579AZ - Bubble Bike!

I start my eulogy with my role as a dealer of smiles and wonder and bicycle rider. For a reason I don’t understand, few things are so universally smile generating as bubbles. Normally, bubbles are limited to your lung capacity, but a few years back I discovered bubble machines, which automatically create a metric tonne of bubbles, but you’re usually stuck at your house where you’ve got power. A while back I had an idea of putting a bubble machine on my bike. I found a model that ran on batteries, and Tori did a bunch of thinking, and came up with an attachment mechanism. Now, as I ride my bike there is a trail of bubbles. When I stop my bike, there are bubbles everywhere, and when I walk my bike, if the wind is to my back, I’m engulfed in bubbles.

I should really move this to its own post, perhaps I will later

The bubble bike wouldn’t have been possible except Tori is a master artisan. Without her bringing this creation to life, the bubble bike would have a figment of my imagination.

Pictures fail to express the awesomeness of bubble bik as not only are bubbles not photengic, but because the real magic of bubbles is people’s reactions. Kids just go nuts when they see them, and the adults who feel safe, just beam and honk their horns and give me a big kuddos.

A few experiences on my first bubble experience …

While walking my bike in downtown queen anne, when the wind hit from the back, I’d be engufled in a wall of bubbles and people walking would be confused, as the bubble machine is hidden. As they passed they’d realize it was a wall of bubbles and they’d be thrilled.

When stopped waiting for the draw bridge to come down, the wall of bubbles engulfed the other people biking who took pictures with their dog covered in bubbles. A few people honked yelling from their cars that the bubbles are awesome.

When biking on the trail, kids would catch the bubbles and start stairing at me, and then they’d realize I was the source the wall of bubbles and be thrilled.

In magic news, I’m back. I’ve been slowly restarting magic and did my first magic trick for strangers, folks that work at the gym and now my passion for magic has been re-ignited! I’m back to spending hours on a weekend practicing magic. I also got this awesome note from someone I gave a magic coin to 18 months ago [XREF: Magic post recall and get photo]

In health news, my right hip flexor has been cramping badly, causing intense pain, preventing me from walking for more then 15 minutes. It’s bad enough I’m going to physio therapy to relieve the pain and restore my mobility. The therapist tells me my problem is I’ve got some very under developed muscles causing me to be out of balance. She also tells me there’ll be pain before I’m fixed, so looking forward to that.

A cool thing is my physio therapist is in the gym, and I can snag some early morning appointments, which is really cool, as now I’m in the gym early mornings every week day, and if I’m not lazy a weekend day as well.

In other health news, I was a bit worried about my blood pressure as I eat a lot of cup a soups which are filled with salt. I have a blood pressure cuff, which was starting to read 140/90, not good. This was a bit surprising as even though I’m obese, I still go the gym 5 days a week which is a lot of exercise. I was thinking it was time to drop the soup and take up a salt free life style, when I realized I was just using the cuff wrong, thankfully my heart pressure is its standard 110 over 90, so I can enjoy my processed foods in peace.

For a reason I can’t fathom, I never bought a espresso machine, perhaps thinking they were too much work, or too fancy for my farmer lifestyle. But then I saw a fantasic youtuber Shug who is exactly like me. Well not exactly, as he actually worked in the circus, and is an alcoholic. Being an alcoholic Shug can’t savor scotch, and wanted something to “sip and savor” and realized espress would be a perfect substitute. Espresso machines need a lot of space, and accoutraments (grinder, frother), and make an absolute mess. Luckily as I was talking to Yelena and Justin I saw they had a nespress machine, which give all pleasure of espresso but in an instant pod form. Guess what, I’m having several shots of espresso, even drinking one now. Fear not my blood pressure is great, I go the gym most days, and most importantly, I drink decaf.

Zach decided he wants to write a Roblox game, which I whole heartidly support. He gets help from me, but reads a lot of tutorials, and watches YouTubers. I can’t wait to see how his game progresses. Oh shout out to Samanatha, who made some art for his previous game, he’s using that art in his current games as well. While I love my bubble machine, and Nespresso machine, seeing Zach program is even more important. Kuddos to me, I walk Zach to school almost every day (even though it’s not a far distance, it’s the though that counts) and I always give him a big, emberassing, sloppy hug.

TODO: Game Link

Amelia is super sweet, athletic and independant. Every day when we bring her home from school (and at my best I pick her up on my bike) she comes home and rushes to play on the circus set Tori built for her in the back yard. When it’s time for lunch or dinner, she’s often not thrilled with what we make and makes her own food - always by herself (though sometimes she’ll ask me to get her a cup as it’s a pain for her to get it on the high shelf). A few of her fully made on her own meals - tuna salad (she adds mayo and everything) with pretzels. Peanut butter and jam salad. Carrot sticks and other salads. I think she gets the healthy eating thing from YouTube - woohoo! Oh, and this week she read me the coolest non-picture book. She’s so emotive on it - check out this video:

TODO: Add video of Amelia doing reading.

Tori, private as usual, is cool with sharing her professional endevors. This week our galvanized pipe sink got clogged, and we feared a plumber coming in saying we’ll need to rip out your walls and replace all your pipes. Luckily Tori came to rescue and fixed it perfectly! She also built my bubble bike (OMG Awesome) and she’s constantly pounding out concrete fish - they’ll be so cool when they go in the ground, but a reminder when she reads this - really not such a rush.

And lets not forget the cats! The cats have a tendency to wander off, which causes significant stress as who wouldn’t be worried if their cat dissapeared. Luckily we got some air tags, and air tag compatible cat collars and tagged the cats. Sadly the collars are break away and the cat lost their collars. We went on a collar hunt, and looked like we were casing someones house. When the concerned person came out we explained we were looking for the cat collar, and she was nice enough to get it for us.

Have a great week, and remember Whenever you add bubbles all the smiles will be doubles! – ZiaT!