A Bicycle Love Story

So way back in the 80's when I was in grad school I lived in the the tiny town of Oxford, OH. I met my kids father there, and when we met I was shocked and and apalled that he didn't have a bike, as Oxford was the perfect place for biking, both as recreation and just for getting around town. So I cajoled him into a buying a bike so we could ride together. He went uptown to "The Bike Center" and bought a nice red Nishiki, a nicer bike than the one I rode in the color I always wanted my bike to be. I still have never had a red bike... **sniff**

Fast forward to 'now'. I live way out west in Utah. I am divorced. My ex never really was as interested in biking as I am, so he left his bikes behind when he left. My 23 year old son however, is into bikes, and bike building and repairing, so he recognized that the old bike of dads was actually a nice, quality old bike. So last spring he pulled it out of the crawlspace and hauled it back to Durango, CO where he attended college.

This weekend when I was in Durango for his graduation he asked me to take his dads bike back home, since it's winter and his house is tiny (really tiny). As we go to wrangle the bike out of his overcrowded entry way, I ask about the 3rd bike in the pile, a gray Trek, probably from the '90's, which I did not recognize. Turns out it was his girlfriend Alicia's... then he gets excited...

"But get this mom, you know how dad's bike came from Oxford? It still has "The Bike Center" sticker. Look at Alicia's bike... it's from "The Bike Center" too... it has the exact same sticker."

So you have to be kidding me! Sure enough both bikes are labeled exactly the same. I asked where she got her bike, and it turned out she had bought it used, there in Durango. So what is the chance that two old bikes from the tiny town of Oxford, Ohio would come to live together in the same tiny house in Durango, CO? Kind of a bike "love story" of sorts! Two bikes, from a sleepy little Ohio town, travel the west to, decades later, be united 1400 miles from home in Durango, CO!

Horoscope again...

I am always so amused when I get a perfect horoscope. Here's mine for the 14th. It is correct, in that I have been thinking it would be nice to earn a little money on the side. After all, I want to take Sarah to visit Matt in France, and my salary doesn't exactly have room for that kind of expense. And sure enough, I would prefer to do something fun. Coincidentally, I got an email from ebay the day before, advertising a listing sale; $0.10 listings on Sept 14-16. Coincidentally again, I've made a bunch of new beads lately. Throw those coincidences together, and I think I am supposed to list some beads. Because sales had gotten sooooo slow, I have not listed beads in almost a year, perhaps it is time I give it a try again. So I broke out the camera, took some pictures, and voila, listed a bunch of beads on ebay before tonight's dead line. Of course if some of my beads sell, I may have to actually become a true believer in astrology!

4th of July Weekend....

Saturday I went out with the mountain bike group for my first ride of the year. We road Pipeline trail out, which, by mountain biking standards is a relatively mellow trail; fairly flat, not too technical. I pretty such suck going up the big, steep uphills, and the big steep downhills can be a little scary, so for me this is an excellent ride. I did manage to successfully ride a few "technical" spots that are challenging to me so I was pretty pleased. I love this picture that Mike, one of the group organizers (and coach, cheerleader and total enthusiast) took. It really makes mountain biking look like, well, MOUNTAIN biking. I am the middle rider.


Sunday was spent at a creek side picnic with a friend. We were supposed to join other friends at the beach at Pineview Reservoir, but were turned away, for crowd control reasons by a cop doing his best "Dirty Harry" imitation. So we found a lovely picnic spot instead.


So the weird thing about Utah ... 4th of July fireworks are held on Saturday the years the 4th falls on a Sunday. No one here seemed to get the message about "separation of church and state". Two exception (that I know of)... the Salt Lake Bees has a big fireworks display after their July 4th game, and The Country Club did theirs on the 4th. Luck for me I get a great view of The Country Club's fireworks from my deck.

Horoscopes

The snowy Nevada desert... from my little road trip last weekend.

