friday night...

rode to durham last night to help teach another motorcycle class... friday nights are just classroom. - motorcycle familiarization, riding gear, controls, basic motorcycle operation. basically preparation for the next two days on the range.

ride out was nice - wasn't as far as i expected. had to travel through some rougher parts of town. getting there didn't concern me as much as the ride home. i knew it would be late, after 2100, possibly after 2200. it's not so much that i'm worried about being targeted as much as being hit by a stray bullet. yeah, i know, probably very unlikely, but it would be my luck.

being friday night, the class is only a couple hours long... like any class i've been involved with so far, this one wasn't without its own drama. classes generally have twelve students. tonight's class started with ten. in walks a college age dood about twenty minutes late. he apologizes for being late but hasn't really missed much, so dave lets him stay. well, every break, and sometimes not even on break, he's heading outside to make a phone call. i'm thinking he's scamming on some chick - whatever, he's young, that's probably all he's got on his mind.

class goes well. again dave got me involved and i get to "teach" a couple of the sections. i think i did pretty good and the experience is invaluable. it's about 2115 and we're wrapping up for the night when college-dood's buddy walks into class!! makes an attempt to be funny with some comment about being late and wondering if it's too late to participate in class. dave tells him yes. he asks if he should he should leave - dave says yes and waits for him to leave before we continue class.

we wrap up class, reminding students to bring the proper gear for the next day. everyone leaves and we're gathering our stuff when who should appear?? college-dood and his buddy no-show... they're scheming to get no-show back into the class - striking deals. if no-show can answer every question in the book correctly before ten o'clock, can he participate in the class. dave says no - participation is a key part of the class, in addition there are liability issues... they insisted until dave turns his attention to college-dood and said he was lucky he was in the class for showing up twenty minutes late. it was about then they decided to walk off...

until we got into the parking lot!!! college-dood came over asking for dave's name and phone number - saying he wasn't trying to cause any problems. yeah right... when you're in that situation and asking for names and numbers, it's usually not to invite people over for dinner!!! he walks over to his car then comes back - handing dave a cell phone saying it's his mom. dave starts talking on the phone and walks off. when he came back about ten minutes later he was not very happy. handed the phone back to college-dood and said something to the effect of i don't need this shit... that was pretty much it for the night...

rode my bike home in the evening. ride home was nice once i got through the no-so-nice parts of town... i made a wrong turn - actually turned too early and went through some side streets i didn't want to be on. fortunately i was able to navigate to where i needed to be without having to back-track. the ride home was cooler, which made it nice. kind of invigorating to ride home after dealing with jerks like we did...

overall, the experience was worthwhile. now i've helped out all three days of the course - not all consecutive, but i did help. i've even got some classes lined up to teach. i'm looking forward to those... would like to do more, but maybe i should get my feet wet and see what i'm getting into...

ride on...