Alcohol gives us strength. Alcohol gives us courage. Or is it some sort of new functionality in my brain? Tonight, I went grocery shopping on my bike. Then, on the way home, had two large Kirins with my sushi dinner. After texting my georgeous new um...friend for a while, planning her trip down to see me before I embark for Mexico, I ever so super-humanly loaded my mountain-climbing backpack filled with seventy-five pounds of groceries onto my back and started on my ride home to the boat. As I left the sushi restaurant, feeling as young as I've felt in years (excercise, freedom, adventure, infatuation), I didn't have a second thought about that curb coming towards me. "Just bunny-hop it," my brain told me. That's what I'd normally do, usually with no problem, but with 75 lbs of food on my back and 44 oz of Kirin in my system, that bunny hop turned into an embarassing crash in the median of a 4-lane highway. I think I hopped just fine, but then lost momentum and just sort of spilled over sideways.
I had to laugh. And I did. Thankfully there were only a few cars around, so I was free to laugh for a minute or two before getting up and moving on.
I also ripped my favorite pair of pants. Yes, that's blood.
As I continued my ride home, laughing all the while, I started wondering: Seriously, is the alcohol to blame? Clearly, it's a combination of factors, not the least of which is the alcohol, but also has to be something in my brain that told me I could carry that much weight on a bike in the first place. I mean,
I hadn't been drinking when I bought the groceries and loaded them onto my back... and then decided to stop for some raw fish and 2 large beers. Surely, there's some outright stupidity contributing, too. S - brilliant as she is though ten years
less worldly (but, truth be told, much farther traveled) - was kind enough to point out to me later: "'Save $10 when you buy 10' doesn't mean you have to buy 10 cans of corn." Oh well. Live and learn.
Thankfully, I got back to the marina and almost crashed again while dismounting the bike in the marina parking lot. Why "thankfully?" Well, what does the second near-crash say? It may still be the booze, but at least we can rule out the bunny hop! Which means... I'm still agile! Satisfied with myself for the discovery, I walked the bike down the ramp carefully, and walked - didn't ride - the bike on the dock. Somehow enough alcohol and bravado had worn off and I had a stark vision of 75 pounds of groceries carrying me over the edge of the dock and to a fast end in only 10 feet of cold, grimy marina water, only 10 miles from Mexico and whatever lies beyond.