So do you believe in horoscopes? I'm not really a believer (show me the data LOL), but I like the idea of believing. I am always amazed though, at how well I tend to fit descriptions of my sign, Sagitarius. Since i like to entertain possibility, I do read my horoscope from time to time, and sometimes I am amazed at how spot on it cam be. Then again for all the times it seems accurate there a plenty that it doesn't. It's more fun to ignore those days.

Today was one of those rare days that I thought to look up my horoscope. I usually do this through my yahoo page simply because it was an wasy thing to add there. So here is todays Yahoo Horoscope:
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February 03, 2010
Sagittarius (11/22-12/21)

Okay, so you might be taken by surprise. Love doesn't run on a schedule, does it? Especially not this kind of thing. You're at the beginning of a period of meeting new and interesting -- no, fascinating is more like it -- individuals, most of them from distant places. When one of them appeals to more than just your intellect, who's to say how it will end up? Only you and your soon-to-be sweetie -- and if you're smart, you'll do what you can to make sure the two of you walk off into the sunset.
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Well that is certainly interesting, they do seem to be on to something, with this line at least:

You're at the beginning of a period of meeting new and interesting -- no, fascinating is more like it -- individuals, most of them from distant places.

Do they know something of my social life? Turns out the the Meetup singles group is having an event tonight, and I signed up to attend. Hump Day at the Bayou, a local club, known as Beervana because of it's extensive list of brews. Meetup people are often transplants, people new to Salt Lake, so there is a very good chance I will meet people from distant places. Hmmm how uncanny, that this would be todays fortune.

Now the romance part? Truth be told these meetups are often more women then men, and the men in attendance are often younger than I am. Then again, it is always different people, so you never know. Maybe there could be potential sweetie in attendance tonight. Doubtful, but always possible. Perhaps I should try to be extra witty and charming just in case!

An interesting Saturday...

Picture mooched from the Jellyfish 12000 website - thanks!

So do you know about Burning Man? The big festival where 1000's of people head to the Nevada desert to set up a temporary city full of art, entertainment and parties that culminates in the burning of huge effigy man?, Ever since a friend went to it years ago, and I saw a story about it on Nova, and becoming acquainted with several "burners" I have been kind of fascinated with the idea of Burning Man. Kind of a big artistic summer camp for grownups... I loved summer camp as kid, I bet grownup summer camp would be great too.

One of my coffee shop friends is a "burner" and she is really active in the local burner community Element 11, which hosts a summer burn, and various parties and events throughout the year. Last weekend she invited me to come out to a street fair sort or fundraiser they were having, so I stopped by for a few minutes.

The street fair wasn't on a street, but actually on some property, "The City of the Seven Gates" on the other side of town. I don't have a clear picture of how many local burner groups there are, or how they all connect, or how they pay for this, but somehow "they" have rented or own this big industrial type space on the other side of town where "they" practice performances and have art studios and parties and big warehouse space to work on huge projects. I put "they" in quotes as I still haven't figured out exactly who "they" is!

As someone interested by art and creativity I thought it was quite interesting. They yard was full of welded/sculpted art projects, in one of the buildings ropes and fabric hung from the ceiling where people people practiced aerial dancing. There was a huge warehouse full of stuff were people worked on projects like art cars.

For their street fair they had music, activity booths, food and artists selling crafts. Of interest to me of course, was the one guy that was selling torchworked pieces. It was another one of my "weird cosmic coincidences" as the night before I had stopped by Trolly Square and saw some really cool borosilicate glass work in a shop. I asked the shop owner who the artist was and she said he was a local guy, Kristian, one of Burning Man guys. Being pretty impressed by his work I was glad to get to talk for a few minutes, and he gave me a tour. They are in the process of setting a really nice studio with 6 torch stations for big boro torches. I was pretty impressed, and jazzed because they may have classes someday, so perhaps if I ever get the bug, I'll have a place to go for boro lessons. I wish I had some pictures or a link to share, as his pieces were very nice, but unfortunately I don't.

