Bare Hands Gallery

Today I'm taking a half day of volunteer duty at Bare Hands Gallery. Being as it's Saturday, and less trafficky, I rode straight down 1st Avenue North. It's pretty much a straight shot from my house to Bare Hands. Don't forget to visit http://www.barehandsgallery.org/ and for the love of god don't forget that November 2nd is Dia de los Muertos numero seis, featuring Flaco Jimenez. Craig Legg is having the first Day of the Dead workshop today making paper mache masks in preparation for the big day. There are workshops going on every saturday from now through October so come down and get involved.

Peanut Crib

I did end up having things in order so I was able to ride to work on Thursday. Today I rolled on over to the Peanut Depot, aka The Peanut Crib. A stop on Morris ave for freshly roasted cajun peanuts has become a fairly regular stop for me. It's a whole lot easier to make the stop by bike instead of with a car. Except for getting my timbers shivered on the cobblestones of Morris Avenue. I'm not sure how long this place has been here, but definitely a long time. I like all the old men that come in with a dollar bill in their hand to get a "dollar bag." I usually stock up with a 2 pounder to "share" with the office. What that really means is, I sit it out in a public area, then commence to eating the whole thing myself.

Mon, Wed, Fri

Tuesday was a day off from riding 'cause of all the rain. My general rule of thumb has become not to ride if it's raining when I'm ready to leave. If it's not, I'm on two wheels. It was time to filler up, so $60 later I was at Lucy's for my coffee. Looks like tomorrow I'm driving as well because my Argon is empty again (I think I left the valve open a bit), so I'm off to Airgas in the am. They don't open until 8:00. I might try make it there and back in time to still ride to work, we'll see. Anyway, I felt like taking a different route home today. I zig zagged my way over to 43rd and headed down the dirt road next to the railroad tracks. It's definitely not the fast or easy way home, but it's definitely an interesting diversion from the same old streets. There are several sets of tracks, most with paths in between, and I've explored where I end up depending on which track I ride between. This time the road ended where the two sets of tracks I was riding between come together in a V. Cool thing is, it was right next to a whole bunch of abandoned buildings. I stopped and explored briefly, but I could clearly hear someone clunking around inside one of the buildings. Great stuff. Old abandoned delivery trucks, rusted equipment, and junk galore. It definitely looked like someone or some people had made this their semi permanent hangout. I snapped a few photos and then decided to head on. I definitely have it marked for further exploration some day. I had to carry my bike the last 100 feet or so down the tracks, but it looked like one track over I could have ridden all the way through. Maybe next time.

The Terminal

Big thanks to Andre for plastering my blog, and incidentally, my artwork on the Terminal. If you haven't checked out the Terminal, make sure you do: http://bhamterminal.com/. It's a great way to keep in touch with what's going on in Birmingham. Also a great place to watch the Parliament house demo if you missed it. Not as big a loss to Birmingham as the The Train Terminal, but still enough to make me scratch my head and say "why'd they do that for?" Thanks again Andre.

Tall Bikes

I'm just back from New Orleans and find myself really eager to get back on the tall bike project that got shoved aside a few months ago. New orleans has a way of inspiring people. Last time I started a tall bike project I decided I didn't just want a tall bike, but something totally original. So I ended up staggering the frames so that the neck tube of the top one was about half way down the top tube of the bottom frame. I got it all working, and then got bored with modifying the handle bars and never finished. Since it was my first project I was really eager to get it put together, so I didn't paint the frames or worry too much about aesthetics. I just wanted to get it rolling. So, when we were down in NO we saw a few tall bikes rolling around and it inspired me to get back on track with finishing this and then making just a regular old tall bike. Here's the problem. I had two frames sitting around waiting to be tall biked. When I got bored with the weird bike project I borrowed a chop saw from my buddy Johnny, chopped the frames into 2 inch pieces, and welded them into a sort of Buddhist design thing. So I'm back on the hunt for some bicycle frames. If anyone has any, I promise to make a bicycle of sorts out of them instead of chopping them up, I promise.

hop on

I saw this at the bike through lane at the bank. I snapped a picture while I was in line and pondered a bit what it actually was supposed to mean. I probably over thought this a bit. But since the car in front of me was obviously opening up some sort of retirement account, I had some time to kill. Since there isn't actually a bike through lane at the bank, it isn't promoting a bike through lane. While the lack of a designated bike lane doesn't create any real issues for biking through to make deposits, you do have to suck on the exhaust from the car that is usually in front of you. Not that I expect banks to start putting in bike lanes. I suppose the sign is intended to mean "hop on" doing business with Regions Bank. But they don't actually say anything about why. I guess they would argue that their egregious fees are slightly less reprehensible than their competitors, although most likely still quite high. I also guess they put the green bike in there to infer that "we're green" so obviously you should bank here. Whatever it means, it's a bike on a poster, so it gets points there. Groovy lookin' bike too, and better than a Hummer on a poster.

