Things Going Down

Well dear readers, things got ugly this week. Monday afternoon I headed West from CCW court and got about one and a half blocks before some guy in a 93 Accord pulled a left turn in front of me as I was proceeding through a green light. I was already entering the intersection and had about 15 feet to go before I ended up in his grill. I grabbed a handful of brakes and the bike went down.

I was “really lucky to avoid having my head run over” as the kind gentleman in the photos pointed out. He said if I’d gone another foot I’d have been under the car. Itaru, shown here helping to lift the bike and directing traffic, and his buddy Chris, both rocked. It’s no surprise that both of them are cyclists and stopped to help. Big ups to both you guys.

The ultimate FU of the whole thing? Driver had no licence and no insurance.. welcome to LA! I’m just grateful to have all my parts in the right place, and though I’m a little sore I am aware of how bad it nearly was. All of this is my way of saying I want to live, and right now that means finding a new line of work with a reduced exposure to death by blunt force trauma.

So I’m sorry (and pleased) to say the motorbikemessenger has lost the fun and this blog is done. It was a good ride while it lasted, and I’m thankful to have had you folks here to share a part of it with me. I’ve been doing this job for almost ten years and it really is time to move on.

I hope you’ll check me out at: adamthelizard.com where I’m embracing my true self.. artistic, musical and creative.

Much Love,

Adam.

Pasadena

Passadena City Hall: Welcome to the “no skateboarding zone” where roving gangs of juvenile hoodlums aren’t going to be a problem anymore. Thanks to civil code 10.61.060 those skateboards are now illegal.

They should be fine as long as the kids don’t switch to fixie-bikes or bmx-bikes or heely-shoes or mini-bikes..

Okay, well… the hoodlums on skateboards aren’t a problem anyway. Yay! Pasadena.

Party Favors

This UPS truck pulled up next to my motorcycle in front of the Court Of Appeals in downtown. I immediately noticed the two parking tickets on either side of the windshield, so I struck up a chat with the driver. He was an easy going dude, and he let me know the real deal on the tickets.

Apparently the United Parcel Service buys large batches of parking tickets directly from the city of Los Angeles at a bulk discount. Consider that once again.. UPS pays for tickets they *haven’t gotten yet* and gets a discount from the city! “The ticket is really pointless..” said the driver. In fact it’s been issued already anyhow.

You’d think they could just buy a universal parking pass or something. The USPS truck in the foreground has none of this crap to monkey around with, and both of them are basicly serving the same function. That’s what you get for not being a government-entity there UPS..

Join the party!

Tin Foil Hat Time?

This week in messenger action:

Wednesday night I discovered a hole in my van’s radiator. Thursday morning I came outside and found that my motorcycle had been hit-and-run. The coolant reservoir had taken much of the hit and been shattered.

Wow, two cooling-system hits in twelve hours.. What are the chances? No real surprise that the idiot who hit me didn’t leave a note.. Welcome to LA!

I rigged up this water-bottle replacement on the spot, and I still made it in to work so it’s all good. And I’m pretty sure the van radiator got a rock shot up into it on the freeway.

Still I’m gonna have to start sleeping with one eye open.. At least until these sunspots clear and I can tune into that one radio station with my silver filling.

At the very least there’s some heavy karma getting shed.

Typical Govenment Logic

Beverly Hills Court: The stickers, on both the mirror and the paper towel dispenser, advise that you wash with *warm* water and soap. That’s great, but where is the warm water?! They provide only one tap per sink with *cold* water.

Courthouse bathroom #fail.

Tofu Village Fail

With all the negative press that soy has been getting lately, it’s no surprise to see that the old Tofu Village went under. The building on Wilshire Blvd is now for lease, as you can see from the photo. Tofu is clearly not in high demand.

The Fives Have It

Check out all those fives.. it’ll be five hundred thousand more miles before it hits *all* fives! Hey, it’s a Honda. It could happen.

Also: These miles are not actual mileage. In fact all stories on this site should be considered fictional. Any similarities to persons living or dead is purely coincidental… blah blah blah.

In Blob We Trust

The other day at work yielded this tasty tidbit from the CA legal system: I was tasked with delivery of a large check to the criminal court’s cashier. This check, for a hefty 184,000 dollars, was intended to pay off some dude’s fines to the state.

When I picked it up at the lawfirm I was told that this was the third time they had sent the check. Apparently the court computer system could not handle six digits. What?! They had talked with a supervisor and she was expecting us.

Worst part? When I got to the court at 3:50pm, a full forty minutes before closing time, the main person had left and the remaining underlings were not so sharp. They finally wound up sending me, and my huge check, back to the law firm.

Perhaps the fourth time will be the charm? I’m just glad it isn’t me going back there again.. And seriously, isn’t the state broke? Wouldn’t they want to take this guy’s money already? Government “workers” are a walking oxymoron. Blobs of the state I say.

Turbo-Snail

I saw this healthy little creature in the middle of the sidewalk beside 2029 Century Park East. My concern, and curiosity, kept me there for about 90 seconds before the little dude cleared harm’s way and I snapped the photo. He was moving at a good clip (for a snail) and left a nice long slime trail.

Blog! (now with more video!)

I’ve gotten set up with some new camera gear and I’m re-dedicating myself to a blog with more of that motion-picture action for your eyeballs..

Motorcycle passing cars in West L.A. Another episode from the road in California where lane-splitting, or filtering, is legal… and *much* quicker than sitting in the traffic. No mirrors were harmed in the making of this video. All slow-speed maneuvers between the vehicles were made with the rider’s feet on the pegs.

Soundtrack: “The Omega Factor” composed by yours truly.. Adamthelizard (aka Adam EsOne) using Reason and Wavelab.

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.