Don’t Burst My Bubble

Dan's Jaynes Hat

Dan’s Jaynes Hat

Dan left today, he flew back to LA. We all got up early this morning to give him a big send off. I dropped him off at the airport, on my way into work. I didn’t get a chance to take a last minute photograph of him, so I’m substituting this picture of his Jayne’s hat instead. Anne knitted it for him and here it is seen mounted on our dining room table’s holiday centerpiece. He got out-of-town just before the mercury began its long decent. I think that the high for the day occurred while I was hugging him outside of departures.

While we were in Chicago last week, we visited the Museum of Contemporary Art. There I bought a wall calendar for my cube at work. This is in addition to the left-handed desk calendar that Joanie gave me. This particular calendar couldn’t have cost more than a buck to make. I paid $14 for mine and you can see a picture of it at this website, where the price is $25. I think that this calendar is a very clever and fun idea. Very few things in life are as satisfying as popping bubble wrap. So why shouldn’t you partake in it more often? How about every day? This poster-size bubble calendar allows you to do just that. Each day of the year has a bubble to pop. There are even bonus bubbles at the end of those months that have less than 31 days. All days of the week and U.S. holidays are marked, plus the weekends are in bold for quick reference. It is made in Brooklyn.

I was impressed enough with the concept to purchase a calendar, but the impression that it has created on my co-workers is even more extraordinary. First off, it is big. It was hard to mount in my cube. Also, I try to time my bubble bursting for maximum office disruption. Yes folks, I’m just seeking attention. Mondays are going to be the best day of the week, because then I’ll have three bubbles to pop. There are also those days that I come back from vacation on, like this last Monday, when I’ll have even more bursting bubbles to pop. Some of my co-workers have threatened to burst my bubbles for me, but their just being party poopers and not party poppers and so far this hasn’t occurred. Being all engineers, many have remarked on how easy it would be to make one for themselves. This would be cheaper and maybe even more fun than just buying one, but they wouldn’t be first and therein lies the value of an idea, which is what I mainly paid for.

The Handlebar

Another Anne-crafted Jayne’s hat found its home today. This one was actually the first one that she ever made. Dan liked it so much that she ended up making one for him too. Dan flew off with his yesterday and Anne and I rendezvoused with Kubie for delivery today. Kubie had gotten this whole Jayne’s thing rolling, when she first asked Anne to make her one, but first Anne had to do some research into this so-called Jayne’s Hat.

We’re no Firefly neophytes, but apparently we aren’t any Firefly aficionados either. For those neophyte readers, Firefly was a 2002-2003 TV series. It was a science fiction genre space-western. It was badly managed by Fox and the series was cancelled before the end of the first season. Between the DVD box set and its reboot with the movie Serenity, this rag-tag ship and its rebel crew have enjoyed a cult following ever since.

One of the crewmen is Jayne Cobb, played by Adam Baldwin. Jayne is not a particularly sympathetic character. His two main narrative chores is to cause trouble for the rest of the crew and then to provide comic relief. In one episode Jayne receives a package from his mother and in this box is the very first Jayne’s hat. I just noticed now that Jayne is sort of a contraction of Anne’s two sister’s names, Jay and Jane. Hmm ….

Kubie got the whole Jayne’s hat thing going, but today Captain Don kicked-off today’s rendezvous. He wanted me to meet him halfway on Clayton Road and then I could turn-around and we would ride together in Forest Park. Don lives in Chesterfield and I live about a mile west of the park. Anne texted Kubie and she was going to join us too. That was the plan anyway. At about Don’s ETA I got a text from him announcing that he was bailing on the plan and heading back home. We launched towards the park, met Kubie and cruised around until Anne decided she needed a beer break. We were all in for that.

We ended up at the Handlebar in the Grove Neighborhood. This is where I snapped the picture of Kubie modeling her hat. Anne was originally in this photo too, but she didn’t like her picture, so she had me crop her out. I blame the photographer. I guess you could say that the Handlebar is a biker bar. It certainly is a bar and all of its décor has a bicycling theme. It even has a vending machine that dispenses bicycling supplies. The likes of which include spare tubes, Park Tools and U-Locks to name a few items. This machine also dispenses cigarettes and condoms. Maybe the actual clientele is hipster bikers? Anyway, we lifted a couple of beers and toasted our missing friends, especially the ones that we have failed, because true friends don’t let friends live in Chesterfield.