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Its 5am in the morning... do you know where your kids are?
Its on days like today when I need to remind my mother that her son is a fool. It's freezing cold, kinda damp, and windy. Who in their right mind would ride a bike to work when they have a perfectly good car to drive with heated leather seats, cruise control (so I can sleep longer), cup holders for my coffee, and satellite radio. Instead I've got on long johns and a scarf. No coffee on the way to work. And did I mention its 5am? I don't normally wake up until 6. I should clarify, I get out of bed around 6am. I don't wake up until 10:30'ish.
You're probably asking yourself, "what makes this morning different?" What am I saying? You're probably asking yourself, "does this story have a point?". Good news! it does! The point of the story is that today I'm going to take my motorcycle skills test so I can ride my bike legally. That is legally between dusk and dawn and with no passengers. Good enough. Don't want to drive at night anyways and who would trust me enough to get on the back of my bike?
So I arise from my coma at 5am and the first thing I do is go outside and see if the bike starts. It does... kinda. It starts then it stops. I try again. Nothing. Again. Nothing. Damn. Should I go back to bed? I think so. Then it dawns on me. Try setting the petcock (I love that word) to prime. Try again. Rumble rumble rumble. OK good enough. It starts. Turn it off and lets go inside and get a coffee before I get geared up to leave.
Coffee tastes wonderful after being out in the cold. It's days like today when I truly appreciate my Saeco automatic coffee maker. One push of a button grinds my coffee beans, puts in into the brewer, tamps it down, and makes a perfect espresso, cappuccino, or Americano depending on what I select. Then the kicker... it cleans itself. Gotta love the Jetsons (except I still don't have a flying car).
Coffee... done. Gear... on. Let's go! I got up way to early so I made a couple of sandwiches for lunch just to kill some time. It's now 6:45am... time to go.
Let's fire this baby up... nothing. I drained the battery a earlier and there's not enough juice to engage the starter. Where the heck is my kick starter when I need it. Whatever. I live on a hill, lets go and hope I don't spend the next hour pushing my bike back up it.
No problems. She started by the bottom of the driveway. I warm her up and go. The trip to work was a breeze. Literally... a 140km/h breeze. I caught up to a group of motorcyclists (not bikers based on their equipment) all sporting BMW's, Ducati, a Yamaha R6 (I believe), a Triumph. There tires cost more than my bike. So I tuck into the middle of the group and show them what life in the post apocalyptic world looks like up close. Too much fun!
I arrive at work after my 15 minute ride (normally 25 minutes in the car) and I'm no worse for the wear. I am wearing the only helmet I own which passes for something legal. Thank God too. It would have been really cold in my beanie. Plus I put in my bluetooth headset and listened to tunes from my mobile phone the whole way. Very nice. 5 songs and I was there.
The plan was originally to go to the Motor Vehicle Branch leaving work early at 3pm and taking my chances but I changed plans half way through the morning...
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