Art and music

Susan and I share an appreciation for art.

We only end up buying the works that speak to both of us.

Our tastes are not identical, but we do agree on general aspects that allow us to coalesce on a purchase now and them. For instance, we tend to prefer abstract to figurative art, and we lean towards abstract art with a figurative element. Imagine an abstract rendering of flowers. Looking at the work, you see the flowers, but the element of abstraction means that the rendering is far from what you might call photographic.

In Amsterdam we wandered into a little gallery called Carré d'artistes. It only took twenty minutes or so for us to settle on a work by Christian Raffin entitled Bien être, depicting a couple cycling, but in the abstract style that we love.

When we are in a gallery looking at art, we are often asked about where we plan to hang the painting in our home. Invariably we each say that considerations like that never play into our purchases. We buy a work that we like, that speaks to us. Finding where to hang it can take time, and trial and error.

This work is no exception. We tried two or three spots until it found its way to its new home.

When it first settled into that spot, I sat opposite the wall where the painting sits, and I had a silent conversation with the work. I see our relationship in the colours, the movement, and the artistic language the painting speaks. It speaks of the love Susan and I share for each other, of our love of our travel adventures, and of our fledgling love affair with our Brompton bicycles.

The imaginary conversation was drifting along assisted by the melodies and lyrics of one my favourite playlists that I call French by English. 

I feel that if you are to have a little bit of a chance of coming to a fair understanding of the conversation I was having, of the relationship of that little painting to its new home and to our shared love of each other, and our art, I had to find a way to share that playlist. 

I can't actually play it for you, but, with quite a bit of fiddling between Apple Music, Microsoft Excel, and Blogger, I have managed to share the content of the playlist with you.

  

Song title	Artist	Album name
C'Est Si Bon	Abbey Lincoln	Paris For Lovers
Quand le soleil dit bonjour aux montagnes	Emilie-Claire Barlow	Seule ce soir
Petit matin	Emilie-Claire Barlow	Seule ce soir
Chez moi	Emilie-Claire Barlow	Seule ce soir
Des croissants de soleil	Emilie-Claire Barlow	Seule ce soir
C'est si bon	Emilie-Claire Barlow	Seule ce soir
Ces bottes sont faites pour marcher	Emilie-Claire Barlow	Seule ce soir
La plus belle pour aller danser	Emilie-Claire Barlow	Seule ce soir
La belle dame sans regret	Emilie-Claire Barlow	Seule ce soir
T'es pas un autre	Emilie-Claire Barlow	Seule ce soir
Jardin d'hiver	Emilie-Claire Barlow	Seule ce soir
Seule ce soir	Emilie-Claire Barlow	Seule ce soir
Les yeux ouverts	Emilie-Claire Barlow	Seule ce soir
Comme je crie comme je chante	Emilie-Claire Barlow	Seule ce soir
C'est merveilleux	Emilie-Claire Barlow	Seule ce soir
Le Premier Bonheur du Jour	Halie Loren	Simply Love
Dream a Little Dream of Me (Les Yeux Ouverts)	Halie Loren	Simply Love
Les Eaux De Mars	Stacey Kent	Raconte-Moi.
Raconte-Moi.	Stacey Kent	Raconte-Moi.
L'étang	Stacey Kent	Raconte-Moi.
Mi Amor	Stacey Kent	Raconte-Moi.
T'es Pas Un Autre	Emilie-Claire Barlow	The Beat Goes On
Petite fleur	Jill Barber	Chansons
J'attendrai	Jill Barber	Chansons
Mélancolie	Jill Barber	Chansons
La javanaise	Jill Barber	Chansons
Sous le ciel de paris	Jill Barber	Chansons
En septembre sous la pluie	Jill Barber	Chansons
Je cherche un homme	Jill Barber	Chansons
N'oublie jamais	Jill Barber	Chansons
Quand les hommes vivront d'amour	Jill Barber	Chansons
Les feuilles mortes	Jill Barber	Chansons
Plus bleu que tes yeux	Jill Barber	Chansons
Adieu foulards	Jill Barber	Chansons
Ces Petits Riens	Stacey Kent	Breakfast On The Morning Tram
La Saison Des Pluies	Stacey Kent	Breakfast On The Morning Tram
Jardin D'hiver	Stacey Kent	Raconte-Moi.
La Vénus Du Mélo	Stacey Kent	Raconte-Moi.
Au Coin Du Monde	Stacey Kent	Raconte-Moi.
C'est Le Printemps	Stacey Kent	Raconte-Moi.
Sait-On Jamais?	Stacey Kent	Raconte-Moi
Les Vacances Au Bord De La Mer	Stacey Kent	Raconte-Moi.
Le Mal De Vivre	Stacey Kent	Raconte-Moi.
Désuets	Stacey Kent	Raconte-Moi.
Give Him The Ooh-La-La: Plus Je T’Embrasse	Blossom Dearie	Four Classic Albums Plus
La Mer	Avalon Jazz Band	Avalon Jazz Group
I Wanna Be Like You	The Hot Sardines	Jazz Loves Disney
Medley: Comes Love (L'amour S'en Fout)	The Hot Sardines	French Fries & Champagne
La Fille Aux Cheveux Roux (Weed Smoker’s Dream)	The Hot Sardines	French Fries & Champagne
Petite Fleur	The Hot Sardines	Wake Up In Paris - EP
C'est Si Bon	Eartha Kitt	The Very Best of Jazz 50 Unforgettable Tracks
Chez Moi (feat. Kim Richardson)	Fuat Tuaç	Chez Moi

I love these songs so much, each and every one of them. If there is one thing that this collection evokes in me, it's my love of Paris.

