Say What?

I've come to appreciate more than ever the beautiful red barns and stately trees I pass on my gravel rides—and I'm not alone, at least when it comes to admiring trees. A friend recently began a challenge in a Facebook cycling group—the challenge being to post photos of lone trees (preferably with a bike in the photo —thank you, Bruce!) to see if others can identify the location of the tree. How one marks the location of the tree is quite unique. It's done using the  what3words  app. Check it out. I'll have to wait until springtime when I'm back on the gravel roads near Northfield before I can play along. But until then, my current location is: economies.music.plot. What 3 words mark your location? And speaking of mapping: Google Street View made its rounds of our neighborhood again this past year— May 23rd to be exact while our roof was being reshingled. I can't publish this blog post without making mention of Trump* being impeached along party li...

It's been more than 6 weeks since we cut the cable and we couldn't be happier that we did. We're left wondering why we didn't do it sooner. It was sorta like when we divested from Wells Fargo two years ago after getting caught up in having them make changes to our accounts which resulted in service fees that were no small hassle to reverse. We had better things to do but we were glad to have taken the time to break free from them. The only glitch in our move away from cable TV was our TV in the kitchen—it has a built-in Roku but it was continually freezing as it buffered the signal. I added an external Roku stick to it and that solved the problem. One of our local news stations did a report on a pack of coyotes that attacked and killed a family's two dogs that they had let outside for a few minutes. This all happened about a mile from our home. I've seen coyotes outside the window on the side of our house but it's been a few years. Last week I saw a fox w...

I was discharged from the Navy 40 years ago today . How did that much time get away so quickly? I need to make an extended trip to San Diego (where I was stationed for most of my enlistment) and retrace some of my steps from all those years ago—preferably on two wheels. I have so many fond memories of my time spent on my bike in the greater San Diego area. I'm curious what sort of memories and emotions I would experience riding on those same roads again—roads that for the most part have changed little since I last rode them. I need to get more serious about making it happen before another 40 years get away from me. I've already got at least one route  mapped out to ride. Tammy and I spent Thursday celebrating her birthday. We drove up to Excelsior to check out the many shops that line the streets while on the lookout for a few gifts for people on our Christmas list. We found the best cafe tucked away inside a small complex of shops. It alone was worth the 35 minute drive u...

I was on a gravel ride last Sunday  that took me past one of the golf courses I frequent—Boulder Pointe in Elko. I noticed they were still open and was somewhat surprised to see that considering how late in the season it is. I called the clubhouse when I got home to see if they were going to be open the next day. They assured me they would be. I got my clubs out of storage and planned to play one last round the next day in the breezy, cool conditions the forecast had promised. It had been two weeks since I last played. I got to the course a little after 10:00 on Monday morning and saw only two other cars in the lot. I got my clubs out of my car and made my way up the steps of the clubhouse to present my PCC card to the attendant at the front desk. I tugged on the door to find it was locked before noticing the sign to the left. Bummer. I walked back to my car while going through the Rolodex of courses in my head that may still be open so I could get in one last fix for the ye...

I spent the better part of the past two months going through each entry in my blog to ensure that photo links (previously directed at my soon-to-be-defunct websites) now point to my Google Photos where they should live on indefinitely and at no cost to me. I'm glad to have that job behind me because dead links in any blog, especially mine, cause me to frown. I was sidelined for more than a week recently with some sort of virus that sapped nearly every last bit of energy from me as my body tried to fight it. Fortunately, that doesn't happen very often to me. Whatever it was has settled in my chest where it's reluctant to give up the fight but I'm doing much better overall. I was laying in bed last Monday trying to get up the energy to go out and vacuum up leaves one last time to have them out for the compost truck the next morning. I heard the sound of a lawnmower outside my window and figured it was our neighbors. I looked out to see that it was Mark working in our ya...

I was telling a friend today that I'm somewhat self-conscience when anyone thanks me for my military service (not that it happens very often) because I didn't enlist out of a sense of patriotism. I enlisted because I was a kid who had no plan but knew enough that I couldn't continue working dead-end jobs. I don't think I should be thanked for that. Enlisting in the Navy was simply a card I played from a hand that made little sense at the time. But it was a good card to play and I'm grateful I did. I wrote about my decision to commit to a 4-year enlistment six months out of high school in a series of blog posts beginning with this link . It was an enjoyable series of posts to write as I recalled so many memories (aided by a journal I'd kept) from my time in the Navy. I'm not much for expressions of patriotism but that's just me. I respect those who feel otherwise. Still, thanks to all who have served and thanks to their families for keeping the home f...

We had 44 little ones ring our doorbell Halloween night. That's up quite a lot from last year when we only had 33. I find them all to be so adorable. The highlight of our night was a group of 4 girls (3-4 years old) who paused in front of our inflatable Dracula to wait for him to show his face. They screamed and laughed when he did then waited for him to make another appearance. It was so cute to watch. (Thanks for the photo, Natalie.) We received our bill from Spectrum Cable (formerly Charter) in the mail this week. Our monthly rates had risen from $248 to $262 for our not very extravagant cable package. This most recent increase was the one that finally put us over the edge and prompted us to call and cancel our cable service (we'll remain with Spectrum for the internet). We've been toying with the idea of leaving Spectrum for more than a year but the inconvenience of switching over to some other form of service or provider seemed daunting. It wasn't at all. I...