Frequent Citations

We Saw Everything

One day TFL rode his bike downtown to work and parked behind an SUV. He was a bit nervous about it, but was able to park very far back in his space so the SUV had plenty of room, and everything should have been fine.

Naturally, it wasn't.

He came out to find Bonnie on her side. (For those of you less familiar with motorcycles, this is Not Good.) Amazingly, the only damage was a knocked-off foot peg, meaning he was out $45 and a week of riding. But the note he found was priceless. One of the employees actually came out and told him all about it, too. It took me a while to hook up the scanner, but here it is (you should be able to click on it for a bigger image, if you like):

The employee said that the SUV backed right into it. Then it pulled up a little and two guys got out and set the bike back up. One of the guys stayed out to guide the driver out of the spot. And the SUV backed right into the bike again, knocking it over again. This time they didn't pick it back up. They just left.

You know it had to be egregious for the staff to go to such trouble as to write down the license plate number. I am not happy it happened, obviously, but I do love this note.

And yes, I just posted the license plate number in public and everything. Shame on you, whoever you are, for knocking over a motorcycle and then just driving off, not leaving your insurance information or a phone number or anything. Also, please learn to drive.

One Pretty Spot

We (TFL, GirlChild, and I) got up at the crack of dawn to head down to a state park. Photo op for GirlChild, who needed to shoot several rolls of film, and an excuse for TFL and I to take Bonnie for a spin. The area we headed for is perhaps the only non-flat part of the state; it's a series of canyons along a river, with good hiking paths laid through and nice windy roads for the bike.

First, I had forgotten how long it takes to get down there. An hour of driving and we were still in Urban Sprawl, and then another long stretch of nothing but cornfields did not make for an edifying ride first thing in the morning--especially because I was in the car instead of on the bike. Then, the camera sputtered and died. This was not a happy event, and although TFL later at least partially resurrected it GirlChild was not able to take many pictures this morning. So she was ever so slightly cranky about that.

She headed back early and TFL and I went to another area with TFL's brother's family and admired a quite lovely little canyon with a long waterfall at one end of it. That was quite enough of nature for one day.

Off we went (on the bike at last!) back to the city. Although there were plenty of motorcycles downstate--and it was a perfect day for riding--we noticed that none of them were European bikes. We found this lack not surprising, but sad. Not everyone has to have a Bonnie, of course, or even a Triumph, but where were the BMWs or even a Moto Guzzi? Nowhere. But when we stopped for gas, what should pull in right behind us but another Triumph!! It was a beauty, a restored 1972 Tiger.

Knight On A Shining Bike

TFL has marvelous timing -- he pulled up to the law school last night just as I emailed off the wretched cite check. It was wonderful to be able to abandon the library and ride off with him on Bonnie.

I'm Pretty Sure This Is Working

It's so beautiful outside today. Since the library doesn't open until the absurdly late hour of 9 am (I know -- it's shocking) TFL and I went for a teeny tiny smidgen of a ride before he dropped me off at school.

I really didn't want to get off the bike. I miss her! She's so much more fun than working on my Bigelow brief.

This is the Brief or Die Weekend. I've heard rumors that there's some sort of a holiday this weekend, but all I know is that I'm going to be chained to the library table until I get this blasted thing done. Where's the glamour? The thrill? The late-night partying and early-morning networking? Oh, yeah, I remember.

That's all at the business school.

Dang.

Light Reading

I suspect that this weekend will be typical of the next two months.

Reading for Monday:

• Torts -- 15 pages
• Elements of the Law -- 35 pages
• Contracts -- who knows?
• Legal Research and Writing --
• Civ Pro -- around 35 pages

Naturally I have to brief the cases in my multi-color system. This is merely an excuse to have more fun with office supplies.

Boy's football game is an hour away, so that will be the entire afternoon today. However, it is a gorgeous day so we're going to take the motorcycle. I can squeeze some of my reading into a saddle bag.

I'll yell my little heart out at the game, happy that one of my teams, at least, is winning.

The rest of the weekend will be an exciting non-stop blur of trespass, breach, remedy, rules, and memos. Whee!

Spring! Happy Spring!

At last some really wonderful warm weather. I filled up three enormous garden waste bags, laid down some of the new mulch, pruned the roses and a couple shrubs. The house has to look good on the outside if we're going to sell -- that whole curb appeal thing -- so I didn't feel at all guilty about shirking indoor duties for a while yesterday.

We finally hopped on the bike toward late afternoon and went back down to Hyde Park. It looked a lot better since there were actual live people there. I could swear I saw the dean of the law school on the sidewalk,  but maybe not.  It was a nice ride along the lake, and zooming through Lower Wacker is always a blast we of course were extremely cautious at all times and never exceeded the speed limit.

Snowstorm

The forecast said 40 degrees and sunny.

I'm looking at snow slanting across my window, falling thick and fast.

I guess the Bonnie's going to have to stay under her cover a little longer.

Isn't she pretty?

I miss her.

You Know It Was the Donkey's Fault

It's not often that an article about a motorcycle accident is this funny.

Edit: Sorry, I realized later that the original URL I linked to was a subscription site. My bad. You'll be able to get to the story now.