I can only offer you one among the many to actually listen to, and it has to be C'est Is Bon performed by Eartha Kitt. It never fails to make me smile. Make sure you listen until the very end when Eartha ad libs musing about what she thinks is tellement bon... that's when she makes me smile. 

 

A milestone

Today I took a bike ride that has eluded me for more than a year. The last time I did this ride was on August 31 of last year.

I overworked my right leg on that ride last year, stupidly forcing my way up a hill. I posted it about it here and here,

It has taken X-Rays, ultra-sounds, two talented physiotherapists, and some acupuncture, including dry-needling. The pain and constant discomfort, difficulty handling stairs, discomfort and pain driving or even just traveling in cars, and all the associated angst, has been an ordeal. There were times when I honestly thought I was never going to return to what I thought was normal.

And yet, I am almost, almost there. This morning was the first time I considered tackling that longer ride. Nine+ kilometres is certainly not that crazy, but in my situation up until recently it was unthinkable. Until today.

Our recent trip to Amsterdam and Copenhagen with long walks, contributed to the recovery. I was concerned it would set me back. Thankfully it did the reverse.

I recently read an article by Danielle Friedman in the New York Times published on May 14th of this year entitled "Muscles in Knots? Here’s How to Loosen Them Up", that described perfectly the challenges I was having, as well as paths to a cure, including the dry needling that has worked wonders.

Riding a bicycle is a great way to exercise. The reason is that the nature of pedalling and its circular motion avoids the kind of joint and soft tissue stress that other forms of exercise may lead to. That said, the nature of the cranking motion, when you overdo it, and over-stress your leg as I did, magnifies and multiplies the damage, impacting, in my case, pretty much every muscle and tendon in my right leg.

Treating the resulting cold-spaghetti-mess of angry tissue is a huge challenge. Everything hurts. Diagnosing the injuries and treating them is a significant challenge. You treat one, and anger another. And the work and therapy goes on, and on, and on.

The good news is that progress happens. Eventually, as some issues are resolved, it becomes easier to diagnose and treat the remainder.

And that brings us to today. I am so close to a complete recovery I can taste it.

I take pictures on my morning rides when I see something worth saving. I had to take a photo today.

I feel like an island of normal is emerging from a year-long fog of misery.

Brompton DIY hub cleaners

I have never been a workshop kind of guy. I would say I am more of a MacGyver kind of kind of guy.

My office is 95% devoted to reading and writing of one variety or another and that's what it looks like. That said, the other 5% is devoted to puttering and MacGyvering.

For almost as long as I have owned my Brompton bike, I have wanted hub cleaners. So far I haven't bought any. That's because the Brompton's small wheels won't accommodate the usual leather strap hub cleaners. The spokes will prevent them from working properly.

That means it's a challenge for MacGyver-me.

My first attempt used a leather lace looped around the hub with a bolt sewn to the lace loop to provide a target for the forces of gravity. It was not by any means attractive, and it kind-of worked. It worked really well on the front hub, but the one on the rear hub would occasionally get caught in the spokes, and I would have to stop when I heard the clicking, release the bolt from the spokes, and carry on. It was annoying. Ultimately I sliced it off. That was some time last year.

I happened to be at our mechanic's workshop picking up our car. On the window sill there was a leather strap that looked like it might do the trick. I asked if I could have it.

When I got home it turned out that the strap was too short. I tossed it into a plastic bag in my office cabinet where I store odds and ends. I have an impressive collection of odds and ends. I collect all kinds of stuff that might eventually be useful. Like when I discard a torn shopping bag, I cut off and keep the straps. Same goes for plastic buckles from backpacks, strapping, plastic cinch-things, and the list goes on, and on. Same goes for screws, nuts, bolts, washers... you get the idea. My collection is such that I know from experience that I have the right hardware for almost any little fix-it.

That leather strap I got from our mechanic was held together by a gold-coloured stub-thingy, like the fastener on some purses. It was a screw-on type. I picked up a set of 15 on Amazon for $10, and as soon as they were delivered, I went to the odds and ends collection.

I found some black straps. They were too light for the project but they had a channel on each side. I thought "... if I had some little ball-bearings I could fill the channels...". As soon as I thought of ball-bearings, I remembered that among the odds and ends were the curtain ball-bearing-esque chains that I rescued from curtains we discarded. Wonderful, they fit the channels perfectly and provided the weight that was needed.

The rest was scribbling out a plan in my notebook...

...measuring the Brompton hub diameters with my Vernier caliber, doing the math to get to the circumference, cutting some paper strips based on my guess for the straps, taping the strips on the hubs as a test, deducting some length to get to the right length...

Hub cleaner math

Front hub radius 27/32”

Front hub diameter 1  21/32” 1.65625”

Front hub circumference 5.21”

Front hub cleaner test length 7”

Front hub post test length 6”

Front hub total length including 1 inch for double clasps 7”

Rear hub radius 1 6/32”

Rear hub diameter 2 6/16” 2.375

Rear hub circumference 7.47”

Rear hub cleaner test length 10”

Rear hub post test length 9 1/2”

Rear hub total length including 1 inch for double clasps 101/2”

... cutting the straps and the ball-bearing chains to the right lengths, threading the chains into the channels in the straps, burning holes for the studs with my little battery-powered soldering iron, putting it all together, sewing the channels on each end of the straps to prevent the chains from escaping, fitting the straps to the Brompton, and there you have it... TADAH!!    