Speaking of invertebrates, as Kristian lead me back through the big warehouse to the studio, there were some people working on what I was pretty sure was a Burning Man "Art Car" - sort of like a parade float, but better. It looked really interesting to me, the kind of thing I would have fun working on. Later that evening, interest piqued by the goings on at the "City of the Seven Gates" I googled for info about the local burning groups and low and behold, found a site to the art car, Jellyfish 12000. If you like big cool art check the pictures and videos!!! The videos are really neat, the Jellyfish is quite the productions! One more thing to make want to someday try out the Burning man experience I'd love to see that in real life!

What's in a name?

My name that is. Linda carol. My mom's sister is Linda, my dad's sister is Carol. I was the first born grandchild on both sides, and was named Linda Carol. According to Mom I wasn't actually named after my aunts, but that they just liked the names. Regardless, I like the idea of being named after my aunts. I've always thought it was silly to have a middle name that never really gets used, so when I started my little bead business I decided I wanted to embrace and use both my names.

Last week at work a tech from another lab, was interested in my jewelry. She asked me if I was familiar with Etsy, and I told her I had an shop and gave her my Etsy ID. Later that day she stopped my office laughing and said, "Guess what my name is?" Well, it turns out she's another Linda Carol. What a small world.

Fast forward to today. I checked my email tonight, and find a messsage titled "I am Linda Carol too!!!" I didn't recognize the address, but with a title like that I had to open the email to see what it was about.

The message:

Hi, this is not a spam, I am just very pleased to have found another namesake who is also creatively gifted. I found you in an odd way, but I am so happy because the other 2 Linda Carol people that I found were artists too! I hope you get this, I am on facebook and I my birthday is 12/11, what's yours?

What a fun email to receive. Another Linda Carol and a fellow Sagitarian to boot. I definitely will respond.

Even more interesting to me, this Linda Carol is a spiritual healer type person (my words not hers) who practices various types of therapies. For some odd reason (is there a reason?) during this last year I keep encountering people who are following spiritual, metaphysical paths. I became acquainted, long distance, with a Reiki master, and a few of my friends started studying shamanism. I've become familiar with terms like "energy work" and chakras. Being the scientific type, I'm never really sure what I think of these metaphysical, spiritual things, but I know I'm fascinated by coincidence, and find it very interesting that yet another spiritual person has popped into my life. I wonder if this is a hint, that perhaps I should be opening my mind to these new and different ways of looking at things.

New Years again...

Today is Chinese New Year...a good excuse for me to write an about my new year and to share the unusual way I started it. This is my interpretation/recollection of an interesting evening, so I may not have all my "facts" about the ceremony totally correct. The pictures are courtesy of Val's daughter.

Two of my neighbors have been studying Peruvian stype shamanisn, and on New years night hosted a despacho. My rather uneducated lay description of a despacho is a ceremony where you essentially make a package of gifts and blessings to offer to mother earth (Pachamama) as thanks or as a celebration, or to seek good fortune or cast away evil spirits.

We started the evening with a lovely dinner and wine, then headed downstairs to a big table where the the paper wrapper was laid out and surrounded by the offerings.

The purchased kit is layed out on the brown paper. Rancid llama fat is smelly!

The gifts include an assortment of plant materials; seeds and leaves and fresh flower petals, sea shells and starfish, items that represent animal life, such as animal crackers and gummi bears and stickers, things that represent the earth like soil, and items that represent the heavens like rainbow strings and cotton clouds and stars. Kits can actually by purchased that contain appropriate offerings. My friends had quite a variety of items in addition to the kit which contained a few rare (for us) items like peruvian soil and llama fat and placenta. We were all invited to bring our own offerings as well.

Patty blowing smoke.



With these items we created a mandala on the paper. There was of course an order to the laying of the gifts, and their orientation and layers, all dictated to us by my friends, the shaman in training. We all sipped from a glass of wine, which was then offered to the god, my friends blew (organic) tobbacco smoke onto the pile (which seemed odd as neither of them smoke), and we all took a turn blowing a mist of Florida water over the offerings. The wine and the smoke and the Florida water where all things that the gods "like". The water was interesting as it was a more or less an alcohol (strong) extract of flowers. It wasn't meant to be swallowed, but taken into the mouth then misted over the package. I think fire water would have been a better name! More important than all the actual items were our intentions as we mantthe offerings.


