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Image from SB Nation
Honestly, as venomous as current politics have become, they can’t match some of the past. Like 1804, when the sitting Vice President of the US shot and killed the former Secretary of the Treasury. Two other founding fathers, close friends in the Revolution, became bitter enemies, slandering each other far more than we see today. Make no mistake however…
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Typically, each year brings three trips to the eastern Sierras—a May weekend, an October weekend, and four or five days in the summer. 2018 broke the mold. Plans for our granddaughter’s June wedding, which included prepping the house and yard to host the rehearsal dinner, consumed the spring. Summer featured a 6,000 mile motorcycle trip with friends, including an Iron Butt run the first day…1,000 miles on two wheels in 24 hours. The rest of the summer was given to recovering, along with a bunch of yard and house tasks. That left room for…
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Image by Jeff Boyer
A good friend from Taos days, Jeff Boyer, spotted this arrangement in a magazine rack, featuring a magazine containing the entire New Testament, and I weighed in, “Jesus hung with wine drinkers and sinners, so it’s appropriate his Word does the same.” Makes sense, right? But…
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Victims of clerical sex abuse and their relatives reacted as Attorney General Josh Shapiro discussed the grand jury report at a news conference in Harrisburg.CreditCreditMatt Rourke/Associated Press
For the last couple of months, several guys that ride from our church have joined in with the biker group from another church, and the motley crew in the second pic above depicts us on one of those rides. But the most recent, a few weeks ago, added an important spiritual lesson to the great companionship on a scenic ride to the town of Ramona. By the way, names will be changed to protect the guilty. ;) The leader picked out a route ahead of time, one he’d not yet ridden, entered it on his GPS, and…
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Read MoreMany consider Lake Louise as the jewel of the Banff region in Canada, but Bow Lake, just a bit north, entranced our Gray Hog group even more. Perhaps the less than crowded conditions contributed to that. We took pics of the lake and Crowfoot Mtn from the central area, then strolled south for another angle of the glacier. Out of the many impressive qualities of Canada, we noticed the almost total lack of litter. Until, walking back to our bikes, we stopped to see …
Time: 4 AM, July 14, 2018, Temecula CA
Insanity or idiocy or a demented desire to identify and challenge my limits? Just about all family and friends thought the first two would explain my attempt at an Iron Butt ride: 1,000 miles on 2 wheels in 24 hours. I lean toward a strange blend of all three. On the insane and idiot side, I’m 70 with a bum knee. 1,000 miles will take about 13 hours of butt on seat time, with 6 stops for bike fuel with 3 including human fuel, adding maybe 4 hours. 17 hours from departing at 4 AM from home in Temecula hopefully will get me into Dillon MT about 9 PM, after riding 1040 miles. Well, 10 PM with the time change. One long day.
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Stepan, orphaned when his mother died in the forest, was adopted by the Panteleenko family in Russia, and 25 years later still lives with them. The kicker—Stepan is a bear. A grizzly bear—one of the most fearsome predators on our planet. He picnics with them, cuddles on the couch watching TV, and even plays catch. What a fine metaphor for dealing with the predators in our lives! And we all have them. Maybe not on the level of grizzlies, but we face antagonism. In traffic. On Facebook. In stores. With families and friends. But how do we respond? Let’s…
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In addition to nearly two dozen wildfires in CA, smoke from a fire at nearby Camp Pendleton covers our town. No, we’re not revisiting wildfires this week, but I do want to steal a fire fighting term—defensible space, which is controlling the vegetation around your house to help keep it safe. To broaden it, that term applies to our…
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