Tuesday, January 29, 2013

I saw Shim while riding Sunday


I was riding, Shim wasn’t.  Shim was sitting in an idling van pulled off into the turning lane.  I didn’t know it was Shim.  I thought it was probably some creepy guy in a van (other than Shim) waiting to yell at me, riding through the mud/vegetation beside 72nd street in Papillion.  As I approached the stopped van, I noticed the passenger side window was down.  Oh crap, thought I, it really is someone interested in yelling at me for riding my bike through the mud/vegetation.  Maybe it’s a forest ranger.  Maybe I should make jokes about pic-a-nic baskets.  Anyway – I guess I’ll just ignore the guy and keep on riding through the grass here.

“Fred!” shouts Shim.

“Oh hey Shim, what’s up?”

“We’re meeting at Crane for a ride.”

It’s weird.  I had been out for about 90 minutes or so by that time.  It was cold (by normal standards) and wet, but not raining.  I was soaked, but relatively warm.  The day before, I had gone on a group ride.  It was sunny that day, but much colder.  The great thing about this wet ride was I was just able to sink into some form of meditation through the ugly grey day.  So when Shim said, “We’re meeting at Crane …”  I had to make him repeat it.  I recognized the words he was saying, but they registered no meaning for me.  I was confused.  So I said completely meaninglessly, “The one on Center?”  I believe he answered in the affirmative. 

The reason my question was meaningless was that I had to get home immediately.  In fact, I had gone a little too far in my sheer joy of the nice warm (low 40s) wet day, that I was in danger of not getting home in time for my wife to get to work on time.  As long as I didn’t have a flat on the way home though, everything should be alright …

If I had just been walking along, nice sunny day,  and Shim had said, “Hey Cube, We’re meeting at Crane,”  I would have immediately known it was the one on Center.  It’s almost always the one on Center.  But in my semiconscious meditative wet state, the fact that I had no way of joining the ride seemed irrelevant.  The first thing I needed to know was, “We’ll which Crane?”

Once I knew the location - I could snap to awareness and let the reality seep in.  While waves of understanding filled my being with the mental picture of the Crane coffee shop and a few riders sitting around, Shim added, “Yeah it’s in about a half hour.  I had no way to get a hold of you.”

At this point, all of my faculties rushed back to me in a flood.  “Oh yeah, cool, I couldn’t go anyway.  My wife has to work.”

As I continued on, I thought about how weird it was that Shim should be driving along 72nd just at the right time to see me and let me know about the ride.  How lucky.  Except it wasn’t.  Had he been driving by a moment earlier, he never would have seen me.  And that wouldn't have mattered, because I couldn't go anyway.  Sort of like "Which Crane are you going to?"

One thing was gained from all of this though.  I saw Shim while riding Sunday.

Then I had a flat. 

4 comments:

brady said...

I'm conflicted. I used to think Pearl Jam was alright. Then I read Shim's blog about how sucky they were and I kinda agreed. Now this and I'm back to being lukewarm about them.

No, I just did a gut check and agree with Shim, and with that I've flopped back to them being poo water.

And wouldn't you know it, while I'm tapping this note out, Red Hot Chilli Peppers comes on Pandora Radio. No, I don't believe there's such thing as coincidence. Except, there is. Except-except in this case, one of my stations is Red Hot Chilli Peppers.

Hey that's neat, I kinda just self-hijacked my um self.

Oh, and change the title of this blog post, will ya? How many times did I tell you, it's Shim saw you while you were riding, not the other way around.

Okay, I'm gonna hang up now so I can listen to your response.

Flintstone R Cube said...

Thank you for taking the time to comment.

Once when I was in high school, there was this kid at the lunch room table across from me. Just once. I wasn't very popular. I think it was because of my taste in music. At the time, my favorite bands were (In this order):
The Doors
Pink Floyd
The Cars

Well this kid, he had on a Rush t-shirt. I like Rush now a whole bunch. But I didn't back then. Since I was unaccustomed to kids sitting across from me at lunch, I decided to take matters into my own hands. I said, "I think Rush sucks."

Then the kid said "Bullshit!"

My friend BDC and I got a big kick out of that, because he seemed to think I just loved Rush or at the very least didn't think they sucked.

In any event, when I first heard Pearl Jam, I liked them pretty well. That's bullshit. Actually, I thought it was one of my favorite sounds I'd ever ever heard. Particularly Eddie Vedder's voice.

In fact, I thought they were actually too good for me to be a fan.

It wasn't until several years later that I was willing to take the plunge and wholeheartedly embrace my love of Pearl Jam. I learned they had a fan club and if you joined, you would get advance ticket lottery deals. I've never been a member of any fan club, but about 3 years ago, I signed up and waited. They haven't been close enough until now. This is the first time I've tried to get Pearl Jam tickets - and who knows - maybe I'm the only one who tried, but I'm pretty stoked about going.

There are 2 bands that I'd like to see live. The other one is David Bowie.

I've seen The Red Hot Chili Peppers 4 times. They are in my top 5 favorite bands. I saw them once at the cow palace in San Francisco. The Toadies (who I like real well) opened for them. I used to like to sing "Sir Psycho Sexy" at the top of my lungs on my way to church. But that was long ago.

In conclusion, there are many many bands I like - and a few I despise.
Bands I despise off the top of my head in no particular order
Maroon 5
Katy Perry
Maroon 5

Also can't stand The Dave Matthews band - which since 2 of the 3 on Shims list are my all time favorites, It surprises me that I don't like them. Having said that however, I don't think they are overrated - which is actually what Shim says.

In fact, I'm not sure what overrated means in terms of a musical act that is popular. I guess it means more people like them than Shim think should like them.

Shim said...

I really like the Replacements and just watched Color me obsessed tonight, it was really just so so. It didn't do them justice.

Flintstone R Cube said...

Yeah pretty good. here's a video with crazy people in it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0npCFw9TEnA