Confession

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🔧🚴🏻‍♀️
Back in March, yes March, I was trying yet again to fix my gear changing problem on my road bike. Over winter, I spent quite a number of hours on it, in fact. Much too stubborn to get pro mechanic help at the bike shop (since I had no problem dialing it in in previous years), I was resolute in doing the repair myself.

Now I won’t go into all the places a thorough home geek mechanic checks for the cause of a gears-related problem. Which I most certainly did. Or the correct order of troubleshooting that we carefully follow. Which I did.

Or did I? After all my increasingly complex efforts, I had unwittingly bypassed one of the first and simplest potential causes…Maybe the rear wheel wasn’t firmly seated into the frame in the first place. Duh. An easy fix. I’ll just re-seat it.

The bike was nice and high already in the bike stand, so I quite easily reached over and released the rear wheel quick release lever. It was quick alright. The rear wheel promptly tumbled through the chain and derailleur and plummeted to the floor…

[Walking the trail of shame]
I have now lost all credibility as a bike mechanic. Not only because it was such a novice move to unlock the wheel when the bike was off the ground, but also because I left the wheel in disgust, prostrate, on the workshop floor, since March. March! Seriously its still there. Here’s proof. See picture. I’ve been riding my mountain bike ever since. I’ve been riding my mountain bike…shhhhhh… [whispering]…on pavement. Now I’ve gone and lost all credibility as a mountain biker, too.

P.S. The wheel might just languish there for quite some time…

#stupidgeekgirlmoment #tmi #ohtheshame

#mycyclinghumor 😉

Oregon Symphony presents Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto

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Incredible pleasure to hear Hamelin play Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto, an accomplished performance of dramatic and melodic music that swept me away. The entire concert was outstanding, especially under the sensitive conducting of James Feddeck. Oregon is fortunate to have such a talented symphony and to present such talented guests! See Program Notes. Photos © jillsnotebook.

Drawing figures so they appear to be in the distance

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Photo © jillsnotebook

Learning to draw people so they appear to be in the distance, hence the quarter for size reference. Will try painting them next. It’s kinda fun, because the idea is just to suggest the figure, not give details for something that should appear in the distance. It’s surprising how little is needed. Also, love my little pocket sketchbook.

An homage to those on the heroic journey of finding their direction or passion in life.

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I like the quote I heard on youtube today: “Passion is a form of self-care”. Especially like this idea in light of psychologists’ research that finds passion is more often developed over time from interests in which significant time investments are made, not some force that once identified suddenly endows one with unlimited motivation. So if passion is a form of self-care, then both self-care and passion are the byproducts of significant time investment in self-directed interests.

From my observations and reading, children need lots of opportunities and support to dabble, test out, and follow different interests over their childhood/early adulthood until the length of their self-directed time investments begins to shake out those interests that are of most value to them. This is how we find our direction or passion in life. Along with integrity, compassion, and life skills, this is what should be at the heart of parenting and education. Regrettably, it often is not.

Where children were thwarted in this significant developmental area for whatever reason, they must create and support these missed opportunities for themselves as adults, often now having to grapple with significant self-esteem issues and time and income limitations during the process. A daunting endeavor that requires courage and perseverance, and hopefully includes supportive friends/family.

Running the gauntlet of an impatient and judgemental society in order to find their direction/ passion and recover their authentic voices, such brave souls who keep trudging along, no matter how small the progress or frequent the setbacks, are heros and heroines in my book. As a society, we fail these wounded adults–these lost and discarded children now grown whom we fail a second time around when we do not recognize, nourish, champion, and support their healthy efforts at authenticity and self-direction. Instead, let us honor their noble journey, even if they are only first braving this process as late as in their 90’s! 🌿

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