More of the Same

Okay, not really.
I mean it's sort of the same, but kinda different.
I decided that if I'm going to be making all these bowls, it's better to make big bowls than little bowls.
You know, to make it worth my while.
I small bowl I can sell for like five or six bucks.
A big bowl, maybe ten or twenty.
Now let's see: five dollars or twenty dollars?
Okay, I'm sold!
Big bowls it is.
Well, not that big:

Let's just say they are bigger.
Than the other bowls I made.
I gotta say, I'm getting pretty good at this bowl making thing.
Sort of got down to a system, or better yet a technique.
Jedi Skilz coming back on line!
Took me about ten bowls to get there but it's like riding a bicycle!
Don't you know.
Anyways, I got like sixteen bowls and this all the clay I got left:

Oh yeah, I forgot about them four planter thingys.
Anyways, I figure I can get about ten bowls out of one 25lbs bag of clay.
More if I make them smaller but I'm going for the Big Score(BS)!
So I'll need me some bags of clay!
Looks like I'll be going to the clay place tomorrow to stock up for the weekend.
Wait!
I already did:

I stopped by the clay place before I went to the police place the other day.
Still, I'm not sure that one bag is going to tide me over till Tuesday.
Hey!
That's the name of a band!



Seriously Aimee, what is with that hair?
Anyways, I sort of ran out of them cones for the kiln too so I have to journey back over the hill into the concrete jungle of Honolulu.
I'll have to hurry back though if I want to catch le Tour.
Which, if you've been living in a cave, starts on Saturday.
I don't really follow much pro cycling, but I try to watch le Tour, if only to see other folks suffering on bicycles.
Or to see folks do super human things on bicycles.
I'm not really sure which, but I'm ready to go:

Oh yeah baby!

My personal le Tour bicycle!

Okay, not really.

I do sort of wish I had that bicycle though.

Well, except for that blue water bottle cage.

59 Days and Counting

Oh boy.
Only two months out.
The last month went by faster than I thought, especially now that we are meeting every two weeks.
Just seems like there's so many things do to!
Okay, not really.
Well there are a lot of things to do, it's just that some of these things take some time to get done.
Today I had to go over hill into Honolulu and visit the men in blue:

I had to go and see about getting us some Special Duty Officers, police folks who work events like this were street closures are involved.
These are the police officers who are also work contruction sites where traffice is altered.
I estimate we need like 10 officers to work our event, one at each intersection where bicyclists need help entering traffic or where there are no bicycle lanes.
Better to have more than less when safety is a concern.
I spent about twenty minutes talking to a very helpful sergeant, going over our maps and learning all about how the process works.
The part about all this working with the City and County and all the other folks involved is that we don't get anything confirmed until right up the weeks before the event.
I have to admit, this gives me some nightmares.
Okay, not really nightmares, but it's a source of worry.
I'm the type who likes everything confirmed and double checked now.
You know, so I don't have to worry about it later.
Especially since the list of stuff I got to worry about is on the long side.
There are things I just can't cross off the list, things that are pending, waiting for approval or waiting for a committment.
Issues keep popping up, sometimes needing immediate attention and it's really causing some havoc with my working schedule.
I'm making bowls don't you know.
I have to admit, sometimes it's a bit overwhelming, seems like theres' no end in sight.
Except the end is like 59 days away.
The good news is that I heard from a majoy sponsor the other day, a sponsor who I hope will dump a large chunk of change in our pockets so we can start making some reservations and paying for stuff.
I'm also beginning to realize that to get the cash an event like this needs to be about more than just bicycling, health and fitness.
More on that later.
For now though, it's carry on.
The light at the end of the tunnel is a mere dot, but it'll get humungasoid real quick and I don't need it sneaking up on me.
If you know what I mean.

A Bowl a Day...

