The Show is quickly approaching, and I still have a long way to go on Low-Mator, but we’ll be there, no matter what, and so should you!

Word has it that I’ll still be illustrating the image for the front of the t-shirt. I think I know what car he wants, I just need to wait for the photo.

The following day I rode the bike to work, and on my way home I stopped for a busy intersection so I came to a complete stop. Well an opening formed, but I was going to have to be quick, so I stepped on the pedal and pushed to get me going as quick as I could, and as I pushed I fell to the street with a thump and the pedal went flying off to my right landing about 15 feet away. I was dumbfounded, how did this happen?

I tried to put the pedal on by hand, but noticed the crank arm was stripped, thankfully I was only a couple of blocks from home so I limped the rest of the way and examined the arm there. After examining and thinking about it, I remembered that when I assembled the bike, I didn’t have a wrench thin enough to fit between the pedal and the crank arm so I couldn’t tighten it the pedal down and figured I’d come back to it later. Apparently I forgot.

So after doing a search for a replacement crank arm, and not being able to find one, I’m assuming because they are close to 10 years old and were high-end (for the time) I looked into replacement cranks. I found a nice set on jensonusa, Race Face, includes bottom bracket and they were only $75. I’m sure they are some Chinese specials, with the Race Face name on it, but it works.

I rode the bike for the first time to work yesterday, and it pedaled very smooth, so for now I’m pretty happy. Now off to ride some more…

I love the idea of sitting around the table and coming up with idea’s and I think Pixar (before Disney) really did a great job of finding fun stories, with fun characters and they were able to get everything out of them, and then package them in a fun, friendly way to make it interesting for people to want to see.

So anyways, I was driving home from work the other day, and there was a powerline, and along the wire were a line of birds all huddled together, heads tucked to keep warm from the cold. Well with as I sat at a red light I imagined what they would see from up there, and I was thinking how I wouldn’t want to be up there on the wire. Then I thought, what if a bird were afraid of heights? He would never make it. He would have to hang out on the ground, and all his friends would be the worms that he would normally try to eat. Would the other birds make fun of him? How would he overcome this fear of heights?

To me it sounds like a perfect story idea for Pixar. The story would show a common fear people can relate with, making friends with enemies, and together over coming those fears.

Now only if I can sell the idea to Pixar.

New thought, I’m gonna find a frame builder and see if they would do it. Being in Modesto, and it not exactly a bike riding paradise, I decided to start my search in Sacramento. So I did a google search for “bicycle frame repair sacramento” and got some good results. I first decided to read the reviews, and after that decided on Rex Cycles in Sacramento. I called and talked to Steve and he said he could do that with no problem and it would be $50-75. So I took the frame up on the Saturday before we went to Hawaii, and then picked it up three weeks later after we got back.

The bosses are only braised on, so I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, but it looks great. I then got my brother to powder coat the frame a very nice pearl white. I was hoping to put the bike together this past weekend, but other things were required, so I’ll start the assembly this evening.

Keep your fingers crossed and hopefully I’ll be reporting shortly that the Transition Trans Am will be ready by the end of the week.

Once they got to the fair they made a bee line to the chili cook-off where they were immediately were given a “Stanislaus County Fair – Chili Cook-off” bib, which was perfect for protecting mom’s dress. So after a little coaxing, dad was able to talk mom into trying the chili, and after deciding she liked it, they made their way through the tables, getting spoonfuls of chili. It was around chili 73 that dad noticed that mom’s dress was poofing out every now and then, and the further they went along with the chili, the more frequently it poofed. After they were finish with the chili, and mom’s face was covered with chili, dad asked her, “you’re puffo-ing aren’t you?” And mom, her face turning a bright red nodded. “That’s ok, everyone puff-o’s” he told her. “But dad” she asked, “why don’t you ever puff-o?” and he said, “because I’m a gentlemen, and gentlemen don’t puff-o”. And along they went off to ride the rides.

After a few hours of riding the rides, mom was tired and it was time to go. So they walked back to his truck and drove back towards Modesto. Along the route dad suddenly let out a giant puff-o, that started from his side and reverberated along the seat to mom, making a long and quite loud ripping noise. Dad turned just as red as mom did earlier in the day, and she looked at him and with a sheepish smile said, “Daddy, you puff-o’ed” And dad just started laughing and said yes, I passed gas. And they continued on home, mom sitting next to her dad and dad driving with his window down.

Story 1 – This was a very girlie storie, for the girls. They were talking earlier in the day about the drama of their young lives and about how friends use abuse each other, so this story had a moral to it. Like I stated before the stories will usually “star” either myself or Barb, and since this was a story about girl drama, Barb gets to be the star. The story starts out about Barb in Junior High School, and how she was a star on their 8th grade basketball team, and how she carried the team to the Stanislaus County Championship game. The second part of the story was about how Barb’s best friend told lies to Barb about a boy she wanted to ask her out to the prom. Well the girl, told Barb that the boy did not like her in any way, and would never agree to go with her to the prom. However, another friend told Barb the truth that he did like her, and that the first friend was just lying to her. After some investigation and some luck, Barb found out the truth, and when she confronted that so-called friend, the day before the big championship game, there was a shoving match and Barb ended up falling down some stairs and twisting her ankle. Well with the bad ankle, Barb couldn’t play in the game, and by half time, Barb’s team was losing by 20 points. After a very motivational and uplifting speech by Barb at halftime, the team came around and won the big game as a team, and even though Barb didn’t play, she was carried off of the court. And then, just before they were to enter the locker room, the boy Barb liked came up to her, and asked her to the prom.

A very girl story.

Story 2 – This was a quick story, about a fish tank we had at my house as a boy, and about how a catfish was fighting with another fish, and how peace could not be found between these two fish, and in the end a divider needed to be set-up, dividing the tank in half so that the catfish and the other fish couldn’t cause trouble any longer.

It was short and sweet, and for some reason the girls liked this story better. Go figure.