Just got $5 from a stranger on the street.

Just got $5 from a stranger on the street.
I asked "do you have a kid that comes to our shows?" Dude says "Nope, this if for being an opinionated prick on the internet, keep it up."
I know he reads me because "opinionated prick" is what I call myself when I'm forced to post something political.
That's not the story I'm bringing though, just the backstory.
I took the $5 and went to my favorite video lottery. I mostly go because I like hearing old people swearing (well worth $5) but if i get a little win, then I can get some ganja.
I didn't win anything. I also didn't lose because they give me free soda and hotdogs plus I'm entertained.
The dude next to me wasn't doing so well. He was losing a lot of money. Every time his game spun he would let out really distressing noises.
I came to find out he was gambling his rent to try and also score money for his prescription meds.
I can't judge him at all. What else is he gonna do? He didn't look pretty or healthy, how else would he get some funds legally?
Soon this poor sap lost a big chunk of his rent and it was hard to hear him so distressed.
As slim a chance as state sponsored gambling is, it's the only thing for many people to have any chance.
The government loves pill companies.
They have a racket keeping meds expensive and the first thing doctors suggest to sick folks.
So what is the solution? It's only gonna get worse.
How can someone who is in bad shape get some money for da pill man?

This is what it looks like when I get a catastrophic flat far from home.

This is what it looks like when I get a catastrophic flat far from home. 

I hit a huge pothole the other night and had a fantastic blowout. 
We had fund raised enough scratch to get me new tires but I had only replaced the front. 
The back blew out in the dark at 12th and SE Hawthorne and I had to get it to 39th and Powell (all uphill). 
The longer we walked the worse off the back situation got. I told Olive to go home and I would see her in an hour or two, she refused. 
We walked and talked for a bit, had a nice visit by Mark, We could have asked someone for a ride but we didn't want that. The bike carries me everywhere and now it's time for me to carry my bike.
 After a while the tube parts rolled into the hub incapacitating the back wheel. it's too big to steer and push so I ended up walking my bike sideways on the corner of the front wheel. That's where the balance point was. 

It was the only way to keep the steering and propulsion working together.  This worked but it was exhausting.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             



As we got into our neighborhood, Olive saw me straining and complaining and offered to take a turn. 
I laughed (she didn't laugh). 
She actually took hold of the heavy bike like a power lifter, strained a bit, wobbled and then just like that she was on her way. 
I was impressed. Good one Olive! 
Now I have both wheels replaced and I put the names of the people donated fundage on the new wheels.
 We are very grateful. 
 So if you see some funny antiquated writing on my wheels it's the names of the folks who literally keep our wheels on the ground. 

Thank you Andra, Lyle, Karl, Espen for donating the duckettes for new tire and chain. 
Big thanks to Olive for taking a turn and bringing the Behemoth into the home stretch.
Now my bike is rolling swimmingly well.  Right on! http://oliveanddingo.com/

some recent pics o us being Portland clowns.

Element Series: White Phosphorus

We have been doing a lot of miles on the old tall bikes these days.

We have been doing a lot of miles on the old tall bikes these days. I actually had to train for this season.
We got a flashy car in trade for some dolls this winter and I had gotten a bit soft. Now I log sometimes over 20 miles a day carrying myself, huge bike and heavy gear.
Olive is also a heavily laden maiden with all her stuff.
We are getting recognized more than ever.
We counted 8 interactions in just half a block.
We get a few grumps as well. One dude rolled his window down and yelled "Yer gonna get someone killed" I started riding my bike Behemoth circa 2004 (built by the genius Topher Moore ) and so far that has never happened.
I wanted to say I have a clean safety record dating back a decade but at the next light all I could say into his window was,
"It's cool Mr. Ottastate plate, we totally own this shit Yo."
I don't think I was helpful but it sure was satisfying to say. Then we rolled into a park.
After turning a corner we found ourselves among about 30 native Americans having bbq.
They all immediately started cheering and a circle of men drummed loudly for us.
Their approval means a lot to me, I teared up a bit. That was fantastic, wish we could have stayed and visited with them. Today we rocked a 2 year old's party in North Portland. It's partly sunny partly chilly today so luckily I didn't show up a sweat ball.
Show went great even though it was one kid and a ton of adults. They were all hip to our show so it worked out.
On the way home we had even more interactions with people cheering and carrying on.
We had some Thai food (made the crew balloons) and rode home happy. Now is the fun part, licking each other's wounds...wait, that didn't sound right...
Big howdy to all our friends we saw today as well.
Very sorry we couldn't stop. Big Thank you to the Burke family and TJ Lebay for helping me get my bike conditioned for the heavy duty duty. Also thanks to the folks who donated funds on our web site. That bought new tires and new chain, that was clutch. It's a great town to be a clown.
Like what we do?
Here is our virtual tip jar.
http://oliveanddingo.com/donate/

bike thief

A thief was stripping a bike that was locked to the rack the other night. Suddenly he was interrupted by a burly biker dude who was behind him tapping a baseball bat against the cement. "Split!" the biker commanded and the thief began gathering tools, "NOW!" so the dude split abandoning his kit on the ground. Good lookin' out kind Brotha Biker Man. So in other news we received a donation recently on the form of bike some tools. They are small and delicate, less good for bike maintenance but very useful for rapidly disassembling bikes. I gladly added them to my "drawer of ungentlemanly implements". Life in the big city.

"We didn't hire you--" me: "Yes you did" them: "No we didn't."

 Interesting state of affairs. We were hired to make balloon hats last min. in a line going into a dance club. We were told it was a prank. 
The cops required that there be no hats permitted but added a clause excluding balloon hats. So someone hired both of us to make balloon hats. That is an expensive prank. 
We put our stuff on and went across town as fast as we could. 
The security didn't know what to make of us.
 I was never told that the event company didn't hire us so I pled my case over and over (thinking they were being thick). 
Turns out someone else hired us and the company had no idea who we were or why we were there. I guess the joke was on us too. They (security) kept asking us to wait (for them to find out why we were there) but we couldn't NOT make balloons so we made a bunch of them. It was taking security a long time to deal with us so we just kept pumping out hats. 
Eventually, the boss of security showed up and asked the question they were all asking "Who sent you?" The check cleared so we didn't care who sent us; our job is making balloons. Eventually security (who were very nice to us b.t.w.) told us that the guy that hired us didn't work for the company putting the event on. 
They were saying that the organizers definitely didn't want balloons in the venue. 
They politely asked us to leave. We went the long way, handing out as many balloons as we could to the happy people. Our son got to see yet another odd job his parents routinely get sent on.