The package was neatly tied up, bundled in a cloth and we took turns passed the package over each other. I think this was supposed to balance or release personal energy. I was rather surprised by the odd sensation I felt as the package was passed over me.

Val and Patti, our shaman.



After this was done we moved outside where we had a bondfire and burned the despacho, offering all of our intentions to the spirits. There was ceremony to this as well, incense oriented to the 4 coordinants, more smoke and Florida water. We watched the fire until our despacho we incinerated, looking for glimpses of the various items in the smoldering embers.

While I'm not sure I necessarily believe in this sort of mystisism, it was a very interesting way to bring in the new year. Learning the believes of other cultures is always fascinating. Besides, how can you go wrong with a ceremony that is all about thankfullness and good intentions?

The despacho burns... see the starfish?

Wednesday Wackiness

While on campus today I spied a person with an "unusual" tattoo. It was on the back of her upper arm, on a spot where is was most noticable from behind her. It was a great big, nearly the size of my hand, hand grenade. Not army green as you might expect, but mostly red with other colors shaded in.

I am fascinated by tattoos. I don't have any, as I can't think of anything that that screams to me: "Please, please, tattoo me permanently on your body!", but I really wonder about other peoples tattoos and the the thought process they must have gone through to decide that they needed to spend lots of money and experience pain in order to have "fill in the blank" adorning their flesh. I especially wonder when I see a young, attractive, college coed with a huge hand grenade tattooed on her arm. I can't help but think that someday she may regret that tattoo. I would have loved to have snapped a picture, but I couldn't figure out how to do that with out seeming rude. I was also tempted to ask her why she picked that tat, but, once again, I couldn't figure out a polite way to do it. Maybe if I see her on campus again, I'll get up the nerve to ask.

Another funny thing: As I drove out of the parking lot at work tonight I followed a car that had a huge hand grenade sticker on the back window. Is the hand grenade some pop culture image that I don't know about?

It's a small word...

My one guilty pleasure in life is my daily morning stop at a small local coffee shop. Since I've been doing this for years now I've become friendly with the owner, the baristas, and many of the regular clientele. In a lot of ways the coffee shop is the equivalent of bar for us goody-goodies who don't drink alot and hang out in real bars. There's always someone to talk to, someone who'll listen to your problems and even offer up advice. I'm never sure which I'm more addicted to, the caffeine, the cream and sugar I put in my coffee, or my chatty early morning social life.

This morning I had one of my weird cosmic coincidences. One of my coffee buddies showed up when I did, so we sat and chatted for a few minutes. In the course of our discussion I mentioned something about 'back home", and she asked me where "home" was. I answered "Ohio", and she asked "Where?". "Cincinnati" I said and she got this quizzical look on her face, laughed, and said she was from Ohio too. I asked "Where?" and she said "Kind of north of Cincinnati, in Fairfield".... then I laughed. The subdivision where I grew up was litterally right across the road from Fairfield. I spent plenty of time hanging out in Fairfield. It also turns out that her father lives a half an hour away in Oxford, which is where my in-laws lived and where I went to school. Next time we chat I'll have to ask her if she hung out at the roller rink there, or the bowling alley, or if she or her friends ever drove their cars too fast over the hills on John Gray Road. Funny to find a Utah connection to my childhood 1400 miles away. The world shrinks once more...

Start singing Disney tunes now...

its a small world after all
its a small world after all
its a small world after all
its a small, small world........

(Don't you hate me?)

Do I need more hobbys?

A couple of weeks ago I was at a baby shower for a friend who happens to be an excellent potter. She was trying to entice me to come take a class at her studio. I told her that "I had a fear of pottery". She looked at my like I was demented, until I explained that my "fear" is that I would like it too well then want to have my own kiln, and wheel and pottery studio.

