Saki At Sunrise.

   
     As you can see, I finally made it out for a ride at sunrise. It was a short but productive ride. I got a few shots, and I'll share the other ones with you a little later. We have a few things to talk about before we get to this morning, which is when the ride took place. The above picture though, is, in my opinion, the best of them. You'll see why in a little while, but first, let's go back in time to Friday.

     Friday, was Guys Night Out, but before that, I had to run an errand and pic up some razor blades, so that I could shave on Saturday. Not really needing razors over the past 5 years, I didn't have a real good one in the house, so I headed out to pick some up. I must have picked the exact wrong time to go to Target, because traffic was terrible, even on the bike. I made it there, but it took me an extra 15 minutes to get there. I picked up my blades and hit the road. I decided that it wasn't worth it to go the way I came, so I headed to the Interstate, which was only slightly better. I only had to go about 300 yards to get on the Interstate, but it took a good 10 minutes, because of that same traffic that held me up. I finally got out of the traffic, and headed up the on ramp. I gunned it up to 70 MPH before I even merged onto the Interstate, but I had to fall back, because I couldn't merge safely so I had to rest behind a box truck. The wind shear coming off of it sucked, so when I got my chance, I throttled up, and got out from behind it. I wan't really paying a attention to my speed, and was only watching the tachometer. I happened to look down after about a mile, and realized I was doing 103 PMH. That was when I noticed that traffic was backing up again, and I had to slow it down, not to mention that I was coming up on a tractor trailer pretty fast, more wind shear. I found an opening and got around that truck, and was off to the races again. I was only going around 95 at that point, but my exit was coming up, and I had to slow it down again. I have to say, I was a little shocked that Saki got up to those speeds so fast. I thought I was only doing the speed limit which was 70 MPH. It didn't even feel fast, and I wasn't blasting past cars, which should tell you about the flow of traffic.

     After I got home form that short errand, I just had to wait a few hours before I met up with my buddy. I was the Designated Driver, so that I wouldn't have to drink, so I was picking him up a little before 6:30 so that we could meet another friend for the Night Out. We started out at a craft beer bar so that we could see yet another of our friends, that had to be there for something. It turns out, that it was for a brewers meet up, for a brewfest that was a make up date form when Hurricane Matthew came through. He works as the taproom manager at my favorite brewery, so he had to be there as the host brewery. There were a ton of people there that I knew and hadn't seen in some time. They all had comments on my lack of beard, which was kind of funny, kind of annoying. We stayed there for a few beers, I had water, and then made our way to the beachside for the strip clubs, which was where I knew we would end up all along. The buddy of mine that I was the DD for, is a bit of a strip club aficionado.

     We only made it to two clubs that night, there are 4 beachside, but they were fun. The first one, is a mix between trashy and not quite classy. I wasn't drinking and I wasn't spending any money other than what it cost to get in, so I was trying to stay somewhat invisible. I grabbed a seat at the bar, got a bottle of water, and watched the games that were on the TV's. The one thing that always attracted the dancers to me, was the beard, and without that, it was kind of easy to keep up the invisibility. It wasn't perfect, but it kept me from a lot of women coming over and trying to get me to get a dance from them. It took a couple of hours before they noticed me, but once they did, my hide and seek efforts were over. I have never had so many women grab my crotch in my life. That is why this place is between trashy and, oh you get the picture. The rules are a bit shady there. The dancers can pretty much do what they want, but the men have to behave as gentlemen. Ok, gentlemen is a bit of a stretch, but they do have to keep their hands with in reason, to themselves. I'm not grabby, so the dancers usually take my hands and put them all over the place. I'm just not comfortable grabbing like that. I felt bad telling the ladies that I couldn't get a dance from them, but they understood, and went of their merry way as soon as I did, but they really worked it until I did tell them.

     It got to around 11 o'clock at night, and the cigarette smoke was getting to me. I was starting to cough real bad, and my throat was sore, so I managed to convince my buddy that we needed to move on, so it was off to the next club, and I got to get a little fresh air on the way there. This second place was in the class range. As a matter of fact, it was almost too nice. I didn't like it as much. Too much polish if you will. The ladies were all beautiful, with no flaws, and even the crowd looked better. It was mostly young college guys that were all dancing with each other, which I thought was really weird considering that they were in a strip club. The bartender was very nice, and kept giving me water, which helped my thrust a bit, but It was getting worse the longer I was in these smokey clubs. I made sure to tip her when we left, cause I felt bad for only getting water. Normally I would be drinking, and the alcohol would numb my throat so I wouldn't be as affected by the smoke, and I wouldn't be coughing all over the place. It was getting close to last call, and although my buddy would tell you that he wasn't drunk, he was hammered. It was time to call it a night. I got him home safely, and then I got home at 2:30 which meant that if I was going to get up in time to do a sunrise ride, i wasn't going to get much sleep at all.

