He rented an apartment from an
old Asian woman worse off than
himself. He located his car and
navigated out of the garage and
saw that it was a truly beautiful
day. Ed thought he would cele-
brate by buying a few extra
donuts on his daily pilgrimage to
Happy Donuts.
Ed pulled up right in front of
his favorite donut establishment.
He always had the best parking
place because he was the only
customer who kept them in busi-
ness, after a young child died of
food poisoning from the jelly in
one of their jelly donuts. As far
as donut diseases went, Ed was
probably immune to them all. He
Ed's car was the oldest func-
tioning police car in the SFPD,
complete with bullet holes and
graffiti. It was not the most
intimidating car, but every morn-
ing he took it out for his shift. He
knew his car better than any-
thing else; actually, come to think
of it, better than anyone else.
When he first joined the force,
the car was already used, and
he'd been using it himself now
for the ten years he had been a
cop. His car shook violently with
just a small amount of pressure
on the brakes. His car did not
agree with stoplights, pedestri-
ans, hills, and small domestic
animals. It was his car's fault, not
noticed Ed's clumsy and
pudgy current condition, the
chief had decided that Ed
could no longer undertake any
important investigations and
had given him a new assign-
ment. Ed was to spend most of
his shifts harassing skate-
boarders on the Embarcadero.
Ed felt devastated by this new
arrangement but he knew he
had to do it to keep his job.
This morning there was no luck
for Ed. There was a group of 20
or so skateboarders cruising
around Pier 7. Ed dialed the
number to connect him to head-
quarters and turned right out
onto the pier.
while thinking about the tricks he
would try at the pier. He moved
to the kitchen, where he pre-
pared himself a chocolate chip
cookie and a glass of water for
breakfast. He also packed him-
self a peanut butter and jelly
sandwich in a plastic bag, with a
Sprite and an apple, and tossed
them into his backpack and left it
on the kitchen counter. Then he
set up a new board he'd received
the day before in the mail from
his sponsor. Mike sat back in his
chair, looked out the window,
and said to himself, "What a
damn good day to go skate!" And
with that in mind he picked up
Clockwise from left: Some Southern
fried funk in the form of Nathan Jones
backside 180 flipping a Floridian gap.
Taking some time out to visit the Bro Bowl,
Peter Smolik throws down a couple
frontside flip reverts between runs at the
SPOT contest. Peter Hewitt toasts a tall tail-
grab revert.
2318IKE
had eaten thousands of every
type of donut in the world. Ed
regretted that donuts were per-
ishable and attracted ants,
because he would have liked to
collect them. Ed walked through
the door. Behind the counter
was another man of Ed's size
and shape who Ed saw every
morning. Ed picked out a large
box of donuts and loaded them
into his car. Every morning he
bought as many donuts for him-
self as a normal person would
buy to cater a party.
Ed's. His brakes were as slow as
a snail in an inch of mud. When
the brake fluid finally did its job,
the car would go into a shaking
fit almost as if it were suffering
from a massive head injury.
As Ed neared this morning's
destination, there was nothing
for his car to disagree with. As
he drove along the
Embarcadero, he was hoping
he wouldn't see anything that
would cause him to go
through the ordeal of slowing
his vehicle down. Having
M
ike's day started
very differently from
Ed's. Mike awoke to
his ringing phone at 11:00. He
hesitantly picked it up. It was
Karl. Karl owned a skateboard
company called "Chocolate" and
the company sponsored Mike.
Karl was calling Mike because he
wanted to "shoot some pictures
of him at the pier": Pier 7. Mike
agreed. He loved photo shoots.
He rolled out of bed slowly so he
could adjust to the cold morning
air. He got up, getting dressed
his backpack and board and ran
enthusiastically out the door and,
with the same zest, all the way
down three flights of stairs and
onto the street. Mike felt totally
exhilarated so he stood still,
closed his eyes, and took a deep
breath of city morning air. Mike
loved that smell so much
because it was what he had
smelled all his life-that great
combination of car exhaust,
ocean breezes, Bay breezes.
Though Mike didn't know it,
Ed's morning process had taken