Cold Midweek

 Cold Midweek

 Aerodyne

 I didn't bother with getting a post up last week.

Mundane stuff kept me from getting any work done. Many small deterrents in the path. Lots of time fiddled away, and just a couple hours here and there spent on the stone. Not much accomplished. And the last stage in the project is a slow one anyway. It's all about getting measurements just right, lines squared where they need to be squared, getting one side no higher than the other. It's tedious, exacting stuff, and it doesn't produce anything dramatic to show for the effort. Bit by bit, I pushed closer to finishing day. 

And yesterday I got there:

Aerodyne:

Something seems to have come over me in these last few days. Suddenly I've just lost interest in the internet. Somehow, I just can't get focused on anything having to do with politics, or current events. It's altogether too easy to get caught up in the news. It's easier yet, to unlock the keyboard, and throw a comment at a news story just like you'd throw a rock at an enemy. But the rock never strikes the enemy, and the throwing is a wasted effort. I have yet to see any comment on the internet change anything in the real world. And it takes vigilance to avoid the temptation. So I'm being vigilant in ignoring the news.

 It was a week ago last Saturday that we had the monthly So Cal RatRod Ride. It was just Troy, Penny, Dave, and me. Jim was under the weather, and didn't make it. We haven't had guests for a while now, and our monthly cruise has become more of a family gathering than an event. And we're OK with that. Most of the group rides are centered on bar hopping, and the group spends as much, or more time  hanging out as they do riding. We don't do bar hopping. We gather to smoke a little weed, and ride. Most of the group rides have several people with portable stereo systems sharing their music with everyone within a half mile radius. Most people spend their entire day enveloped in fields of distraction. Cell phone. Blue tooth. Always a text message, always a call waiting, always and always music in the background, because silence is solitude. Solitude is looking within. Looking within is scary if there's nothing in there to see. We ride quiet. Time on the bicycle is time away from the dealings of everyday life. I don't want heavy metal, rap, reggae, or any obscene ghetto noise while I'm riding. I don't even want the worn out oldies I've been hearing since high school. Bike time is for the wind, and maybe some casual chat while we're rolling. Mostly it's for quiet. We saw sting rays in the water at the wetlands jetty bridge. That was the event. (photo Penny Stocker)

So this week it's Thanksgiving. We're going small this year instead of doing a big gathering. I'll take a day or two to work out little finishing details on the stone, and then start taking a look at the next project.