Brian rides bikes

Now what are the chances that there would be another blog out there about riding a bike written by a guy named Brian, spelled properly with an i not a y? Pretty good I imagine since there is one: http://brianridesbikes.blogspot.com/ He's been doing his for a couple of years it looks like. So I emailed this guy (Brian) and told him I had started something similar to his and half expected him to respond with something like "hey slack ass go come up with your own idea." But he was totally cool and gave my blog some props on his blog, so here go some props back to him and a link to his blog. It looks mighty cool and he updates regularly so make sure you check it out when you get a chance. It looks like he's planning some radical bike trip adventure to New Orleans, so some of y'all in New Orleans might could offer him a beer or something on his ride through.

abandoned building

In my book (blog) there's not much more fun than exploring abandoned buildings and places. These pics are from that I assume is an abandoned metal fabrication shop. It's right on the corner of 43rd street and Powell avenue. I can ride right up into it, but quickly dismounted 'cause I was clearly in danger of getting a flat tire. There are some ancient metal working machines and welders, all of which look like they are deteriorated well beyond the point where they could be restored. Someone has been cleaning the place out and intentionally leaving these behind, so they must have some plans for them. I also noticed in the very corner it looks like someone is using the place to do some work. I got the feeling that the clock was ticking on someone calling the cops on me, so I took a few quick photos and split. There was all kinds of great scrap steel on the ground. Lots of old wood too. I may have to make a run back there to ask someone if I could gather some of it up for a project. Who I might ask I have no idea. I always feel like there is a fine line as to whether it's stealing or not to just take scrap metal. I suppose if they are planning on selling it as scrap then it would be stealing. If they were just gonna throw it in a dumpster then I guess it would be fine. If it walks like garbage and quacks like garbage, then I call it garbage. Whatever that means.

A new start

It's hard to believe it's August. After only riding three days last week, I feel I really need to make it a full week on the bike. Mostly due to the fact that my car is sitting outside on empty, so next time I drive it means $67.14 less in my pocket. My tire is fixed from last week, I've got my week of clothes and food stuffs stashed at work. I have my new pump and a spare tube on board, so I'm feelin' pretty on top of things. It was a pretty uneventful day back and forth accept the fact that I got stopped by an unusually long train on my way home. There is always the option of turning back and taking Crestwood Blvd when I get stuck like that. However, I've come to enjoy the forced downtime of watching the train roll past. All the graffiti, and all the little instructions on the cars like "oil doors here", "no pressure release device", "close valves completely." It's also interesting noting how old some of the cars are, how some are newer, company names, chemical names, srap cars, tanker cars, cattle cars, boxcars. I've taken notice that all the boxcar doors always have little metal zip tie locks on them. I keep hoping that one will pass that's open with a bunch of hobos in it. You know, doing hobo shit. Playing banjos, eating pork and beans, sharpening their knives all with a little campfire in the middle.

Blow Out

3 flats in two months. About a mile and a half into my ride to work I heard that dismal hiss that can only mean I'm gonna be a walkin' soon. It happened just as I was bump bumpin' over the railroad tracks on 43rd street. As soon as I realized I was hearing it, and after I did the ridiculous look around to see if there was another place it could be coming from, it turned into a full on shooosh and my front tire went completely flat. It immediately occurred to me that I had stashed a tube at work, and had a patch kit and pump at home, but at the moment I was pretty much out of luck. Luckily - a cell phone call got me a ride home from Shawnie and I drove on into work. Lesson learned. I made a trip to Bob's bikes at lunch. The same girl was behind the counter that told me to buy two spare tubes and keep one with me at all times. I offered my story before she could notice I was back for my second tube so soon. I bought a little carry with you kind of pump as well.