I’ve been to Burning Man three times now. All three times without my wife and two kids, 14 and 16.

This was for some practical reasons.  Until recently my wife was teaching and the new school year starts at the same time. The kids would miss the first day or two as well. There are the sometime challenging conditions that only the right attitude can overcome. And the exposure to… well everything.

It was also because I wanted to see what I would do at Burning Man when I didn’t have them to worry about. Or have to worry about their reaction when I did them… experiment with being a different me….

But what I learned is that I don’t want to be a different me, I can’t be a different me, without also trying to bring them along.

I won’t go into details here, but some things that played a role in this realization include: letting the godling statue go… and then leaving without it returning…. Trying to figure out how to relate to some friends I made…. And considering my relationship to the event itself as embodied in, and contrasting with, one of my neighbors.

So as soon as I got home (ok, the other home where the wife and kids were waiting), I told them that next year I wanted us all to go.

But this journey is about more than just that… it is also about integrating the discoveries of the experimental me into the rest of my life.

Burning Man changes people. This change, as challenging as it may be, is the best gift I can give my family.

Finally killed off an old e-mail account a few months ago. Which meant I didn’t get the e-mail from my domain registar telling me that eyeree.com needed to be renewed. So they sold it to a squatter that wants $2,250.00 for it.

So I bought eyeree.me for $11.99 instead. Much better.

The godling statue wandered off soon after arrival to never be seen again. I had a sign on it asking for its return to Esplanade near Center Camp before the temple burn, but that didn’t happen. Maybe it will still turn up somewhere.

Wings are done, now I need to wire up the color changing led strip lights.

The money godling is almost done and will be making the trip to Burning Man this year… but got distracted by a different project when I saw the Craig’s list add for this bike:

What I’m doing is turning it into a dragon:

With wings:

OK, that last one isn’t the best picture, and it just giving an idea of what it may look like when finished. I’ve basically made a mount for 4 1/4” steel rods that will form the “fingers” of the dragon’s wings and I’ve got some white mesh with shiny silver stuff on it to make the “skin” between the fingers.

It sparkly silver should gitter in the sunlight with wind blowing it. For night, I’m planning to use some color changing leds to light it.

Just a quick update…. The skin is working out nicely I think.

A special thanks to the “Nurturess” who printed and cut out some of the images for me.

Once this statue is done, I’m going to start on two more. I’m thinking the theme’s for these will be: “religion” and maybe “sex”. Ideas are welcome….