jaunthie | In Which I Have Several New Experiences and Some Familiar Ones

Happy Solstice, everyone!

As some of you already know,

fisherbear and I have been going to the Solstice Parade for years now. Fisherbear has been active with the cyclist community in particular, photographing the painting parties for several years running, and participating in several events. This year he wound up helping organize the painting party as well as worked on engineering the FrankenBike so that he could take pictures during the ride. (Clothed, not painted; paint and cameras do not mix.) As a consequence, I decided to get involved too, at least to the extent of volunteering to help set up the painting space as well as provide general tech support, etcetera, for fisherbear.

So Friday afternoon and evening was spent laying down tarps, plastic sheeting, and anything else that would protect surfaces from paint, tacking them into place with gaffer's tape (so very useful!), getting lights and stands in place and running power checks, and setting up platforms to act as tables. It was also spent working more on FrankenBike. I met fisherbear's "pilot," a very nice (and VERY strong) guy, as well as a number of other cyclists/volunteers, all of whom were very welcoming (although a few were rather too persistent about wanting me to join them on Saturday. Nice about it, but not at all able or willing to understand that there are people on the planet - like me - who actually aren't competent on bicycles).

Saturday morning we were back on site before 7 a.m., continuing setup, helping the first arrivals, and continuing to assist with decorating FrankenBike. I was moderately amused to find myself being asked what to do and what was going on by many different people, who all assumed that I had experience and/or was someone in charge. I guess I just have that aura of command or something. The site soon turned into an absolute mob scene of people stripping, bringing out painting supplies, and getting themselves decorated. I spent much of the morning applying paint to naked strangers - and yeah, that's a pretty weird experience at first, but it's also rather liberating to be surrounded by people so very comfortable with themselves and their bodies. Yes, there were lots of very fit people there, lots of strong bodies. But they weren't all young gorgeous types. There were young and middle-aged and old, fit and not-so-fit, skinny people and voluptuous people and noticably overweight people. And they were all happy and excited and perfectly glad of help in turning themselves into the works of art they wanted to be for this ride.

It was exhilirating and exhausting, not to mention insanely crowded by the end; well over 400 participants, plus a whole lot of volunteers - not to mention the sheer space taken up by that many bicycles, unicycles, skateboards and assorted gear. By the time they all rode off, I was pretty much toast. I helped with cleanup anyway - what little there remained to be done, it was amazingly well coordinated and pretty much all taken care of by the time I got back. Then it was logistics support, schlepping of gear back to the car, walking down to the parade, navigating traffic... A very long day by the end of it, but very satisfying. The FrankenBike ride was a success, and fisherbear thinks he got some great shots out of it, so double bonus.

Today was back to a more normal existence. I got up early, cleaned house a bit, went grocery shopping, and made Father's Day brunch for the family. MamaBear was able to join us from Bremerton and spend some time with us afterwards, which was great. Between us we did some epic pruning on the roses, as well as some good catching up. Then it was over to my parent's house for dinner, and back home for laundry and writing and soon, bedtime. I just wish the weekend had another day or three in it - I need it!