It was fun in a weird way. We'll see how they perform in actual use.

Oh... and by-the-way... despite appearances, I'm a lawyer, not a doctor. It just so happens that over time I have collected things like a clamp, a scalpel, a dentist's pick... I love those tools.

--------------------------

ed.: The rear one is too small, and the weight is too well distributed so it doesn't stay put, but rotates with the hub so it doesn't actually do the job. That one is for sure a do over. What I really need at more traditional leather straps. 

Aida, a muse

I often say that I would be very happy spending a month just wandering on the streets and in the parks of Paris. No museums, no churches, just a month-long stroll.

I recently found a YouTube channel that perhaps teases me closer to that experience.

But it’s more than that, actually.

My YouTube adventure ended not because I didn’t enjoy making content. My growing post-retirement law practice took precedence and left no time for video production. They were not compatible. Each requires total focus, and each monopolizes my computer resources, not to mention my brain.

I miss publishing videos, and I miss publishing blog posts as often as I once did.

There's a possibility that I will dial back the law and go back to publishing.

Aida's channel serves as inspiration.

The path for YouTube 'influencers' is often similar. They burst on the scene, gather a large devoted audience, and then they decline, and many all but disappear.

Making good videos can be very time-consuming. There is a very large pit of technical knowhow that needs to be discovered, studied, understood, and then applied consistently... and then tweaked, improved... it's a constant process. It doesn't really get simpler or less demanding.

At the core of every channel there is subject matter, a theme, a well of ideas, that the author returns to time and again. YouTube prizes volume over all else. Many successful influencers post weekly because it drives the channel, and ultimately can earn them a lot of money. When they disappear I feel that it's often due to overwork and burnout, combined with running out of content to post. The audience can also play a role. As time goes by, people tend to have shorter and shorter attention spans. Hundreds of short tiny videos with a punch of outrageous content seems to be what many people want.

Then there are authors who post less often, but they routinely publish gems. That would be me, if I published gems. As far as I can see, in my view, that's Aida. I love her videos.

Aida claims that it's mostly serendipitous. That it just happens without a whole lot of infrastructure to support the work. I have my doubts about that. For instance, someone, other than Aida, is clearly capturing the footage, and they are really good at what they do. Love may be an ingredient that guides the lens.

In the end, any way you slice it, it's all about Aida. I posted a comment on a recent video praising her work and it sparked a little conversation:

@LifeontwowheelsRocks
3 days ago
Your videos are… inspiring. If I went back to making videos, I would try to follow your formula. But even if I did my best, I couldn’t match the quality of the shooting. The editing is also very well done, particularly the audio. And then there is the content. Simply put, so much to admire.

@amusingaida
3 days ago
Thank you, those are kind words indeed. Even more valuable is that they come from an expert eye. But as for 'formula' -- let me know what my formula is! I have no idea; I just do what feels right for me.

@LifeontwowheelsRocks
2 days ago
Your approach is very empathetic and thoughtful. Quite intimate in a friendly way. You tell a well defined story. There is no waste, repetition, wandering off topic. Because you are not filming you are most often in the frame; you, and the message you convey, remain the subject. The cherry on the sundae are the cinematic camera angles, occasional drone footage, wild edits, but those tricks never become the focus, they always serve the narrative. Finally the soundtrack and the audio are very well managed throughout. Many YouTubers struggle with audio. For me that is one of the trickiest bits. But where you truly excel, is as the storyteller, the actress, the narrator. Actress seems a wrong, trivial characterization, but I can’t think of a better word for your screen presence. Does that begin to answer your question?

@amusingaida
2 days ago
Yours is one of the most indepth and incisive comments I've had on my little channel, so it is very precious to me. Thanks! I appreciate the feedback on both the approach and the style I convey. As a contentmaker yourself you'll know just how hard it is to realize a production - and the compromises made along the way. And I especially appreciate falling into the category 'actress' (rather than influencer or the like) as I feel that is more fitting. With your expert eye, I wonder if you could point out an area I should work on? I've made only around 30 videos, so am still learning this YouTube thing.

@LifeontwowheelsRocks
2 days ago
I feel the need to be creative. Perhaps our conversation will help us, and those who see it as well. I will return with more thoughts. May I suggest some reading? Rick Rubin - “The Creative Act - a way of being”

@amusingaida
1 hour ago

I'll see if I can squeeze that recommended reading onto my list.... but it's already long!

If Aida's work does inspire me to return to YouTube content, this may become my approach:

1. Focus on a story, don't digress, don't repeat, but tell a complete story.
2. Make sure the story is interesting. Be succinct.


3. Make sure that the story is told empathetically, as if it were being told to a close friend. Tell it to the camera for the most part, make the camera my best friend. The story is going to be five to maybe 20 minutes. Break a longer story into many takes, varying the video context with the narrative holding it all together.


4. Take a lot more footage than I need. It can be hard to know what will work best. Better to have more grist for the mill than not enough.


5. Focus on the audio. I don't know how Aida records her audio. Aida, if you read this, please provide some insight. It's super tricky. My strong preference is simplicity, as long as it works. For instance a single AirPod, or something similar. I might have to spend some money and some time experimenting. The perfect set up captures voice with high quality, and with an invisible mic.

Aida you asked if there was anything I recommended you work on.

