milwaukeith

from milwaukee ave. to milwaukee, wisconsin. how do you like milwaukee? i am asked this question at some point in nearly conversation over the last two months. i am going to start referring people to my blog. drumroll please...so far here, i am really happy.

originally a fur traders' destination, the town was established in 1846 as milwaukee, which i think is native american for new germany. it refined itself into a industrial blue collar haven for much of the past century. since the new millenium, brew city has redefined its urban landscape, bringing residences back downtown, reviving the riverfront, and introducing art and culture into the warehouses of the wards.

it is a very diverse city, comfortable in scale, with a great park system. milwaukee deserves some spotlight, and apparently i am not the first to say so. the city took this literally: at night passing throught the city is an array of colors, whether its the illuminated marcus center, a highway underpass, or a riverside dock. the city's bright lights are beautiful to cycle through, and especially photogenic at night. milwaukee is a cyclist's town, home to several great shops, miles of dedicated paths, and last but not least, the pabst mansion.

i remember when i decided to move here, my roommate suggested i re-dub myself milwaukeith. i briefly considered the potential for a new logo, expanding on the supercool lightning logo of the power tool manufacturer, but thought better of it. i liked the idea, and the novelty of the whole thing. it made me think though, what a coincidence to have been named keith. it's in the eye of the beholder, you might say?

my mother told me if it was up to her, she would have named me kyle. bikyle? it just doesn't have that regalness that the "-ith" carries. being a recyclery, it is nice to contrast the meek efforts of rehabbing old bicycles with the persnicketiness of a name like bikeith. it turns out there is already a bikyle anyhow. apparently, my father convinced my mother that the name keith seemed more masculine. good choice pops. 'behold my son, who will one day lose his day job, obsess over bikes, and find his bi-dentity. i shall call him keith, and he will grown up to brand himself a hero to forlorn bicycles!'

as long as you're here for the q & a, here's another question i often get: how do you pronounce bikeith? some people really stress the "bi-" prefix, which negates the masculinity thing my father was going for. oh well. whether you stress the "bike" or the "keith," it doesn't matter. are there anymore questions? you in the back? no? ok, well that wraps it up then, thank you for your time.

enough musing, here's a shot of my new hometown at night; my brakeless idiocy there in the foreground, my girlfriend's all purpose rack-tastic commuter in the middle, and of course, another of calatrava's brain children, the backdrop.

'we are defined by the choices we make'

fight vs. flight, a psychology 101 catch phrase meaning a reaction to stimuli, or in my case, an immediate response to dueling instincts.

in one corner we have fight, an entrepreneur and self-made recyclist, weighing in at just under 20lbs, stripped off any superfluous mechanisms; in the opposite corner we have the established flight. a former architect, flight is forging to find roots in a new town, but has been taxiing for awhile, preparing for lift-off. he is in danger of being displaced by his much more agile opponent, who's slowly but steadily creating a name for himself.

all the hype is about whether flight's patience weighs down the recycling initiative, or if it will be fight who will be able to keep the pursuit of architecture grounded. in recent time, fight has been solid, rolling over competitors. heavily favored and wearing the traditional trunks is flight; if he can land the jab, flight should be able to contain his nimble opponent. after years of training, his future is in jeopardy.

the bets are on fight, the more active of the two contenders. it is believed the craftier and less prescribed will emerge victorious. faced with adversity, the underdog has nothing to lose and will put it all on the line for twelve rounds. though it will take endurance, fight should be able to ride it out. the hope is that one will displace the other in a unanimous decision, set for departure, and prepare for take-off.

if you asked me to describe this dilemma a few months ago, i would not have relayed this situation via a boxing analogy. i would have told you about a vocational fork in the road where i was set to autopilot. one of the two approaches would triumph based on the circumstances, while the other would reside stage left in full health. instead, a lack of linear pursuit threatens to squander either ambition. now the dukes are up, and the blows are flying.

from left to right: fight, flight.

bicycle yard sale

i am wrapping up a long weekend in the capitol of oh-so-hi-o feeling like i got the best of autumn in a single weekend. as i write this, i am outside on an adirondack chair, sipping red wine. i am living it up, just waiting to head out for dinner to celebrate my sister's birthday. the weather has been fabulous, and as a result, i have spent more time outside in consecutive days then i have in awhile. i don't like the word delighted, and i would never say it, but i will type it because it is exactly how i feel. i can only hope our november will continue to be what our october ought to have been, and we can push old man winter back a month.

also, i am surprised to say it has been another productive sojourn to my home state in terms of bicyness. speaking of surprises, this trip was planned several months ago, and i never told my sister i was coming. back when i booked it, i decided to stop in chicago for a night. it turned out i was able to travel to chicago with friends who happened to be in milwaukee friday afternoon drooling at calatrava. i was happy to skip the milwaukee to chicago megabus leg of the trip, as the last two trips we've had to evacuate the bus on i94 while in the middle of the night. megabus is cheap, which is great, but don't believe the hype about free wifi on megabus (it almost never works).

