Riding My Bicycle, Riding My Bicycle

Anyone who knows me knows that I have a love for bikes, although I am not always riding them, I still love them. It started with BMX and progressed into mountain biking (without ever having ridden on a mountain) then into road riding (without all the tights and jerseys and flip up hats) and now has come round full circle to BMX. Could it be my mid life crisis, could it be my quest for being the cool dad, or could it be me trying to show my son how fun it is to ride wheelies, jump curbs, ride with a "crew". However my crew is not as big as it used to be, it's only me and him, but we have two wheeled freedom none the less.

I recently bought a used mirraco that I instantly tore apart down to the frame, cleaned it up, painted it a hipster flat black with light blue bars and forks, greased every bearing and thread only to find it a bit too short for my liking. Alot has changed from my BMX days. The bikes have almost become simpiler by design and parts. Riding brakeless is an option to keep weight down, pegs on one side, low seat height, high pressure in the tires, etc, etc, etc. (before and after pic below)

It's fun, but I get looked at funny, an adult on a BMX bike looks funny to them. "That bike is tiny" they say, "I like your purple pegs he he he" they scoff. To me it's normal, to me it brings back killer memories of the church jump, to me it gives me my engineering release to understand how it all works again, to me it brings smiles. I'm off to shop for a new 21" frame,maybe round up my crew, and.......ride my bicycle.

Ground Control to Major Tom.........

So I took a little time off from blogging ( a year and 2 months to be exact ), but I plan on doing my best to keep this thing updated with current projects, family stuff, and other things I find interesting. Lets give this another go and see what happens.........Stay tuned!!!!

STICK!!!

For any of you that have ever run a relay or been at a track meet watching a relay, you may have heard the term "STICK" used to warn the other runner to take the damn stick and run your butt off.


This past weekend was our annual Relay For Life to raise money for the American Cancer Society. If you haven't heard of this before it is basically a fundraiser that is put on every year to raise money for the ACS. It is held at the Cole County fairgrounds and runs from 6pm to 6am. The rules are that one person from your team is to be walking on the track in between those times. During the early evening there are carnival like things to do for the kids, many teams are grilling great food, bands and music are playing, and you are just kind of getting geared up for a long night. At 10pm the luminary service is held to pay respect to those that have lost the battle to cancer. During this time white paper bags with candles in them line the inside and outside of the track. This is a pretty emotional part of the relay because of the rush of memories that come flooding back. After the ceremony a pair of DJ's take the stage and do their best to keep the energy level high throughout the night.


The relay is basically a scenario to symbolize the fight one goes through when they have cancer. Walking 12 hours will give you lows and highs and the feeling of wanting to quit until the next rush of energy keeps you going. It is a great benefit and great way to raise money for this "monster" of a disease.


We walk in honor of my dad who we lost about 6 years ago to cancer. Anyone who has been affected by this knows it sucks, but with all the money raised we know we can someday find a cure.


STICK!!!!!!!!!!!

" Throw another log on the fire "

A while back I was drooling through one of my favorite modern mags called DWELL. They had a feature story on an architects modern home that had a fireplace surround that caught my eye. Of course his was built out of a brazillian reclaimed hardwood that he had to fight villagers off with homeade spears while carving it to fit his newly built modern home. Mine however is basically a cover that fits over an existing mantle. With a little birch ply, black stain, and a few head scratching headaches this is what I came up with.

" Make it work people "

So on saturday Misty found out about a runway show that was being put on by Standard Style Boutique, a fashion forward clothing store in Leawood. From 1 - 6 they had a small carnival for the kids with a ferris wheel, face painting, and those big inflatable jump around things. All this was free mind you and I think they did a really cool job of " making it work ". At 8 p.m. the adult version of the party started. As you walked into the entrance a back drop flanked with sponsers names and a red carpet greeted you as well as paparazzi snapping pictures of the red carpet entrances. ( OK I made the paparazzi thing up, it was just one guy who took only one picture and we didn't even get to see how it turned out. ) All of this was accompanied by a gift bag filled with the sponsors advertising propaganda, cool none the less. Many of the areas restaurants supplied appetizer type food with the areas beverage companies keeping everyone relaxed and feeling good. The runway show called " AMUSE - A Fashionable Circus " started around 9:30 or so and this is when it got really cool. Great electronic music with an awesome back drop, cool lights, and very dramatic looking models. The runway seamlessly turned into a modern day circus with contortionists, fire jugglers, aerial & dance performances, body tattoos and a whole lot more than one could see in a 3 hour window. The venue was great, the kids carnival was great, runway great, music...well you get the picture. Standard if you ever read this, you guys put on an amazing show!!!!!

The only thing missing was Tim Gunn from Project Runway saying " Make it work people. "

" Son...one day this will all be yours "

I want to introduce you to Kian, my 3 1/2 year old apprentice. He mainly takes care of all the clean up and organizing of tools. He let's me know that he is also going to be a " concrete man " when he gets bigger. His grandpa is a true concrete man that is not afraid of a little dirt in the shop, and alot of back breaking labor. Truth be told, pouring countertops is nowhere near the exhausting labor that the guys pouring driveways, foundations, parking lots have to endure. But he doesn't look up to them the way he looks up to me. It all pays off when your son says to someone " My daddy did this ".

" Concrete?....You mean like a driveway?.....In your home? "

For that last 4-5 years I have been working with decorative concrete, I like to call it " modern concrete elements. " Anything from countertops and desktops to candle holders to stained concrete floors, I have built and designed products in which I think have turned out nicely but could use some fine tuning. Most of the work has been done for friends and family and I have learned alot along the way. Like what works and what crumbles before your eyes after spending hours of building forms and wrestling heavy, dusty, dirty bags of concrete, throwing mixes all over my legs, spilling over onto my driveway, you get the idea.

But this love / hate relationship gets me fired up for the next project. Currently I am pouring a desktop for a clients daughter. An almost exact replica of one I built for my brother in law and his wife. This one is one foot longer which just makes it look huge and I am not looking forward to breaking this behemoth out of the mold and wrestling it onto the polishing table. I am also pouring two top caps for some brick columns at my above mentioned brother in laws house that were probably suppose to be done about 5 months ago.

Here are some images of how it is going so far as well as some other projects I have done.