my safe magazine

Posted on by June 11, 2015

Holy Smokes.

It’s early here.

I get up early….maybe because I help Nate go to sleep at eight….and when I wake up in his bed (after falling asleep with him again) and make my quiet exit from his room, it’s usually time for me to go to sleep, too.

It’s strange to wake up to go to sleep.

But….maybe that’s why I get up so early.

It’s hard to say.

When I got up this morning, I noticed a magazine that I get laying on the kitchen table.

It’s a fairly good computer magazine that I get for free and rarely have time to read or even look at.

For the protection of the magazine….so that it doesn’t get wrinkled during mailing and so that they don’t have to stick a mailing label directly on the magazine….it comes in a plastic bag.

A protective plastic sheath.

Man.

Here’s a movie that I’ve watched a couple of times…..

and this stupid magazine comes wrapped in plastic.

That’s a bummer.

plastic paradise poster

I felt better about things before I knew I should feel bad.

And the trouble with getting a magazine that’s wrapped in plastic….that I hardly ever read….is that it just reminds me of all the other magazines that I get because I figured out how to get cheap subscriptions ( cheap subscriptions? check this out….. http://www.magazinepricesearch.com/ …..dang….that has nothing to do with plastic floating in the ocean…..)….that also come wrapped in plastic.

All these precious magazines that come to the house because….little by little….I let them invade our life…..BECAUSE THEY WERE CHEAP!!!

WRAPPED IN PLASTIC!!!

I’M KILLING TURTLES BECAUSE I GOT A DEAL ON A 20 YEAR SUBSCRIPTION!!

WHAT A JACKASS!!!

This “plastic thing” is a real problem.

I should type out a letter to someone who could do something….on my plastic computer keyboard.

Or maybe I should call somebody… on my plastic phone.

Maybe I’ll just sit and think about what to do about this plastic problem?

Sit and think about it….in my plastic chair.

What the heck….everything is plastic!

It’s too cheap….and too easy to produce….not to be everywhere.

Too bad that so much of it isn’t something that has any value.

I heard some guys talking on the radio about the problem of plastic….and one of the things that they mentioned….well, actually, they mentioned a couple of things that really piqued my intererest….was how many plastic drinking straws are disposed of….plastic straws that never get recycled (how would you even do that? Could you?)….and then….they talked about how many balloons are just floating around ….screwing up the environment.

Who pays attention to balloons?

Balloons are FUN!!!

It turns out, those “fun” party balloons are deadly.

( My party invitations are going to drop off the cliff after that cheery revelation.)

Unless you figure out how to have any positive effect on your own personal impact on the world, all this new information is just going to depress you.

Depress you with a continual sense of powerlessness.

That’s a drag.

This documentary streams on Netflix.

I guess you should watch it.

It’s a good one….but kind of depressing if you really take any of it to heart.

Plastic.

Freaking plastic.

What the heck am I going to do about all this plastic?

Probably nothing.

Just worry about it.

Just worry.

 

rushing to the sea

Posted on by June 10, 2015

Jenny took the kids down to the river to play yesterday afternoon….but we’d had some hard rain the night before, and the water was too strong.

It was rushing to the sea too hard for playing.

The rain was a big topic of conversation when I got to work.

Apparently, we had about 2 to 4 inches (of rain) in a matter of either hours or minutes, depending on who was talking about the weather.

I hear different things depending on who’s doing the talking.

You never know what people are going to say.

I know that the drive into work was a little different yesterday.

There were a lot of driveways that used to be up on the hill that were now down in the road.

It makes for a bumpy ride when the smooth asphalt is covered with red dirt and gravel.

Water is strong stuff…stronger than me, even.

It can move a mountain.

Of course, given enough time and a good shovel and a wheelbarrow with a pumped up tire, I could move a mountain, too.

I have no doubt that, like most of the “pointless in the end” activities that I engage in, I could move a mountain given a little bit of lifelong dedication and a couple of good tools.

I don’t want that to be my life’s work, though.

I have bigger fish to fry than worrying about moving a mountain somewhere.

But….again….I digress.

The water was moving too fast under and around the bridge for little people to play.

P1050786

This is a picture of the bridge in calmer currents.

I suppose that the water was up to the smooth concrete….or maybe a little beyond after all the rain yesterday.

Sometimes, the whole bridge gets covered with water and the road floods.

We have to find a different way out when that happens.

Compared to what I see in other places, though, we’ve always been pretty lucky.

