Chopstork

A little photo essay chronicling the chronicles of Old Man racing down a big hill on a big wheel… (My full set of pictures here) (SF Chronicle story) (A little video from Geek Entertainment)

Some big wheels.

The Old Man gathers his thoughts in preparation for the big race. His Big Wheel waits in servitude behind him.

A fellow racer—sporting protective slippers—proves too heavy for his ride, crushing it well before the race would begin.

One of the Safety Third team tests his defenses.

With a cable car blocking tourist traffic, the racers come to the starting line.

Old Man, at the starting line for the first heat.

A pile-up in turn one proved catastrophic for veteran and crowd favorite foam-headed-guy-with-the-golden-bigwheel.

This little trike would see only one race in its lifetime.

Surviving racers line up for the second heat.

Foam-head guy cries in agony as an axle breaks on his second trike…

… but she was even slower, taking home the prize for the day’s slowest rider.

A helmet-cammed racer makes his way back up Lombard’s steps for the final heat. He would take home a second place prize—giant logo tighty whiteys—amid accusations of wheel doping.

Ghostbuster steals the lead coming out of a corner in the final official race of the day.

In the middle of the pack, Old Man rounds another corner.

Two riders take a fall only inches from the finish line.

I decide to ride the exhibition race and get giant prize crotch on my head.

I’m in second! But I got passed later. And I broke the seat off my big wheel. photo by Old Man

Clutch-burning cars line up on the west side of Lombard waiting to drive down the curvy section as Old Man prepares to ride down to our parked car … waaaay down there.

Yes! Just found out about Bring Your Own Big Wheel (BYOBW) this Sunday. The sixth annual Big Wheel race down Lombard St. Haven’t decided if I’m participating or just spectating. Where to find a big wheel? Maybe I’ll make like the kids in our old ‘hood Potrero Hill and ride a Sunset Scavenger trash can—no rubber wheels, so it’s legal, right?

And from the organizer’s site: “Lombard Street is of course not the crookedest street, especially compared to Vermont Street in Potrero Hill….” Damn straight. Ah, the memories.

Our friend Morgan is riding a bicycle across the country to raise money and awareness for Habitat for Humanity. They start in New Haven, CT and make their way to San Francisco over June and July. That sounds darn cool. And impressive, cuz this country is big. Her roommate Julie has done this too. Here’s Morgan’s message, if you’re interested or want to donate. She’s on the Southern route.

Hi friends,

As many of you already know I will be spending this summer biking 4000 miles cross-country in an effort to raise money and awareness for Habitat for Humanity on the Habitat Bicycle Challenge (HBC). Along with 29 other riders, I will bike between 60 and 120 miles per day from New Haven, Connecticut to San Francisco, California. In order to do so I need to raise $4000 before the trip begins on May 27 ^th and I’ve got a ways to go. I am hoping that you or someone you know will be willing to contribute to my fund-raising. Even the smallest donations add up so if you are willing to donate $10 that will really help. Habitat sends special sponsorship tee-shirts to those who donate over $100 so there’s some incentive to go big! All donations are tax-deductible.

Most of the money I raise goes straight to building homes because HBC does a great job at getting corporate sponsorship for things like our bikes, your tee-shirts (if you donate big) and other trip costs. For more detailed information on Habitat as an organization see the bottom of this email.

Donating is easy, just go to: http://www.yale.edu/habitat/donate.html and click on the donate now icon to donate online via credit card or send a check, made out to Habitat Bicycle Challenge (with my name in the notes section) to:

Habitat Bicycle Challenge
37 Union Street
New Haven, CT 06511

Once the trip begins, you can go to http://www.yale.edu/habitat/about/challenge.html to track our route, read the web-blogs and take a look at the photos we will be uploading all summer. Also, please email me your addresses so that I can send postcards along the way.

Finally, I know some of you have talked about coming out to ride with us for a day or two. Check the link above for our route and the dates. HBC loves company and I encourage anyone interested in coming out to join us!

Thanks in advance for your support!

Morgan Weibel

General Habitat Information

Habitat for Humanity is an international non-profit organization that has built over 200,000 homes world-wide. Each home goes to a low-income family that has contributed at least 400 hours of ” sweat-equity,” and Habitat for Humanity also provides a 0% interest mortgage to the new homeowners. Although, Habitat originated as a Christian organization, neither race nor religion is a factor in choosing the families who receive Habitat houses. Instead, local affiliate organizations choose homeowners based on their level of need, their willingness to become partners in the program and their ability to repay the loan. Every affiliate follows a nondiscriminatory policy of family selection. Since home ownership is the primary source of capital accumulation for families in the United States, Habitat homes provide more than just shelter. If you are interested in learning more, please feel free to check out Habitat’s website at www.habitat.org.

