Cool Calferacer. I've been a little busy trying to get all the computer/finance/admin-type stuff nailed down before things pick up again. So I've been feeling a bit dog-piled by suck recently. Sorry if I came across like a wet blanket. I totally appreciate your guys' offers of help, and I know the kid's parents think you all are the coolest thing since Slurpees.
I've been giving the mini-bike idea a lot of thought, among other things. I want to give the artists some rock-star time, and get some folks together and throw a bit of a shindig. Introduce myself to the community a bit. I'm pretty strapped right now, but I'm thinking that by the end of March, I should be able to put together some eats and beer for some folks. Ordinarily I'd be doing taxes, but this year I'm gonna give the bikes a solid go. Gotta keep being careful about what services I offer, as I'm not a ticketed anything, and I'm working out of the tiny shop I built in the garage. But we all gotta start somewhere, and so far so good.
I figure it'd be a nice way to kick off the season. Invite my clients, the artists, everyone's friends and family, any of you guys that can make it... ;D Just have a bit of a shaker, give everyone some face time, and have a blast.
Anyways, I figure that I/We can totally get a mini-bike together by then, and how freakin' cool would it be to introduce that kid with his winning T Shirt and give him the bike in front of a "crowd"? Hell, I'da felt like a golden rock God if that happened to me at 9 yrs. old. It'd be cool if we could get some of his little school friends there, too. Give him some street-cred! I figure it'd be pretty awesome for his folks, too. So anyways, that's what I'm thinking.
I've got a question, though. I'm going over to the parents' place for a Boxing Day party. So I'll probably meet the little booger, and I'd like to not be another one of the assholes that all adults seemed like to me when I was nine. Not looking to adopt the kid, it'd just be nice to not feel like I'm speaking Chinese at him. Anyone with kid-type experience got any pointers for telling him good job, without coming across like Tom Hanks in A league of Their Own, (there's no crying in baseball cracks me up, lol)?