Oh my, oh my, if you would've been in the neighborhood, more specifically in my alley in Logan Square just now. I had to rinse the motor oil off of my hands and go straight to my computer to tell this story...
Allow me for one moment to interrupt myself, this demands some back-round. I am not, never was, but probably one day will be a city girl (whom you simply can't take the country out of). My father's side of the family farmed, owns acres, horse ranches, riding lawn mowers, combines, barns, corn cribs, bean planters, four wheelers, snowmobiles, and many other-a-motorized fun machine. I am no stranger to riding in a combine, riding a horse, worming a fish hook, shooting a riffle, or getting my hands dirty. In fact, before I changed my major to Dance Performance at Illinois State, I was working towards an Agriculture Degree in Horticulture. I aced Agriculture-Engineering 105, and disassembled a lawn mower engine during one of our lab studies. Now that we’ve covered that ground, this story marks success, and does not pose the question “can a dancer operate machinery?” The answer is: why yes she can. Now onto the story that just took place in my back alley.
Our home has a sizable parking lot before the alley, in which we own one parking space. Due to the outdoor nature of our upcoming production, "the monument," I have spent quite a bit of time and research as of late on sound equipment, batteries, generators, watts, and voltage. After talking with the pros, I learned the only possible way The Monocle Eclectic can gain power to run the proper speakers needed to produce loud enough sound for a rock-tastic live street performance, I needed a 2000+ watt generator. So, after some complications, out-of-stock products, and one defective item later, today, I opened the box, took a deep breath, and got ready to get dirty.
I walked the 60 pound portable engine outside, properly funneled the SAE 10W-30 oil into the proper compartment, opened the top and poured unleaded gas into the fuel tank. After reading the start instructions about 4 times through and flirting with the machine a little bit, I prayed that I didn't blow anything up, and that the darn thing started up. I flicked on the circuit breaker, opened the fuel line, closed the choke and began to pull the start cord. Five attempts later no go... I'm pretty frustrated and covered in grease. On the sixth attempt the beauty purred right up, I let her run, opened the choke to run and she powered on for about 3 minutes while I did an improved happy dance all over the parking lot. I read the directions how to safely turn off the machine, did so, let her cool down, safely stored the generator in her new home, and rinsed my hands to sit right here and blog.
Engines still love me, I haven't lost my touch... and I still love the smell of gasoline. If I can start an engine and run a show off a generator in this great city of Chicago, film the performance and make something unique- today is a very good day my friends, a very good day.
photography by Larry Burrows