One of these years I’m gonna make the trip to Austin, Texas for the anual South by Southwest Music Festival (SXSW). In the meantime, downloading the music will have to do.

In elementary school at NIS in Japan we’d go on a week-long camping trip to Kazuno every year as a class. It wasn’t really camping; we stayed at a sweet cabin, and it had just been renovated too. The days were filled with hikes and local field trips and activities, and at night we’d hang out by a camp fire, go on night hikes, and play flashlight tag. Everyone took turns on cleaning duty and cooking duty each day. One night, I had said I wanted to pour the water on the fire to put it out. By the time I went to bed, I had forgotten about it. One of the teachers remembered and came to get me to put the fire out, since I had wanted to. But I was already in my pajamas, and I had packed some old red ones that I didn’t like anymore, so I really didn’t want to. I was too embarassed to say I didn’t want to, so I went anyway, and someone saw me in my ratty pajamas and said they could see my underwear through my pajamas, and I was even more embarrassed. I hate my old red pajamas, even in Australia.

Courtney forwarded this “cool factoid” yesterday:

Did you know?

On Wednesday, at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00
in the morning, the time and date will be 01:02:03 04/05/06.

That won’t ever happen again.

You may now return to work.

To which I replied-all, “Unless you’re in Europe and it happens again on May 4th.” I was happy in my smart assedness.

Until I saw that Courtney’s British roommate had already replied with the same tidbit and the conversation had been over 30 minutes ago. Let that be a lesson to me: read all email before replying to a group email.

To make up for my email foe paw, I contribute this random and barely related factoid:

In Japan they show the time in the corner of the T.V. screen, and they like to use military time (that was not the factoid). 1 PM is 13:00, 2 PM is 14:00, and so on, but at noon they call it 0:00. With a “beep, beep, Beeeeep,” I might add. Followed by 笑っていいとも (waratte iitomo, a TV show). For late night shows, they just keep on going; midnight is 24:00 (cuz they already used 0:00), then 24:30, 25:00… Wait, there are how many hours in a day now? Those crazy japs.

Happy birthday Old Man,
Happy birthday Hat tie,
Happy birthday Old Maaaaan,
Happy birthday Hat tie.

Sorry, Jay, I don’t know any moving songs. Except Meatloaf’s I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That); that song moves me. Old Man and Hattie are another year wiser and dirtier, and Jay is off to save the world the rest of us so merrily destroy. So we’re having a party. I’m glad we’re not our neighbors. “You guys sure party a lot,” they’ve said. It’s an afternoon party this time, so we can all pass out early. The neighbors will like that. And we can enjoy the nice weather while we’re at it.

Yes, we will have a moon bounce. You must be this tall to ride. Blind-side tackling is not permitted on the premises, inside or outside the moon bounce (eh hem, DP). Wear/bring socks; it’s ok if they don’t match. Please remove all jewelry before entering the moon bounce. Warning: Alcohol impairs your ability to bounce straight: You could lose your driver’s license or even your life. SURGEON GENERAL’S WARNING: Drinking increases your risks of high blood pressure, liver disease, and cancer. The more you drink, the more likely it is that you will have such health problems. To find out how to prevent getting such health problems call (insert appropriate toll free number). SURGEON GENERAL’S WARNING: If you are pregnant, don’t drink. Drinking alcohol during pregnancy may cause mental retardation and other birth defects. If you are pregnant and can’t stop drinking, call (insert appropriate toll free number).

We will also debut a new game called: “Guess who’s mom drank alcohol while she was pregnant.”

Let me go ahead and tell you, if you don’t already know: Moon bounces are fun. And no major injuries to any of our drunk friends—it’s a miracle. Just minor scrapes and bruises and sore legs for everyone. We played all kinds of games like basketball, four square, count-to-five-with-your-eyes-closed-and-try-to-hit-someone-with-the-ball, and just plain bounced. Plus a lot of rescuing each other from the almighty moon bounce crevasses. The mass bounce with at least 20 people was like trying to stand on water. Moon bounces rule! I’ll put some pictures up soon.

Update: Here are my pictures from the moon bounce party.
And Courtney’s pix.
Us singing the hockey pockey.