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March 6, 2017
Return to Riverside
In the morning, I wake up and start getting ready for my trip. Trying to go through my things and make sure I have everything I need for Riverside. Like, I don't have my riding gear or my helmet. No motorcycle keys. No GPS. I'm just sort of assuming that I left all of that gear at my place in Riverside. Or at Chapparal Motorsports in San Bernardino.
Like, it's impossible to remember everything. There are just too many things to remember. Passport. Wallet. $2,000 in cash. Check. Keys for my place in Riverside. Check. Laptop. Cameras. Chargers. Cables. All good.
Now, as I'm driving down North Turkey Creek, I think...what about my badge to get into the office at Riverside. Now, I pull over and look in my wallet to make sure it's there. It is.
Outside, it's sunny and warm. Days are getting longer. It's almost sunrise as I drive out of the neighborhood. Beautiful red horizon sun painting clouds at dawn as I drive down 285 canyon to Morrison. By the time I get to Golden, it's white out. Winds blowing. Snow/rain/sleet falling. Zero visibility. You can't even see the Taj Majal.
Now, following Waze, driving east on I-76 to 270 to I-70. Now, driving directly into the sun. Completely blinded. Snowing. Raining. Sleeting. Zero visibility. I don't know how I get into these situations. I really don't.
Canopy Parking. Shuttle to airport. Clear security. Get out to the gate. Gate 40. I'm really really good now at making sure that I go to the right gate. I double check the city I'm flying to, the date, the flight number. I match all of these things up at Terminal C. I make sure my boarding pass has the right date, flight, and city. Now, I go to the gate C40.
I need a preboard pass for the flight to Ontario. I've checked several times to make sure that this is where I'm going today. She hands me a preboard pass. Shortly, we board the flight and I take seat 2F. This time, I want to sit on the north side of the plane as we fly west so I'll have a good view of the Grand Canyon, and possibly see part of Area 51/Groom Lake.
I can't sleep, and before long, we're flying over the Nevada desert and I get some decent photos of the Grand Canyon, but can't really see far enough North to see anything resembling Groom Lake or Area 51.
Now, we land and I summon a car on Lyft. This is where it gets tricky. I want to pick up my motorcycle, but I don't have my gear. I'm assuming it's at my place in Riverside.
"I want you to take me to Denair Court, Riverside, CA," I explain to the driver. "Once we get there, I'll go inside and see if my motorcycle gear is there. If it is, then you can take me to San Bernardino, if not, you can just take me into work in Riverside."
So we get to my place, I go in. In my bedroom, I find helmet, gloves, boots, riding pants, and riding jacket. Score!
I call and make sure my bike is ready to be picked up. Now, he's taking me to Chapparal Motorsports in San Bernardino, CA. They charge me about $430 to replace the master cyclinder. The car ride cost me about $50. But now, I've got the bike, and all of my gear, except for now, I realize that I don't have the GPS. Not clear where that is.
"Hey....there he is," Al laughs. "When he write a check, the bank bounces." He laughs.
Some guy is complaining..."How can I calibrate my speedometer. My motorcycle says I'm going 85 mph and people are passing me," he whines.
"I would get run over going 85 on Highway 60. I've been passed going 113.
So, hop on the bike, and ride it into work.
Now, I haven't ridden the bike in a long time. At least a month. And it feels good. God I love riding this beast. Roll into work at about noon, and, honestly, I can hardly even remember where I sit. They keep moving us and scooting us down, so that they're squeezing us out of the building. I find my desk, and look through the drawers.
Not much, my old headphones, my laptop they assigned me that I've never even used.
I sign into the system, and of course, it's time to go to lunch. So, we all leave work and go to lunch.
We go that that Thai place on Allesandro that Nassir likes. I'm afraid he's leaving us, so maybe this is his last week, I think, and that sucks. I'll miss him.
After lunch, we go back to work and, by 2:30, I feel like I could die. Like I've been run over by a train. But I keep working. Trying to get some test cases executed on my CEMLI. I-160. So, I'm running some test cases, trying to get it to work.
My boss comes up and I'm always sure he's going to fire me, but I explain to him, "I'm testing this I-160 CEMLI. I'll have it done today..." I offer.
"Can you take over that CEMLI?" He wants to know.
"Yeah. For sure. No problem," I reply.
Like, I'm always sure he's going to fire me, but somehow, I just keep getting more work.
I look through all of my drawers at work, but I don't see my GPS. Not sure where it is.
Finally, at about 7:00 p.m., they decide that we should go to UCR and play bad minton. Now, I've never played that game without a beer one hand, but to these people, it's a real sport. So, they all have shorts and t-shirts and tennis shoes. I just have my work clothes, but I go there, park illegally, and pay the $5.00 admission fee.
Now, they're teaching me how to server, who to serve to, etc. I lost every game, but it was fun and we played doubles and it was good exercise, if nothing else.
Then, after Badminton, dinner at some Indian place on University.
The clock on the motorcycle is wrong, and has been wrong since I came out here last July.
I'm driing home at night in the dark and a Porsche 911 comes up and he wants to race and I'm like...are you joking with me right now? So, I'm lane-splitting at 120 mph and pretty soon, I've lost the idiot in the Porsche and now I roll up to my place in Riverside.
Inside, I find my iphone charger cables and my GPS. Woohoo!
Posted by Rob Kiser on March 6, 2017 at 11:44 PM
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