it's raining outside. i spent two and one half hours in a dentist chair this morning. my dentist is downtown and from the northeast facing window i could see the fog rolling through the tall buildings. after i was released, i decided that the fog and mist over the lake would be worth a spin. i was intending to head north because it looked like there was more fog up north, but i headed south. i don't no why. i blew right past 47th Street, my intended turnaround point, and ended up getting off at 55th and getting lost. i planned to head north up to 47th street where i knew i could get back on the drive. and after numerous convoluted street moves i ended up on Lake Park AV, which would take me smoothly up to 47th. unfortunately, after passing 55th and 56th street it became clear to me that i was headed south instead of north.

i extracted myself from Lake Park AV onto Stony Island AV, but somehow blew by my intended approach to the 57th ST Museum entrance onto LSD. i corrected and made a left on Hayes and another left on S Cornell AV and was oriented correctly for a change and moving toward 57th ST. by this time there'd been a steady rain for almost 20 minutes. i'd driven into it by heading south instead of north on LSD. i had rain-gear, but my ft over-pants were still in my tank bag nice and dry. the front of my jeans were sorta soaked. i wasn't too cold, though, so no big deal. finally got on the drive and pushed north in very light traffic going about 100. usually speed-traps on LSD disappear when the weather gets too nasty and they tend not to hang on weekends anyway. they grab as any drivers as they can handle M-F during both rush hours. the speed-limit is 45 in the summer. 40 in the winter.

as i approach town, traffic gets thicker and i slow down. it is kind of slick out. as i'm approaching the Chi River bridge, the gates are down and the bridge is going up. damn. i can't quite see what big boat is the cause of this and then the first little sailboat in a floatilla from winter dry-dock appears on the lake side of the bridge. they wave and i give them the finger :-). at least they are getting rained on. the bridge is up for 20 minutes. yes, 20 minutes they stop traffic both ways and i sit in the rain on LSD for a bunch of snooty-assed armchair sailers.

when the bridge finally comes down i'm the first one through the starting gate and have the normally congested gold-coast part of LSD northbound all to myself. i wish i was riding the SH instead of the NT now, but it's probably good i was HP challenged. the roads were kind of slick and my judgement and luck had not been stellar this morning. my jeans are really getting soaked and the novelty of the heavy fog on the lake has worn off. i de-LSD at North AV and head south on LaSalle. i need gas, i'm on reserve. should i head west on Chicago AV or Grand AV? i'm running dangerously low on nitrile gloves. there's a gas station and a NAPA on Grand that i'll pass heading home. so why did i turn west on Chicago instead of proceeding south to Grand? not sure. i guess i figured i could pop into the BP just west of LaSalle and then angle over to Grand when i hit Ogden. so much on-coming traffic impeding my left turn to the BP that i aborted and kept heading west.

come up fast over the bridge and up toward Halsted where there is a jumble of cars on this side of the intersection. a cab and a car had decided to stop for a meeting in the right lane right at the entrance to the intersection. i hold my horn as i weave past their unfortunately common idiot Chicago driver behavior. i angle left on Ogden next to an SUV that cannot decide which lane it would like to occupy. it appears to be favoring the right lane, so i move over to its left as it decides, no. it will occupy the left lane. i weave back over into the right lane and stare at them as they look back at me with a sense of bewilderment. i blow past them as they are deciding whether or not to stay in the left lane. i take a right on Grand and finally get safely to the BP after waiting to make a left into it for a good 30 seconds due to lots of cars coming east. bonus. the pump i stop at is actually working. i fuel up the tiny NT650 tank that has a range just over that of the SH.

i get back on Grand and slow to make a left at the NAPA. there is still a lot of on-coming traffic, so i'm stopped in the left lane checking my rear-view for what seems to be half a minute. finally, there's just enough room for me to make my left turn. i release the clutch and just start to lean left when i stall the bike. i think it was in second instead of first. how dumb. i'm not in oncoming traffic, but i'm fixated on the car quickly approaching when i should have been righting the bike. i lose the battle and clunk, the hawk is now lying on its left side. i have to get on its left side in order to pick it up. my face-shield is fogged up something awful as i'm frantically checking for big shadows coming up behind me. so far so good. i finally flip up my face-shield so that i can, at least, see. i get my butt on the bike and start it up. rats, the gear-shift lever is bent in too far for operation and the bike stalls because it's probably in third gear by now. still enough room behind me to jump off and wheel it over to the curb. whew! i'm feeling pretty stupid by now, but within an instant i'm feeling really intelligent.

a week or two ago, when the SH started making horrible clanking noises from the rear cylinder and i got it into the garage, i had the presence of mind to remove the tool-kit and put it in the NT. i only have 1 toolkit that holds a combination of tools for both these bikes. i guess i should put together a second one. i pull off the hawk tail and grab the first chunk of metal that will give me the leverage to bend the gear-shift lever back out to where it is supposed to be. cool. i replace the toolkit, turn and remove the key from the seat release. for some reason i'm having abnormal difficulty getting the tail back in and locked onto the frame. but i preserver.

hmmm. where are my keys? i look all over the pavement around the bike hoping that i didn't do what i'm pretty sure that i did. not in any of my pockets. damn! now i'm not feeling really intelligent anymore. i'm stranded with my keys looked under the seat. i screw around for about another 10 minutes examining the edges under the tail hoping that the keys will be visible. finally, i give the tail section a good tug and it pops. i'm able to remove it. the gummy keychain was blocking the ability for the seat to fully lock.

i leave the bike and walk across the street to the NAPA store. there's a teenage kid helping out behind the counter today. "hi, where are you nitrile gloves?" he gives me a vague look and pulls a box full of mechanics gloves out from under the counter. "no [******* (not verbalized)], nitrile gloves. Jake (i think that's his name. he showed me his prize lock-blade one day. the handle had a glossy confederate flag design on it), comes over to assist. "you want latex gloves, right?" "no. i do not want latex gloves. i want nitrile gloves. you know, vinyl gloves." Jake directs the kid to a shelf in the store. they have boxes and boxes of latex gloves. sigh! "nobody uses latex gloves anymore [you ********]!" oh wait. there's one box of… yes, nitrile gloves among the mountains of latex. XL says the kid. "those are too big for me [you *******]." he looks around a little more. "they're the only box we have." the ancient box is half open, so i complete that and try one on. it's pretty loose. "how much are they?" Jake does a quick calculation in his head. "Thirteen bucks." i walk out the door grumbling and shaking my head. what are they gonna do with all those latex gloves?

--fred