Monday, May 5, 2008

wheeled things and other things

No art tonight. I promised Sweet Enemy that I'd work on her portfolio tonight. With my goading gentle support, she is on the way to becoming a full-time painter and I can do nothing less but lend my skills to her aid.

Also, I spent the weekend in Maine helpling Kickenemymen build his trike. Technically, he was helping me as I have shop experience, but it was DEFINITELY a two-man job. It look silly. It is, however, a whole lot of damned fun to ride. Even so, it still looks silly. We built it in about three hours including first test flight (finishing about dark).

here are some photos of the assmebly process. I'm the one with the bad shoes.

The next day (in the drizzly rain), we went for a 3 or so mile ride around Casco Bay and, of course, neglected to take any photos. The trike ran great; much better than it should have for its maiden flight. A very slight issue with a maladjusted rack, but no real mechanicals.

Mike was then kind enough to take me to see the ocean again. I love Vermont more than any place I've ever lived, but MAN, I miss the ocean. Well, the shore. I don't like being underway, but I love the shore.

Now, even though I wasn't specifically asked, but because I adore talking about myself, I'm considering myself tagged.

Ten Years Ago I Was

In my junior year of art college.

Five things on today's to-do list (I'll do yesterday's as today was WORK)

- Drink coffee and play Mario Kart with Kickenemymen
- Keep trying to convince Kickenemymen to get into mountain biking as much as me and let me build trails on his land
- Drive 200 miles home from Maine
- Eat food before I pass out
- Hug Sweet Enemy for a long time

Things I'd do if I were a Billionaire

- pay off my house, my folks' house, my friends' houses, buy my sister a house and we all go solar and wind, baby
- purchase huge gobs of forest land and manage it for free-use multi-use trails and sustainable logging
- subsidize local farms and aid them in going organic and using methan recovery for heat/electricity
- buy mcmansions and tear them down and plant trees
- take all of my friends to visit Kodiak
- open a comic book shop in Vermont that doesn't suck

Three Bad Habits

- biting my nails
- giving unsolicited advice in a know-it-all voice
- not balancing my checkbook (what the heck does reconciling mean, anyway?)

Five Places I've lived
Just five? Who cares, here they all are:
-Brookline, MA (3 yrs)
-Shrewsybury, MA (14 yrs)
-Kodiak, AK (1.5 yrs)
-Seattle, WA (1.5 yr)
-Kodiak, AK (2yrs)
-Traverse City, MI (3 yrs)
-Portland, ME (5 yrs)
-Essex Junction, VT (6yrs)
-Underhill, VT (2 yrs)

Six Jobs I've had in Life (not in order)
-Search and Rescue Helicopter Crewman (USCG HH-3f)
-multimedia designer
-Tray and feta cheese bucket washer at a spinach pie factory
-bike mechanic and sales person
-bookseller
-boat trailer assembler

I'm actually on the end of the food chain on this. Kickenemymen doesn't blog and Andrezero is too busy training for his 2nd degree black belt in Aikido to be bothered. It ends with me.

Listening to while posting: (She Thinks She's) Edith Head by TMBG

4 comments:

Swinebread said...

"Open a comic book shop in Vermont that doesn't" suck

I knew you wouldn't let me down!


Of course we all know that you're going to live in Portland Oregon too someday... :D

Andre Messier said...

I think you guys made a mistake putting that trike together. the single wheel goes in front! :D

and please tell me you made up the spinach pie factory job... I can't believe there is such a thing as a spinach pie factory...

Don Snabulus said...

Good job on the trike! Looks like a good ride.

Your billionaire ideas are much better and more plausible than mine are.

Arkonbey said...

Swine: word! Sweet Enemy read your FCD post and wanted to visit Stumptown. Now, just a matter of money...

Andrezero: d'oh! And the spinach pie factory is real. I am very surprised that I still very much enjoy feta cheese.

Snab: it IS a cool ride. You might try one out: it's good on the back! My ideas are more plausible, but yours are good dreams nonetheless. Except for them robots. No good can come from robots...