The trip has been good. Despite 8 flat tires over the first 3 weeks.
That will happen I am told. Really it was 8 tubes, 3 treads and one rear wheel. There is a series of events that lead to the replacement of the wheel. But riding 10 miles on a flat was one of them. I knew it wasnt a great idea, but I got bored of pushing, I didnt have much light left in the day, and wanted to get to the hotsprings, also it was downhill the last 10 miles.

The milk of human kindness carries on.
I had many people try and help, that American long weekend, and I ended up staying with a group of meat eating, hard drinking, bawdy joking, kind folks from Salem. It was refreshing to spend those rainy days in their company. I just waited out the long weekend, tried patching the tires with what I could in the local small town.
I hadnt drank so much beer or eaten so much meat since I was a teen.
God bless those Americans who pack wagons and trucks full of superfluous crap, its support to those attempting to minimalize weight on a bike trip.
Those days passed slowly but with revelry.
My Portland experiences of the Pedalpalooza were wonderful, What a great city. The people the rides, the weather, the activists, the alternative community. The top west coast alternative city of the day, I would suppose.

Highlights of a world class city -Portland!

World class, at least for me... Meaning the city has so much community activities going on.
Pedalpalooza is a wonderful time to see Portland and get to know something of the cycle-activist community.
The 2 week schedule reads something like Burning Man's wacky calender of events.
The city has done well in promoting cycling, with many bike paths, lanes and bridges. Great to see so European a feature as bike parking in front of all the "hipster" businesses.

There seemed to be so much community gardening going on in the city.
Dozens of houses with character; artsy Trout houses everywhere.

The Zoobomb, downhill, tiny bike, slalom is a long running and fun event with the P-town cyclists.

I really appreciated staying with Couchsurfing. The web based organization has come around to being popular and extensively useful for travelers. Cities like Portland are dominant in having the alternative numbers in hosting.
I was able to stay with so many groovy kind hospitable traveling people willing to take in a nomad like myself.

I was also able to attend some contact improv events in the city, further impressing upon me the interactive lifestyle of Portlandians.


"A day in the life of..."


That day I woke in a couchsurfer's yurt, after yet another late night themed ride. I Was happy to use my host's outdoor hottub. Moved that day to another host's house. Amazing to have such trust levels, I didnt meet the man for 3 days, while staying at his house (he worked long hours at the hospital). It must have seemed funny to come home to see my bike decorated with that many helium ballons, filling his living room to ceiling.
I had a busy day with the days nude ride, a contact improv Jam and later on the 10000 person night nude ride complete with nude restaurants and bars.

Victim of clutter

Getting out on the road took some time. Seemed like I was a victim of my own junk collection. All those bits of personal detritus, like my very own sticky land mines, slowing me down, and holding me back from my purposes.

The chyatchka crap, the clutter in storage.

There is a scene is David Bowie's labyrinth where the protagonist is held back by these "Gomi/junk collection ghouls.

"There was something I was looking for, something important that I need to do..."

"Ah but what about this pretty/petty knick-knack, was it this...mmmm...?

Then, before you know it, I am dazed, in a trance, distracted.

retrospectives

Its been hard to keep up with the momentous moments here in Adventure land.

The moments that lead to this point; before and after...

We had a commercial drive, protect the park, close the street kind of party the other month.

Where I ran into my ex-wife after 8 years of incommunicado.

It was a happy surprise, but she couldnt talk for long, she had some friends waiting. She wouldnt exchange emails, since, after all she doesnt keep in contact with anyone from the old life...

But my realization wasnt this 'same old thing' from ages old. But the fact that, this emotional wound had healed, and I could turn around (on the street) after this kind of snubbing experience and become engaged with another person, a person I would love to spend more time with. There are so many people that I would like to spend more time with.

My emotional health and flexibility improved.

I am free.

Sniffy vs Howler

My friend Howler said that people didnt understand art... He insinuated that it was one reason he considered "checking out"...

He may be right- but I dont think its a reason one should kill them-self over...

