The Super Glamourous Life of a Bike Painter

It's a Friday night. Almost 11pm. I just shut down the airbrush studio and I'm down in my office. My office is actually a living room/sunroom thing that never got used. Jim doesn't come down here. It's nice, tall windows cover most of the walls. Big huge plants all over the place. Incredible clear big tv. I had pretty good speakers but they died this morning. I have two computers going, my laptop which I type on and my desktop which I store and look at pictures on. I find it's handy to have two computers going at once.
I'll work on my airbrush book for a few hours, mindless tv going in the background or maybe I'll shut it off. Get to bed about 1am. Tonight, I cooked whole wheat pasta with sausage tomato alfredo sauce.
I'm painting real flames and they can be bitch to paint. They're easy enough if you just want real flames but for the super true fire effect, it takes a special touch. The oil tank is done and looks great. Started on the rear fender but needed the seat to know where exactly to paint. Front fender is most of the way done.
Gonna get up, and get an early start on it. Maybe go for a jog through the woods in back.
So there you have it. For those who have any illusions, winter is work time for those in this business. Tonight, guys like Hank Young are working. Maybe sitting in the shop, compressor and machines shut down, sitting there staring at a bike on the lift, wondering how to get the curve of a certain part just right. Trying to come up with something as incredible and unique as the last creation.
The Cinci VTwin show is a month away but it may as well next week. Jan will be over faster than Dec.
Man I don't want to work, I want to sit back and relax and go to sleep. If I were at a bike event tonight, I'd be on a bike, breazing through the nighttime streets, taking the long way to where ever I was going. Not wanting the ride to end. It's so weird out in Sturgis. I'll get in at 2am or so from Jose's house. I'll pull up to the bike covered front parking lot of the Spearfish Holiday Inn, not a person around. Just endless lines of bikes sitting there. I'm usually cold and stiff from the ride. It feels sorta like a dream. Ears kinda stunned at the sudden silence that overwhelms when I reach down and shut off the ignition. Back the chopper into a parking space, flip down the kickstand and get off the bike. A day of riding is over and it's time to go to bed.
Each event I go to has it's nightime ritual of winding down from a day of intense riding. I feel alive just thinking about it.