A chain is only as strong as…

I was biking around the park this morning coming up those steep hills along highway forty in the southwest corner of the park and my chain broke. I was going pretty fast and then the bike just stopped as the broken chain wound its way around the rear spokes. I got launched off to the left and am sporting some find road rash all down my left leg and on the palm of my left hand. I was pretty much at Skinker Blvd and the highway 40 on ramp, so I got walk home from there with the wind blowing on all my thousands of microscopic gravel cuts. Now I get to clean them out with alcohol! The bike needs a new chain but is otherwise fine.

When was the last time you got hurt? I haven’t gotten hurt in years and it feels pretty good, like I’m a bruised up kid again. I was out playing and I took a spill, that’s all. Though I do need to buy a helmet.

Class was fine and will continue to be so. The teacher is excellent and philosophically minded so despite the undergraduate material the discussions should be good. It’s essentially three undergraduate classes in education crammed into three weeks of instruction so some intensity will come by simply the rate at which we are moving through the material. It was odd to be in a classroom and not be the teacher. I don’t think my fellow classmates know quite what to make of me. We did lengthy introductions and many of them are second or third career people. Anyway, there’s not much to report yet beyond book buying and initial homework assignments.

I went down to Fredrick’s afterwards and had a nice time with the people we met last week. The bartender, Dana, is quite cool and it turns out Eric and I used to hang out at the Dukum together back in 1996, it just took us a week to access those memories. We had both been wondering why we fell into this natural rhythm of banter. If you’d like the six degrees, it turns out that Eric lived with Melanie who dated Dan before Dan dated Yumi. Eric works for Walgreen’s and has discovered a gaggle of our old drinking buddies in Walgreen’s management. I may eventually need to buy a south side house as I am discovering my cohort dwells there. We met two women who were doing Eddie Izzard and Young Dr. Frankenstein quotes and I had a “these are my people” moment. Half the bar said “goodbye Karl” when I left so I guess I have a new bar.

Karen said, “One thing that sucks about UMSL is there are no bars around there.”
Karl said, “What are you talking about? I haven’t been in them but I’ve found two already.”
Karen, “Yeah, but they’re not the sort of places the people I was with would go to.”
Karl, “That’s a whole separate set of issues. I loves me a good dive bar. I used to drink at The Full Moon or that roadhouse down in Yarrow. I prefer the dives.”

It looks like Jen and D are coming down from the ville and Jason is heading over from KC so it will be fun for old and new friends to hang out this weekend. Since I didn’t get to join Kat and Chris for the City Museum thing and Jen and D recently had birthdays as well so it will be birthdays all around at the BBQ.