That's a tough question. My channel pales next to yours in terms of subscribers and views. Who am I to offer you advice? But you asked. So here is my considered advice for you (that I am adding this code to to help you find it: Aida_a_muse)

1. Read Rick Rubin's book. If your reading list is too long to get to his book soon, perhaps watch this synopsis by Doug Neill, it will only take thirty minutes, but it will give you an excellent summary.  Trust me when I say that Rick Rubin's book is like a bible for creativity and creators, no matter the medium. I bought the book after reading a few paragraphs at random spots in the book when I was in a local bookstore. I had no idea who Rick Rubin was. In 2007, Rubin was called "the most important record producer of the last 20 years" by MTV and was named on Time magazine's list of the "100 Most Influential People in the World".


2. Don't stop making your videos, but don't allow yourself to be consumed by them. Rick Rubin suggests immersing yourself in great art. Paris is among the very best places to do that. Immersing yourself in the work of great artists will open your mind to creative paths for your own work. It doesn't matter whether the art is architecture, painting, music, film, philosophy... Produce a new video when the creative urge compels it. The more art you consume, the more you can produce, the easier it becomes. The path to success doesn't require you to burn out getting there.


3. Allow your audience to follow you and your dreams. I suspect that is what most people who follow your channel seek. They want your thoughts, your feelings, your insights, in the same way as if they were your close friends. If your path takes you to greater things, like television or the screen, keep making your videos as often as you can. It will keep your skills sharp and relevant.


4. Follow the path that leads to fulfilling your potential. 

_______________________________________

Ed. 20241003: It turns out that, against all odds, Aida found this post and expressed her appreciation in response to a comment I left on her most recent video. I love when that kind of magic happens in the internet universe. What are the odds? 

Beemer-Clause?????

Peter said he was downsizing and would be sending me something he no longer needed.

No surprise then when a Canada Post delivery landed here (I was inclined to say "landed on my doorstep", but our building has a 24/7 concierge... so it landed there, not quite on our doorstep).

I went to pick it up and I see it's not from Peter... it's from Beemer-Clause, in Beemerville, B1M 1W1.

Needless to say I tore into the package...

It's a belt I'll have to wear whenever I hop into our X3 to run errands. Hard to see... wait a second...

It's quite elegant. Our BMW will feel honoured for sure, plus my custom Grip6 Life on 2 Wheels belt is getting a little well-worn.

Thanks Peter!

Test driving the Metmo Pocket Driver, for real!

A while back, just a tad more than a year ago, I posted a narrative about what I consider to be cool tools.

I just went back to take stock of that episode, and I liked what I said back then, so I'll repeat that here:

I said that I thought cool tools were "tools that fit their purpose to perfection. Tools that take very little room, yet are reliably there when they are needed, but otherwise, are all but invisible. That is my definition of cool tools."

The tools that I covered in that post were my Leatherman Wave multitool, my Brompton tool, and a tool I didn't even have at that time, the MetMo Pocket Driver.

Here we are a year later, and, guess what?

You are 100% correct. I now actually have that MetMo Pocket Driver.

Sean Sykes, the founder of MetMo, and a U.K. serial entrepreneur, reached out to me to see if I would be willing to do a hands-on review of the MetMo Pocket Driver. He offered to send me one if I was inclined to participate and give him a hand.

As you can imagine, I quickly agreed.

About two weeks ago, the MetMo Pocket Driver landed on my doorstep.

No sooner than I had it in my hot little hands, I had to skip town for a series of important meetings in Montreal and Ottawa.

Predictably, when I got home, all the stuff that has to take priority in my professional life was somewhat backed-up and screaming for attention. One more week later, and I was finally focused on sharing my impressions of this little wonder of a pocket-sized ratchet driver.

I may have been focused, but wasn't even close to focused on how I might actually use the MetMo Pocket Driver in a way you would find entertaining, or useful.

Fortunately our cleaning lady came to the rescue.

When she cleans, she CLEANS!

Of course it's beyond unfair and inappropriate for me to blame our excellent cleaning lady for my admittedly complex home lighting setup going awry. Some of my wiring, done years back, clearly lent itself to being vacuumed out of commission.

Last weekend I vowed to rethink, and re-do the wiring.

I moved that large glass curio cabinet in the living room, got in behind that to access the wiring.

Then I crawled under that sideboard in the dining room to access the wiring there; in both those very tight places I re-thought, re-ordered, and re-routed the wiring supporting the lighting and the semi-wireless wireless speakers.

Ha! That's funny... my "wireless" speakers have... wires! Well, they have electrical supply wires. The data that drives them is, in fact, thankfully, completely wireless.

One of the challenges I faced was that the wire management device under the dining room sideboard relied on a self-sticky pad-thing. Not surprisingly, it had become unstuck. Easy fix: the device was designed to take a screw, it just needed to be screwed in.

It was quite an awkward thing to do.

It was one of those jobs that would have been a snap if I had been willing to empty the sideboard of all its fine china, glass, crystal, and silver entertaining stuff, turn the sideboard upside down and screw in the wire management device, after having drilled a perfect guide hole for the screw.

Right! You know that wasn't going to happen. 

Just wedge yourself under the sideboard and drive in that screw you moron!

Drill a guide hole? Ya, no! Just barely space for me, but not for me and a drill.

Just take the Phillips screw, and drive it in there, why don't you?

After quite a few pathetic failed attempts with a screwdriver, and some salty cursing, I gave up on that. 

Empty the sideboard? Hell no!

And that was when my new MetMo Pocket Driver wiggled itself into my consciousness. Might that little wonder do the trick, as its inventor claims?