Some places in our country are bone dry…..empty lakes and new water restrictions.

Some places, cars get washed away.

Our driveways move to a different part of the road.

That’s not so bad.

It rained so hard the satellite tv stopped working.

How much worse can it get?

 

 

” i think it’s going to rain today” Norah Jones

 

 

 

the caravan

Posted on by June 9, 2015

This is a long video of a family’s bike trip through a part of Michigan.

Check out the set-up they have going…..tagalong with a Burley trailer mounted to the tagalong.

Holy Smokes!! I never would have thought of that.

But….it shows that, at least for these people, it’s possible to bicycle tour with little kids.

They can do it.

Maybe we can, too?

That’s a big part of the “battle”…figuring out how to get beyond what you’re used to….and move towards what’s “possible”.

I suppose that a big part of the success of something like this is how well you can plan it all out….but sometimes, you can get so mired in the planning and the gear accumulation and getting all your ducks in a row that you never actually get out and, like the commercial says, just do it.

“Just do it”….so corny….but….true.

I had a surfboard hanging on my wall that I never got took the chance to dip into the ocean.

I could plan all I wanted….dream about what it might feel like to ride a wave….bob in the ocean….but I never took it out….never got it wet.

That was pretty lame.

I guess that I wasn’t really a poseur….more of a “want to be” (which, maybe, is just one step up from being a “wannabe”.)

That surfboard was never anything more than a big wall decoration.

I sold the surfboard when we got married.

Bike touring….like these families are doing …. looks like something we could possibly figure out.

That’s a good thing about some of these YouTube videos….they let me see how other families are doing some of these things.

Here’s another interesting option for touring….a CARGO BIKE!!

cargo-bikeThat looks like it might get uncomfortable for the little guys.

Maybe we better stick with the tagalong.

Heck….by the time I get it all together, these little guys will probably be needing their own full-size Surley bike.

I better hurry up and figure this all out.

“What would you do if you were not afraid?”

Posted on by June 8, 2015

“What would you do if you were not afraid?”

What would you do if you were not afraid?

Here’s a Ted talk from a lady who quit her teaching job and cycled 17,285 miles from Alaska to Argentina with her family.

Nancy Sathre-Vogel.

Cool.

I’m afraid of a lot, unfortunately.

Mostly afraid of what I think I understand of the “unknown”.

What the heck do I know about the unknown?

Not much….that’s what.

That’s what’s so scary….all the stuff I don’t know about.

It’s too easy to fill in the gaps with bad thoughts and fear.

There is too much “unknown” in my repertoire.

We took a long (long for us) bike ride around the lake yesterday.

It’s about 10 miles or so.

There’s this one stretch where you have to get off the gravel and onto the pavement…..onto the pavement where you cross over a high bridge and then go under a railroad trestle in a blind curve.

It’s a short little section with some potential weirdness from aggressive drivers.

There are a lot of cyclists who use that road….but it’s not really a bicycle friendly road.

Traffic flies on the road….too much and too fast make it scary for a cyclist.

Our little caravan with the two younger children and the two older children…trailers and tagalongs and thrift store bikes…..and Jenny and I…. made it just fine.

Of course, it was Sunday and the traffic was light….but my fears of being crushed in the blind curve with my family didn’t materialize.

Nothing bad happened.

Imagine that.

I guess that’s the beauty of experience.

Maybe if you have enough of it…..real experience with real consequence…you can weigh the good and the bad outcomes….and come to the realization that the bad things that have happened to you are a miniscule portion of a percentage of all the things that went on in your life.

There can be a lot of bad….but the bulk of it is really usually pretty good.

You don’t have to be nervous about everything.

We might even try it again.

What’s that Mark Twain quote?

I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.

Nancy Sathre-Vogel’s family’s story is a good one.

You can read more about it at her webite….. http://familyonbikes.org/blog/about-2/about/

Here’s a collection of the blog posts about the South America trip they took…..  https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?doc_id=1495

I don’t get permission….but it’s so good….

Posted on by June 6, 2015

I don’t have permission to post this.

I don’t know how to get permission.

I should get permission.

It’s illegal not to get permission.

But….this is too good not to share.

It’s a short article from the Oct 2014 issue of an excellent magazine called Bicycle Times that Beth Puliti wrote.

I hope she’s not P.O.’ d that I shared it.

“How can you afford it?”

