Another one of THOSE days.

Yes, one of THOSE days. As with any day that falls into the THOSE category, the day starts about a week before.

On-Call. I am a computer programmer by trade and part of my responsibility as a senior computer programmer where I work is being on the On-Call rotation. Each are assigned a week and are responsible for handling any back-office applications issues that may arise, any hour of the day or night.

While usually the problems are minute or can wait until morning, there are some that require the on-call programmer to drive (or ride in my case) into work and manually intervene. This week there were some of both.

Tuesday and Wednesday morning, about 1:30 AM both times I was awoken by the phone. A nightly job had generated an error and the security guard called me. Luckily the program that crashed was one that needed no manual intervention. That not withstanding, the calls were still interruptions to my sleep.

Friday morning, about 2AM the automated systems started sending me SMS alerts; sort of an automated "Something is wrong... Help me!" sort of thing. That required a ride in, and about four hours repair time. Instead of coming home, catching a few Z's and going back in, I stayed and finished my eight hours.

Then, instead of getting some sleep or relaxing, I clean the garage in preparation of my ex-wife's garage sale. Long story, don't ask.

Then, that evening about 10PM I start receiving SMS alerts again. These I can ignore. The ones I get at 1:30AM, I can't. I go in, make a quick repair and skeedadle back to the garage where I finish getting things setup.

The garage sale goes on.

Now, this is where the poor judgement kicks in. Earlier I had committed myself to attend a bike show Saturday afternoon. So, I ride there after slamming 16 ounces of RedBull and a couple cups of coffee. I ride up and my friends motion to a parking space saved just for little ol' me.

I ride past the spot a few feet and shut the engine off. Then I proceede to back up.

Just before feeling a slight nudge and nautia, a woman I know yelled for me to stop. I had backed up too far. My left turning signal nudged my buddy's bike's engine guard.

POP

Damn. Now I have a dangling turning signal stem. Maybe a whole pot of coffee next time.