thinking out loud

community
saturday's theme was community. it ran hot and cold, and filled my day.

my favorite event came first. a bunch of locals have a tradition called move by bike, wherein the bike community comes together and quite literally moves someone's belongings from one home to another by bicycle. screw trucks, community, fun, and people power totally saved the day. i met some really neat folks, had a lot more fun than moving usually is, and the weird thing is, it totally worked! we transported an entire household via trailer, pannier, basket, and messenger bag (a few of the trailers did the lion's share of the large item work, but everyone moved some useful stuff, even me with just my panniers. i strapped stuff together in such a way that i couldn't actually sit on my seat, so i stood most of the time and occasionally sat on the top tube in front of the seat for photo ops and a change of pace. it was a short move, but it was in the drizzle and i don't think we managed to destroy any of the movee's possessions. in case you're interested in witnessing a bit of this, one intrepid mover took some pictures and posted them here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/reber221/MaskedParadeBikeMove

now i'm almost looking forward to moving =)

after that i dashed off to my initial use of flexcar. i had a very specific mission--i wanted a tiny-footprint table so i could feel a tiny bit more adult when i have people over for dinner (happening more and more often these days, yay! i'm cooking probably more than i ever have before. it pleases me that my house smells like a different food almost every day and it's rarely frozen pizza, my old staple =)). anyway, i'd heard that ikea had such a table and indeed it was true and despite my morning success of lugging-by-bike, and the location of ikea *directly on* a major bike thoroughfare and public transit line, i figured a car might come in handy for carrying the table and anything else ikea had to offer, so i hopped into a nearby flexcar (there are about 10 within a 5-block radius of my house) and tooled over. the carshare was the only real part of the afternoon community session that i enjoyed, although it enabled a couple that really pretty well bummed me out:

a community of drivers

and

a community of consumers.

driving wasn't actually bad, but navigating was a pain since i haven't seen portland from the highways and ikea is pretty far away. i managed not to break more than 3 traffic laws and found ikea with only about a 7 mile detour. i actually drove right to it, but it's located on a highway...from which you can't get to the store. i finally stumbled upon a route and was immediately immersed in a ridiculous parking situation (i parked about 2 blocks from the store, in front of some other store) and followed that up with the consumer craziness...

i'd never been to ikea before, and while the net result of a fabulous table that doesn't take up my entire kitchen nook and a bunch of other kitchen/home stuff i'd been needing was totally worthwhile, it was...weird...to be a sheep in a HUGE flock that got herded through the showroom. next time, i'll skip the showroom and just go straight to the "marketplace" where you can actually pick things to buy and aren't quite so encourage to follow the yellow brick road and examine every object as used in 500 different settings...

i don't think ikea actually has a bad design (and, random design award of the year, their shopping carts KICK ASS--they move freely in both dimensions and it was probably the best functioning cart i've used in years in terms of smoothness and not wanting to turn left constantly!) but it was a little much for the vaguely anticonsumer me. anyway, i got what i needed and escaped, and meghan came over to help me build the table (fortunately! i *could* have done it by myself, but i would have given up in frustration before i finished and the directions did say i'd be frowny if i didn't have a second...so yay) and then we cooked, ate, and watched kiss kiss bang bang, ate pumpkin bread pudding, and then i drifted off to sleep, til i woke to ski the sunday away.

kristy, john and i found the good trees. yay team =)