Man….that’s a question that keeps me grounded and in a static place….marooned in the familiar while I look out my window and watch the funhogs zoom by on mountain and road bikes…watching while they laugh and have fun in the Carolina sunshine.

And….Beth Puliti answers that question well in this short article.

Turns out….it’s a question of priorities….it’s a matter of working towards a goal that, when realized, turns out to more affordable than you think.

Some of the best experiences in my life have been ones where I spent very little money.

I guess that I just have to remember that.

I don’t have permission to scan and distribute this article.

It’s a great article.

I hope I don’t get prosecuted or “cease and desisted”.

I couldn’t afford that.

Don’t sue me, Beth Puliti.

Don’t sue me, Bicycle Times.

Thanks for a great article, Beth.
bicycle times oct 14 article puliti 001

long trip to the mall

Posted on by June 6, 2015

So….what do these kids these days like to do with their time?

Go to the Mall?

Of course, I’m kidding……

But, really….what do these kids these days like to do?

I know that mine don’t like to go to the mall.

Our mall stinks.

I should know….I worked there for 5 years.

It’s not a destination.

But, even if the mall was good, I don’t think that my kids would want to hang out there.

That’s not how we roll.

Speaking of “rolling”….check out what this young guy did….cycled from Canada to Mexico.

That’s a long trip to get to the mall.

I’m just saying that to try and make a point.

What’s the point?

The point…..the point?….Oh…..the point is that not everybody wants to go to the mall.

I don’t want to go to the mall….this kid doesn’t want to go to the mall.

Who in their right mind wants to go hang out at the mall?

Not me.

What do these kids these days like to do?

Probably the same things I like to do….maybe with a little more energy.

Canada to Mexico.

Good job.

These kids these days….acting like people doing interesting things.

Who knew that kids are people, too?!

 

Check out these funhogs.

One is my friend Dusty’s daughter, Honey.

good news, long haul

Posted on by June 5, 2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gbJ5mWB4DI

I don’t remember ever hearing anything about this guy on the “news”.

Of course, he cycled from Alaska to Florida to raise people’s consciousness about all the “good things” that were going on in the world.

That’s not “newsworthy” in the typical way we’ve come to expect.

If something hasn’t fallen down or apart, it’s not going to make the news.

That’s what “news” is, after all….helping us keep track of all the bad things that are happening to all the people…..all over the world.

Who could afford to keep track of the good things happening around us if we need to pay attention to all the bad things happening everywhere?

If you were going to break this effort down to “just” the athleticism of what this guy did, it’s pretty impressive.

He cycled from Alaska to Florida in 35 days…..averaging about 123 miles per day.

That’s pretty darn impressive.

This was an effort that he funded himself, too…no big organization behind him, no corporate money….just a dude with a lot of endurance and a good heart….out in the world on a bicycle…..reminding people that there are still good things that happen in our lives.

Pretty cool.

Here’s a link to his website….. campaignforgoodnews.org

How many stories about good people doing good things aren’t we hearing on the “news”?

 

bees don’t ride bikes

Posted on by June 4, 2015

I heard the other day that the bee keepers said that they’d lost 45% of the bees in their hives.

I don’t think that they meant that they didn’t know where they were.

I think that they meant that they’d died.

That’s a BAD THING.

Bees sting me sometimes….but we better have some bees in the world for things to keep going well.

It’s bad business for these bees to disappear.

If the bees all go….we’re SCREWED!!!

How’s that for a fun way to wake up? Thinking about bees and Armageddon?

I was going to write about bees and bees disappearing and all the little things that make the world go round and how the world is changing and how we better DO SOMETHING ….quick…..and then….the moth must have flown in front of the flame or something….because I found this REALLY GROOVY YouTube movie about a cross-country bike trip from back in the day when HUFFY AND JC PENNEY WERE POWERHOUSES IN THE WORLD OF CYCLING….and….I got distracted again.

Now, that’s when men were men and ladies were ladies….back in the days of tube socks and white shorts.

They didn’t need helmets because they had DISC BRAKES.

That’s cool.

Bees can die…and we’d never notice….but put on a pair of red, white and blue tube socks and people sit up and pay attention.

Give me a snappy tune and a bicycle and the world can go to Hell in a handbasket and I probably wouldn’t even notice.

Until I got stung by the last bee standing.

Until I got stung for the last time….and I looked around and finally noticed that nothing was growing anymore.

I better enjoy my honey while I can.