The Sniffy the rat exhibit might have been the apex of Rick Gibsons art career.
I wonder if he felt some deep glow with the recognition that an angry mob chasing you down the street can give... (finally! people are noticing my art). Well you can lead a mob to art, but you cant make them think.
http://archives.cbc.ca/arts_entertainment/visual_arts/topics/300-1604/

I think he was trying to understand mankind...
Studied psychology before going to Art school....

http://www.odlt.org/interviews/rick_gibson_interview.pdf
www.rickgibson.net

http://millionmonkeystyping.blogspot.com/2010/01/sniffy-rat.html

As a long ago Polish man once said... "Art is not a mirror... Its a Hammer!"

Nudism that human thing...

In my early career as a nudist I first started attending swims indoors, in public pools, during winter.

And I thought I knew something, in my basic understanding.
Since I had gone to a nude swim or 2.
The age grade, the demographic of the east side swim that I attended, set itself as predominately seniors.
So I thought to myself, "ah, nudism, right, its that seniors thing".
Seniors=nudism.
Its in the nature of human understanding to form patterns, to make "guesses" and to assume.

Then later as I attended more nude events in different areas, sometimes it was predominately hippies in hotsprings. Then I thought, "right, right, nudism-that hippie thing. Or later at Burning Man, that burner thing. Or when the majority seemed to be Gay men; Oh' Nudism, that gay thing.

Perhaps now, seeing babies, I'll say "nudism- that human thing..."

love

A young couple is led to imagine that a relationship is a box full of goodies... and that they can sit down and eat out of this box all their lives, and it will never be empty.

But it is empty. There will never be anything in it unless the partners put it in there.

And if they do not want it to be empty, they must put in a lot more than they are in the habit of taking out. But the young romantic who imagined it ought to be full of goodies, institutes a law suit against God and against his partner as soon as he discovers the game. He feels swindled.

Yet he imagines the next box he buys will be full, even though the last one was empty.

W &B Beecher

I knew couples who had been married almost forever — tending each other’s illnesses, dealing with money troubles or the daughter’s suicide or the grandson’s drug addiction. And I was beginning to suspect that it made no difference whether they’d married the right person. You’re just with who you’re with. You’ve signed on with her, put in half a century with her, grown to know her as well as you know yourself, and she’s become the right person, or the only person. I wish someone had told me that earlier; I’d have hung on then.

Anne Tyle

There is no limit to our capacity to love. We can never be satisfied by loving just one person here and another there. Our need is to love completely, universally, without any reservations — in other words, to become love itself. It can take our breath away to glimpse the vastness of such love.

Eknath Easwaran

ochlophobia

Like a scene out of kids in the Hall, a larger than life comedy scene.

Well I was walking down the street in Vancouver, and was confronted with my fear of groups, yet again.

Enochlophobia- Fear of crowds.

Ochlophobia- Fear of crowds or mobs

Approaching me on this warm, calm summer night was a screeching, florid, chichi, flamboyant gang of young flaming gay men.

Seeing the narrow sidwalk and the prevocative mood they seemed to be in, I just had to cross the street to the other side. It didnt seem worth it

to be stuck in the middle of all that, not even for a second...

Not to seem bigotted, I simply didnt want all that energy in my solitary headspace.

It was hardly a block on, when yet another gang approached, damn! And here is where the small absurdity of life show;

A gang of mustachioed, leather tassled, cowboy hat, folk singer musicians, hopped up on Dwight Yokum and Garth Brooks. Seeing the size of the sidewalk

I was overcome with anxiety, not to want to seem bigotted, I simply couldnt bear to be surrounded by that gang, not even for a second.

So you see, its possible to feel the menace of street gangs in "Charming" Vancouver. It could be gangs of late night nerdy, Asian teen, World of Warcraft players,

out for a smoke and noodle break. Or a gang of east side, lesbian, single mothers complete with babystrollers, you know those strollers take over the sidwalk...

And that they can get pretty crazy when riled up...

So there you see it, I share my pain and we are all suffering.