Day 60 – June 3, 2014

I source parts for the icosahedron. Shopping is far more enjoyable in San Francisco than in the Boston suburbs. I know better the San Francisco stores and I can walk to them. Now based in the suburbs, I’m ordering many parts through the mail.

I drove west this rainy morning between the Route 9 strip malls in Natick and Framingham to check out fabric stores and a non-existent plastic vendor.  I wasted so much of my youth stuck in a car along Route 9. My suffering parents drove us kids to the bowling alley (now a rug store), miniature-golf park (possibly still open), cineplexes, desultory malls, and auto parts stores (their fun). Route 9 still conjures up car sickness, yet we knew no better way to purchase goods, eat quick food, and find entertainment.

The Bay Area certainly has its tawdry commercial corridors like congested El Camino or massive highway 101. I tolerate California sprawl more, because at least out west the strip malls look exotically different.

I spend one thousand dollars today on icosahedron parts. I have quite exceeded my unemployment budget, yet this 20-sided spiked ball may be the biggest project I ever make. I certainly have the time now to build it. A 50-inch, inflatable exercise ball arrived today in the mail. This rubber ball is so large that it is made for horses.