(DISC BRAKES!!!!)

somewhere….the road gets smooth

Posted on by June 3, 2015

Sometimes….the road we ride is smooth as glass.

Sometimes….it’s a bunch of speed bumps….endlessly uncomfortable.

I was curious what bicycle touring is like in Mexico.

Surely, it can’t all be like this? That would be crazy. Roads like this would explain why all the drug cartels are shooting everybody in sight.

It’s not the drugs….it’s the roads that are making the people so crazy.

Check out the dog in the basket….he’s not enjoying the bumpy roads, either.

That’s good tourism, though….spread the word, “The roads are crappy in Mexico!! Keep your hands on the handlebars, keep looking down, and don’t notice the big blue sky and the wide open vistas!! There’s nothing to see here except a bumpy highway straight out of Hell !!”

That should keep the tourists away.

That should keep Mexico unspoiled…except for driving or riding a bike.

I don’t know about Mexico for bicycle touring….maybe it would be good….but where can you go where the banditos won’t get you?

Where can you go anywhere in the world where the banditos won’t get you?

You could drive down my road and some “bandito” with a rebel flag flapping in the breeze could give you a mighty hassle.

Or….nothing could happen and you might just enjoy the day.

What does Jenny tell me?

“Form follows thought.”

That’s it.

Maybe the roads aren’t so bad in Mexico?

Maybe I should get out a map?

Talk to the locals?

Stand up in the saddle when I start to get jarred by the speedbumps?

Topes stink.

Who needs something that just slows us down, anyway?

Momentum is hard enough to achieve on its own.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iv4Vjhe7jHw

Job….again.

Posted on by June 2, 2015

bad brakes

I replaced the brake master cylinder in the Jeep on our “fun day” this past weekend.

Saturday is the “fun day”.

Saturday is the day when potentially good things can happen.

Saturday is my day off.

Saturday morning, good things weren’t happening , so I told Jenny that I was going to replace the master cylinder on the Jeep, and, after getting my tools together and getting the new part that I’d squirreled away in the back room, went out to do the job.

I “bench bled” it….just like the instructions said….took off the old one ….installed the new one….went to test it…and, of course, didn’t have any pedal.

There must be air in the system.

So….I got my mason jar and clear plastic tubing contraption that I use to help bleed the brakes, got the big floor jack from storage, jacked up the car and removed the back wheel, got set up with the tubing and mason jar, put my wrench on the bleeder, turned it gently….and the rusty bleeder broke off.

&*!!!!@#!!!!*&!!!!!!*&*!!!!     (!)

OH, SNAP!!! THIS WAS TURNING BAD worse FAST.

So…I got in the minivan and drove to the parts store….and bought two new wheel cylinders.

That was the only way to fix it….and the old wheel cylinders were toast anyway.

They needed to be replaced a long time ago.

I may as well do the job right if I’m going to do it, RIGHT?

When I got home, I started to put the wheel cylinder on….and the nut on the hard line was frozen to the line…..rusted tight….so the only way….even after a lot of PB Blaster and intense concentration….to get it off was to tear up the line….twist the nut off and BREAK STUFF MORE!!!

SNAP, SNAP, SNAP, SNAP, SNAP…..SNAP!!!

So…it was back to the parts store to see if they could help me match up a piece of steel brake line that I could bend into shape and use to replace the broken one.

And….that’s what happened.

After a lot of trips back and forth to town…..I put the car back together….bled the brakes….got everything working again….put away my tools….and started trying to calm down.

It is ENERGIZING to have things not go well with CAR REPAIR.

Of course, it wasn’t pleasant that our “fun day” had turned to such complete crap….and the duration of the crappy day had extended on into the evening.

That didn’t endear me to everyone.

That’s a short version of a long story….it’s hard to condense 8 hours into a few paragraphs and do the PAIN justice.

But….the reason I mention it is that, in the midst of the grease and snapping rust, I actually thought……”Man, I must have screwed up BIG TIME for God to curse this day like this”.

Of course I screwed up. That’s irrelevant. I screw up. That’s what I do.

But….it sure didn’t take much to make me question something like that.

Rusted parts and gravel imprinted knees and a sore back and a whole lot of frantic driving….and I’m wondering why I’ve been forsaken?

What a weiner.

Read the story of Job again, Peter.

You’ve got a lot to learn.

 

(that’s not MY brake drum….it’s just a picture I found on the internet….)

 

“don’t wanna fight no more” Alabama Shakes