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Hardware Store Bike Rack

I forgot I never posted the follow up to my Hardware Store Bike Ride post!

I ended up writing a letter to the store letting them know that I was unable to find a place to lock up my bike while shopping there. I mentioned that with the new bike lane on the street their store was located on it might help encourage more people to bike to the store but they’d probably want some bike parking where they could lock up their bikes.

When you write this sort of letter you hope something positive happens, but often nothing happens… but, this time something happened.

A few days after mailing the letter I got a phone call. It was from the store owner! He said he wanted to address the issue right away so he figured he’d give me a call. (I included my address, phone number, and probably an email address as well. I figure make it easy to start the conversation!)

He said that they would consider adding a bike rack but first they still had to pay the city for the cost of the bike lane, which he said all businesses along the route were billed for. He gave me a number, I don’t remember what it was, but I think it was over $10,000 USD.

The call came off as a bit of complaining about the cost to their store in adding the bike lane, but he didn’t seem upset with me, just the City of Wauwatosa. I honestly have no idea how the cost of adding bike lanes work in various areas and certainly don’t know how it works in Wauwatosa. (I’m actually a resident of Milwaukee, not Wauwatosa. A common misconception!)

I mentioned this in a biking group and the best response I got was from someone who said:

If I bike to a store and they don’t have a place to lock up my bike I just bring it in the store with me for my shopping trip. I walk my bike up and down the aisles and do my shopping. If an employee asks me to put my bike outside I just ask them to show me where the secure bike parking is… and I let them know that until they have that I’ll be bringing my bike in with me.

And honestly that’s a brilliant strategy I’ll consider in the future.

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Giant USB Button

Look, I’m just going to come out and say it… this Giant USB Button is probably too big! It’s 228.6mm x 228.6mm x 120mm (which is 9″x9″ x 4.725″). The thing is, when someone asks me to build something for them, and it seems interesting, I can’t really say no. And I did say “no” this time, but mainly due to the tight deadline. I said I would need about twice as much time as requested and luckily the client came back with “We can do that!” So I got to work…

I didn’t want to screw around with a laser cut enclosure this time, and they basically wanted the Big Button I normally make, but… embiggened. I made this the very close to maximum size I could using my Bambu Lab P1S printer.

So 9″ square (or 228.6mm square) was the size, and the client liked it. I had almost done a button this large about 6 years ago. I gave the client a very high estimate, explaining the custom fabrication that would be needed for a clear acrylic dome, and they were almost on board with it, but luckily passed. It’s years later, printers have improved, and this client was okay with what I suggested.

There’s a large NeoPixel Ring from Adafruit on the inside because of course it has to light up.

Here is my normal human hand for scale. This Giant USB Button just seems ridiculously large. It’s too large! It’s like what, is André the Giant pressing it? (No, because he’s dead.)

Here is the Giant USB Button with a US quarter for scale. The US quarter is that tiny little round thing in the lower left corner.

There is a normal sized USB cable that plugs into the Giant USB Button and allows it to send commands to a computer. I don’t know what the client is using it for because I always forget to ask that question. I’m usually so focused on the project and getting everything to look good and function properly I never ask what it’s for!

Overall I am really pleased with how this thing came out. I had to but a box large enough to ship it since the boxes I usually use are way too small to fit a Giant USB Button. Oh, I also designed it to be parametric. which is handy because I got all the fitting right with a version that was probably half the size. I also made an even smaller version to experiment with different methods of closing the circuit. Again, I had fun with this one.

Finally, here’s an exploded view of the parts, except I forgot one piece! The original design used a piece of clear laser cut acrylic but I ended up swapping it out for a 3D printed gridded disk to save on weight. Anyway, this is most of the 3D printed parts of the Giant USB Button. (I didn’t include the electronics so you can use your imagination for that part.)

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macOS Web Launcher

Here’s a niche one… If you use the “Launchpad Key” on a keyboard while using macOS you know it’s a handy way to launch an application. I use it constantly. But if you want a similar experience for going to a web site (as in, visiting a web site in your preferred browser) and you don’t have Keyboard Maestro or a Stream Deck, I have another solution that uses Apple’s Automator.

Launch Automator and create a new application…

On the left Library should be selected, if not, select it…

Click on “Get Specified URLs”…

It will load up on the right side with Apple’s web site specified…

I changed it to mastodon.social in this example…

Now select “Display Webpages” from the second column…

It will get added to the right panel…

If you click the Run button you might get this warning… it will probably work just fine anyway. Test it out!

If everything worked you can Export it…

Give it a name (I chose “Mastodon”) and save it as an application in the Applications folder…

Okay, it should be ready! Hit the Launchpad Key…

…and start typing the name of the Application/web site and it should pop up… Hit the return key to open it and you should go right to the web site in a new tab in your preferred browser!

