James. James Daniel.

every once in a while you hit a creative dead zone, where you cant imagine what it was that you used to think about to write a blog post, let alone imagine something new to publish. Your dismal creative outlook becomes contagous to other parts of your psyche and you self-centered-ly begin to believe that the entire world is creatively defficent.... and then this happens:

Oh my. Someone, somewhere, is being awesome, and its refreshing. I wonder how he got all these people to come to the beach and associate with eachother long enough to get this picture. this is a concept familiar to my siblings and myself. we know that when we are all together and there is a camera and a mom present, at any moment, we may be tricked into next year's christmas card. so we spread out, pick fights, and continue to give our parents inaccurate computer lessons pretaining to the digital age, specifically in "memory card data transfer." This is called preventative action, and its the backup for when we get caught off guard talking with eachother in matching school clothes, my mom yells at us to turn around, throws the dog at us, and takes the picture the second after we catch it and smile that we saved its life. Its happened more than once. This is a legitamate war we are in here.

What was your first bike? Was it awesome? I bet it was. My first bike (aside from the trike thing that i used more as a scooter/death machine on downhills to terrify my mother) was a huffy single speed with the coaster break and the front shield. Girls had the baskets and doylie thingies off the handlebars, boys had the shield. I remember once a rock flew up and hit the thing and i am pretty sure that was the only time that the thing even got put to alittle use in real life, but in my imagination it was essential to most of the bike chase scenes i got myself into. It was a big deal to ride around the block all by myself, and i kind of want to go ride there now with my newer, way less cool, bike. Simply because it does not have the coaster break.

The coaster break was the single coolest invention of all time!!! all you have to do is pedal backwards and no questions asked, your doing a skid. This was the primary ingredient to most chase scenes that i was the star of; the 180 skid. You know you spent hours doing it in the driveway before dad got home to just this huge black J in 100 different places all over the white driveway, i know i did, and i know that is how i broke my first bike.

Speaking of epic chase scenes on the old trusty steed:

My name is James, James Daniel. It was crazy, I was being chased by just about every bike bad-guy concievable to a kid, bullets wizzing by singing off the front of the shield in every direction, me helplessly shooting behind me to no avail forced to do something to save the world. Speeding around the corner he spots his base (the house, garage specifically) and knows that if he can just get there maybe he will be able to save his true love and evade the bad guys and press that button that is wired to the fate of the world, consequently saving the world and therefore solidifying to my love that i am totally awesome and she should swoon. Speeding up and taking bullets in all the places that couldnt kill me, just hurt me alittle, i sprint to the half open garage with gradiose plans of getting under the door before it closes (it wasnt even moving, i dont know why it was half open.... i dont know why i was loosing the fight in my own imagination, freudians out there eat your heart out). Go! Duck! ....bang.

God has a great job. Omnicence must be fantastic, because for each hilarious thing that is caught on camera, there are 6 ka-zillion that go un-documented. (Get pumped). So say your in the garage talking on the phone with, i dont know, condi. And your sitting on the step and hear a nearing sound of bike tires (and someone seemingly singing the raiders of the lost ark theme song really really loud) and suddenly BANG!!! a single speed huffy with a shield rolls rider-less into the garage, moments later your child (no longer singing the theme to raiders of the lost ark) slides down the garage door and hits the driveway outside the garage, no longer manning the bike. If you were this person, your name would likely be Jim's Mom.

I lived.

Now, i thought i had blogged this story before, but it turns out i have not. Its one that must be blogged and documented, because it was a highlight. It may be even why i feel that God likes me, because that was really hilarious for him to see. he was like "i like this kid, lets keep him around and see what else he will do."

well, i walked into my room an hour ago and said to myself "ok you will go to bed and get a good night of sleep" and i have completly failed.

so goodnight, and i would love to hear a good story from your first bike.