I just needed a goal.
After realizing yesterday the root of my bicycle addictions and cravings, I was able to build an economic bridge between making bowls and bicycle blingness.
So I toil on.
Only now I have a porpoise.
Make that a purpose.
I wish I had a porpoise but realistically, I don't know where I'd put it.
Anyways, I finally cleaned up a bit:

Take a good look cause that's the last time you, the reader, are going to see it that clean.
Now that I'm on a porpoise.
I mean purpose.
Make that a mission.
I'm on a mission I mean.
Planter thingys:

I'm starting to add little feet thingys on the bottom, just to raise them up a bit, you know, to let the water drain.
They take a little longer to do but I think they look nice.
Nicer, I mean.
After thinking about it, I got a lot o'these small size planter thingys and I really need some medium size planter thingys for the cactus that have gotten too big for the small size planter thingys.
I also need on large size planter thingy for that palm tree I got.
Bowls:

Wow Mr. Flat. 
You got like six bowls.
Six bowls now, but just you wait.
I leave them alone in a corner and you blink your eyeball and suddenly you got like ten or twenty!
Like rabbits I tell you!
Trimming them bowls and things takes about as much time as it does to make them so after I was done I was sort of pooped.
More on my poopedness later.
Not that kind of poopedness, the fatigued kine poopedness.
Anyways, I was thinking of going out for a ride later so I was trying to conserve some awesomeness.
Instead I decided to finally fix that broken spoke I got last week.
Since I had that wheel all apart I wanted to see what I could to about the grimy hubs:

They have that baked on grease look which tells me maybe the grease leaked and I should take a look at them bearings soon.
Anyways, I sprayed some Simple Green on it and attacked it with a tooth brush.
I have a brass wire brush somewhere around these parts but I was too lazy to look for it.
Anemic don't you know.
Voila!

Now doesn't that look better?
I thought about taking some Mother's to them, but unfortunately/fortunately I ran out.
Okay!
Today I'm feeling back to normal and it's time to get the ole wheel a turning and a bowl a making!
Off I go!
Boy, I sort of feel like one of the Seven Dwarfs.
If you know what I mean.

Billboards

I admit it.
I ain't gonna lie no more.
Influenced by Madison Avenue types and glossy full page adds and claims of weight and promises of newest and bestest and mostly fueled by my very own overly large ego I purchase my bicycles because of what's on the down tube.
I can't get enough.
The more the better to scream out at everyone who bothers to look.
I suppose I've been in denial.
Let's face it though, besides looking at top tube specifications and head tube lengths and stand overs it came down to aesthetics.
The message.
It all came to me this morning when I was thinking(there I go again!) about why I need a hand built frame.
I mean I suppose I can pretty much fit any bicycle, any bicycle in my size, so why go custom?
Why even consider it?
Ride quality?
I suppose that factors in, but I have two bicycles that ride pretty well now. 
I mean at least now I can sort of tell the differences, although subtle, but there are differences in frames.
Tell you the truth I don't even think about that now, which I suppose is because of the frames I have.
Still, I can jump on the ole Rockhopper or Bike With the Funny Name(BWTFN) and pedal on without even thinking about anything other than where I'm going.
Which brings me to the ole Rockhopper and BWTFN.
Billboards too.
A custom frame would just be a glorified billboard.
Sort of.
Okay, as a hawker of things handbuilt, I shouldn't be saying this.
It's true though.
I should be happy on any ole bicycle, any ole POS with two wheels with a chain and pedals that turn long enough to take me from point A to B.
After all, it's all about getting there.
Right?
Sadly no.
For me, it's all about what you use to get there.
Does it sparkle and shine?
Is it the lastest greatest?
More important, how does it compare to yours?
Oh yeah.
Kool Aid all the way.
The thing is, I'm not quite sure i'm ashamed to admit it.
I should be.
It sort of detracts from the heaven sent, zen purist thing that bicycling is.
A disruption in the Force, if you will.
Maybe I need to light some incense, say some Hail Marys, or shut down my eVilness account.
Or something.
I'm so ashamed.
Maybe.
Okay, not really.
Yeah, so I ride a billboard.
Still, it's a pretty nice billboard:

Wait for it.
Image is everything.
I think.

Late Late Edition/Normal Edition

Hey Mr. Flat! What happened to the Sunday Final?
Well I apologize.
The presses stopped running.
Cause I was sleeping.
Sort of.
So this is a combined Sunday Final/Normal Monday post, twice as long and twice as good.
Okay, not really.
It's only twice as long.
Maybe.
So anyways, yesterday I started cleaning up the gara-uh, studio and came in for some lunch which actually turned out to be Hawaiian Sleeping Pills.
That was end of yesterday.
So today I got up all bright eyeballed and bushy tailed and got to work.
My mission?
To turn this:

Into this:

