Progress!
Based on only my sketchy verbal instructions, my dad whipped two of these up in astoundingly little time as I watched dumbly. He also fed me dinner! It was an impressive performance all around, and I’m very grateful. This thing’s about 3′ tall, and it’s what my finished piece will sit upon for display. It’ll be draped in cloth, though, so this is hopefully the last time you’ll see it.
In less positive news:
Upon getting back to the Metro last night I found my rear wheel had been stolen. My current run of bad bike-luck is now impressively long (for those keeping score, the last month has gone flat, flat, flat, flat, wheel, flat, brake cable, shifter cable, trued replacement wheel, stolen other wheel). I suppose I can’t complain too much — this Jamis served me very well and with very few problems for the past 3.5 years (ever since my lovely last bike was stolen from out in front of Logan Hardware). Karmically, I’m doing okay.
But this is still infuriating. The return on a stolen bike wheel is miniscule — the person who took this probably got less than 5% of the retail cost of the components that I’ll now have to rebuy. Worse, I know it’s my fault for being rushed and parking it at a Metro and forgetting my cable. And, well, it just sucks. I try to take these things in stride, but it takes me a couple of days to let go of the anger that being victimized provokes. Last night’s dreams featured some pretty elaborate bicycle-themed revenge fantasies.
That is the worst! Swift ulock justice is due.
Ignoring the choice of wheel stolen, you might find this at least mentally helpful:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m68-oWBh9Ow