The Wilderness Years - Friday Night to Sunday Morning pt. 2

Luckily for me in the year 1996 there was no such things as smart phones, now had i had a fucking selfie stick and smart phone in the year 1996 i could've rigged it up on the handlebars of the bicycle and later on when i emerged from the rip in the space/time continuum that i was currently waltzing through, i could have downloaded the footage and gone viral or some such shit thus validating Andy's theory even more cuz i can only imagine that i looked like a complete fucking lunatic as i wobbled my way toward the bridge and began what was a much more steep descent than i seemed to remember or maybe didn't remember because i had never gone this way before once the backpack was all loaded with grass but preferred my secret knowledge of back roads and the safety of a quiet and empty street, instead i was staring down the barrel of one of the cities main arteries... on acid, whew i thought and wiped a fine line of sweat from my forehead, at least there's a sidewalk to ride down, and so i slowed and made a left into what felt like a bobsled chute...

Fifteen hundred feet from end to end and crossing a steep ravine, i really wish i knew what the grade was on the hill going from Bigelow to Liberty but i don't, i did discover that it didn't take long to build up a serious head of steam and the whole way down i could hear my breaks squeaking and straining as i tried to control my speed all while dodging a sidewalk that was littered with broken whiskey and beer bottles, rocks, city flotsam, a fucking obstacle course, and then add in the tiny factor that in the twilight all the cars had turned on their headlights and i was still rushing up the cliff and about to burst through the rabbit hole, every set of headlights was like fucking light speed, a near solid beam that would start and streak past me in whooshing flash, i realized i had my teeth bared and was grinding away, dreads flying, irises gone, i'm sure a few people driving over the bridge that night got quite a laugh out of it, i was sweating and talking to myself and when i finally reached the bottom i came to a squeaking halt on the corner and let out a relieved whoooo!, Captainfuckinginvincible rides again...

Carefully i made my way across the four lanes of traffic and safely arrived at the front end of the business district, Liberty Ave. colorfully stretching out in front of me, the heat of the day finally starting to recede, i made my way a block up to the Cat Chow Inn, tripping balls in a Chinese restaurant where English is a third language is always an interesting experience, i wasn't hungry anymore but had been starving before i left, over some five hours ago now, i ordered and waited (with a backpack full of weed) and then rode the few blocks to my street, plastic bag full of food dangling from the handlebars, hung a right onto my street and coasted lazily down to my place where i locked the bicycle in the storeroom, walked into my apartment, took one bite of food, cracked a beer, and sat down across from the good Doctor who took one look at me and started laughing, saying, well my brother... you look more than just a tad bit fucked-up...

The rest of the night was a fuzzy photo, the good Doctor reckoned i was probably better off not leaving the friendly confines of the apartment and though he never said it he helped keep me close to home, the Doctor and i had done this many times before and though he gave it up he still knew how to be a good guy around the tripping, some people are just assholes around the tripping, the good Doctor told me to play some tunes and stated that we had ample beers at the place, i went to my room and stashed the gear, pulled a tube or two and walked back out, i paced the place and the Doctor and i discussed a number of topics, every now and then i'd sit down when a particularly strong wave would hit me, i'd smile and take a deep breath or two and the good Doctor would laugh, we took a few beers down to the beaten wooden porch and watched the traffic and listened to the sounds of transient streets, the ebb and flow of combustion engines, the bass of twelve car batteries, snippets of conversations, the occasional drunk teen hanging out the passenger side window yelling FAGS!! and pointing as the Doctor and i would raise our beers in salute to the young and dumb, us not really being all that much older or wiser, a couple hours after midnight the good Doctor now well drunk stumbled into his room and passed out next to Jess, i went to my room and turned on the radio, laid down on my bed in the dark, my room cool, i gazed at the ceiling and the wisps of stray light...

Now besides the word processor i had splurged on one other item, a decent stereo, a fucking dinosaur by today's standards but for my little room it was more than adequate, a 60 CD changer, good speakers, i had programmed in all the local university and public stations on the little remote and though i had the CD player filled with a ton of music, i lay on my bed and listened to classical music, sounds from space, an indie rawk song off the uni station now and then, news, a gumbo of public radio mishmash, staring at the ceiling and the electric hum of the radio, it seemed i'd slip into moments of sleep while the mind just kept churning away, only to find myself staring at that same ceiling, my eyes slowly focusing in the dark...

When my room began to lighten and the birds began chirping i was still lying in the buzz of the radio, i got out of bed and smoked a bit of grass, put on some jeans and my thrift store sweater and crept out the door and headed to the A-plus a block down, i bought a few bottles of Gatorade, a carton of chocolate milk, and a donut, i still couldn't eat but the dope had kicked in a small bit of the munchies and so i ate my donut and drank the chocolate milk, i could tell i was still going pretty good and the temptation would be to start boozing and fucking about early, i needed to make sure i drank all the Gatorade before i got back on the booze, the morning drifted by and i drank my Gatorade, handed one to the good Doctor who looked a little worse for wear from the night before, it was another warm spring day with a good breeze, we watched some cartoons and a movie and after a time we realized it was past 3pm... and so we started drinking...

The amazing thing was that 24 hours later i was still going strong, i knew that i had reached the summit and was now coming down that mountain, it was a slow and steady pace, i watched the sun again go down over the Hill District and managed to eat a slice of pizza, i did a little business late afternoon/ early evening and then the good Doctor, the Lawyer (who wasn't a lawyer at all) and i moseyed the half block to Joe's Bar, amid neon and cigarette smoke, this was before it would become the gangsta hangout and it was us and a few hardcore drunks, we played the shitty jukebox and shot pool and when the clock pushed toward eleven i smiled and made my way to the door, to walk another half block to Anthony's Lounge...

When the old noodle has been doing neural gymnastics for the last thirty or so hours a man needs a place to relax and kick back, i opened the door that led directly out to the street and walked into a rather dead Saturday night at the strip club, i pulled up a seat at the stage facing toward the door, ordered a beer and got some ones, i sat back and watched the lights, it was still early doors dealing wise and while i was known i wasn't that known, just another face who seemed to show up more these days, i tipped and tried not to chat much, smiled and said thank you, then after an hour i left and made my way home, the good Doctor and the Lawyer were drunk and playing video games, Jess was asleep with the door closed, i watched my friends and drank my last Gatorade, made my way back to my room and turned on the radio, i knew i couldn't sleep yet and so like the night before i listened and hopped stations and now and then would almost drift off, somewhere around the time the sky went from navy blue to battleship gray i closed my eyes, the sweet sleep of the acid crash, when the body and mind feel wonderfully spent, a pre-dawn Sunday morning, holy for this heathen...