When you go to San Francisco be sure to wear......

A bathrobe over your clothes well holding a paper cup just occasionally shouting. "Neep, neep, Nerp!" So that way when you go out of your overpriced "smoke free" hotel you just might be able to enjoy a cigarette without being panhandled every thirty seconds.
Perhaps I should start at the beginning? My Attorney aka. my soon to be wife and the great love of my life had a conference in the city by the bay. So, we're thinking a little lawyer school for her with a little mini-vacation for both of us with the big plus being having most of our expenses covered by her firm. These things always sound better then they really are. I thought I'd get a chance to spend some quality time with the San Francisco messengers and more importantly I'd hoped my Attorney would too, a chance to bond with the family she's marrying into. The thing most people don't know about messengers is there is a bond between us (well, most of us.) something that to try to put into words would only cheapen it and to be honest the only people I could expect to understand are other messengers, Marines and veterans. It's not as intense with us as the Marines and veterans but it's dam close. Oh well, shit happens and we didn't get to spend as much quality time as I'd hoped but what time we did get I'll treasure. Thank you.

It's not so much the winters...

It's the fall and spring I dislike. The seasons when nothing is quiet right with your clothes or your bike set-up. A threat of snow, freezing rain or "wintry-mix" hangs in the air . Most of the pavement downtown is clear right now but it might not be tomorrow. Do you run the road tires and keep a sharp eye out? Do you run the lightly studded commuter tires and have that dammed grinding noise of carbide tungsten on pavement in your ears, that noise you keep hearing long after you've hung up the bike and downed a six-pack? There are places where you do need them and besides it'll get your legs used to the extra weight. Do you take half measures like running a mountain bike with flat profile knobby tires, cyclo-cross tires on your road bike (the Ritchey Speedmax is favorite) or one of my favorites Sno-Cat rims with semi-slick tires? I call the last one "The kind of sucks in all conditions bike" because it doses but it doesn't completely suck. No I like winter. I've lived here for most of my life and to a small extent I'm used to the darkness and the weather even though global warming seams to have started really kicking in right about the same time I started as a bike messenger. For example during my rookie years a the odd cold snap with temperatures down to -25 (that's Fahrenheit, like most Americans I never got the hang of metrics) were not uncommon. I can't remember the last time it got below -10 during working hours. Along with that we now get the odd warm spell up to 40 plus. The classic pattern seams to be snow a lot then melt some then freeze. I know a hundred kinds of ice now.