plans foiled.

I've been busy and happy as all getout here in Toronto this summer. My host Jana has been lots of fun and excitement, easy days, making good meals, having the time of my life. I bought some new bike parts here, and have mostly had good luck, except for two new racing tires that keep blowing tubes. I've blown five tubes in the last 24 hours. I figured I must have been doing something wrong - turns out, these tires are just so tight that you have to be so incredibly precise in inserting the chambre à air, that I just need to be more and more diligent and careful with the installation process. Stressful changing out my tubes in the middle of the city traffic - but whatever, these things happen.

Today I was supposed to ride the bike trail out to Niagara Falls, but I think I'm going to postpone it until next Monday when I can leave town in some sunshine instead of this ceaseless patchy rain.

I'm reading HS Thompson's The Proud Highway as well as a book of French poetry by Henri Michaux titled L'espace du dedans. The Thompson book is a collection of correspondence from the late 50s to the mid 60s. A period that I hardly know anything about, mostly pop culture and political history. What's cool is, the letters reference a major change and evolution in the body of work from a solid writer, and how books that he read, and events in his life shaped his writing style.

I don't consider myself an incredibly talented writer, but I write daily. I just need to address it to others more frequently. Drawing on the other hand, is something that is practically beyond me entirely. I absolutely need more practice, and probably some instruction because in this case, I'm worthless as an autodidact.

Now that I have the time to make time - as awkward as that sounds, I'm sure the concept is universal - I'm doing myself a favor and getting my feet wet by learning my VW and starting the processes to converting it to a greaser. It'll last me for a long time, I'm fairly certain - the body will fall apart long before the engine. I've even seen a few people driving them around town up here. In hipster and attitude infested Toronto - there are tons of old VW's. Ya know, maybe I can sell it for 3 times what I paid for it and get another!