Taking Care of Your Stuff

Melony, Sam, Sophia and I went up to the cabin on Saturday only to find a wet basement floor and a leaking valve at the main shutoff. Seems like sub zero weather proved too much and water in the ball valve froze consequently cracking the brass body. My first reaction was the typical “why me” whining: “why did I build this place,” “why is it always something,” but after I got that out of my system my attitude changed for the better. This perspective shift is in no small part due to the book Shop Class As Soulcraft by Matthew Crawford.

Crawford is a PhD motorcycle mechanic, so much of what he writes goes over my head – both scholastically and technically – but occasionally I do catch a glimpse. The chapter entitled To Be Master of One’s Own Stuff has proven especially enlightening and useful. Instead of being a headache, the plumbing problem now became an opportunity to improve my competence (I wouldn’t call it mastery) at taking care of my possessions. I built the cabin and now I need to take care of it.

After a conversation with my cousin Andrew Liske http://www.pipeyourdreams.com/ a plumber down in the Bay Area (and incidentally the guy who installed the cabin pipes) I came up with a repair plan. Sam and I went back up the next day, cut out the broken valve, un-sweated the PEX-to-brass fittings (which we needed to re-use) cleaned it all up and systematically put it all back together. The job took three hours with the two of us working at a steady pace. The job entailed some serious solder work, and I gave myself a 50-50 chance when I turned on the water. Thankfully no leaks. Being able to tip up the work while sweating the joints provided a gravity assist, which I’m sure made up for some poor technique on my part. At the end of the job I installed a heater coil on the incoming water pipe.

On the 1.5 mile walk back to the car Sam seemed very proud of himself. We had had a problem and he and I working together had used our brains and our hands to solve it. That’s a pretty damn good feeling.

Un-sweating the old fittings - I liked the green flame

Gravity assist

Getting Back on the Horse

Even Sophia's coach had to cover her eyes.



The worst part is that her older brother Sam is laughing so hard that he can hardly hold the camera straight. The best part is that she gets back up and goes again.

Just Who is King

Listening to the health care debate reminded me of the Tom Waits line:

In the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king.

The Green Wave

Check out this awesome video:

http://www.streetfilms.org/copenhagen%25E2%2580%2599s-climate-friendly-bike-friendly-streets/

The Greenwave and the Pre Green are genius. Contrast that to my old town of Redmond, the self-procalimed Biking Capitol of the Northwest, which doesn't even have bike lanes.

Like the narator says: if you make biking the fastest and easiest way to get around people will ride bikes.

Why do we Americans have to stumble through the dark for so long. Don't build roads, build bike lanes.

Sundance

Finally getting around to editing some of last year's photos. I liked this image of the window at the Sundance Glass Studio.

60 Channels And Nothing On

I have to confess to loving television. TV is entertainment and entertainment is a good thing. I don't see anything wrong with sitting down for an hour of TV before bed, but what amazes me is the amount of total crap that floats around out there. I was just about to give up on the whole notion of television when I came across the HBO series Deadwood.

Currently it's 20 degrees outside and even though some people do I'm not getting on my bicycle when it's that cold, so now I'm trapped on the trainer. Time on a bike trainer goes by very slowly; I speed it up by watching movies or videos of television series'. The TV series route is better because if I can get hooked on a storyline I find myself looking forward to the next training session. Two years ago I got hooked on Six Feet Under," last year I wallowed looking for something good, this year I'm loving "Deadwood."

As the name suggests Deadwood is set in the Outlaw town of Deadwood South Dakota during the 1876 gold rush and features Wild Bill Hickock and Calamity Jane as main characters. Everybody and everything in the show is filthy dirty, John Wayne probably wouldn't have approved, but I figure it's probably a more accurate depiction of what the wild west was really like.

The storyline is solid and the characters are engaging, and so just when I thought it was all junk I found a little treasure that made me eat my words.

Good Stuff in Odd Places

I recently came across a very timely passage:

Your are too just, Lord,
for me to dispute with you,
but I would like to talk with you about justice,
Why do the ways of the wicked prosper?
Why do all the treacherous live at ease?
You have planted them and they have taken root;
they grow and bring forth fruit.
You are near to their mouths
but far from their hearts.

Jeremiah 12, 1-2