The MetMo Pocket Driver turned out to be perfect for the job, from holding the small Phillips screw magnetically, reliably, and firmly, and then allowing me, in spite of my cramped and awkward position, to apply the significant leverage needed to drive the screw without drilling a hole. Since it has a nice, satisfying ratchet, there was no need to relax the leverage to shift my grip. Just like that, the screw was firmly installed on the first attempt with the MetMo Pocket Driver, and the wire management device now had an unshakable grip on the wiring and on the bottom of the sideboard.

I struggled out from under the sideboard, dealt with all the little tails I had clipped off the tie-wraps, and then stepped back to take a look. Ahhhhh... I was suitably impressed. Jazz playing pleasantly on the Bose speakers, soft lighting setting the stage, and no wires to be seen, or vacuumed out of their outlets. Perfect.

I was genuinely impressed with the MetMo Pocket Driver.

Its design is... I have to say, a touch peculiar.

I just love it.

It turns out, I assume from very clever and insightful British design (a little like my amazing and quirky Brompton bike), that it mates perfectly to your hand in a way that lets you drive the screw or nut, all while applying a lot of leverage.

A traditional screwdriver can't really do that because the tool is completely linear, and that limits the hand's ability to apply torque, especially in cramped quarters.

Many ratchet drivers are brilliant for applying torque since you pull to apply rotary force at 90 degrees to the rotation, but, unless you can bear down, or in my case bear up, vertically on the driver's axis (the straight line about which the driver rotates) you just can't get to where you can force the screw to bite into the wood properly.

The MetMo Pocket Driver's secret to success, in my view, lies in the hinged handle.

The shape of the handle naturally settles into the palm of your hand giving you a flawless grip at the perfect angle from the axis of the driver that lets you access that torque you need.

That angle, depending on circumstances can vary from 20 degrees, to 90 degrees, to 140 degrees. I'm a lawyer, not an engineer, but I estimate the angle that worked best for me driving that stubborn screw was about 120 degrees. A normal screwdriver is linear, so the angle to the axis is zero degrees, offering minimal leverage. A ratchet driver is typically 90 degrees to the axis of the shaft and offers excellent leverage. The beauty of the Metmo Pocket Driver is that wide range of angles that it allows. It just naturally adjusts to your grip, and to the difficulty of the task, in a way that gives you the leverage you need to get the job done.  

Now my lighting and wireless speakers, and cursed wires, are vacuum-cleaner-proof, and all but invisible to guests.

Now for the acid test... Our cleaning lady was here just the other day and... Yup! All is fine speaker and light-wise. Dust vacuumed away into oblivion, wiring all intact!

If you think that's all I have to say... well, I'm not quite done. 

The MetMo Pocket Driver needs a bit of context. More than a bit, in truth.

In fact, what it really needs are many bits. It also needs a home... for storage and travel. A travel home. Some people call that a sheath. Yes, a sheath. And bits, lots of bits.

The reality is, that as soon as I got my hands on the Metmo Pocket Driver my mind shifted to bits. It does come with two Phillips bits: one Phillips bit and one Phillips Pozidriv bit, both size 2, the standard Phillips size. They are stored in the driver's body, under the bit storage cap. 

The Pozidriv bit is the one that gripped the screw I was installing perfectly and allowed me to drive the screw home so brilliantly.

After poking around on the usual online sites, and looking at many different bit options, I eventually looked to my Leatherman Wave.

I happen to have 40 super-compact Leatherman Wave bits. They store in the Leatherman Wave's sheath, taking up next to no room. While the Leatherman Wave bits won't work directly with the Metmo Pocket Driver, the Leatherman Wave also has a driver bit-holder extension, and that works perfectly with the Metmo Pocket Driver, allowing the Metmo Pocket Driver to take advantage of all those 40 bits.

It also turns out, after a whole lot more online searching, just by peculiar coincidence, that the Leatherman Wave sheath fits the Metmo Pocket Driver perfectly. So I did the smart thing, and purchased a second Leatherman sheath. When that was delivered, it turned out to be even better for the Leatherman Wave than the one that actually came with the Leatherman Wave originally. So that original Leatherman Wave sheath is now the new home for the Metmo Pocket Driver. Perfect! The Metmo Pocket Driver now has its own perfect travel home.

And now I have the ideal every-day-carry ("EDC") tool family: The Leatherman Wave with its 40 driver bits; and the Metmo Pocket Driver that way, way outperforms the Leatherman Wave as a screwdriver. With those two tools with me, I feel that there are very few challenges that I couldn't solve.

Now am I done, you ask?

Not quite, but almost.

Not ready to rest on his laurels basking in the success of the Metmo Pocket Driver, Sean Sykes now has a new Kickstarter campaign promoting the brand new MetMo Multi Drive. MetMo calls it the ultimate desktop multi-tool.

It's a scalpel, a pencil, a scribe, a drill, a file, and a micro driver, each matched to a single precision-crafted shaft with an ingenious hex collet. This is the ultimate tool for the creator, the artist, the craftsman, the engineer, the bookbinder, the architect, or the fixer. If like me, you have a steel ruler, a pen, a pencil, and a scalpel close by your desktop, this MetMo Multi Drive is the first tool to reach for when the creative urge pokes you. If that describes you as well, I suggest you hop right over to MetMo's Kickstarter for the Metmo Multi Drive right now!

