oh, i said it's arizona

the arizona strip is a magical place

because it's wednesday

I can think of no finer way to start off a friday than by talking about things that happen on wednesday - conditions are perfect.  I make every effort to join meetch on his little wednesday night group rides because there is a very high probability of something like the following going down.

The sweaty smudge is gratuitous.  The wednesday night group ride is the closest I have come to reliving my days of youth, putting down fat skids on the local denomination's sidewalks.

As for things that happen on fridays - russellcakes frame is purtnear ready for some blue powdercoat.  I've got to add a brake hanger and it'll be out the door.  Here is a terrible shot which includes just a brief glimpse of my overfull shop. 

Summer must be upon us - I have no fewer than four neighborhood kid's bicycles in need of some attention.  I try to hide, but they find me.  I guess that I am just paying for all the free bicycle repair service that I got from my neighbor when I was a kid.

Enjoy yourselves a lovely memorial remembering yours.

must i paint you a picture

Mister Wrankle chided me textually (yes, I am currently textually active) about a certain art show that I was talked into tossing a hat in the direction of.  I'll get to the chide in a moment.  SLCBrent has hosted an art show for a handful of years now, and he convinced me to make a submission.  Done.  As I packaged up my little art piece to be sent north, the words of Marty McFly rang loudly in my ears - "I just don't think that I can take that kind of a rejection."  Off it went anyway.

Now on to the chiding:
"Are you prepared to get in the ring with the professionals?  We will require dues.  It's an exclusive club of which you should not tangle unless you're prepared to pay.  Prepare for initiation."

To my surprise (even with the price tag meant to discourage buyers) the piece sold.  By golly.  I've now taken to wearing a violet beret and invoicing people for creative consultations with my grossly inflated ego.  You've seen the stencil already, but here it is on the remnants of a 1970's era general electric refrigerator.

I was so certain that it was coming back home that I didn't even bother taking any photos of it.  This photo was lifted from the gallery's piece of los internetos.  Thanks to SLCBrent for the hosting, for the chiding from russellwranklejinglehimerschimdt, and for the fine folks who made the purchase.  I'll get my dues placed in the mail here shortly.

i roll around town on my lowrider [tr]icycle

Every now, and every then, my offerings of service to the community pays off.  This time, it paid off huge.  Check it:

I noticed this beauty in a neighbor's back yard awhile back and made some small talk with said neighbor about how I should be included in his will.  Just this week, I received a phone call to help him move some furniture from way over there to over here, and afterwards he floored me by telling me to just take the tricycle on home.  The tires are sun rotted, but still hold air.  The chrome is looks as good as it did in the 70's.  God bless that US built fillet brazed piece of goodness.  You could put a lot of hot dogs and apple pie in that there basket, but I mainly like to go on group rides and take the youngster with me.

simplex and eddy

Another addition to the mural.  This is an old Simplex print in orange, black and sky blue.

i'm on a boat

At 3:30am RAR and I headed out to Sandhollow Reservoir to do a little volunteering/support for the I Ron Man swimmers.  I have never had the opportunity to see 1500 people swimming in one spot before, so I was pretty exited to get my feet wet, um, so to speak.  The closest thing that I have even come to 1500 people swimming in the the same spot was the Flogging Molly concert that I went to in Mesa AZ.  Lets just say that I saw shoes being ejected from the pit and several fellers leaving for some medical attention.

It was dark, and colder than I was prepared for.  We were joined by RAR's 13 year old son,  a designated lifeguard, and her father.  That's right - her dad came as a chaperon.  He kept insisting that she was a freshman, but c'mon now.  Let's not church anything up.  She was a 9th grader.  No big deal.  How bad could this thing really go, right?

The start time was approaching, and the sun was starting to rise.  A light breeze started to pick up just as the sun crested Mollies Nipple (that is not a spelling error - the USGS Quad map calls it Mollies, not Molly's.  I guess that there must be several of them).  The gun went off, the pro's were in the water and the wind picked up.  There was some bantering back and forth on the radios on whether or not the main group of swimmers should get in the water.  A giant dust cloud was approaching from the north.  I was nervous.  More banter.  Ranger Rick confirmed that the dust cloud was just smoke from the Toquerville fire and the main race dude, the one with the accent, gave the go ahead.