     I choose to sleep instead. Even though I didn't drink, I still ended up with a headache when I woke up, because of all the loud music, and a cough from all the smoke. The good thing though, si that I wasn't all out of sorts, like a usually am. Today was going to be the day, that I ask out my bartender. Let's get into that, shall we. I didn't really do anything all day, except cook meals. It was really relaxing, I did order a couple of things for Saki, some swingers spools, and new anodized red valve stem caps for the tires. The spools are red too. Ok ok, I'll get to the night time which is when some fun and a little sadness happened. I got dressed after a shower and shave I left a little on my chin, in the way that I used to. It's a true goatee. No mustache only the chin. I looked pretty good if I do say so. I had on jeans some zip up brown combat boots, and a beige long sleeve sweater type of thing. It was very thin material, It wouldn't be much good in the cold. I also had my glasses on instead of contacts. I got in the car to drive there, i couldn't take Saki, because I was going to have a few drinks, and while I was driving there, I had a panic attack. Everything part of my buddy was telling me that I need to turn around, this is a horrible idea, you are only going to fail, and there is going to be a bunch of people there to witness you going down in flames. I have these attacks all the time. Well, not quite like that, but in the ballpark. This one was pretty bad, but I worked my way through it, and there weren't a lot of people there. This is where it gets interesting. I walked in, and the manager looked directly at me, said hello, and walked away. That shouldn't be abnormal, but it was the way she said hello. I could tell that she had no idea who I was. The chair at the bar I normally sit in was open, so I took a seat. They always have two bartenders, and a new bartender served me when I got there. I don't get my normal tall glass, which was fine. One of the servers I know walked by, and looked at me, and seemed to have an inkling that I was someone familiar, but let it pass. My bartender who was standing at the other end of the bar, didn't even direct an eye my way, when she finally came up to where I was to throw something away, she smiled at me awkwardly, and looked away. I of course smile back, but still said nothing to anyone other than the young woman that served me. There were three other patrons at the bar that know me, and we have had rather in depth conversations with one another. No recognition.

     I started taking notes on my phone so that I would remember it. This is what I wrote. Sitting in anonymity in a place where everyone knows you, is kind of a fun experience. How long will it take? Will it be when I pay my bill, before, later, maybe days? Interesting questions.

   Maybe it all seems fitting I should just have my last drink, forget about ever asking my bartender out, and just call it an end of an era, and a closing to that part of my life. Enter like a lion, and leave like a lamb. Only a whisper speaks my name as I say goodbye to alcohol.

I've been found out. It took a half hour.

     Yep, it took them a full half hour before anyone recognized me. That only happened because the manager was behind the bar, and saw that my glass was empty and asked if I wanted another cocktail. I said yes, and she asked what I was having. That was more proof that she didn't know who I was. Everyone there, knows exactly what I drink. They don't even ask when I walk in, they just hand it to me. I told her I was having a Jack & Coke, and she took my glass, and began to pour. That was when she audibly said, "Hey! Oh my god. Bob, were you going to say anything?" I told her no, I was keeping my mouth shut until someone figured it out. Everyone that knew me in there, began losing their minds. I could see them look at me once she said who I was, and then they had to look harder at me to believe it. The one server came to the drop off window, and said she knew something was familiar about me, but didn't know what it was. My bartender still didn't know what was going on, when the manager asked her if she knew. She said no, and then looked at me again to figure out what they were talking about, and I could see her face change as she recognized me finally. It was shock mixed with something else. I wasn't sure how to take it.

     That did not boost my confidence by the way. The odd look I got, brought every thought from the panic attack back. You could see in my notes, that I was already backing out on what I wanted to do. Any reason to not do it, seemed like a good one. It was about this time, that I got the real good reason. She walked up to me and said that she wasn't feeling well, and she was tired. I asked her what was wrong, and that I thought she seemed a little off. That is normally something you don't say to a woman, unless you have prior knowledge from them that they are indeed off. I won't go into why she wasn't feeling well, but let's just say, that asking her out at that time, would have been a very bad idea, and this isn't just me justifying my cowardice, it was a legitimate no fly zone. I did find out information that will help me out moving forward though. I now know her work schedule (that doesn't sound stalkerish at all), so I can plan accordingly when I do ask her out, and I will do it, eventually. This of course means, that i'm not quite done with drinking yet, but I am going to highly regulate it. No more 5 and more nights. I will limit myself to two whenever I go out, and that will be it. I think this its a good thing, It's not cold turkey, but it's a start.

     On to this morning. I woke up with the alarm, and hit snooze as many times as I could. I checked the night before for what time the sun would rise, so I knew when I had to actually be up and on the move. I made it, and here are the other shots. Like I said, the one above, is my favorite. None came out the way I described as what I saw in my head, but that one came the closest.

     This was the location that I wanted that glow that is on the top one, but it just didn't happen here. The other building sits right next to this one, but for some reason, I got that fire on the tank look that I wanted. I knew they wouldn't come out the way that I wanted, but I'm happy with what I did get. I did see an opportunity for a better shot at the top photo location. I'll give it a try some other time and see if it works out the way I see it in my head. When and if I get that shot, I'll share it here first. I do plan on putting that to one on Instagram tomorrow. It won't be picture of the day, although I toyed with the idea today, but it will go up about an hour after picture of the day. If you follow me there, you probably have an idea when I post everything.

     Well, that's all for tonight. Peace in and goodnight.