So I Blew Up My Moped

Cruising down this long windy road through Griffith Park, I heard this rattling like there was a pebble in my engine getting thrown around in the casing. It was about four seconds from that moment until the ped shut off, leaving me doing like 40mph, lightless, screaming this down dark mountain pass in the middle of the night. In an immediate panic, I grabbed the brake handles but my eyes began to adjust and I could make out the road ahead, so I continued down the mountain toward the closest source of light that I could see. What I saw turned out to be walkway lights in a small parking lot at the base of the slope, and I coasted in so that I could get a look at my bike. Perhaps it was something simple, a taillight bulb came loose and threw off my electrical system...Perhaps I broke my spark plug--that would explain that weird rattling sound I heard just before shutdown. One thing was for certain. I was miles and miles from home with an adjustable wrench and a 10mm crescent, staring blankly at my dimly lit moped in this empty lot and facing the immutable truth that there wasn't much I could do at that moment, and I was about to walk this dead moped all the way home, when this little old man appeared next to me. After a few minutes of chatting with him ("Plugs? Electrical?"), he kindly offered to haul me and my ped home in his pick-up.

The next morning, I went out and got to work on the Puch to see if I could figure out what had gone wrong. After a few minutes of checking out the plug and electrical system, I pulled off the head and cylinder to stare at the inside of my engine. At that moment, the answer became visibly clear. A small metal shard from the back of my cylinder had broken off, got lodged between the piston and cylinder, and generally tore up the inside of my engine. And just like that, I got up, washed my hands, and ordered a whole new piston, cylinder, and head for my moped.

Huge bummer.

My Presidential Prediction

I've been feeling this way for a while now, but I'm becoming even more sure now. Hillary Clinton is gonna be our next president. How crazy is that? I was really hoping Gore would have entered the race, but it certainly doesn't seem likely at this point. It's weird, the Republicans don't really have a strong candidate, and most polls I've seen reflect this. Their fundraising is well behind the Democrats, and I can't help questioning the electability of any of their frontrunners. Romney is Mormon in a party that has enjoyed a strong evangelical support, and it must be a difficult hurdle for him. McCain is boned. I thought Thompson would have brought some thunder but apparently he hasn't brought enough to outshine Giuliani, who's leading in all polls I've seen so far. Of course, the YouTube GOP debates are coming up, as are the primaries where anything could happen, but either way the Republicans aren't shining like the Dems, and Clinton's been the clear frontrunner from the very start. My prediction is that her lead will continue to widen as Obama's lesser experience and lackofhusbandwhowasafamouspresidentness will become more and more of a weight.

All of you who are screaming Kucinich and Paul into your screens right now must chill. I think they're both great and I'd be stoked to see them take the oval office, but unfortunately there's just not really a chance they're gonna get the nomination, which is why I'm not throwing their names around. I'm not talking about what I want here so much as I'm making an early prediction about the end result of the '08 race.

I think the real question at this point is not who will be our next president, rather who will be VP? Cabinet? My early assumption is that Obama's gonna get the nod for Veep. I mean, who else is gonna get it? Edwards? Biden? I dunno. Obama is very intelligent and brings thunder - a lot of people like him. He's fully a star, but he's being dominated by Hillary just like Pippen was dominated by Jordan. I wonder what Bill's gonna do. . .and Gore for that matter. It'd be nutty to think those guys aren't gonna have major sway in a Clinton administration.

My two cents. Time will obviously tell.