Derby night!

  We were gifted a couple of VIP tickets and decided to take the whole crew. We had a blast. The only part we didn't like was seeing players we know and care about hurt. It was really exciting. 

It was funny watching our son have no idea what he was looking at. Our daughter had done some kid's roller derby and was able to clue him in. 

We did an experiment. We got permission to go out at half time and give out hundreds of balloons in the home-team's colors (The wreckers are teal, silver and black). We didn't know if we could even get that many balloons out in that short time or how well it would go over. 

At first it was great. The crowds loved us and everyone wanted a balloon to wave around. Some of the players were down too but in the end it was not so good a result because the players reported that it was distracting when all those balloons began popping. It's cool. We wouldn't know where to plug in if we never try. I enjoyed the food, the VIP seats and the free drinks. Seeing Olive tipsy and screaming for her favorite players was a riot. Thanks for the opportunity Annie Bosworth Foley Everyone was really nice to us and the family had a swell time.

Colored delighted while checking my bike's traffic cam,

 

Colored delighted while checking my bike's traffic cam,

I see what Olive was up to when she is the passenger on my tallbike today. <3 span=""> <3 span=""> <3 span="">

One day on the tillicum bridge

As they watched us approach, they had time to huddled up, have a discussion, form a task force and then send a delegate to ask us an important question. :"Excuse me. How do you stop?"
 We hear that question all day. Sometimes it's really charming.
 Instead of the standard "gracefully" line we decided to give them a slo-mo-demo with bubbles.
 It went over great, diplomacy was had and Dad even had some sound advice for me as we left. "Don't fall off the bridge!"
 I won't Sir. I won't. :)

Good News! I don't have ringworm!

Today I was understandably freaked out looking at my chest in the mirror. Ringworm! Our friends had a bad ringworm incident recently so it's on my mind. I looked in the mirror and lost it when I saw those tell tale signs. 
It wasn't just one, it was dozens of ring shaped marks and a few contusions all over my arms, back, stomach.
 I ran to my partner
 "I'm infested with the ringworms Olive!" 
She took a look and then quickly began giggling. She followed the pleasure trail of clues. 
A couple hours ago she was having a kissing party, I was the furniture. 
The rings are from her facepaint. 
Her cheeks stamped circles backwards all over me. So there ya go. I cured ringworm.

Portland song, the lost tapes

The Portland Song "lost tapes". We got the lost tapes back this morning. Here they are. We got lucky. We don't like driving but when we do we have fun, that is until our camera falls off the car. 

After the Portland song stay tuned for that moment when a fateful bump knocks our camera down. Sean found it and left it by the road for a half hour. In that time lots of people walked by. 

Some looking right at it. It's hilarious watching us look for the gopro. Then 26 hours later Bingo, we visit our new friend at work, thank him vigorously and boom, we are back in biz. Thank you Honest Sean Carlson! Nice to meet you! Thanks for making it a great town to be a clown.

Grateful clowns here. We ballooned him and his colleagues up at his animal repair job.

oliveanddingo.com

bikelightcultcrew

Saw J Ari Sindel at a lit up bike ride last night. We made some new friends joining a lit up bike ride. 
We were itching for another big roll even though we have been doing that all day and every day for months. At first we missed the start. 
Then Olive decided "we can find them" so Olive "the ride whisperer" did find them.
 I was so impressed with her scouting prowess. We were all happy to see each other. Everyone is jumping in the river in this shot. As I started reading the scene an unsettling picture emerged in my carny mind. Is this a cult? First off, they didn't know who we were. When I asked people where they were from they said "out of town" (hmmm). Everyone was over the top attractive and seemingly interested in what we had to say. That was odd. Immediately they made three points of contact with us and collected a lot of information from everyone. 

They were nice. I wasn't judging. I'm just a hustler who is always decoding hustles. It's our civic duty to understand what was going on. We had a lovely ride in what Ari was calling "The opioid tour" we happened to go all the places that junkies hung out. That was great proof they were from out of town. Lots of hooting and hollering while us locals were on heightened states of awareness. At the drum circle a man from that crowd got really touchy with Olive. 

She was and still is pretty angry about that. She was so shocked she missed her chance to slug the guy. We moved on down the river holding hands and enjoying our new cult friends. We connected with several of the folks on the ride and liked them. It ended under a bridge with a fun dance party. The ride leader was very charismatic and accommodating.

 As we were leaving I was glad Ari was gonna hang around collecting counter intelligence. Then the ride leader gave me a beer. 

I don't drink but I kept it as a souvenir. That's when Olive relayed her opinion. She liked my conclusions but added her own in a great way. I actually liked her conclusion better than mine. She said College people are (like cults) very organized, charismatic, collect info to perpetuate events, look very attractive and come from out of town. We were rolling with college folks. Ahhhh that's plausible. They mentioned doing the ride again soon. If they call us I will let ya know how to join the cult. 

Loud and Lit 2018

Went on the ride as usual. The unusual part was being joined by our daughter. 

She is 20 and fully esconsed in the Portland Bike culture.

Olive Rootbeer was my date as we joined thousands of Portland people for a lit and loud bike ride through town. 

Then just like that, it was time to go.

Patrolling around with the love of my life.

 Like what we do?
http://oliveanddingo.com/donate/