Lonely parked bike

Today was a beautiful day to ride into work, as it was quite brisk and none of that motivated traffic from yesterday's "Get Motivated!" speeches at the XL Center. It was also a good day to try bike commuting while dressed for work (instead of having to change clothes). I arrived to work without breaking a sweat & parked at my new parking spot at the Wadsworth Atheneum, on the North side of the building. But, now it looks so lonely! How's about taking a bike ride
down to the museum at lunch? Or after classes?

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New Feature: FREE HARTFORD (September 7, 2009)

New Feature: Local artist & friend of the blog, Anne Cubberly weekly posts free events happening in the City of Hartford so that everyone can enjoy! With her permission, I'll be posting those here so that you all can enjoy some free stuff around Hartford, whether you live here, are just visiting, or planning to visit! Thanks Anne!
List after the jump.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9

Billings Forge: 539 Broad St. jlamotta@billingsforgeworks.org
Artists Residency : Tour the studios of artists Miguel Carter Fisher,
Kimberly Gill, Robert Charles Hudson & Greg Russell
some studios may be open from 6 - 9pm

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11

Charter Oak Cultural Center: 21 Charter Oak Ave www.charteroakcenter.org
Read It and Sleep : A Community Pajama Party
Hot chocolate, cookies and a beautiful children's book read by a guest reader
7:00pm
and
Dangerous Ponies: Bop to this 7 piece queer and allied band from
Philadelphia known for their dance-pop beats.
9:30 pm

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12

Bushnell Park : Stage Pavilion www.levasgospel.org
14th Annual Gospel Festival & Fair : Lift The Spirit of the Community
Through the Arts
12 - 7 pm

Charter Oak Cultural Center: 21 Charter Oak Ave www.charteroakcenter.org
Tim Liewellyn: An exhibit featuring Tim Llewellyn's photographs of school
children from Tanzania. September 12 - 26
Opening Reception: 5:30 pm

Unitarian Meeting House: 50 Bloomfield Ave
The Colors of Music Concert Series
presents Tierra Mestiza
7 pm

Riverfront Recapture: Mortenson Riverfront Plaza www.riverfront.org
Come to the Riverfront for a performance of the Classical Jazz Quartet
featuring jazz arrangements of classical pieces.
7:30 pm

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14

Trinity College : Widener Gallery at the Austin Arts Center
http://internet2.trincoll.edu/trinexchange/PrintPreview.aspx?eid=13018&rss=1
Haiti: The Rhythm of Life: Paintings that focus on scenes of everyday life
in Haiti from the Edith C. Graham Collection. Sept. 14- Oct. 25
Opening Reception: 4:30- 6:30 pm

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How I spent my Labor Day... laboring...

Almost finished Peugeot by MiraHartford

To honor all the laborers of our nation, I decide to put my dad & friend Ryan (of blog Shifting Gears) to help finish the Peugeot bicycle. It was a great way to spend some hours getting frustrated outside in the backyard as one thing after another went awry while installing the brake handles, brake cables, derailleurs (front, then back!), then the chain, then... oh bloody hell! Full story after jump.

A little backstory: I received this 1970's Peugeot from a friend last summer and have been meaning to work on it so that I could have a quicker, lighter bike around when I just needed to race around town (instead of commuting & lugging stuff around). I spent a few months acquiring parts to 'restore it', such as new brakes, new derailleurs for the old ones were pretty beat up, and a few other odds & ends (thanks, eBay!). But it wasn't until this past June that I was able to roll up my sleeves and get down to it!

So, dismantling & cleaning commenced and it looked pretty good. It required new tires & tubes as the older ones were shot (new ones acquired at Newington Bicycle). With all the 'new' parts available, it was time to begin putting it all together. Took a while to get around to doing it, but the new Simplex rear derailleur worked just fine and fit into place, hence the rest would be easy enough. Right?

First problem we encountered were that the brake levers I purchased were a bit loose and wouldn't stay on (thanks to Ryan for correcting that little problem with a hack as he removed the holders from the old levers and rigged them up). Problem solved. Then came the brake cable itself: we didn't have cable cutters, just wire cutters. Difference? oh, just that the strands of wire that make up the cable come all loose when cutting with the regular clippers. As we were threading the cable, it ended up snagging and pulling off two to three, damaging the cable. *grumble grumble*

We finally got the brake cables done, although the new levers took a bit to get set up (long story). Nonetheless, with that issue set, let's move onto the final component, the front derailleur. My dad put it on the frame, ran the chain through and went to tighten the screws. The screw casings snapped in half! Frustration! Bah! Unfettered, I decided to to at least try out the bike to see what we have, brakes being the most important at this point. As I went to get on it, I nearly fell off starting it up: the rear tired had gotten tightened so much so that it was rubbing up on the frame (embarrassing). So, back to the yard, fix that, back to the front, hop on it again, peddle once and the rear derailleur falls off!