Well okay, there are a couple of steps in between.
Well okay, there are a lot o'steps in between and a lot o'luck.
Make that a lot o'bowls.
So first I did some warm ups:

I needed some Cactus Army planter thingys and they are easy to make.
Actually I need like a dozen of them or so, but I'll work on them later.
For now I'm just a Bowl Making Machine(BMM)!
Lemme tell you I was going so fast I broke my chair thingy:

Things were a whirring and creaking and turning and a flying and I swear I thought I smelled something smoking then suddenly, with a thunderous crack, and plop, plop fizz fizz, my stool went a flying across the gara-uh, studio!
Luckily I recovered cause the wheel was a spinning at like Super Sonic speeds and I was able to hit the emergency shut off button.
No lives were lost.
Thankfully.
Before all that happened, I did manage make these:

Boy, bowl making this time around is a lot easier than the last time.
Sort of.
Maybe I'm just getting the hang of it again.
Bowls, if you've have been following along at home, are like hardest things to make.
At least for me.
Okay, not really.
One bowl takes me less than five minutes.
A Perfect Bowl(PB) is the hardest thing to make.
One doesn't really pay attention to the outside, but that inside curve needs a lot o'attention.
Tell you the truth, maybe one bowl out of ten comes out the way I want it to, but hopefully the more I make, the better I get.
Right now I'm just sort of free styling them bowls; not realy paying attention to size and shape.
I'll work on some sets later.
You know, once I get back my Jedi Skilz.
So I did six bowls and four planter thingys and used up this much clay:

I think I'm a gonna be needed a bit more.
Clay that is.
I'm also going to fire up the Big Kiln:

The kiln I've been using is on the right.
The Big Kiln has about nine cubic feet of space inside so I'll be able to fire more stuffs at the same time.
This should bring production up to Super Sonic speeds!
Hopefully.
Cause I'll need to make like a GAGILLION bowls if I ever hope to see some Italian made carbon goodness.
If you know what I mean.
Meanwhile, I need to work on the Big Kiln a bit to get it ready to rock n roll.
More on that later.

Sunday Early Edition

Vacation is over.
Well actually it never really started with all this stuff going on.
Now though, it's really time to get to work!
I've been putting it off long enough and now another deadline looms.
One month from now I'll be back at the Haleiwa Arts Festival hawking my wares.
Which might be interesting considering I have no wares to hawk.
After last year, I gave a lot of stuff away as gifts, you know, just to get rid of it.
I don't think I've made a single thing so far this year, so I'll be working on the Flat Tire 2012 Collection(FT2012C).
I sort of got started this morning:

Oh yeah!
I finally took the clay out of the box!
Hey! one step closer is one step closer.
If you know what I mean.
Well I'm gonna have to go Super Sonic cause I got like one month to punch out as many stuffs as I can.
Actually the making part is easy.
I mean I could sit down and make like twenty bowls today.
The hard part is the firing and the glazing and the firing again.
Mostly it's the glazing part.
This year though, I have a plan.
Sort of.
More on that later.
So now I have to clean up the rest of the gara- uh studio:

I don't know what's up with my water bucket.
It was like full of water.
Last November.
Actually I'm surprised there was any water left in it at all.
If you can call that water.
Then I got to unbury my wheel:

I think that's the bubble wrap my frame came in.
I'm keeping it.
For something.
All that clay on the working space is from last year too.
I'm keeping it.
For something.
Anyways, I better get going.
Bowls, bowls, bowls.
Bowls = bicycle bling.
At least around these parts.
If you know what I mean.

Tower of Power

Great band!
Famous for their horn section, I saw them live in a small venue way back in another life.
I grew up with bands like Tower of Power and Chicago and Average White Band, and sort of miss that "fat" sound.
I'd bust out the ole fold up record player and sit and listen and watch that vinyl spin round, and round, and round, and round...
You get the idea.