Following up: It's now July 12, so almost two weeks later. I was replacing some chrome trim on the hood of my Mini Cooper Cabriolet. Not a too complex proposition. Four easily accessible screws, and a bunch of pressure clips. I had already gotten advice from a very helpful YouTube video. I was fairly certain that all I needed to get the job done was the combination of my Leatherman Wave and my Metmo Pocket Driver. I was correct.

But the more you use what I call a 'perfect tool' the more you learn about completely unexpected features that you couldn't really predict. 

In this case, the car's hood was open, and I had to locate and remove the four small Phillips screws. Using the Metmo Pocket Driver it was supper easy loosening the screws. But the trick was not to drop any of the small screws in the engine compartment. 

This is when the Metmo Pocket Driver surprised me.

As I hope you can make out in this photo, because the Metmo Pocket Driver is so compact, and because the swivel-handle fits your palm so compactly, you can extend your thumb and forefinger to grasp what I will call the nose of the driver, and thanks to the ratchet, as the screw becomes loose, you can continue loosening the screw using your thumb and forefinger. I was even able to extend my thumb and forefinger while twisting the ratchet, to the point where I was able to grab the screw, turning what has always been a two-hand task into a one-handed wonder.

Wow, that was really an eye-opener.

Thanks MetMo!

A marvellous gift from Peter

Thank you for bearing with me as I set the stage for what I am about to reveal.

Peter is an amazing friend. He is very special because he chooses to live his life very differently from most people I have met.

He makes his own living in a way that few people do. He spent years working as an employee, then years self-employed as a quality control consultant, constantly travelling. It was very physically demanding and his work took its toll.

Then something snapped. Peter went from earning his living taxing his body, to doing it by taxing his mind. He re-invented his consulting practice as a virtual being, powered by software, not physical effort. He entered a realm where his thoughts were the key to his sustainability.

Lately Peter has been exploring the world of artificial intelligence. He has discovered, that if you treat the software in the way that a merciless monarch might treat a devoted selfless courtier, by making incessant demands, never accepting the initial offering, requesting that it be redone, over and over, tweaked, improved, expanded, with new features, and redone again, dropping some aspects and adding others, relentlessly... something truly worthwhile will eventually emerge.

In this way he has been using the new tool to improve his business. The results are very impressive.

Peter also  happens to use the software just for fun, often to write poetry in the same merciless way.

He wrote me a poem a few months back. I framed it and hung it on my office wall. That poem is the second poem that has been written about me and presented to me as a gift. The other poem, the first, came from a similarly unique and mystical source, but purely from the author's mind. Software was not at all involved. It was mystical in the sense that never in a million years could I have anticipated that the author would do such an unusual, kind, and thoughtful thing. That poem also hangs on my wall.

All of this narrative is to provide you with context, in the hope that you can understand, get a feeling for, the pure wonder I felt in a matter of a few hours, beginning yesterday evening, and concluding today at dawn, all thanks to Peter. It became clear that he not only enlisted help from his artificial intelligence, but also from my darling Susan.

I had mentioned to Peter that late last month I bought a 365 page journal and began writing daily love notes to Susan. I plan to do that for a whole year. Yesterday Peter sent me another poem. I read a bit of it yesterday, but couldn't finish it. It was a busy day. I did finish it this morning at the crack of dawn very soon after my alarm got me to wake up. The poem seems to allude to a mysterious gift coming my way, mentioning that it is nothing of great value, just a thought really. I was touched, as you might expect.

Mere moments later I went into my home office to set up my exercise stuff (yoga mat, elastic stretchy, things, foam blocks, etc.). With the lights off, the office was softly bathed in darkness and shadow. When I went to place an elastic and small weight ball on the bistro chair in my office, there was a small gift bag sitting on the chair.

I came down from the office to thank Susan for conspiring with Peter. She was in the shower. 

When Susan emerged, I hugged her, told her I loved her. She sat down at her makeup table. I asked her when she had placed the gift bag in my office. She looked at me in total shock. What gift bag? She was genuinely mystified. She hadn't done anything of the kind. Now we were both speechless. 

Had Peter talked his AI servant to build a Star Trek transporter so that he could place the gift bag himself. It sounds preposterous, certainly impossible. BUT Peter is a huge Star Trek fan. He has a couple of genuine Star Trek uniforms. I have seen them.

Once the feeling of incomprehension subsided, we realized that Susan had absent-mindedly moved the surplus little gift bag from where it had sat un-observed in my office closet so she could get to tax and insurance envelopes on the shelf. She had no memory of placing the bag on the chair.

T'he whole peculiar situation simply turned out to be a huge coincidence. No, Peter swears he doesn't own a fully functioning transporter.

 

When I shared this with Peter this morning we both had a really good laugh. You have to admit it's pretty weird, and totally funny. Peter may now be working on a transporter.

_________________________________________

20240308 - Peter did send me an actual gift. It arrived yesterday. It is far from nothing. Peter sent me a very nice desk pen that floats in the ether on my desk supported by a precise magnetic field. It matches seamlessly the look and feel, the aesthetic, of my modern desktop. It is a joy to write with. It glides on the journal page leaving an effortless trail of perfect ink. If Captain James Kirk kept a handwritten journal, this would, beyond doubt, have been his pen.

Thank you Peter.

Happy Holidays!!

My very best wishes to all my readers for the holidays, may your hopes and wishes for the new year that is almost upon us, all come true.

With a little luck my Brompton will pop out of its perch next to the back door to rack up as many happy kilometres in 2024 as it did in 2023, plus, with a little more luck, a new adventure or two!