so friday's 'layover' was much more then just a few hours in chicago. i was able to deliver via bicycle several parts, drop off some spokes, pick up some keys, return a bike. it turned into a five hour scavenger hunt intermingled with pbrs, familiar faces, and ended at santullo's, chicago's best attempt to mimic new york pizza. i have to say it was damn good. however, it wasn't until saturday morning that it occurred to me surprises aren't 100% spontaneous. i called my sister's roommate, and a friend in town in columbus. neither picked up, and it was time to leave to get on the bus. all i knew was from a email i received friday, that i might be keeping myself busy most of the time, as my sister was scheduled to having 36 hours of nursing obligations during my two and a half day surprise visit. oops. i decided to go anyways, trying to reconnect with my once well known ways of wingin it. why not push my luck, and i did. i arrived ten minutes late for the bus, but luckily it was still there. the only question that remained was what to do when i arrived since my sister would be at the hospital, but that's winging it, and i am glad i did.

on my way there, my sister's roommate returned my call, just as she was leaving town for the weekend. she dropped a key in the mailbox and told me how to walk back to the house from the bus stop. check. then it was how to surprise my sister without getting the cops called on me when she came home at 3am to find a strange man (me) passed out on her couch. instead, my sister magically got off early, and came home at seven. she was mildy, but happily surprised to see me - i am pretty sure my mom let the secret out - go figure. it worked out perfectly, we invited my dad to come down from cleveland the following morning for lunch, and decided to hit the streets. columbus was alive, as it always is on college football saturdays, and there was a spirit of victory in the air, as the bucks took control of their own destiny in the big ten. not only that, but it turned out the first saturday of every month there are open galleries, so the streets were packed with people.

sunday morning we got up and went for a long bike ride along the olengtangy river. i saw a sign halfway out of a waste bin that made me stop and turn around. i went back to see if i had read correctly. indeed, i had. the words 'bicycle yard sale' were scribbled in sharpie on pink posterboard. i logged the address in my mind, thinking to myself, could this weekend have worked out more perfectly? the feeling was reminiscient of running into a really cute girl when you were totally content to be single. shocked and excited, i caught up with my sister, and rode the rest of the way home. we arrived just as my father was parking. the birthday lunch was pretty weak; we forgot the candles, and the cake was nowhere near as tasty as promised. my sister didn't really seem to mind, probably because she'd have to be at work within the hour.

my father was getting ready to head back to cleveland when i asked him if he wanted to check out the bicycle yard sale. he happened to have my uncle's pickup truck with him, and he is a fan of killing as many birds with the same stone as i am. his intention was to get home before dusk so he could cut the grass, but he didn't contest my idea at all, which is another reason why my pops is awesome. as we headed toward the address i thought to myself, 'this is to good to be true.' after circling for a minute, we decided to get out of the truck and look on foot. there in the back of a church were a few garages, and in an instant, my doubt vanished: painted in the distance was a sign that said bicycle sale.

usually yard sales are enticing enough; in the back of your mind, you believe that once more you will run into a px-10 for twenty dollars. the element of what could be is so exciting, and believe me, i had to stop and take this picture to savor the moment. there i met a columbus transplant, originally from a very small town in ohio, actually the same small town as my sister's roommate. he specified there were three red lights, with stress on the word 'red,' which apparently is a unit of measuement when you rank sparsely populated areas. his name was adam; he had several bikes for sale, and was clearing out excessive bicycles and components. i picked up a couple gems there, one a fairly rare aluminum composite frame from the late eighties, and the other a children's road bike, measuring only 45 cm! not only did finding a couple of gems make me super happy, but it felt great to support adam, and put forth legitimate numbers when asked to make an offer. my dad was patient, shared my enthusiasm, and even modeled with the 24" bike to show human scale. what else can you ask from a dad?

today was another great day, namely my sister's 27th. she got her shift covered, we shopped like holics, and found some deals. after a healthy afternoon at any one of america's attempt to turn the shopping mall into a capitalism village, we both took it easy. as i sit on the porch i take a deep breath, enjoying the crisp autumn air and the spectacle today's sunset has to offer. as i paused for a moment, i notice a large curious feline, perched on the steps, looking up at me kindly. i put my tongue up to my teeth in the international 'here kitty kitty' language, and wow, here it comes. cats never like me, but i am on a roll. as i pet her with one hand, i peck away single=handedly, listening to the growl of my own stomach. its time for presents, and a birthday dinner before i head back ro milwaukee. i couldn't have asked for anymore from this weekend. fall may have come late, but thanksgiving made an early arrival.

special shout out to ace of base, for putting the words in my mouth and the rhythm in my ears when i saw this sign...