Oh yeah!
I love me some horns!
Not what this is about though.
I'm talking about the real Tower of Power:

That's right bureaucracy fans!
City Hall!
My first time there.
Since I never had any business with the city.
Well, I've had business with the city, just not up close and personal business.
If you know what I mean.
So our little group was scheduled to meet with certain city representatives concerning our little event, you know, to make sure we got our tees crossed and eyeballs dotted.
The police department folks weren't there as I'm sure they were busy doing police stuff, but the fire department, bus folks, City Bicycling dude and street closure dude were all there.
Believe it or not, the street closing place takes up the whole freakin second floor!
Now I'm not exactly sure how many streets are being closed right now this minute, but really, the whole floor?
I can just see our paper work going around, and around, and around, and around...
Well, you get the idea.
I gotta say, it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.
Mostly I think it's because of my Boy Scout/Worst Case Scenario type of planning so we had most of the important things covered.
The street closure dude was also encouraging and helpful, again not what I expected.
On the other hand, there's a lot o'stuff we have to turn into him in order to get our permit approved, so I better get on it.
In other news, we got another grant approved!
In other news, we are still about ten grand short.
So I better get on it.
We are 65 days out and that finish line is coming up fast.
More on finish lines later.
Maybe.

In My Dreams

Lemme tell you, I can dream big!
I mean mostly I dream of some pretty wild stuff like robbing banks and having shoot outs and stuff but that's only when I'm unconcious.
I dream when I'm concious too, sort of like day dreaming except with a purpose.
First of all, I'm just about all done with the little fish, the community folks.
Now I'm after the big fish, the corporate types that make their money off of us little fish.
The thing is, most corporate types, they don't want to be involved with no little fish events, and well to tell you the truth we are.
A little fish event I mean.
Except in my dreams.
In my dreams we are the biggest open streets event the world has ever seen!
Okay, not really.
I mean we are on an island and even if we closed every road here we wouldn't be the biggest.
Well maybe.
In my dreams we are and that's what counts.
If you know what I mean.
So anyways, to get the big fish, it has come to my attention that we need some bigger bait.
Meaning asking for funding for one little event ain't gonna get no bites so we need to think big!
Bigger!
Immensely large.
Humungasoid!
Actually, I'm just thinking of where we are going to Hele On! next.
Which is turning into a difficult proposition as coming up with a good event site ain't exactly easy.
The streets around these parts weren't exactly planned out.
In fact if you've ever been here you'd know that the streets seem randomly designed and most of them are, built over former trails and dirt lanes.
In reality there is no such thing as a city block, not as other cities know it.
Therefore, the chosing of the next event site is like drilling for oil: you guess is as good as mine.
Sort of.
Some of the open streets events over on the Continent involve city parks and that's what I think we should shoot for next.
Bringing the people to the park via a street closure seems like the way to go.
Especially for Honolulu.
So I've got a plan.
Well I always have a plan, sort of, but this time I've got a really good plan.
As opposed to a really bad plan, which occasionally rears it's ugly head.
Sometimes.
This plan involves the downtown area and our waterfront park and possibly one of the most heavily used parks on the island.

We'll see what I can get away with.
Or better yet, what the City will allow me to get away with.
Seeing as how this open streets stuff is sort of new.
To everybody.
More on this later.
The key here is the event we're working on and how successful it is.
I mean IF we draw, hopefully draw more people than our space can handle, then we will have a proven event with a proven model.
Don't get wrong, I realize that it's a big IF.
I'm not holding my breath or anything.
Still, if IF happens then maybe the next Hele On! will the one of my dreams.
68 days and counting.
Oh boy.

Sunday Final

Finally.
Some free time.
Well okay, I was watching Law & Order earlier, but I don't count that as free time as Law & Order commands my full attention.
I'm still in the Jill Hennesey years, if you know what I mean.
So anyways, our meeting went well and it finally seems like we're moving full steam ahead.
Damn the torpedoes and all that good stuff.
It sounds like we got a grant from the City and County of Honolulu and more potential funds are being sought.
Which is good cause I'm not so good at getting funds but I'm really good at spending it.
Funds I mean, particularly other folks' funds.
Speaking of other folks' funds, we took another look at the budget and I decided to add another $1000 to it, you know, just in case.  I had only $1000 for miscellaneous stuff and I just know I'm missing something so I doubled it.
You never know.
It's also time to get the other bike shops on the island involved and we're off and running.
We'll see what we get in the next few weeks.
I'm hoping for something big like some Madones or some Venges or some SuperSixes or some TCRs.
Or something.
Then again I'll settle for some beach cruisers to give away or some front baskets and water bottles.
We're also beginning to get some idea of what kind of activities we're doing and who exactly we want involved.  This may be the hard part for now because of all our scaling back we have limited space for bicycle stuff.
I gotta say, I came away from today's meeting feeling really good!
I think maybe it was because the bad news was minimal, or maybe I'm just getting use to hearing it.
Most of the stuff going around the table was very positive and upbeat.
Ideas were just flying around and folks were putting their hats in the ring.
Which is something I really needed.
More hats in the ring I mean.
For a while it's been like folks doing the ole Hokey-Pokey with one foot in and one foot out and turning all about and finally today it felt like we were all holding hands signing Kumbaya.
No really.
It was a warm fuzzy.
All over.
Sort of.
I think the next 30 days or so are going to be crucial and we should really have some kind of idea of how this whole thing is going to turn out.
I for one, am optimistic.
I think.