Progress

 Road to Recovery - Day 23

Only days when I exercise and ride count as the road to recovery.

This morning I did a complete 'normal' ride on the P2 level down in the garage: 34 minutes, 9.6 kms. That is what passes for 'normal'. On the exercise front, I am close to being able to do 20 full 90 degree squats. Today I managed ~80-90% of the 90 degree knee bends. There is still some minor discomfort going up and down stairs. The fact is, I am approaching a complete return to normal.

Adding to the theme of today's entry, I am also reading more than I have in the past.

I have quite the collection of books. It's not over-the-top by any means. Yet it's quite a lot of books. 

There are some key law books, as you might expect. There also works of philosophy and history ranging from Homer to Voltaire, including Thoreau. There is mostly literature, ranging from Shakespeare to Douglas Adams, including Mark Twain and Agatha Christie. A few recipe books including the Larousse Gastronomique. Even a quirky ribald collection of limericks I inherited. 

The sad fact is that, unlike Susan, I am not a reader.

Maybe it's because as a lawyer, the occupational hazard is one heck of a lot of reading. So I have read. I have read a lot... of law. Literature and the other genres mentioned above, not so much. Either I begin to read my books, or admit that they're just décor.

And yet I truly do aspire to read, so I plucked Voltaire - Mélanges off the bookshelf recently.

It's a collection of Voltaire's works, including correspondence, treatises and speeches. It's the work that made Voltaire famous, and infamous simultaneously, work that forced him to flee to England to escape the wrath of the French crown and the Catholic Church. Sounds terribly boring, I know. But it's like time travel. I'm learning a lot about 18th century Europe and the Age of Enlightenment.

If Paris can emerge as my favourite place to visit and explore in the 21st century, emerging from a truly dismal 18th century past, then there is hope for us, in these dismal times.

Oh... wait. Hope was the last journal entry. I am supposed to be focusing on progress.

Yes I am definitely making progress.

Hope

Blue skies, white clouds, red and yellow leaves, cool air, and strong gusting headwinds. 

Today in my desk journal I noted “ROAD to RECOVERY - Day 13”.

That is certainly true, but the truth needs context. 

For several years until the end of August of this year, every weekday began at 6:00 a.m. thanks to my watch gently vibrating me awake. Stealthily rising, gathering my clothes, and leaving our bedroom, doing my best not to wake Susan. Exercising, dressing, gearing up, and quietly leaving our home with my Brompton, for an 8 to 10 kilometre ride along one of three routes through our neighbourhood.

Towards the end of August I managed to overwork the many muscles in my right leg by refusing, stupidly I now see, to accept adapting my pace to the hills along my path. So ended my weekday morning rituals, terminated by pain as the soft tissues in my right leg rebelled against the persecution I had inflicted. With the benefit of hindsight I realize that as I applied significant force to the pedals to maintain my speed and pace, I was favouring my left leg and overworking my right. That was because in my lifetime my left leg was the one that suffered injuries, not my right leg. To protect the left, I messed up the right. dumb, dumb, dumb.  

Two weeks later, we were off to Europe and countless daily steps, up and down and around, with trudging up and down stairs thrown in for good measure. My leg saw this not as a well-deserved vacation, but as counter-insurgency measures intended to stifle their rebellion. 

That was September. 

We returned home and I quickly conceded defeat. 

In an earnest attempt at reparation (not that I had much choice) I spared my right leg as much as possible. Climbing the three flights of stairs in our home sparingly, with my left leg doing all the work. Keeping errands in the car to a minimum, with Susan at the wheel, as I twisted and shifted, moaning, under the constant attacks of pain and breathtaking discomfort, all meant to remind me that my right leg had won the war and had beaten me into submission.

That was October. 

This is November. 

Tomorrow I am having X-rays and ultrasounds.

My doctor, playing the role of a United Nations envoy, is assessing the war zone, searching for a path to peace and reconciliation. 

Thirteen weekdays ago, I was finally able to start a slow path to restoring my rituals. I am calling that path my ROAD to RECOVERY. 

For each step I take, for each exercise I do, for each token bike ride I take in the garage, I constantly murmur to my right leg my mea culpas, my heartfelt apologies, and my endless assurances that there will never again be persecution. That all future movement and travels will be disciplined, fair, reasonable, measured, and balanced.

Perhaps it’s the approaching medical assessment, or just the discipline of my determination to get back to ‘normal’, but I have been making slow and steady progress day after day.  

This afternoon I was able to chance my first outdoor ride since the troubles began in August. Even though it was a modest 4.69 km jaunt, it was truly joyful, and I am grateful. 

The struggles may be ending.

Peace may be in sight. 

There is hope.

Inspiration

If there is something that leads to a deep sense of happiness for me, it is the feeling of being inspired. 

I felt inspired often during our recent trip to Malaga and Seville in Spain, and to Lisbon in Portugal. This was our third trip to Spain and our first trip to Portugal.

I tend to find inspiration when I am out of my comfort zone. On this trip I was quite literally seldom in a comfort zone because I had managed to mess up the soft tissues in my right leg in a variety of ways. Three trips to our physiotherapist in the week leading up to our departure was clearly too little, and too late.

Mountain ranges lie just off the Costa del Sol, Spain's aptly named Mediterranean shore. The mountains near Malaga where we were staying are known as the Montes de Málaga. It turned out that the challenge to climb fairly steep slopes pretty much started at the door step of our AirBnB. For the first few days we were there it mostly didn't matter. The parts of Malaga where we spent our time exploring were pretty flat and made it easy to stroll around. Even though we often walked more than fifteen thousand steps in a day, flat is flat. 