Imagine my surprise when that evening I received a call from another good friend. This friend is another artist type, and one of the many things she does is china painting. She wants to know if I'd like to use a big kiln for my glass work. It turns out that one of her elderly china painting friends had to go move to assisted living, and my friend got one of her kilns. She can't use it right now, but thought I might be able to. How could I say no?

To use it for glass I think I would have to spend quite a bit of money on a digital controller, which I can't do right now, so I'm thinking I'll play with clay after all. It's funny how life works sometimes, one minute I'm saying I fear pottery because I'd want my own kiln, a few hours later I have one sitting in my garage. Cosmic huh?

So Saturday I went to the ceramics store and bought two huge bricks of clay. I'm going to pick a night and have a bunch of girlfriends over for a "Pot Party" where we can all get creative with clay. It will be a perpetual party, because after we create we'll have to have a glazing party, and a firing party, and kiln emptying party, right? I think I'll now discard my pottery fear and look forward to clay play!

Firey Reading

Weird coincidence... I try to go to the gym several times a week, where I work out on weight machines and aerobic machined like stationary bikes and stair steppers. I find the the bikes and stairsteppers a bit boring (a good outdoor jog is so much more interesting!) so I like to keep a book in my gym bag to read while working out. A week a go I started the book "The Smoke Jumper", by the same author who wrote ("The Horse Whisperer"). It's sort of weird that I started a book about forest fire fighters, and week later poor California is blazing. The gym has some big screen TV's, the one where I work out is always on CNN. So this week, while I'm reading a book about fire the TV screen is image after image of burning houses and wild lands. It definitely added to my reading imagination.

I feel so horrible for the people affected by the fires, it is a situation that on one hand is hard to imagine, and on the other hand is worrisome as we live near windy canyons and mountains that occasionally catch fire. I've often wondered what would happen if a fire ever got out of control up Parleys Canyon and the winds picked up. Mother nature can sure be scary at times.

Ghosts?

On Friday night I went to a Gothic fashion show, "An October Evening" that was held at the local Masonic Temple. The show featured the designs of many of our local "alternative" clothing designers, punctuated with spooky photos and videos. The show benefited a toddler who is being treated for a rare metabolic disorder at Shriners Hospital making it an interesting evening for a good cause.

I haven't been to the Masonic Temple in years. Way back when Sarah belly danced we went there many times to watch Sarah perform. It was always a magically feeling place, just the perfect atmosphere for those belly dance festivals. The auditorium is decorated with ornate woodwork, much of it gilded. In the middle of the tall ceiling there is "the sky", a recessed blue circle dotted with yellow lighted stars. The perimeter of the sky is illuminated in such a way that that the sky glows in stunning light. It is an extremely beautiful room; it had the perfect feel fo Sarah's belly dance performances, and was perfect for the gothic fashion show.




I had my camera in my bag, so I decided to try to take a few pictures of the sky in the ceiling. Unfortunately, My battery was near dead so I could only attempt a few (4) shots of the sky, and one of some of the wall detail. I didn't expect the sky shots to work, as it was really tricky lighting to capture (especially with a dying battery). I hoped to at least get a nice shot of the wall.

When I uploaded my photos the wall shot was marred with a great big white orb. Many people think that orbs in pictures are a sign of paranormal activity.(And many deny this!) I seemed to recollect that the Masonic Temple was one of Salt Lake's haunted places. A quick google search confirmed my recollection. So is my big white orb a ghostly apparition, or is it a photographic anomaly; some dust or moisture in the air? I have to admit I've never had an orb show up in a photograph before. Closer inspection of the my "sky" picture revealed a few more orbs. Interestingly, they were not blurred from the long exposure in the same way the stars in the sky were. So was I treated to ghostly images in the haunted building? Seeing as it's Halloween month it kind of fun to think so... but who really knows?!

Is it a Neil Young sort of day?

Apparently, it is!