Sunday Early Edition

Happy Father's Day!
To all the fathers out there anyways.
To the rest of you well, have a happy day too.
Today is also committee meeting day, a day when we go over what we're doing and where we're going.
Like we have a plan.
I got some good news the other day when I got a call from a radio station person who said they were very interested in getting involved with out event.
Yay!
We got radio!
That's one thing we won't have to worry about.
I'd still like to get one other radio station onboard, the one with a younger demographic, you know, to reach a younger demographic.
We're got some grant money coming in from the city, but it's nowhere near close to covering what I've budgeted.
Which in case you're wondering, stands at about $18,000.
We didn't think it would end up being so much, but it was what we were told similar events cost.
The little things add up don't you know.
The most difficult thing about all this is keeping it all together.
Keeping an eyeball on everything happening, making sure we're not missing anything important.
We are 70 days out and counting and although it may seem like a long time, I know event day is going to come up faster than we think.
I think I need to start setting some projected deadlines, just that we know where we stand by a certain date.
The group also has to start thinking about where the next event is going to be held.
The whole idea about this is to have the event move from community to community and while we are putting this one together we should also be thinking about the next location.
Anyways, this week I go out into Flat Tire Land and get to see what community reaction is.  I'm hitting up merchants outside of the event sphere and this is where the money is.
I mean I hope that's where the money is.
So here's our updated banner:

You, the reader, can also follow the event on Facebook.
Or you can get the real scoop here.
Sort of.

Aloha Saturday at Kvibe

This morning at Kvibe.
Aloha Saturday.
Lot o'fun!

Bicycle powered smoothie machine:

Goldsprints:



Even the wahines and keikis revved it up!

Lot o'fixed gears:

Then the bicycle race.

On the street!

Everyone had a good time.

Well, I had to leave early but I did recon some and get some folks interested in our little event.

Thanks to Sau and all the folks at Kvibe!

On the Donation Trail

For those of you who have never actually gone out and asked for donations, or went door to door to sell something, don't.
Ever.
It's not fun.
Well okay, it kinda is.
Or it's kinda not.
Fun.
It goes like this:
yada yada yada yada yada my name is yada yada yada yada Cyclovia yada yada yada yada yada new non profit yada yada yada yada yada yada community event yada yada yada yada yada bicycling, health and fitness yada yada  yada yada yada yada yada closing off the street yada yada yada yada yada any problems yada yada yada yada yada please me know yada yada yada yada yada yada yada contact info on the bottom.
Yada.
Don't forget to thank them for their time: Thanks a Yada!
I thought selling cars was tough.
Well okay it was, but so is this.
I mean you have to remember that not everyone is interested in what you got on your plate.
In fact, some folks just don't care.
About bicycles, health, fitness, community, and giving away money.
Just about in that order.
You might care, but that don't mean everyone else does.
So after half a yada I took a break:

Almost as good as the almighty pizza!
Almost.
The sauce was pretty good too but to tell you the truth I was so hungry I didn't take the time to savor every bite.
It was more like let's just get it cool enough to go down fast.
I gotta say that sitting in the airconditioned comfort of pizzaland did a lot to recharge my batteries!
So off I went!
Yada yada yada yada yada I represent a group yada yada yada yada yada open streets event yada yada yada yada yada yada yada merchants and vendors yada yada yada yada yada yada yada three mile loop yada yada yada yada yada yada people in the street yada yada yada yada yada yada yada support the community yada yada yada yada yada yada yada thanks for your time.
Yada.
Oh and Thanks a Yada!
I hit up about 28 merchants and tenants today, most of the ones directly affected by our street closure.
By the time I was done I don't know what the hell I was saying as things were coming out all aday aday aday aday hello aday aday aday aday aday aday aday sorry aday aday aday....
Well, you get the picture.
I got to my last stop and couldn't resist:

Oh yeah baby!
Cherries Jubilee from the House of eVilness:

I should have gotten a regular cone and gone double scoop.
Anyways, that's life on the Donation Trail.
Y'all come back now.
Pardner.

