawbreaker, Vindictives) and rocked it out.

-New winter rain gear.

-MASS SABBATH, the Worlds Largest Black Sabbath Tribute Band, rocked the IX building here in Charlottesville to the benefit of the Charlottesville Derby Dames.  I was Ozzy.

-Acquired a 'harness' or whatever you call it to play harmonica and guitar at the same time.  Man, is that fun!  I'm no harp player, but it makes up for not having other musicians around.

-Got my picture in the paper for drinking beer.  While at the Blue Mountain Brewery with a good friend, a photographer was there who snapped a few shots of us with our beer samplers.  My tongue is hanging out of my mouth like I am concentrating really hard.

-My sister graduated the nursing program in Houston and is now employed.  Woohoo!!

-Got my ass whooped at a cyclocross race at the IX building.

There have been other good moments, but I can't really remember what I did yesterday due to the fast pace of the nursing program.  Last week is 3 wks ago in nursing student years.  

I will be going home to Htown in a month or so.  Gonna get some spring rolls and some Saint Arnold's beer.  And sleep on the couch at whoever's house.

Well, that's it for now.  Oh, I didnt win, or even make the final, in the songwriting contest I mentioned earlier.  I still like the song, though.  "Build Your Own 6 Pack''.  How could that not win?

Okay, my between losing sleep for school, picking up other people's germs and depositing them into my own mucous membranes, and going up College Drive 4x this week, I am toast.  I am glad, though, to be a part of this Commuter Challenge, and I am looking forward to free beer at Cville Bike and Tri tomorrow.

It's pretty fun knowing that there are a few others out there who are counting every mile.  I wish  had further to go, but then I'd be on the country roads which totally sketch me out.  So if I have to take 5th or 6th place to some lucky riders who happen to have a 10mi commute each way, that's cool.  Nobody is counting joyrides, right?  Not that I have time for them here lately.

I am going to record my newest acoustic punk song on Garageband, "Build Your Own 6 Pak" and send it off to the First Amendment Writes song and poetry writing contest.  I got no response for last year's pro-people, govamint smashing  "One Fist Up", but my alcoholic sad-song ought to do it.  Maybe.

I am hoping to find some time in the next month to demo all the songs I have and try to record at a studio out in Wintergreen called Monkeyclaus.  If this actually happens I'll be stoked.  

Well, that's all for now.

Butch  

It's on, friends!

Hello everybody!  I hope yr all having fun finding out just how much you can get done on a bike here in Cville.  

I tell ya, moving here from Houston the hills don't make commuting any easier.  In fact, upon arriving here I learned about the (fading) novelty of choosing a route based on the amount of knee killing cranking I have to do.  It really killed me at first, bc Houston is flat as a pancake.  When I would stand on the 65th floor observation deck at "The Tower" (Houston messengers' downtown living room) I had a view that was 180 degrees of flatness that lasted until the Earth curved- or was that smog blurring the distance?  

Anyway, I was pretty turned off.  The hills were one thing, but there are also thousands of 1-person-per-car college kids and other offenders choking the streets here in Charlottesville.  I have been almost nailed here many, many times.  Part of it is the ignorance of the drivers- like speeding up to cut me off and make a right turn (a move that had a bad effect on somebody close to me to the tune of emergency room-loss-of-smell-and-taste), people opening doors without looking to see who is coming, people honking so that they can get up to the red light before me.

(By the way- I do not ride like I think the world owes me.  I only use the space I need, I use hand signals, lights at night, I say thank you, I make eye contact, and I only blow lights when I judge it to be safer than the situation I am in at the moment-like, I have get away from this text-messaging car driver.) 

It's not that Houston didn't have these problems.  We probably had more!  But bc it was a big place, and flat, and wide, there were lots of parallel routes one could take that avoided the major arteries but got you there just as fast.  

Having lost that when I came here to Cville was a blow and I didn't handle it well.  Plus, I worked at the Food Whole up on 29 and it was too sketchy to ride on 29, yet I felt it was an insult to ride on the sidewalk.  I had been in the heart of traffic as a messenger for years, and now the sidewalk!  It was stressful and depressing to commute.  Sometimes (more than I like to admit) I would borrow my partner's car and drive.  Which was even more of a downer, bc living on caffeine but never getting to burn it out made my body and mind so out of whack.  And then I would ride out 29 to try and feel good and hate the commute which made me frustrated which would lead to me driving which made me feel unhealthy, etc...

SO...I went home to Houston for a few months, from Dec 07 to July 08.  I got my messenger job back and lived with a vet messenger and his wife and kids who had a house that was just over 9 miles out from the downtown Mach 5 Courier office.  It was great to be back in the saddle and  riding all day.  On the slowest day downtown we still rode 10 miles.  A busy day would be 20.  So with my commute to and from work, and even the slowest work day, I had 30 mile days.  It was awesome!  I ate like a horse with no problem.  All toxins burned out by 11 am.  I did the math assuming the lowest average day (30miles) and figured that between Jan and July I rode just over 4000 miles- not including weekend rides or going out on the weekend, and about 80% of this was on my 2001 Steamroller fixie.  Not bad!

On this trip back home it became clear to me again just how important riding is to my mental and physical health ( and my desire to feel like a badass).  For reasons unrelated to my bike I came back to Charlottesville, but with a different attitude and determination: I will adapt to the riding conditions of this town and I will not be pushed into a car.  I took a job at a smaller health food store in town, so no more 29.  I decided to not lose touch with my fix bc of the hills- I now switch the pedals over almost once a day to stay in touch with my two good friends, the Kona and the Surly.  I get up earlier so that I can leave earlier.  And now that I got my student loan check, I can order full fenders, hooray! 

So my hats off to those of you who were never swayed in the first place to stop riding.  And to those of you who are experimenting with full time bike commuting for the first time.  you can do it!!

My next post I think will be titled 'How the Pros Do It', and I am going to include a list of things that I think can work for everybody who is serious about incorporating biking into their everyday.  What to carry, how to plan for the day, etc.  Some of this you may already do, but maybe there are some more.  Perhaps ya'll could add to the list by leaving comments on how you get around.

Dilute! Dilute! Okay!

Butch

Woohoo!

I AM A BLOGGER. 

feel the power.