Artlurk

Weather:
Summer is lingering late in the calendar and keeping autumn away. I haven’t worn a sweatshirt yet.

Of note:

• Thundershirt is playing with Compressions at Crown Liquors on October 15th. Come out and see all the people you know and love playing loud and getting down!
• All summer I’ve been working on a larger scale art project that’s finally complete. It should be installed and available to view in the next month or so. More on that when the dates get nailed down.
• Finally it’s that time of year again and I’m putting together the holiday mailing list. This is what I sent out last year. If you’re interested in getting something special in the mail this December just give me a yell and let me know where to send it!

Onward!

Even though it’s still hovering in the high 70s summer is on the ropes.

I’m trying to grill as much as I can but I’m ready to get the crockpot rocking!

Nothing better than crunching through the leaves and arriving home to a hot pot chili after a grey weekday of work.

I’m also an enthusiastic devotee to layering and warmth and being cozy.

Candles burning, sweatshirt on, quilts and blankets, cats on my lap, hood pulled tight.

But no need to get ahead of the season.

Might as well enjoy the bike riding and tshirt weather while it lasts.

I didn’t venture out of Chicago too much this past summer.

There’s a variety of sensible reasons for it.

Allison needed to stay here to get treatment Monday through Friday.

She’s doing awesome and I’m so inspired and humbled by how she’s handled everything.

Our cats needed a lot of extra TLC.

Work seemed busier than I had anticipated.

A big deterrent was the cost of plane tickets.

Since the 737’s have been grounded it seems like ticket prices increased by a couple hundred bucks.

Maybe I just waited too long to look for good fares.

I’ll have to be better about it.

Or I need to get in the routine of looking.

Some people I know look at flight prices all the time and when they find a good one they go!

Those people travel way more than I do.

I did manage to get out of Chicago to skate Milwaukee.

Milwaukee is always a great time.

We hit Estabrook, had a good dinner and made it home at a reasonable hour.

We also headed to Detroit which is a bit farther so we stayed for a few days.

Slept in really awesome 10 bed room in a hostel.

Saw some old friends.

Saw an ACDC cover band at a street festival.

Skated the new river park and one of the moon parks.

Skated the WIG before it was torn down and spent a few hours at Prospect Park.

Visited Refuge.

Drank coffee, ate square slices.

Lots of gently bullying and lots of laughing.

Zack made edits of both the trips but I don’t know how to link them or where they’re at.

I realize my last few posts have had a lot more weight but this was pretty straightforward.

Here are some pictures I took when I was out having fun with my friends this summer.

I hope you had a lot of fun with your friends this summer as well.

Weather:
More rain than most prefer.

A few things worth some time and thought:

• The Grains Preservation Society – Rough rugged midwest spots
• Timmy Johnson and Nick Matthews both got front page treatment from published record of note. Great work done on classic Chicago spots and jaw droppers in both.
• Giving Room is using skateboarding to push good things. They also did a fantastic job putting together this travel vid.
• 30 years of Alien Workshop and Habitat wizardry.
• Prince’s original version has been on constant rotation.
• Not sure how long he’ll be on Insta but Scott’s posts consistently make me want to get outside and try new things. SAG: your favorite, my favorite, the people’s champ.

So this post is out a little later than normal and off the usual seasonal cycle.

Originally I wanted to write about this being my cruel cruel summer.

There’s been a lot of turmoil and uncertainty in my life. I’ve probably been too focused on not having enough time and feeling overextended.

I’ve been working too much. I’m not getting enough sleep or taking enough photos or making enough things. One of my cats has to wear clothes because he is jumping out of his skin. Another needs to get shots twice a day. I thought I’d be traveling a lot this summer but plans keep falling apart. I blew out my wrist on the longest day of the year.

Most importantly we’ve been dealing with my wife’s breast cancer. I posted about this on insta a while back but it’s been a real learning experience. Lot’s of waiting and hoping and not knowing and thinking about the worst and hoping it’s anything but the worst and talking about it and thinking about it and researching. Lots of fingers crossed.

But it hasn’t been a cruel cruel summer.

Thankfully everything is moving forward and Allison’s treatment plan is the best we could hope for. I couldn’t be more humbled or thankful to my family and the doctors and my friends and people at work and the nurses and the interns and the people at the front desk for all the kindness and patience and support they’ve given both of us over the past few months.

Please make an effort to visit a doctor and make sure everything is in proper working order. It’s so easy to put things off but we all continue to get older and that’s a good thing.

We should all continue to get older.

Please continue to grow old with me.

As for my cats they both tolerate the shots and being dressed and I have a third one who is absolutely perfect and I love them all. There’s always work to do and it’s always hard to leave because there’s always work to do. I didn’t take a lot of photos but I did take these and I like them. I don’t get enough sleep but occasionally I nap. Occasionally I fall asleep sitting up on the couch. There’s still time for trips and adventures. I didn’t break my wrist and it’s healing up. If I had broke it that would have been a bummer but I wouldn’t have regretted it. I was having fun skating with my friends on a Friday night. That’s a perfectly fine way to get hurt.

All things considered it’s been quite a year.

Making progress on projects. Got a few things coming together. I can’t wait to share them.