MOTORCYCLE DIARY: 3

JUNE 19, 2021 – PASADENA, CA “The black widow is sleeping.”

RECORDED IN PASADENA

[START OF AUDIO] Good morning. June 19, 2021, 8:15 AM in the morning. Looks like I should be lowering the levels on this thing, but how? Record level. Let’s try that. Okay, that seems better, I think. Pretty long day yesterday, I woke up early, was on the bike for a lot of the day in the heat, did the photo with Schude yesterday, did errands yesterday. I went to Samy’s Camera. I rode to BMW of Burbank to see if they had a couple of screws that I wanted for the gas cap cover. Also, had a dude advise me on the best way to mount this tank bag without the straps and whatever interfering with operation of the vehicle.

Also, making sure the vinyl– are they vinyl? Nylon? Making sure the straps don’t melt. I also bought some earplugs at Samy’s. I just got– Samy’s in Pasadena, by the way– I got just a bunch of AA batteries and three additional SD cards. I’m not bringing any- I don’t have with me any SD card reader– or what do you call it– external hard drives or any extra storage so I’m just rocking a bunch of SD cards and I’ll just fill them up and use them like its film. I think I have six, seven, I have eight, 128GB cards for photos on the Q2 Monochrom. I got one additional card for this audio recorder in case I fill it up. If I don’t fill it up, there’s an additional card for photos.

I also have, as I mentioned previously, the Rolleiflex with me. I think I have enough film for maybe 350 photos. Anyway, Camera Crisis was in effect before I left New York. I’ve been using the Q2 Monochrom exclusively this year, pretty much exclusively and I’ve been loving it. So easy, so great. The images are amazing, blah, blah, blah. That had to come with me. Then I debated whether or not I should have film with me and in particular, bringing the Rolleiflex. Just assuming I’m going to see some American countryside.

I’m going to be pulling over to get gas, drink water, eat food. I’m going to be wherever the hell I’m going to be. It just seemed like a wasted opportunity if I didn’t bring a medium format film camera. Even if I don’t shoot a lot, just to get some film pictures out in the world, I brought it with me. Anyway, I’m glad that I have the Rolleiflex and I’m glad that I have this audio recorder. The end.

Yesterday was fuuuuuckin’ long. Wrote a lot during the day. Came back here to Micah’s house briefly, that at around 3:45 I had– oh no, it was just before 3:00, and then at three o’clock I had a FaceTime call with [a human being] who I worked with at [a company] to talk about career. That was a good conversation, really nice human being. For me, it revealed some next steps.

[Work-related Paragraph 1 redacted.]

[Work-related Paragraph 2 redacted.]

Anyway, that’s that.

Today is Saturday. It is my last full day in LA. I have two priorities. One, is to relax. Two, not only relax, rest my body, rest my mind. Whatever, that’s it. Rest my body and rest my mind. Work is officially over. Take a breath. Chill today. The other agenda item for today is preparation. Go to the pharmacy and get sunblock and toilet paper. Pack the bike. Tinker. Reorganize. Set aside some shit that does not need to come with me on the road, and send it back home. The sort of headache du jour is Micah having to hop in his car at some point this morning or afternoon and go to [Previous Owner’s] house– [Previous Owner] is the guy I bought the bike from– to collect a handful of boxes of additional parts.

He has oil and oil filters, a backup electronics wiring rig. An additional windscreen like a fucking plastic funnel, whatever. All the shit that was in his garage for this bike in particular, a lot of which would be expensive to acquire and maybe annoying to find. He has all this stuff set aside. I think it’s a headache to deal with it and ship it and there is going to be a cost involved, but having all of that stuff, just in theory, extends the life of the bike. It’s probably an aggregate approaching the value of the bike itself, all of that stuff. I have to get it.

Bring it back here to the house. Go to a fucking– what is that place called– Office Depot or something and get some cardboard boxes and try to consolidate that stuff and hopefully ship it for a decent price and not spend a billion dollars sending that stuff back to New York. Anyway, the end.

Those two things are in conflict, clearly, trying to have a relaxing day where my mind is not in seven different places, and also handling logistics of picking up that shit, consolidating that shit, re-boxing all of that shit, and shipping that shit. That’s on the slate for today. It has to happen because tomorrow morning, I’m going to ride to Sequoia. At least that’s what I’m telling myself. Anyway, that’s the deal. The end. I can see Micah coming out of the back door of his house. Here he comes. I’m going to walk over to him. Hi.

Micah: What are you doing?

Speaker 1: I’m recording my daily audio diary entries on this.

Micah: What’s today’s entry?

Speaker 1: Just like, “Hey, it’s the morning, and here’s what’s happening today. Here’s what happened yesterday.”

Micah: What is this, like your daily standup?

Speaker 1: It’s my daily standup.

Micah: Are you blocked on anything?

Speaker 1: No, no blockers today.

Micah: [laughs] Okay.

Speaker 1: I am going to be working on picking up boxes of shit. We have some shipping to do today. What are you doing?

Micah: It’s a little mushroom.

Speaker 1: Is that what that is? Where’s the black widow? That’s what I want to see. All right, signing off. This is done. Goodbye.

Micah: The black widow is sleeping. [END OF AUDIO]

MOTORCYCLE DIARY PART 4