Currently During Nap Time
Lately on Cole's days off, when the kids go down for their nap, she heads straight for the garage, and dives into her new passion project -- She picked up two 1970's his and hers Raleigh Sport bikes and has been slowly bringing them back to life, one nap at a time.
Something that has always been a strong link in our compatibility is the fact that we can both pour ourselves completely into a project when we have free time. We both completely understand what it means to have hobbies, and their direct connection to sanity. I've really enjoyed watching her figure out how to piece this bike apart and get it shiny and new again. She will get stuck at a point, clean her hands up, grab her phone, google some stuff, watch 3 or 4 videos, read a forum, and then she is right back at it. It's quite incredible what can be done to rust with some water and a piece of aluminum foil. She has practically brought the bikes chrome back to brand new with her old tooth brush and some aluminum. She hasn't touched the bike with a single bit of metal polish at this point, and it already looks great.
This weekend she really went to town on these bikes, and even had Tessa and I helping at some point. It was a gorgeous weekend, a high of 77, shorts and tanks are still being worn, we had the house open, the football game on, grease on our hands, and we even sat in the garage and drank an ice cold beer and messed around with tools and talked shop. Incredible.
Once these two bikes are all a sparkle again, she is going to outfit them with a few new bells and whistles, but it's undecided if these are keepers or not, this pair of bikes might be headed for the classifieds.
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14 comments:
Nothing better than a girl getting her hands dirty. Sounds like an awesome project. Next she can start restoring old cars. Get that girl a jumpsuit with her name on it.
holy shit your wife is hot. (and i am not even refering to the photos.)
also; i can't believe that reading your blog leaves me thinking "hm, maybe we should move to florida?" my husband isn't going to appriciate that...
Photos really do unlock memories. I had that same, green beauty, back in the 70s. My (single parent) dad surprised me with it for my 13th birthday. In hindsight,I realize the effort he must have put into scrimping and saving for that gift. I'd owned it for only a month, and on the very first warm, spring day, I rode it to school. When I ran out onto the playground after school, it was gone. And never came back to me... We were both devastated. It took me a lot of years to purchase my next bike on my own steam. Can't believe these photos made me cry after all this time ... Makes me miss my dad even more.
Bravo to Cole for having the ingenuity and imagination to recognize the beauty in what she found, and the grit to lovingly bring it back to life.
Boy-those photos with her dirty fingers with those gorgeous rings is just such the essence of a powerful woman. Go Cole!
By the by? Seeing you all in summer clothes is bizarre. I live about a half hour outside Chicago and there were sparkly snowflakes on my windshield as I drove to work today. Soak up some warm rays for all of us midwesterners, hey?
Those are gorgeous bikes. Well done to Cole for fixing them up! I love when I get lost in a project and just crank away until it is complete.
Are the first photo and third photo film photos? From the Polaroid goose? They are gorgeous, they have a depth the others just don't have...
You always inspire me to keep shooting film Ryan!
Shannon
www.11thandshannon.com
@Shannon- I went ahead and labeled everything. I ran out of color film, so I shot with the 7D. If I had more color film I would have shot everything with the Polaroid :)
@Jacqueline - Thank you for that comment. Cole will see the smallest thing online, or TV and it will make her think of her Sito, so I know what you are talking about.
Three cameras in one post?! Wow. Beautiful shots.
And those bikes are awesome!
i have been loving seeing the photos of the restoration process on your instagram. i've been meaning to get to work on one of my old bikes, but i have much googling to do to start getting it back to brand new.
i'm jealous of your 77 weather. it snowed this morning on my way to class here :(
@kitten roar it hasn't been hard. I started out just cleaning. Once you start getting into all of the nooks and crannies how everything works just starts to make sense. Glad you are enjoying it, I am too. Good luck.
so, the thing is: i really need a goose in my life. a goose other than my sizeable orange-ish cat, i mean. that thing makes amazing images. it probably doesn't hurt that all your subjects are ADORABLE. =\
You married the most beautiful mechanic!
Oh man, 77 degrees and a cold beer... I am downright green with envy.
cole is such a bad ass. an inspiration in countless ways!
Oh that is a cool hobby, I love that it's Cole's and not yours :)
I mean, you know, it's more boy hobby than not... So it's cool it's hers.
Finally found time to catch up on reading you. They've installed this thing at work that bloody tells them what we do at every minute of every hour. Insane. Today I was eating lunch and when I got back it said on my screen - What were you doing from 13:34?
pfffffff..
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