2017.05.11 – Change

Over the last few months I have not been writing as much. When I fractured my collarbone – it sent me into a lot of depression. However, after 4 weeks into the recovery my life was starting to get back to normal but I have not bounced back to my old normal. As I have mentioned before, when I fracture bones my life seems to change.

Right now I am sitting in one of my neighborhood Irish pubs watching the band setup while I write this. This pub was one of the first neighborhood bars I walked into after moving to SF four and a half years ago. In this time, my life has changed so much that it is hard to enumerate. Somehow sitting here with a pint of Guinness is making me really reflect hard on things. Over the last few months there have been a few defining moments. Buying the motorcycle, fracturing my collarbone, and getting called “The Cleaner” (Winston Wolfe from Pulp Fiction) at work.

I am going to leave the work stuff aside – since I personally don’t like taking about those issues openly on the internet. But in many ways, it is how I deal with things and is a very apt description of my personality. The fracture i have talked about before, and honestly, I really feel like it was a bump in the road for the changes that was caused by the primary catalyst – buying a motorcycle.

Matte looking all pretty at the office parking lot.

Over the last 2.5 months, I have put on over 2,500 miles on Matte. Yes – I named the motorcycle Matte after a suggestion from Diesel. Like my puppy name, my bike’s name is also from a friend and it just sounds right. And leads to a lot of S&M jokes. Given that for a month I was unable to ride Matte, It is very impressive that I have put on that much in 1.5 months of riding. In that short time frame, I am learning a lot about myself.

The big thing for me is that I have found a source of zen like no other. This is something you typically hear form many bikers. As soon as I put on the helmet, pull on the gloves, and start the motor up, I have to clear out everything from my head and focus on riding. This state of catharsis is like no other that I have felt, including various bondage scenes. Even on my 50 mile each way commute, I am in this state when I reach my destination.

Over the next few days I need to get these thoughts down on paper. While maybe they are not unique – they have been instrumental in understanding the evolution of myself.

 

2017.03.28 – Nothing lasts forever

15 years for a compression shirt is a good run.

On Monday at the gym I noticed that the shirt I packed looked like it wasn’t washed right. But upon closer look, the Lycra on it is starting to disintegrate. In the end I shouldn’t feel bad for getting 15 years out of a shirt.

While this shirt is not the start of my spandex fetish but it does mark a one of the transformations in my life. I bought this shirt after doing a tough arm, chest, and back workout and I was really sore the next day. I already knew from cycling that a bit of compression made my legs feel good, so why not try these new fanged compression shirts that started appearing everywhere at the time in 2001 or 2002. This was the around the first time in my life that I dropped a lot of weight.

In the end, this shirt got often used for lifting, recovery, and to add a bit of a minor base layer on cool days. I have been scraped up and cut while wearing it, yet somehow it never tore the shirt. They really don’t make them as they used to. The only hole in this shirt after 15 years is from when I had a stripped bolt head and I needed something to make the hex key a fit while on the side of the road.

I have yet to have any other Under Armour gear hold up as well – there was something about the real early stuff they sold that just lasted forever.

But I am not content with just throwing it away – given how much literal sweat and blood this shirt has absorbed in that time. While fidgeting with it, I noticed it could make a good gag. I tried it out, and it sure did. Not it will get nicely tied up so that it is ready to use and hang it next to the rope in the bedroom.

Finding a some new uses for the old compression shirt.

Just been too busy

I’ve been too busy lately – looking at what is on my plate I still haven’t gone through all of the Leatherwalk photos or my Folsom photos. Most of this is a combination medical issues that have now been resolved and work. Hopefully I will get done with this backlog of stuff in a few days.

LeatherWalk 2016

It can’t be the start of SF Leather Week without Grace Towers doing a performance before the start of LeatherWalk.

In other news – I have way to many photos to sort and process from this weekend… About 750 from Leather Walk today and over 900 from a shoot for Rubbdown yesterday. I am going to have a busy week.

SV Pride 2016 Pictures

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The photos for Silicon Valley Pride 2016 are up now.

In a way it was a nice little quaint pride parade. Compared to SF Pride, this was a complete swing in the other direction. The march was about 3 long blocks long, with a nice laid back festival. In the future, whenever I hear people in SF bitch about how corporate Pride has become, I will point them to SV Pride along with Oakland Pride as their alternatives.

But for now, I need to head into the office for a chaotic week.