The Incredible Shrinking Event(TISE)!

Never before seen!
You will be amazed, awed and astounded!
Women will shriek, men will flinch like well, shrieking women!
Yes ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you from across the oceans, The Incredible Shrinking Event!(TISE!)
Like wow man.
No really.
One freakin driveway and I lost about a hundred feet of street.
I mean it's not like we got a lot of street to give away.
Okay, okay, I knew the job was dangerous when I took it Fred.
It wasn't going to be easy, you know, convincing folks that closing the street is for the greater good.
I mean "got to eat" right?
Got to work to put some food on the table.
Asking folks to give up some livelyhood ain't easy, lemme tell you.
So now our little event just got a little littler.
If you know what I mean.
Okay, it's not the end of the world, not as I know it anyways, but it does make our event planning a bit more challenging.
Let me sleep on it.
On the other side of the coin, most of the food folks were happy to hear about what we are doing!
Yes, they said, bring on the masses!
Okay, I said, I'm trying my best!
Tomorrow I venture out beyond the range to explore where I have not gone before.
Which is really cool because even today, even though I ride past a lot of these places I rarely stop in to take a look around.
There's this one pizza place that deserves another look, this time as a consumer, and this other food place that looked pretty good too.
I can already count the calories I discovered today.
Two months from now I'll be calling it The Summer of Fatness(TSOF).
Okay, I need to keep an eyeball on the Big Picture.
No distractions!
Even if they include pepperoni and cheese!
Ignore that meatloaf and mash potatos!
Frozen yogurt, next on my eVil list!
Must move forwards!
Take no prisoners!
Sydney or the Bush!

I just know I'm gonna get in trouble for posting that up, but I didn't make it up.
The Sydney or the Bush part I mean.

Good News, Homework

Oh yeah, homework.
I don't really mind homework as long as it's not the tedious kind like doing quadratic equations over and over or learning the formula for circles.
Please.
I got better things to do.
No, this homework is like what it is, working at home and studying up on something interesting and relevant, which is actually what good teachers do.
Make quadratic and circle equations relevant I mean.
Anyways, today I finally secured one of our outboard sites, a community park where we plan to hold bicycle safety thingys.
This was major for now we have a real event, not just a street gathering.  I mean now folks actually have to ride or walk somewhere.
Which is pretty much the point of the whole thing.
I still have one more section to access to make the ride a three mile loop, then I can really dig in and formulate my plan for world domi-, I mean finalizing our route.
Ahem.
Well now that I got that done, it's time to head out on the road and visit all the folks who will be affected by our street closure.
I'm puttng together an informational fact sheet thingy so folks don't get their you know what's all in a bunch.
No, I'm not going out there alone, because I've got an intern!
Moi!
Okay, not really.
Well, sort of.
The Intern is a college student who is working towards some community service hours she needs for her degree or something, we're still trying to figure out how to work this all in.
It'll sort be like the blind leading the blind for I'm not exactly experienced in this sort of thing.
So I got this:

A guide from the folks over at Open Streets Project, folks who have compiled information on street events across the country.
Included are some tips on how to put together an open street event along with stuff like what kind of activities other folks have and where they got their funding.
Good stuff and stuff I really needed.
Like I said, this is all new territory for me.
So anyways, getting that park was real good news and it means we can really bear down on other things that need well, bearing down on.
I also need to do some reading so I can get me some ideas and formulate a plan of attack.
I mean approach.
Or strategy.
Or something.

Holiday!

