# WINS
We completed our remodel and did a soft opening!
I completed the advanced suspension, wheel building, disc brake, and dropper post certification classes. Another 8 days of great instruction at United Bicycle Institute. I built a set of wheels from scratch that passed at 84.5 out of 100 possible points. Anything over 75 points is deemed a passing/sell-able wheel-set in a shop by DT Swiss. It was hard working under a time crunch and I got dinged because I went up to working tension too soon on my front wheel and had a radial hiccup just under 0.4 mm that was hard to get any better (80/100). My back wheel was much better because I took more time to set it up (89/100). The instructor comment was "Nice job. Add some spoke freeze and enjoy." Only a few students out of 12 passed this class.
On the suspension side we worked on 6 different kinds over the 4 days including brand new Fox forks. The tech inside these small compartments and the abuse they go through on a regular ride of a recreation rider blows my mind. It is amazing that they continue to work at all without regular maintenance. The higher end suspensions degrade in performance slow enough that it might not be apparent to the rider. So much engineering and physics to continue learning!
# IMPROVEMENTS/INSPIRATIONS
Musical inspiration: "Camera Talk" - Local Natives. I listened to this album a lot when I was engineering/building a camera rig to get 3D growth information over time (4D) of plant architecture during my postdoc. This was a second rate scientist project that I enjoyed immensely, but only got a few middle author publications out of. I had this album on for the gallery opening. Endless fucking around in the studio/bike shop/workshop is starting next week.
We went to a wedding between 1st gen immigrant friends from Eastern Europe and East Asia. Their families are all very smart hustlers. Love it. As an example, at age 8, the bride taught her grandma US history and worked on her English so she could pass the citizenship test (100%!) thus helping additional family members put down roots in the US.
The wedding was on a Tibetan Buddhist sanctuary in the redwoods near Santa Cruz. There is a really ornate Stupa built in the middle of the woods that we hiked to. I have no personal connection to this line of Buddhism, I just like that things like this exist. We passed by a building where monks were throat singing. There was a really interesting auditory resonance coming out of the building.
# NEW DIRECTIONS
I am working on the transition from scientist to full-time artist/teacher/gallery manager. A fun transition with many bumps and lots of solicited and unsolicited feedback. The soft opening with the artists was further fuel to this direction. Two of them have been waiting for something like this, but did not have the background skill-set to build it (conceptually or physically). I very much look forward to learning from them.
One of my 5 year goals was to have a "Graphic Watershed" show in 2026. After doing some larger format pieces for this opening, I think it is more likely that I could I do a solo show later this year or early next year. We are talking 10-15 quality pieces. I just need to think about how these fit into the zine/blog schedule/themes and then start going larger format more frequently. My single submission for "Life By The River" is a 22x30 watercolor and ink. I am waiting on the frame to arrive. Another business owner in town offered to help me mat it. She has a framing side business. "First one's free" applies to framing and quality handshake drugs
# DRAWING
I made a nature scavenger hunt zine for my friend's wedding. I designed it to slightly alter the cover and now it is part of my zine portfolio. I was accepted to table at my first zine fest based on the current portfolio. I had my first larger format issue printed. They arrived and look great.
I filled an entire sketchbook in 8 days with design drawings at the suspension/wheel classes. This is design drawing quarter after all working towards a large format bicycle repair zine in June.
I finished a tri-fold brochure for the non-profit. This was mostly layout/design work with minimal illustration (background for the cover). They already had graphics and text that they wanted to use, I just needed to edit it down to this format. Easy peasy.
# OUTDOOR ADVENTURE
Various stats.
One highlight was riding the Santa Cruz demo forest flow trail system located near the wedding venue. I rode this a number of years ago, but now I am much better at MTB and technical climbing to get up to the top. Hauling ass through flowy bermed trails down a steep mountain of redwood forest is pure bliss. This is also a good moving EMDR exercise. This is on par with powder skiing medium spaced trees down steep terrain on low avalanche days. Physically delicious. Pure Type 1 fun.
# WORK
Newsletter. Zine printed. Paid personal and business taxes.
I finished my first two bike repairs and bought liability insurance for the repair business.
# SOCIAL
Redwood wedding.
We attended a work quitting party of an artist friend. Onto brighter pastures. Her friend gave her a huge monstera plant as a gift.
DW and I had a ravioli dinner with our retired couple friends. The wife in the couple has a number of old recipes from her Italian grandmother. We did a savory chicken filling and butternut squash. Yum.
While I was attending the bike classes I got to meet up with @berrytwo and @bicycle7. We walked around for 1.5 hours and chatted seamlessly before parting ways for dinner time. Delightful humans. (note: @berrytwo does not own a whip as far as I know, but I could not put this out of my head in this illustration for some reason. @bicycle7 is training for his trip
)