Day 126 – August 10, 2014

Rest and relaxation are missing from this year away. I spent Saturday and Sunday in an Oakland warehouse lighting an electric sheep. As Burning Man approaches in less than two weeks, artists and engineers scramble to finish projects in foundries. There are no time extensions in Black Rock City.

At 3 in the afternoon, I drive five people from San Francisco over the Bay Bridge to Oakland. We make the return voyage after midnight. In the intervening hours, we glue LED strips to the back of geometric metal panels, crimp electrical wire, and assemble DMX connection boxes. We are not sure that this lighting project will work.

We are a few days behind schedule without days to spare before all the electric sheep parts must be packed for the Nevada desert. We did glue all the lights for half of the sheep. Close to midnight, we turned on the power and successfully illuminating a side of mutton.

I’m tired. I thought a year without a 40-hour work-week would mean idle rambles and serene contemplation. I’m busier than ever as I commit to construct more. Come mid-September, I want to sit, really sit, not drive ten-thousand miles, not assemble Platonic Solids, not crimp electrical wire for an electric sheep. Still, it has been fun.