Now don't you wish you lived in Flat Tire Land?
No really, it was a holiday today.
Officially Kamehemeha Day.
You know, in honor of the dude that united the islands, way back in the olden days.
Anyways, I decided to go and take a short ride, just to stretch the legs and see what was happening.
So off I went!
I decided today was a beach day:

You can see the beach erosion here, I swear there used to be at least another fifty feet of sand there.
The State is working on some kind of plan to deter all the erosion as it isn't just here, but an island wide problem.
In fact they just finished widening Waikiki with a beach restoration thingy.
Some water walkers and some folks watching in awe:

About a mile down the road is Kalama Beach.  There's both a public facility and a private beach club there.  The public park is really small so you gotta get here early.
Especially on a day like this.
Some junior lifeguards were out doing their thing:

Looking back at where I came from, literally where the white of the sand ends:

To where I'm going, again approximately where the beach ends:

Looking out at the Mokulua islands:

Then disaster struck!
No cream soday at my regular watering hole!
I was devastated!
Okay, not really.
I had a Jones Strawberry Lime instead.
Then disaster struck:

Must have been because of the soda.
I had to head on back to Flat Tire Central anyways.
The road ahead:

Pit stop:

Well at least I have something to do tomorrow besides my Plan of the Summer(POTS).
I was thinking maybe I should just rebuild the wheel since the spokes seem to be breaking like one at a time and it would be interesting to lace my own wheel up.
Lemme tell you, I was thinking today how much I miss the beach, you know, just kicking it along with my favorite cold beverage.
Well there's still time.
Summer ain't over yet.

Flat Tire Special Edition: 1000!

Where does it all come from?
I mean when I first started off in Bloggerland, I figured I'd post up maybe once or twice a month, you know, just for fun.
It was all downhill from there.
Like a freakin snowball!
Okay, this is not actually post number 1000.
Actually 1001, since yesterdays post was 1000.
Still, I thought I'd take a minute or two to commemorate this momentous occasion!
I mean really, where does it all come from?
Okay, I make a lot of it up.
All in my head don't you know.
It also helps to be long winded.
It also helps if you're the type to fiddle endlessly with your bicycle and have more hobbies than you can keep up with.
One thousand posts.
Wow!
I got enough material here to write a freakin book!
Well okay, I already wrote a book, but that was in another life and it had nothing to do with bicycling.
Writing a book is not that fun either, especially if you don't know what you're writing about.
Which is sort of like this blog.
The not knowing what I'm writing about part I mean.
Lemme tell you, coming up with fresh material ain't easy.
It helps to have a healthy imagination, or maybe an unhealthy one.
It also helps to be really bored.
Which technically, I shouldn't be.
Which makes me think, if I took all that energy I put into the this blog and put it into something else, like say putting on a bicycling related street event, I could be freakin rich!
Like rolling in dough.
Money dough, not dough dough, though that sounds sort of kinky.
Boy, first I was all happy, but now I'm sort of sad.
One thousand posts.
Now I feel like some computer geek.
Like someone who only has friends in an imaginary world, a world called Bloggerland and Flat Tire Land.
Okay, not really.
Flat Tire Land is real.
So anyways, maybe I should be out doing something instead of sitting around writing posts that like five people read.
I have lost touch with reality and turned into a total nerd!
Well, okay that actually happened a long time ago.
The losing touch with reality part I mean.
I need to get a freakin life!
Maybe.

Sunday Final

What's going on?
So many people!
Oh yeah, it's Sunday.
I sort of forget what day it is, you know, being on vacation and all that.
Everyone was trying to get to the beach:

I swear, it was like they were giving something away for free!
Hey!
No wonder!
Look at all the folks:

Regatta!
It's summer so that means canoe racing:

It was a bit windy today so them paddlers had their work cut out for them.
I hung around to catch the end of the heat:

Winner winner chicken dinner!
Wait!
What's that?
I had to break out the Flat Tire Secret Spy Glass(FTSSG) to check out what those black dots were next to the marker flags.
See them? Right next to the yellow flag!
There!
Right there!

Folks!
Like threading water!
WTF?
I must have happened upon the middle of the race and those folks floating around out there must have been there for a crew change at the midway turn.  There were a pair of people at each flag just sort of hanging out there for the whole race.  If you squint yer eyeballs at the third image, you can see them bobbing there.
They should take up water walking.
Well I did manage a nice 25 miles, my usual route, though it was such a nice day I was tempted to stray. 
My legs are just not up to it yet, maybe in another month.
I was a huffing and a puffing all over Kailua, leaving a trail of perspiration behind me.
Not a pretty sight.
Though the sights were pretty.
Seeing as how the beach was really crowded.
If you know what I mean.
Good news is tightening up my headset got rid of the Boom Shakalaka and now I only have miscellaneous rattles and creaks.
I suppose I'll get used to it.
Anyways, I'm back on road!
Beware.