That's not to say that my leg wasn't complaining. If I didn't give it a break, it would steal one simply by leaping over my pitifully low pain threshold.

Things got more challenging once we rented a car to take our explorations into Malaga's mountains, to places like Frigiliana, Ronda, and the Caminito del Rey. We also managed a day trip to Gibraltar. The only parking available for our car was in the streets way up that hill at the end of the street. Mornings started and ended negotiating that hill, and in between we hiked on more slopes, hills, and stairs. 

My leg was the only one not enjoying the trip. As we dove deeper and deeper into our seventeen day adventure, my leg got grumpier, and testier. Now that we're home that leg is getting a lot more attention. I can't wait for it to forgive and forget so that I can kiss the bouts of squirmy pain adieu.

I can't really blame my leg, cause we did stuff like this:

All of this, including coping with my pissed-off leg, and breaking completely with the day-to-day of our 'normal' life back home, can't help but offer fresh perspectives and challenges, challenges for you to move on and live the adventure, when lying pain-free in bed seems to make so much more sense.

Unexpected rewards came our way every single day. Stumbling on Christopher Columbus's tomb in Seville; watching firefighter helicopters with sirens blaring slinging water at a cliff-side brush fire below us while we were on the parador lookout in Ronda; coaxing my darling wife to cross a crazy-scary narrow steel suspension bridge across a very deep gorge as massive wind blasts literally shook us as we crossed the canyon, while I pretended, with a reassuring hand lightly on her shoulder, to be her Amazing Race companion cheering her on in a loud enthusiastic voice with promises of a million dollars. "You can do this, you're doing it girl! You're a winner!!! YOU’VE GOT THIS!! One M i l l i o n DOLLARS..."

  

And the list goes on.

What I was finding, what was dawning on me ever so slowly, emerging from our adventure, from online browsing, from observing the very different pace, quality, and circumstances of daily life in Spain and Portugal, seemed different. It was inspiring me, offering insight into what just might be a different approach to life, a different way to be. 

I may have Jason Slaughter to thank, among others. I was already familiar with his Not Just Bikes YouTube channel. In this case, as I was lounging in our AirBnB coaxing my leg to calm down so we could stroll around looking for dinner, YouTube offered me this video that Jason posted about the benefits of a more walkable life, as opposed to a drivable life. What Jason calls the "Gym of Life".

This struck a chord for me. I was already on that path with my Brompton. I love getting around on two feet and two wheels. If you've been hanging around here and reading my journal you will know that I have explored my love of two wheel travel on many occasions. 

I would say that Jason's video planted yet more seeds. He mentioned Nebula TV and Curiosity Stream. I made a note because I am finding that, like so much of the low-hanging fruit on the internet, and particularly on YouTube, it's often just bait, and I am the fish.  Ads and commercials are everywhere, all the time. When you get to that point, to the crux of the video, when the YouTuber is about to reveal the true secret to everlasting happiness, first comes an ad, then a commercial, and another ad.

Yes there is good content, like Not Just Bikes, and yes there are amazing creators like Jason Slaughter and Casey Neistat, and there certainly are excellent videos by lots of passionate chefs, explorers, scientists, designers, entertainers, and fixers. But I am really tired of being the fish.

I absolutely refuse to pay Google to stop harassing me with advertising. I feel that it's blackmail, truly I do. This avalanche of advertising is just to make Google fatter, more bloated, and ultimately more anti-social than I could ever have imagined back when the motto that they long ago trashed was "don't be evil".

I plan to explore Nebula TV and Curiosity Stream. Yes they are pay-to-view platforms. But for less than $100 a year, that just might be OK with me. There was a time in the past, before streaming, when Susan and I visited the local video rental store and shelled out $5 or $10 a week. If these platforms turn out to deliver good content and free me from my life as a fish, it will be a small price to pay. If the content turns out to be satisfying and appeals to the creative and curious me in a sustainable way, I'll be an even happier person, I hope.

All of which to say that this vacation opened my eyes. 

Oddly, it started that way from the moment we boarded our outbound flight. 

My morning bicycle ride ritual introduced me to groups of people practicing Tai Chi in the local parks. I bought Pocket Tai Chi for Beginners - Simple Steps to a Healthy Body and Mind to read on the plane. I feel I was already open to a fresh perspective right from the start.

The final bit that capped off the sense of inspiration that was building in me was the award winning documentary I watched on the flight home directed by Nuno Tavares entitled A alma de um ciclista (the soul of a cyclist). The film explores the benefits of focusing our life on friendship, ecology, and minimalism.

Here’s the trailer. 

 

I actually watched the film two-and-a-half times during the flight home. Once without headphones (I just didn't have them), once with headphones, and once with headphones on and with the closed captioning switched on (my Portuguese remains virtually non-existent). Then I watched again this morning on my phone, while lying in bed, awakened courtesy of jet-lag at 4:50 a.m. 

It may appeal to you as well. You can find it on Vimeo.

This movie just resonates with where I feel I want to be. I feel genuinely inspired  

In the very last scene in the film, the leading person, Artur Lourenço, leaves us with these inspiring thoughts.

“Now I see life from a new perspective.
 I’ve realized that life goes by too fast, and, in the end,
we are not immortal.
We only have one life.
While we’re around, we must somehow enjoy it
 - without harming anyone, obviously -
and make it sweeter and smoother."