Friday, August 11, 2006

Flying From Zurich & Bike Stuff

Yesterday, much like everyone else, I awoke to the news of all hell breaking loose in London due to the terrorist threats. I knew my friend Teri, who works for Nokia, was on her way back from Helsinki and she had spoken of possibly going through London this time as there are no non-stop Helsinki - Dallas flights.

I left her a voice mail to let her know to call me if she was indeed stuck in that fiasco and anything needed to be done with her dog. She phoned later in the day and said she had just gotten through customs at DFW (Dallas/Ft Worth International Airport) and she was glad she didn't know what was going on.

She said everything was fine when she left Helsinki and flew to Zurich but once in Zurich she said the vibes were strong and the fact that they were telling everyone to take their toothpaste, hair gel, etc. out of their bags and toss them away. No information was given out in Zurich.

When she finally got to DFW, she said the international terminal was flooded with news crews and she asked one of the camera guys, "Is someone famous arriving?" The guy kind of laughed and said no. Once she got into the car and heard the news, then she found out what all had been going on.

******************************************

Yesterday I was riding down the Dallas North Tollway thinking to myself, "You know it's bad when your concern is not going down on the bike but going down under this blistering sun and on this hot pavement and having to lie there awhile!"

*****************************************

The other day I had a starteling experience. As I was coming from westbound George Bush (yes, that's an actual tollway here in very Republican Dallas) onto southbound North Dallas Tollway, a few yards after the ramp ends, to your right are some concrete barricades blocking off the right lane so that some construction work can happen.

Ahead of me I saw about 3 cars and a tan coupe that was trying to merge into the traffic due to the lane blocked off. I was approaching from behind and as my exit to Frankford is literally less than 1/4 mile from the George Bush, I also needed to be in that lane.

I have no idea what caused it but the cars braked suddenly and the car ahead of me and the tan car trying to merge almost took one another out.

It's weird how your mind thinks and analyzes a situation and makes a decision literally within a fraction of a second. I knew there was absolutely no way I could have stopped my bike and been ok, I know I didn't touch my brakes nor did I throttle her more. I think Superstition and I went into motocross mode because I know we leaned about as far as we could to the left for about 1 second and immediately came upright.

We coasted past the cars that were still braking and got off at our exit. When I got home, I just sat in my garage for a few minutes on the bike. It's not often that I get rattled, but I was literally stunned by how that scene had played out.

******************************************

KZPS Bike Night was really good last night. It was held at Public House down on Lower Greenville and we took cupcakes because it is Hynson's birthday today and neither Johnny B nor I will be at Bringing in the Weekend. It's being held in FW at the Icehouse and I have meetings into the afternoon at Fair Park and he has to go golfing at 4pm today.

I asked him, "What the hell is compelling you to go golfing at 4pm on a 104 degree day, and correct me if I'm mistaken, but isn't late afternoon the hottest part of the day?" Magoo is nodding his head and Johnny B replies, "Aren't there insane things you have done to make 2 bosses and 2 of your biggest clients happy?" So I replied, "At the third hole, you better start experiencing a case of the vapors and excuse yourself! I can't afford for you to get heat stroke." Magoo nods his head again!

No comments: