era

by dailies

Today I couldn’t face saying goodbye to my xtracycle. If I would have, I would have cried, in front of Terry & Ralph and maybe they would have thought me a fool, and I just couldn’t face it. So I took an extra-hot shower while Ralph wiped the bike down and took it in to trade in at the bike shop. And now it’s gone and I even walked in my garage thinking it was there, already, and felt a pang.

This bike was a big, big part of my life, and of the kids’ life, for over five years. I could and did take my children everywhere on this bike (as well as lots of other kids and a few grown-ups!). I was biking the Hogachillun on it up until today. In fact, Phoenix – for the first time – rode with her brother on the back, just the other day. Fond memory: biking around Lake Quinault and SMOKING two city-cyclists with their fancy gear and fancier bikes – while going uphill, and while hauling my child (and that may have been how I ruined my knees! so: comeuppance).

I don’t know if anyone reading understands, but in this moment it is difficult for me to move on after several years of packing the kids around, all marsupial-like.

"Do They Like Riding On The Bike?"

 

PROOF

 

Adventure Necessities

 

We Embark

 

This Bridge Makes Me Sh*t My Pants

 

Kelly + Coffee + X = Heaven!

 

Transporting:

 

This Is How We Do It

 

Docs + Fishnets + Bike

 

Mittens May Hamper Agility

 

Goodbye, X. You were an amazing family vehicle.

***

My new wheels:

New Wheels

 

The upgraydd is a Trek 520, with Ortleib roll-top pannier bags. Today, with the trade-in of my bike, we paid off the layaway. I took the new bike on a couple rides, about ten miles total. Just like my first day with the X, this bike felt new and strange. Very different stance, very different weight, handled differently. I did manage to carry books, my purse, a camera, and a potluck chile relleno. It made me feel like maybe I still had a cargo bike. Kinda.

a bluebird in my heart that wants to get out

by dailies

LOOK AT THIS CAR

Newness

Have a look at this beautiful motherfucking car. It was last seen being awesome in my huge ass driveway which is where it is right now being awesome as usual.

(h/t because I am not funny, I just steal other people’s jokes).

Today was busy-busy-busy. I had to drive my new (used) car around town and not turn it off for a few errands because A. I had to make sure to get supplies for an event I’d committed to today, see below, and B. my new car was sold to me (deliberately) with a bad battery that had to have been sneakily kept-charged rather than the dealer just buying a new one (oh, expect a scathing online review. Actually, more a matter-of-fact one) and it was so bad I would need a jump at any juncture.

As of today I’d already YouTube’d up how to get to and examine the battery (it’s kept under the backseat! there’s a positive terminal in the engine for jumps though!), something I figured out that my husband hadn’t and the car parts dude hadn’t. The car parts dude (a big strapping fellow) wasn’t going to help me switch the battery out because of that seat thing, and when I told him it was either that or jump me, and by the way the seat was no big deal, two spring-loaded clips, I wasn’t strong enough but my husband had done it the night before – well then the dude jumps up and whips my battery out there and yanks on the seat and helps me switch out. Sudden wellspring of altruism or indomitable male ego? We’ll never know, but I drove off after a nicely-purring startup and a weight off my mind and a fair bit of cash spent. As well today I have jumper cables and the thorough knowledge of how to do jumps, since I had the pleasure of performing several the day before.

The stereo’s anti-theft code didn’t come with the car (and seriously? Retrieving one’s code is a PITA) so Ralph suggested upgraydding the stereo and I said Okay, knowing entirely the expense this might incur. Luck was with me as the shop I chose (the one my dad had frequented) had their little Euro antennae adaptor etc. and we had it all done this afternoon. The fellow who installed the stereo was named Roscoe and I found out he is a champion basil grower – I shit thee not (as in wins Grand Champion etc. at our County Fair). I had been querying him about car stereos and a few other things and sat practically on his lap watching, and he humored this (and the soft brass semi-stripped special-five-sided-hex-key-required bullshittery to remove the factory install), but when I asked him about the basil he brightened right up. We talked for a while and he ended up sending me home with four plants, including a lemon basil and very explicit instructions to get the best out of the plants – and how to start new ones via cutting (his preferred method).

Automotive Accessories

Fucking Hoquiam. It’s just great.

We had a Doll Picnic today at the Gallery as part of our Childhood Perceptions show (this was the abovementioned event I was required to bring food and drink and do some work at), including a professional dollmaker and many readings and a very large dressup game and food and drink – all orchestrated by our show’s co-curator Jeanne.

Master Reader

The event included many of Barb Shillinger’s dolls and her expertise and willingness to talk to children about them.

E. & (Some Of) Barb Shillinger's Dolls

Phoenix chose an alter-ego for an hour (“Fern”):

… while during cleanup I quite sensibly was waylaid by children wanting to climb in my trunk:

Skunks In The Trunk

And then there was Robin Moore’s Charles Bukowski hand puppet that I thought was stellar:

Guess Who?

I was pulled and pushed all ways today but I got through the day and had some lovely, lovely moments. As you can see.

I can’t quite express how happy I am to no longer be forcibly car-free. It has made life easier. Maybe. I prayed a lot while our cars were out – prayed not for a car, but for acceptance, patience, humility. I am in a way more worried now because cars cost money, and we haven’t in the past had money set aside for car bullshittery, so it’s been hard. And perhaps most relevant to this story, everything I’ve done involving cars, I’ve had to learn shit the hard way. Seriously. And I’ve been a slow learner.

But today I can pray in gratitude, and give this new responsibility to God, and enjoy our good fortune.

And on that note:

“We’re all going to die, all of us, what a circus! That alone should make us love each other but it doesn’t. We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities, we are eaten up by nothing.” ~ Charles Bukowski