Kevin! Making a Ghetto Screen and Music Memories

I finally got around to taking my bike apart, cleaning it and putting it back together yesterday afternoon. In the process of doing that I noticed that my bike pump which straps to the frame for repairs on the road was missing a key part. The rubber grommet on the head which creates an airtight seal had worked its way off. Had I flatted with it like that I'd have been dead in the water. I took a trip to Flanders Bros bike shop in south Minneapolis last night to pick up a new pump. Of course, I can't just buy a new head for the pump I already have but I would if I could.

I hadn't taken the Crosstown since they began construction on it. I'm not sure what the time table for completion is but it's quite a project. Lake Street was also torn up. Not only that but there were some killer potholes all over the road. I think I'll avoid both those roads for a while.

We were doing our thing at church last night (tattoos and painting nails) when I heard somebody behind me say my name: "Kevin!" I turned and saw a face I hadn't seen in at least a dozen years. It was a friend from my previous marriage/life: John Moerschel used to date a friend of ours. My dad hired John's dad when he worked at Control Data in the '60s. Small world. John was at Hosanna volunteering financial services for people in need. It was nice to see him again.

Rachel had a bunch of friends over last Saturday night to sit around the fire pit in the driveway. Katrina brought over her DVD player and projector and they set it up to play their show, Mortal Combat, against the garage door. They thought it was a great time. Tammy said I should have seen them out there. They had ten chairs all lined up just like at the theater.

Tammy had the idea to string up a sheet as a movie screen and I expanded on her idea by finding a tarp at Fleet Farm with rivets along the sides and corners. I screwed in some hooks along the garage door frame and with the help of some bungee cords, I quickly had a ghetto movie screen for less than $20. I spent an hour steaming out some wrinkles from it. It's not perfectly smooth but it's a lot better than the paneled garage door they'd been using. Rachel is quite happy with it so that's all that matters.

Duck watch. Yep, they came by again a couple days ago with the second male shadowing the pair. He took off before I shot the video. Tim and Rob, this is for you...



Can you think of some songs which take you back to a specific moment many years earlier? Whenever I hear Led Zeppelin's, Ramble On, I'm reminded of the time I heard that song driving north on 35W near 46th street in the early '80s. I don't know why that memory remains with me but it does. Several other songs evoke specific memories for me as well. Wildfire by Michael Murphey brings me back to the spring of 1975, riding the school bus one morning along Old Shakopee road my senior year. Somebody must have had a radio.

I don't hear this song very often but when I do I always pause to take it in.


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