Blog
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Back in 8th grade, Sheila’s artistic streak caused her to yearn for colored pencils. The nun who taught at her school, aware of Sheila’s love of colored pencils and that her family couldn’t afford them, tried to bribe her by offering those pencils if she became a nun. Sheila REALLY loved the pencils, but not that much. By the way, to my family and friends who follow the Catholic faith, I don’t mean to imply that is standard church policy. Her self control beat mine...
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About every other week, Jim and I meet here at the Swing Inn. Breakfast and God talk and job and health issues and well, just life. Guy times. Good times. At our last get together, Jim brought up a friend of his who had a marvelous job opportunity in another state, and every step seemed orchestrated by God. Prayer inundated it all. They asked for input from trusted friends. Too many coincidences to be coincidental. The job turned out to be the proverbial “died and gone to heaven” type. Until…
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Some of the best experiences of my life have come when I knew enough to compromise. A recent ride with Rich Klinsky, above at Michael’s Restaurant in Taos, provides an example. We go back a long time, growing up at the same church in Long Beach CA, and began riding together as soon as I got a bike 47 years ago. He rides a Harley, I a Honda, but we’re close. Honest. But…
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Sheila adores the beach, and would love to live there. A nice chair, some food and drink for snacking, and the day is great. But the water scared this girl who grew up in Kansas, so she stuck to the sand. Until we visited Kauai and booked a cruise to the Napali Coast. One that featured snorkeling. The captain found an isolated bay, and we geared up. Except for Sheila. That captain and I almost had to force her to try it, and she only agreed if I’d hold on to her. A tough job, but….
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Rio Lucio on Hwy 75
A trip of memories. A ride with a friend from high school days. Meeting in Taos, my home for two summers and then two years. Delighting in New Mexico sopapillas and stacked enchiladas. Memories of a dream I let go. And the question remains, why? The pic above shows where I stopped along the road in Rio Lucio...
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25 years ago we put in a three foot high retaining wall with railroad ties to hold back a slope at the side of our house, and continued the wall in a single row at the bottom of a less steep slope at the front of the house. But even creosote-soaked ties rot after decades, and we replaced the retaining wall with landscape blocks, leaving the front layer of ties. However, the blocks and ties didn’t match, yet I didn’t want the extra work of removing and disposing of the ties, so I got some matching blocks to put over the ties from a neighbor (thanks Kurt!). Ice plant had grown over many of the ties, sometimes a foot high. More work to cut it back. So I got out my shovel to cut through it, then had an inspiration...
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image by Thermo Fisher Scientific
After worshipping on Sunday, you head off with friends to a local café for a late breakfast. The waitress brings the requested cheese omelet, you fork off a bite, insert it, and it leaves you flat. Flat in taste--the chef forgot to add some salt before cooking. The waitress apologizes and says she’ll be sure the cook adds some salt, and soon returns it with a smile and another apology. The fork does its job, you take that first bite, and spit it out. Too much salt this time, too much to even eat. The lid must have come off the shaker, or the cook got offended and decided vengeance was his. Yeah, a ...
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image from pinterest
In early June at 4:30 AM, I pulled the Honda ST1300 out of its comfortable garage for our latest Gray Hogs ride, with our ever present goal of finding fresh asphalt. We hit five states (CA, NV, OR, WA, ID), a foreign country (Canada), and covered 3800 miles in 9 days. Yeah, some familiar roads were necessary, but we found a lot previously unridden routes, took the bikes on a ferry ride across Kootenai Lake, dodged some very drenching storms, so our plans were also new. And a lot of new names, Ymir, Metalline, Sedro Wooley, Sultan, Skykomish, and Oronda for a few. Exotic. A fresh adventure. But...
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