Of flats and friends and flying men

Wow, it's been a packed last forty-eight hours!

On Tuesday night, Otis and I took a little ride on the Burke-Gilman out to Matthews Beach. (Maybe we'll repeat the exercise tonight, only heading towards Shilshole.) My bike was rolling fine the whole trip.

But yesterday morning, on the way to school, all of a sudden my rear tire was flat! I didn't go over any obvious debris and there was no pop - it was round, and then it was not round. I had to call Otis to pick me up and drop me off at campus before she went to work at Hi-Lai's, and it has been so busy since then that I just got to fixing that flat a little while ago.

I had to bus home (which was actually very easy) to meet Angela and Lyle, who were paying a little visit from Boston. While waiting for Otis, we raided their local storage unit and now, yes, we have more stuff. I accept it because it meets the criterion of merely holding other stuff: we got a hallway shelf/coat rack and some shelving for my closet. We also got cool and yummy summer drinks at the local Evil S when otis came home.

That fun lasted right up until when we had to leave to visit Otis's grandma; we satyed and chatted with her right up until it was time to leave for dinner before Superman Returns. We had a great meal at Bamboo Garden, with Jimbo5, Dingo, Johnbai, and surprise (dinner) guests Claymation and Emmy. After eating, we walked over to Imax and stood in a too-long line in a too-hot room for too long a time, until we could take our seats with our plastic goggles for the big-screen, semi-3D extravaganza. That gave plenty of time for us to be met by Soapy and new gal pal Ya-El (no relation to Kal); Mighty Mel (bearing plenty of concessions); JagGirl (who requested the record show that she arrived at 6:48 pm for a planned 6:00 pm rendezvous, much earlier than not quite as tardy as she usually does; and Mystery Man, a friend of Emmy who made a last-minute subsitute for the under-the-weather MaryBee.

My response to the movie itself was lukewarm; perhaps my expectations were too high. There were some awesome moments (particularly the early action sequences) and I had a good time, but much of the film seemed meandering and not very interesting. One reviewer I read today summed it up nicely: Not enough Superman, too much Returns.

Oh, and the 3D segments still looked like Viewmaster slides to me.

So, today was just teaching and cleaning and fixing flat time. I got to use a Twilight Zone episode in class this morning; it worked and was a lot of fun. I also got a phone message in the middle of my class from JustJon in the middle of his bike ride; apparently he is back on the saddle again. And the RSVPs are coming in for the Saturday SOS.

As Nacho Libre said, my life is good. Really good!

In the heat of the day*

It is that hot, langourous part of the afternoon; this time of day is usually my slow time, and the heat just makes it even more so. Otis is off for tea in Mongolia, so I am hiding in the relative cool of the lower level. I think we may try a bike ride after dinner, when the temperature has moderated a bit.

I have been biking the past two days, but only on my NSCC commute, and that's only five miles roundtrip. Tomorrow I'll add a loop to the comics store on the return leg to see if I can squeeze in a few more miles without making a separate trip.

The commute itself has been a thing in doubt. No kidding, even on the first day of class, my dean was talking cancellation. Both sections were under the usual minima for a class to run; heck, truth be told, even combined they were barely at the maximum enrollment allowed for one class. As it turned out, since it is a required class, and since the numbers were right on the cusp, she let them both run, but it was a near thing and I might have had one class only (which wouldn't have been a terrible thing). The classes look to be just fine, although it is odd to teach the same lesson plan back-to-back with two different sets of students.

Working as much as I am just means that I have to plan out the important stuff, like seeing Otis's friend Angela yesterday, and seeing her and her husband Lyle tomorrow, and doing Superman Returns (oh, check out this review) tomorrow night, and so on and so forth, including more Summer Outdoor Spectration events, like the one pictured here:

Clicky for a bigger, annotated version

Okay, it might be time for dip in the pool right about now.

*Of course, bitchin' rights are held by JustJon, with little chance of a challenge - 108 degrees! That's flippin' hot!