At this point, I was tired, annoyed, and just fed up! So ripped the rear derailleur off, cut the chain and shortened it to a single speed. Ryan suggested settling the chain on the larger peddle gear and the second gear on the hub. Reattached the chain, said a prayer to St. Albert Pope, took it to the street and hopped on. Didn't fall off, and rode it around the block. Alas, that was as far as I could manage it as the larger gear made it a bit of a sluggish ride. So, maiden voyage was sort of like Howard Hughes and his Spruce Goose.

It was an interesting experience just the same. Mostly, it was a bonding experience as my father and I worked on it. He's always been interested since he was a kid, and always had a few around. Because of our cultural differences - he being very old school European Catholic, me being new-wave American pop-culture bastard - we never had much to bond over. We didn't work on cars together (I still don't), I read lefty books, he reads Portuguese newspapers; I watch indie movies, he's happy to watch anything but. Nonetheless, bikes have always been an interesting connection for us. Now that this one is nearly finished, I'll have to find another bike to redo with him.

UPDATE: So, eager to at least have one thing finished this weekend, I adjusted the chain to the smaller crank gear and with Ryan's help, reset the tire to tighten the chain. It now rides much more smoothly, with less drag! The Peugeot is reborn!

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Colin McEnroe, get back to work!

Colin McEnroe photo by Chion Wolf, from WNPR's Flickr page.

For those of you that have missed him, radio show host/Hartford Courant columnist/blogger/all around cool dude Colin McEnroe is back on the radio waves, riding them like a Jack Kirby Marvel-era superhero! Yes, I realize Mr. McEnroe has been on for a week, but I've missed the first week due to that pesky thing I call "work", so I'm listening to them now via the very convenient links on WNPR's website (worth our pledge's alone). It was great to hear that within the first week, he already had as guests our mutual brohimes, The Culture Dogs, purveyors of movie & video culture, the walking Wikipedia Sam Hatch & the immeasurable imp of IMDb Kevin O'Toole. If you miss it post your lunch break, then check him out via WNPR's website (sadly, still not available via iTunes download UPDATE: my bad, looks like I didn't look through the page enough. Here is link for feeds, including iTunes).

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PHH: Post Labor Day Progressive Union Strikeforce Assembly

That's it... Summer's over! Back to work, you lazy lot! (crack that whip!) That's right, you're daydreaming summer days are over. No more imagining what your coworker looks like on the beach while they're describing they're fun weekend at some exotic location with their family. No more time to stare out the window at gray summer skies wondering what it would be like to be outside on the shores of Caribbean isles enjoying the bosses' tax haven, while they slave away at your job. No more time searching your work computer for Travelocity, Priceline, Cheapbasterds, Ihavenomoneybutmustescape cheapo vacation sites, fantasizing about where you would rather be with that model that they're using to advertise on yourlonely.com commercials. BACK TO WORK, you lazy sods! (cat o' nine tails across your back as you resume rowing again)

Laborless day is all you get. Pick up those pens and start writing, let's hear those keyboards clicking away; c'mon, customer service swarm, let's have those scowls and complete disdain for the customer show on your face and come through the phone lines so that it chokes the customer on the other end. If I can't hear your spine snapping under the workload weighing you down, then I'm not doing my job right! (self flatualates with a cat o'nine tails, like that albino guy in The DaVinci Code). And don't think this new socialist world order that Pinko President HUSSEIN Obama is dictating to the kiddies today will keep you from laboring, giving you this 'universal Obamacare' to lick your wounds with. How are you going to pay for it if you don't work, neigh, slave for us, the corporate world odor?! Don't think that fictional little love letter from fat fatty Roger Bond Moore Arbuckle is going to showcase something about capitalism that will save you from the soulcrushing dictates of the executive directive to work off the national debt for the 1% cracking the whip! (cracks whips from both hands then cracks the demonesque tail below spine that grew there from being born near a toxic plant thanks to lax DEP regulations, but that's ok, cause it makes your humble narrator look all that more bad ass and it really turns on the ladies!)

So we hope you enjoyed your little fantasies of freedom this summer and remembered that Labor Day wasn't so much a holiday, but a blip like respite from the slave day. Wait, what are all you little worker bees doing? Put down those oars and get back to work! Hey, don't hit me with the oars! Oars go in the water, row the capitalist yacht of the fatcat! Ow, that hurts! hey, keep your chains off my neck --- ****

The worker has taken over the PHH email this week! Come celebrate the true calling of post Labor Day we still ain't to work revelry Union Meeting at Red Rock Tavern tonight! Password: fill in the blank: "Jimmy Hoffa is actually __________ ". Meeting hall is at 9:30pm, 365 Capitol Avenue, Hartford. Ride your bike for extra coolness factor. Workers in dungarees get Free Kenney's Cajun Curly Fries. Plenty of fence parking for bikes.

(no union laborers were harmed during this email by actual whips, only metaphoric ones. demonesque foremen were not so lucky.)

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