Midnight Bike Ride
Mar. 26th, 2009 11:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shannon_aSo, I didn't post the follow-up to my Tuesday evening post. Around 12.30, shortly after I finished writing that, the damned power went off again. Out for another half-an-hour; when It came on I pretty much went to bed.
Cut to Thursday night. It's about 10pm. The Thursday night review gamers have gone home after trying out It's Alive!, then playing a few old favorites. Kimberly and I are watching Junk TV and I'm doing my leg stretches ...
... and the power does it's flickering bullshit again, then goes out once more.
What kind of frickin' third-world power company do we have here?
(Not the first time I thought that PG&E was a third-world power company, by the by. The last was probably when they were instituting rolling black-outs several summers ago.)
Kimberly and I wait around for a bit, and when it's clear the power isn't coming back on, she goes to bed and I go out for a bike ride.
The power is on through most of Berkeley as I ride westward, but just like last time there's the occasional stretch of blacked-out street.
Weird.
My destination is the strip of Bay Trail from Berkeley to Emeryville Marina, which I've been wanting to ride at night for a while. Of course, I'd been planning for a full-moon night-time ride whereas tonight turns out to be ... a new moon. Ah well.
On Tuesday Katherine had mentioned that the Trail was poorly lit, and sure enough ... it's all pitch black. Fortunately I've gotten pretty familiar with the trail, so I'm able to ride it without concern.
Well, without too much concern.
Lights and water. A nice combination. I encounter it a few times tonight.
First when coming upon the Aquatic Park, which is spotted with the fluorescent lights on the Pedestrian Bridge, above.
Second, when heading south on the Bay Trail, seeing the Bay lit up by the lights from the Bay Bridge.
On the way back, constantly blinded by the oncoming traffic on the highway. I can only see the foot or two ahead of me that's lit by my bike light.
David Schweidel, one of my writing teachers, sometimes talked about the "writing in the headlights" technique of writing, where you can just see what's ahead.
He didn't mention the looming shapes in the darkness beyond, big and mysterious, that you're heading toward despite not knowing what they are.
Chevy's had lights tonight. I was bitter. But they might have come on in the time it took me to get out to Emeryville, because by the time I ride back and up through Berkeley, everything is on again.
Power is on at home again too; we'll see for how long.
Cut to Thursday night. It's about 10pm. The Thursday night review gamers have gone home after trying out It's Alive!, then playing a few old favorites. Kimberly and I are watching Junk TV and I'm doing my leg stretches ...
... and the power does it's flickering bullshit again, then goes out once more.
What kind of frickin' third-world power company do we have here?
(Not the first time I thought that PG&E was a third-world power company, by the by. The last was probably when they were instituting rolling black-outs several summers ago.)
Kimberly and I wait around for a bit, and when it's clear the power isn't coming back on, she goes to bed and I go out for a bike ride.
The power is on through most of Berkeley as I ride westward, but just like last time there's the occasional stretch of blacked-out street.
Weird.
My destination is the strip of Bay Trail from Berkeley to Emeryville Marina, which I've been wanting to ride at night for a while. Of course, I'd been planning for a full-moon night-time ride whereas tonight turns out to be ... a new moon. Ah well.
On Tuesday Katherine had mentioned that the Trail was poorly lit, and sure enough ... it's all pitch black. Fortunately I've gotten pretty familiar with the trail, so I'm able to ride it without concern.
Well, without too much concern.
Lights and water. A nice combination. I encounter it a few times tonight.
First when coming upon the Aquatic Park, which is spotted with the fluorescent lights on the Pedestrian Bridge, above.
Second, when heading south on the Bay Trail, seeing the Bay lit up by the lights from the Bay Bridge.
On the way back, constantly blinded by the oncoming traffic on the highway. I can only see the foot or two ahead of me that's lit by my bike light.
David Schweidel, one of my writing teachers, sometimes talked about the "writing in the headlights" technique of writing, where you can just see what's ahead.
He didn't mention the looming shapes in the darkness beyond, big and mysterious, that you're heading toward despite not knowing what they are.
Chevy's had lights tonight. I was bitter. But they might have come on in the time it took me to get out to Emeryville, because by the time I ride back and up through Berkeley, everything is on again.
Power is on at home again too; we'll see for how long.