Long Time No Write
I won’t bother with excuses. Suffice it to say that a conversation with a Real Artist Friend Who Believes in Craft Not Web Publishing made me doubt whether this blog is a meaningful use of my time and energies. Then I went up to Oly for the weekend, and then my sister was in town touring colleges and I started training for my assistantship…Well, I guess I ended up bothering with excuses afterall.
Just an aside: if you are having doubts about your own web-based creative undertakings, check out this Ze Frank clip, and also this one. If John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats won’t have me, I’m definitely marrying Ze.
I was running late for training this morning, so I was really cranking along Willamette and onto Greeley just as the Swan Island traffic was beginning to get serious. At the top of the hill, I saw a cyclist way ahead of me with a baby trailer hitched to the back of his bike. I was going fast, but this guy must have really been hauling, because I didn’t come close to overtaking him until we’d gone up the ramp onto Interstate. I was being extra careful not to crowd him or approach him without warning, because I thought he had a kid in the trailer, and there was a lot of traffic. However, once I got close enough, I realized that his passenger was a golden retriever, just hanging out inside the trailer cab, completely relaxed while being pedaled along busy truckways.
When I finally get around to picking up my bike trailer from my friend Judy (who’s giving me her old trailer in exchange for some babysitting), maybe I can take Max the Cat for some rides.
Another Leave of Absence
I’m in Berkeley until Tuesday, and it is very important that I look at palm trees and talk to Willie while I’m here, rather than writing. I expect I’ll be doing some biking in the next few days, though (Berkeley: Home of the Bike Boulevard), so I’ll have some sweet rides to write about when I get home.
Leave of Absence
Until August 4, I will be engulfed in a live-in teaching experience in Forest Grove, so my updates will be sporadic. I won’t have my bike out here for another week and half, but once I retrieve it, I’m hoping I’ll be able to take some boony-rides, and you’ll get to read about migrant farm workers and rogue tractors and automated irrigation systems. Until then, have fun, but don’t forget to wear your helmet.
