Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Wednesday 2.29.12

Tonight Carl joined us again, helping out on a Wednesday. He brought in a co-worker who bought 2 bikes!

Job came in and helped out through the night. Josh R., too.

The two of them hit the road earlier in the week, going to Largo and back for fun.

Job: "it all started when Job was coming home from Home Depot after busting his butt. I ran into you guys. First I ran into Adam at Home Depot -just leaving. "

Then he ran into Josh. After talking about wild pigs in Watkins Park, Josh convinced him to go on that "heck" of a ride.

Job said yes! So the journey began!

What did the ride to Largo bring to you?
Job: I learned that 202 was the road that the British took to burn the white house 200 years ago, and all kinds of other enlightenment's.

Did you know we rode to Mitchelville?! Everything is so close! It was...crazy dude! Just talking about it makes me want to go riding!

What did you say about the metro?
Job: Did you know it takes longer to get to Mitchelville on the metro than riding?

and this ends this leap year interview..

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Roll-on Wednesdays

Another busy Wednesday. Elbow room was tight with the 3 co-workers Job brought in. Their fresh looking bikes were colored in tones of Spring. We worked on assembling their rides. The Spring flowers are emerging!

Grady worked on the Nishiki, getting teh front wheel more in true. He's been coming in putting in hours for the coop -up to 8 hrs now. Job, too. He's at 10, from wednesdays at least.

Grady brought a cousin. Josh rolled in, Bill Root worked on a project, and Scot W made his appearance....we were hoppin!

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Wednesday 2/1/12

Last night saw two Ledroit Park incomers with a sleek folding bmx. They wanted the wobbles/play eliminated from the headtube and air in the tires. Success!

Travis and his likewise tool-smart friend came in with their rigged fixed. They wanted to activate the gears on it. They got it from a neighbor/friend who was clearing up space in the garage -type of thing. It has an old school bubble-gum pink tire on the back wheel. They're feeling it too....summer fun bike!

Jennifer came in with her daughters bike. Sound and strong it is, but clothing was trapped in the whirl and gears of the rear wheel. Ledroit Park BMXer freed it up with her.

We talked about Jennifer's artisan soaps (respond to learn more), and the concept of "fairtrade" -of ingredients which she utilizes. People learned about "fair-trade", about the processes of being certified keeping low-income earners from being able to participate, and largely about labor-bondage/slavery, racism and empire. Hey! We're all getting freer on Wednesday nights! We'll straighten the wobbles in our roll and we'll go there!! Together!

Job showed up with a pile of jerk chicken wrapped in foil, relieving this volunteer who'd only had pecans and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich earlier in their day of spackling and painting. Job grabbed a project bike from the back and got to assembling it. Job is interested in volunteering/supporting the coop. I hope he serves well at the coop because he'd be great for the operation. He is a local Mountie, eager, working really hard, getting really into his bike, and fluent, he is -Spanish to Americans, as he says, and Salvadorian to other Spanish speakers. Job is our future.

I mentioned the fence and police keeping skaters out of the new Rhode Island Ave skatepark, which elicited a call from the other side of the coop that they rode it and it is poorly designed, saying that it's size doesn't allow the more gregarious riding that other parks allow. One person has to ride at a slow pace with others not near -a more isolating skate park. That's two remarks from skaters (who fix their own bikes at the coop that maybe should look into stocking trucks/boards/grip tape) who are basically saying parks&planning/mncppc should allow participator intelligence in the design of an operation/space/park. Not a big problem that seems to have at least this one solution: user-participation-development.