Urban-Crawl: K.O.M.

Many moons ago, back in May actually, some friends and I came up with an alternative to Bridge Club. If'n you don't know what Bridge Club is, that's okay -- it just means a variation on a theme of a specific, and regular, location to hang out and drink beer after work with yer bike ridin' buddies. Much to the chagrin of our livers (and my summer course syllabus) we kept it up every Tuesday through early August. We dubbed it K.O.M. -- "King of the Mountain" after the climbing points competition in Le Tour. After all, we'd meet on a hill off Minnehaha Parkway in south Minneapolis. Not much climbing, but a lot of skill depending on how long you hang out. Things slacked off once my fall semester began. Well, Seth, one of the ardent supporters of KOM (and one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet, as well as a faithful knight of the Surly brewery crusades) thought we ought to have another KOM before it gets cold and frozen here upon ye tundra o' the Minnesota north. Following is the story from this past Tuesday, the 9th of October, 2007 C.E.:

Left to right are Geoff "The Shlayer" Schley, Chris "Dirty Kop" Duerkop, Seth "Man Nuzzler" Nesselhuff, and Dave "Gray Boy" Gray. Dave, I appreciate you making an appearance at the last few KOM's because 1) you have a kid and do an awesome job of balancing the frivolities of bike camaradery with family life, and 2) the Surly guys never seem to accept my invitations to hang out. Yes, we are all layered up and, yes, it was cold -- like 42 degrees cold. Coming off an 85 degree weeekend that was just a bit of a shock to the system. Sadly, Seth would have been wearing tube socks nonetheless.

So, after three-quarters of an hour shivering, I suggested that we relocate to Pizza Luce. No one thought that was a bad idea at all. Here Seth man-wrangles a tangle of bikes. Get along lil' doggies! There were mechanicals and physicals along the way, but if there ain't photos, there ain't no proof! Besides it weren't nothin' Mr. Park or Mr. Newton couldn't negotiate our way out of.

Seth almost looks pissed that his lame ass decided he had to get to a show; instead of enjoying the whole pie and pitcher-powered goodness of our experience, he opted for a single slice. Poor guy.

I admired Seth's "Catch-22" shirt because Catch-22 is my favorite novel. Dirty Kop promptly informed me that Catch-22 is also some lame band, further enhancing Seth's evening of lameness.

What goes around, lames around. Seth left to meet his friend. Dirty Kop whipped out a checkbook to pay. Geoff and I slapped down our cards, picked up his tab and reminded him it was the year 2007 -- some 20 years late for the heyday of the check. (The waitress rubbed it in, too.) What do you expect from a guy who thinks he's Batman? C'mon, Michael Keaton's career was dead a few years ago as well.