Like Badgers and Bicycles

The summer is in full swing, and I probably would have completely forgotten to update this unless Eric had asked me to do something with it. I keep having to remind myself that this summer is just temporary and I really do have to go back to school for another semester. Times like this are just effortless, which I appreciate, and there's never any real stress and there's never any feeling of "fuck, I'm tired of the same freaking schoolwork" and there's definitely no month and a half of rain. Screw that. This is long hot days being good at what I do at work (and having fun at it, no less), aiming for the 50 mile bike ride (I did 45 last Sunday morning), lazing with Topper out in the grass and Texas thunderstorms.

Dan and I bought me a beautiful road bike about a month ago. Carbon fiber frame, low spoke count wheels, great components, beautiful black and gray . . . it's a guy's bike, but it's a compact racing frame, and in this small size it fits perfectly. The first night out (it was the end of my first day of my internship) we ended up getting caught in the dark and I ended up crashing over a cable, which was raunchy amounts of not-fun. My left arm ended up caught under me, which means it got torn up on the bad asphalt and I sprained my elbow pretty badly. I was able to get back on and ride partway home, where Stephen obligingly came to pick me up, and so he and I followed Dan (still on his bike) back to Fort Worth. I got a beautiful collection of bruises down my left side and a trip to the ER (just to double-check there was no fracture anywhere). That all got me a sling (which I didn't wear) and a vicodin prescription (I only used a couple because it's always good to keep some handy).

My elbow is ok now, though, and I can straighten my arm all the way again. Last Sunday's 45 mile ride was brutal-ish. It was ok except the air in Tarrant County is so freaking bad. Your lungs just start hurting. But with a good jersey and shorts you don't get too hot, so that's good. I'm working on my cycling tan. I want one like Dan's. It looks like someone put painter's tape around his thighs and then slathered his lower legs in a deep tan. The line is so sharp it just cracks me up. I like my bike, and I love the scenery and the heat and the accomplished feeling when I'm done. It all makes up for the occasional gnat in your eye and rare douchebag drivers and the braincells I bake.

I'm excited because I may get a paycheck in the next few weeks. My first story gets published next week. The Weekly only publishes one metro and one feature every week, so getting into the list can take some time. The metros are about 1200 words, and the features are about 3500 or so. I've got a feature I'm working on, slowly but surely, but it's gonna be a beast of a story, looking at corporate vs privately owned farms in Texas and the environmental impacts as well as the financial and social aspects. My metro was nice because it was my old Fort Worth beat--religion. Nothing scandelous this time, but it was good to get back into the groove. There's another story I'm working on with another guy from the Weekly, and it's about the water district using taxpayer money for the most stupid things, like buying $500 lunches. Misuse of public funds is bad. All the receipts and whatnot came from a FOIA request, and the communication guy at the water district now used to be a communications guy I worked with at the Skiff. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Communication people make me nervous, like PR people.

These are really long paragraphs. I just realized that. It's not a very good example of decent journalism. But I'm watching Napoleon Dynamite and I just ate a huge bowl of strawberries and I need a shower, so I'll leave it at that. My life isn't hugely exciting right now, but I'm thoroughly happy. I have to check how much money I have in order to buy shampoo, but it's nice outside and I'm home. I can't ask for much more.