No sooner were the swimmers swimming, the wind storm arrived.  I managed to snatch a couple of videos before the wind got too crazy.

Exhibit A - Hey cool.  Look at all of the swimmers.  Wow, the wind is picking up a bit....

Exhibit B - Uh, wow - this is getting gnarly.  Our first swimmer was bailing...

The phone went away at this point.    The wind got way worse and we started to take on waves coming over the bow of the boat.  I was soaking wet and freezing and the chaos had just begun.  Our lifeguard was in a panic and was freezing.  I tossed a wet suit to her and told her to put her game face on because things were about to get epic.  Swimmers were signaling for help and I was tossing a ski rope out to them.  I caught a swimmer with every cast.  We had a boat full of swimmers and a then swamped kayaker showed up and needed help.  It took myself and the lifeguard's dad to get the kayak emptied out.

I have seen some crazy days on a boat, but this - this was scary.  As we headed back to the dock to drop off our first run of swimmers I was hoping like mad that my three swimmers were okay.  The dock was crazy.  We managed to get all of the swimmers off of the boat without smashing anybody and with them went RAR's son (seasick and barfing) and the lifeguard.  That's right, I said the lifeguard.  Gone.

We headed out for another boat load and started taking on all sorts of water.  The waves were crashing over the bow of the boat faster than that the bilge pump could handle.  We were standing in water, in the boat.  We decided that we needed to get the boat on the trailer and let it drain or we were going to have some troubles.  Another boat had arrived at the dock and was getting it's ass kicked so I jumped off the front of the boat and swam to shore.  By the time I got the trailer in the water, the boat was so full of water that we couldn't get it on the trailer.  It took 10 guys and a skid steer to drag and push it onto the trailer.  I was standing in the boat - in it - in water up to my knees.  Two other boats had been beached, and there were talks of two ranger boats that had completely sunk.
With some stroke of luck, my phone still worked and Fisher's lovely bride answered her phone and confirmed that Fisher, Dave and Dave's dad had made it out of the water alive.  Seriously, I can not believe that no one drowned in the end.

Fisher and Dave finished the I Ron Man with six minutes to spare.  My hat is off.  Seriously, anyone that made the swim is one gnarly individual.  Nice work.  I was in a boat, with a life jacket on, and I was convinced that my wife would be making a life insurance claim.

Many thanks to the good help the lifegaurd's dad turned out to be.  You are a good man.

RAR's boat?  He'll be making a claim to the insurance for sure.  Let's just say the damage was significant.

Wowsers.

pass the mic to yauch

a lot of people get jealous, they're talking about me - but that's just 'cause they haven't got a thing to say.

a moment of silence for the man.

amazing hand dexterity

flagarant misuse of security. 

Okay, that lyric may be a bit obscure.  Still, most positively, worth a revisit.  Primus always takes me back to junior high.

The blogger world is so 2000.  How lame am I?  When I start posting bits about neat ways of doing my kid's hair, or how to make those neat little party favors - please, somebody pull the plug.  Many thanks to the three of you who still clicky-clack your way on over to this corner of the interwebs.

Of note today - pitter patter pablo finally can multitask again.  I can't even begin to wrap my mind around the cost of that carbon fiber appendage.  I am in the wrong business.

[Insert your own laterally stiff, vertically compliant joke here.]

The new arm takes me back to my he-man days....

Interchangable bits = badassery

Yes, the hand is articulate, electronic and fully programmable.  If it were mine, if would immediately program it to do this:

Just sayin.  Dexterity is a good thing.

With that, I am going to roll out the orange couch and soak in a day's worth of the I Ron Man.  Here's to you Fisher, Dave, and Dave's Dad.  Seriously, Dave's Dad is amazing.