I’ve made a few of these for sites I need to visit and it saves me the time of switching to my browser and opening the site in the usual/classic ways. Keyboard Maestro can make this even faster by just using a system wide unique key combo of course.

Note: This post contains an Affiliate Link. Read More.

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Scrappy Hour Group Bike Ride

Scrappy Hour Group Bike Ride

I started riding more often in 2024 and was riding anywhere from 3 to 6 days a week but always solo. My old pal Matt mentioned a group ride called Scrappy Hour and described it as a “casual slow roll” ride, which sounded right for me because I don’t really go fast, I just cruise around.

So I joined Matt last October for my first real group ride, and it was fun and easy, so I did it again in December and while it was a little cold it wasn’t too bad. Matt couldn’t join in but my old pal Mike was there and I saw Nora (another Milwaukee person I know) again. Otherwise I really don’t know many people on the rides (yet) but that doesn’t really matter, it’s just about getting out and riding in a group.

The most recent ride (this past weekend) saw me and Matt, along with my neighbor Michael, meet up at Rocket Baby in Tosa to do a smaller group ride that meets up with the larger group. We met Meg and Paige there and the five of us biked down to Cathedral Square Park together. The roads are not very busy on a Sunday morning at 9am so it was pretty easy going, and mostly downhill!

I will say that the Tosa leg was not as much of a “slow roll” as the Bay View legs have been… I guess when you let people half your age lead it can go a bit faster. (Disclaimer: I’m not totally sure but I’d guess I’m one of the oldest people on these rides. Not that age matters but I’m not exactly in great shape like some people are.)

I made sure I would not be cold on this ride. I wore my winter boots and wool socks, balaclava, ski goggles, a scarf, and then two long sleeve shirts with two sweatshirts, and long underwear with insulated exercise pants. I also had my medium winter gloves on. From Matt’s advice I threw a jacket and hat and heavier gloves into a backpack and then used those for the “standing around” part of the ride to stay warm when not moving. I also had some USB hand warmers. I did not get cold, unlike my companions. (Sorry, guys!)

The ride back was just me, Matt, and Michael and the hills were killer. As in, they killed my will to live. I was going slower than I’ve ever gone on a ride. Somehow we took a path that seemed to have even more hills and at the end my legs were jelly. The whole trip for me was 5.38 miles there and 6.4 miles back. I’ve done rides that long or longer without issue, but they are at my own pace and avoiding large hills.

Oh, I forgot! The ride has this whole “coffee outside” thing. The idea is you ride to the location (takes about 30 minutes) hang out outside for about an hour drinking coffee, socializing, etc., then head back (another 30 minutes). So it’s like a 1 hour ride with a 1 hour break in the middle. I don’t drink coffee but did bring some hot chai tea in an insulated mug for this one. Sometimes there are snacks as well. Again, it’s all really chill and a nice little community of people who like to ride bikes.

Right now if you want to find out about rides check out Scrappy Hour MKE on Instagram. They are in the process of adding a Bluesky account (which I’ve asked them to bridge to the Fediverse) and they’ll be starting a mailing list as well. (Email scrappyhourmke@gmail.com to get added!)

The next ride is Sunday, February 23rd, 2025 and typically the main group leaves from Cactus Club in Bay View at 9am, and then there might be groups leaving from Interval Coffee on the East Side/Riverwest and Rocket Baby in Wauwatosa, but the Bay View is the only “for sure” one and the rest are TBD closer to the date. (At least I think that’s right.)

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WMSE Art & Music – Fight the Power

I posted about the Sydney Hih piece I made for the WMSE Art & Music event, but I made a second piece as well this time! I used the boom box that the character Radio Raheem carries around in the film “Do the Right Thing”.

I remember seeing the film when I attended UWM and took a lot of film classes. The issues addressed in the film haven’t really changed much over the years, as we’ve seen in 2014 (twice) and 2020 and on and on and on over the years. It’s 2025 and in some ways shit is even worse than ever before.

But… I digress. “Fight the Power” seemed like a good title for this piece, as it’s something we need to keep in mind daily in these uncertain times.

WMSE has been an independent radio station fighting the establishment for over 43 years, and introduced me to so much amazing music over my lifetime that I though this music-related art was a good fit.

Like my other frame, I did the same prep work of sanding, painting, staining, clamping, gluing… I still really like this illustration. I drew it on an iPad using Procreate but tried the linocut style again and think it worked well.

The plate was the largest I could create that would fit on my press, which is 9 inches wide. Luckily it’s about the limits of my printer as well. (Though I could probably print in multiple pieces and assemble if needed.)

I ended up making one test print and then one final print for this. I don’t know if I’ll make more… maybe at a smaller size (on handmade paper?) but I do like this as a large print on some high quality paper.

As with all the art I donate I really hope someone is willing to bid on this and give it a home, while also helping to keep WMSE running and on the air for years to come.