I admit it, I am an NPR junkie. Much to the chagrin of my children, I keep the car radio tuned to NPR. According to them NPR radio personalities all talk in "headache inducing monotones". I think there needs to be a a new measure of time, a "radio second" perhaps, that measures the nearly instanteous amount of time between my car radio coming on the kids demanding in an impatient, irritated tone; "can we PLEASE change the radio station?" So much for the driver's preferences. Oh, well, at least they say please. So except for the left hand button that is always on KUER, the universities public radio station, the kids are given free reign to car radio buttons.

I played chauffeur last night, so when I left for work the car stereo was tuned to one of their choices. An oldies rock station. Neil Young's song "Old Man" was playing. I really like Neil, so I certainly couldn't complain about that. So I waited until the end of the song to switch to Morning Edition. I stop at my favorite coffee shop, (my morning ritual!) and what do I hear as I step in the door? More Neil Young! The barista is playing his "Harvest" CD. I guess it's a Neil Young kind of morning! What a nice way to start the day! I haven't listened to Neil in a while. Now I'm really in the mood for Neil, I really wish I had some of his music at work, but I guess I'll have to wait and get a Neil fix when I get home. Me thinks it will be an oldies music weekend at my house.

Oh yeah, I should mention, in addition to being a Neil day it's one of my days over at Watch Me Create!

Reasons I like the bead world...

One of the things I love about the glass bead world is how once you are hooked on melting glass and realize how one's current skill level effects (limits!?!) what a person can create, you gain apprectiation for beads that may otherwise not appeal to you simply because you marvel at the skill it took to create them. Seeing Mavis's bead the other day reminded me of that. I was certainly oo-ing and ahh-ing over them the bead store, as well as lamenting that I couldn't create anything like that. But the truth of the matter is while I'm the first to say I suck at sculptural work, I also have to admit that I've rarely attempted any sculptural pieces. Back in December I talked about my sculptural bead attempts; not much has changed since then! But not yet having the bug to work on those skills doesn't stop me from really admiring the work of those who do. I think it's wonderful to know I may have future challenges around the corner, and that one day I may be inspired to make things that currently seem out of character for me.

A second good bead feeling from my Mavis bead experience - I love all the bead world connections! I've never met Mavis, but I've made friends with folks who have. I have a cool bead that I got in a trade with Schermo. It looks like a victorian style purse. I don't recall the entire story, but she came up with that design to make a bead for Mavis. I have another wonderful trade bead; a green vine bead with a cool turtle murrine that was made by Kristen of Gennesee Glassworks. Kristen used a murrine made by Mavis in the bead. So even though I don't know Mavis at all, I feel this tiny connection. It's a nice thing.

Coincidences again

As you may know I am fascinated with coincidences, and and equally amazed at how this web of a world intertwines. I had another cosmic moment the other day, an unexpected intersection of my nerd world, my gardening world and my glass world.

I went shopping to purchase bedding plants for my front garden and deck planters. I prefer to buy my plants at the growers; I love to browse fragrant greenhouses bursting with color! As I was walking through the green house I saw two women that looked vaguely familiar. I'm sure I stared at them, and when we bumped into each other the second time I was sure they were staring at me. So we did the "where do I know you from?" routine. One woman asked me "Do you do glass?" Which of course I do, and we realized we met a while back at the Western Art glass store. Small world. That left woman number two. "Where do you work?" she asked. I said "the university". and they both said "so do we". To make a long story short it turns out we all worked in the Human Genetics department more than 11 years ago, two of us in labs, and the third in the administrative office, where she took care of my accounting. It's funny how I couldn't remember where I recognized them from, but as soon as we sorted that out my memories became absolutely crystal clear. Makes me want to look for the keys to unlock all the other forgotten memories that are rattling around my head!

Eleven...

Today I've had an interesting ebay numbers day. I have 6 auctions up, as of last night one had a bid already. The bidder on that auction has feed back of 110 (at the moment I write this at least). I decided to peak at my auctions from work this morning, and was delightedly shocked to see that two more beads have bids, by different bidders, both of whom have a feedback of 11. One of those bids came at 11 minutes after 9, and today is 11th day of April. There seem to be a lot of 11's in my world today. What do you suppose that means, other that that I perhaps I should post this post at 11:11 on the 11th?