P I C N I C

The cart is ready to move. All the shutters are on and locked. The title font has been changed from a green helvetica to a kodak orange georgia. The front stainless lip is glued up.

How to get it out? I’ve measured the space very minutely and blocked it out. There is not way to currently tow out the trailer with just a hitch. Either the overhanging eave would need to be dismanteled or the stone retaining wall removed! I’m not so sure I want to do that. Big problem, huh? I think I’ll call a towing company and see if they can winch the cart onto some sort of tilting flatbed, then released onto the road. A few people have mentioned this idea to me. Someone even joked, perhaps it was my dad, that the towing company could just tow it to the parking lot. That would be convenient, but it wouldn’t be an entrance that would make me feel like I’m independently launching into the venture.

You might have noticed that the blog was down for a day. I’ve transferred over to a new host server. Since the beginning of the blog I’ve used web.com as my host. They are a big company and I was running on a server in Atlanta. I first used them because they seemed trustworthy and permanent and easy to use as I knew next to nothing about web sites, servers, dns, ftp and all that. However, I now want to be running on a Portland based server run by a local company. I’m not aware of any other then Canvas Dreams. I’m now running on them and they seem great. My wordpress administration page is much more responsive, perhaps because I’m not routing requests in a 4000 mile loop. For my readers on the eastern seaboard, is the site loading faster or slower then before?

I’m going to be changing the site in a few days to get it in form for cart operations. I’ll have a new homepage. The blog will become a subdomain, but will continue otherwise unchanged, with the exception of some styling adjustments. I’m asking Martha to make some drawings, but now I remember I need to send her some photos.

I spent a few days making two steel fastening brackets for the display window shutter.

I’m changing the font for the cart, from Helvetica to Georgia. I’m also changing the color. I’m not sure how your monitor is rendering this yellow, but it’s very similar to the Kodak yellow. It makes me think of butter, mustard, egg yolks and summer.

I was watching the documentary ‘Helvetica’ last night. They were talking about this shift in advertising from the 50′s to the 60′s. The earlier and baroque style used cursive, wacky fonts at all sorts of angles, faux handwriting fonts, bright colors and talk bubbles. The mismatched way the letters line up here makes me think of that.

I still need to install a locking system into the shutters. It’s a pretty complicated process, so I’ve done a test before hand.

One of the steps involves boring a 5″ deep canal. I’ve rigged up my drill press into a contorted posture.