I have witnessed the joy of learning many times. Sam learning to walk. Sara learning another language. It all seemed kind of sweet and amusing. Today I was a part of “Sara learning to drive”. I am not here to give her a hard time. In fact she did a pretty good job. She made it to Taco Tuesday and around the neighborhood with only a couple of “moments". The curious part of this adventure was watching someone learn something in a totally new way. Example. It’s amusing and entertaining to watch a baby try to figure out what foot to put forward and then plop down on its butt. Everyone points and laughs, the baby giggles and flops around to try again. It is not amusing OR entertaining when the 16 year old can’t figure out what pedal to push, how hard and how close one might be to crashing thousands of dollars of metal and glass into one another. All of my previous teaching moments have only placed the learning person in peril. This was a whole new ball game. You take for granted that a 16 year old can determine when to turn the wheel to get the car from A to B. You can’t. The one I can’t figure out is how long or how the message gets lost from ear to foot. STOP!!! – It actually doesn’t work. You can say or yell stop 3-4-5 times and not get the desired result. I’m also still in awe of the human brain and how a person can think it might be ok to simply drive across a lane of traffic without even bothering to glance either way. Are all kids like this, or does my kid have no sense of self preservation? I guess we’ll find out. Stay tuned.
We Love Baseball
Sorry if you already know this story and are clicking old “WLL” because it’s a vital part of your day, but I have to write this for posterity. I’m getting old and might not remember the details.
September 13th, 2011. We buy plane tickets for St. Louis. Jen and I are going back to the “Lou” to scout out some possible places to live. That’s a whole other story. I think the Cardinals are about 5 games back in the Wild card race. As soon as I got confirmation of the flight I decided, on a whim, to see what baseball game was being played on that date. Game 6 of the World Series. Wouldn’t that be fun? I text my brother to get some tickets as a joke.
The next couple of weeks roll by and the Cardinals are rolling too. I could drag it out little by little, but I found myself in bed, hunched over the computer with Jen, pricing World Series tickets sometime early in the NLCS. We found them for $350’ish a piece. Too much. I told her to let it go and if it was meant to be then God would take care of it.
Game 1 of the World Series came and went and this was starting to become interesting. Jen was watching me get more and more antsy through Game 1 and once it wrapped up she turned her computer screen to me. 1 ticket for $150.00 – face value from the Cardinals web site. What? Really? She said “I’m buying it.” A couple of clicks and I had one lonely ticket. What kind of fun is that? 15 minutes later she said to me…”What was the Section/Row of that ticket we bought?” “Oh…here’s the one right next to it on StubHub.” Ok God…very funny. Trying to sneak into my world by using baseball as a backdoor. Of course at this point we are in for the “weirdly coincidental where the hell did that come from ticket”.
Back on planet earth we arrive in St. Louis as planned, but just as Larry was loading up his rain coat, winter coat and mittens, Game 6 gets postponed. Turns out the next day will be perfect weather, who knew?
I don’t have to tell you about the game. Click here if you really don’t know. Are you kidding me?
I got to spend an evening at one of the best World Series games ever….with my Dad. We high fived our way out of that stadium until I thought Larry’s arm would fall off. There. It is written.
Sorry Larry. I love you, but I love Jen for looking for tickets. I love Mom for taking the sting off of the “weirdly coincidental where the hell did that come from” ticket. I love baseball. God – whoever you are? Thanks for providing the once in a lifetime day with Larry.
“I like you Betty”
Today I have completed the translating and deciphering of what I like to call “The wave”. Runners and bike riders are likely best familiar with the wave. It’s that brief social period when you cross paths with another bike rider or runner. Each of you feel somewhat compelled to recognize the fact that you are existing in close proximity to one another…some people feel compelled NOT to recognize this interaction which has it’s own meaning. After years of these encounters and studying them in most of my spare time I have reduced them to only a few meanings. I’ve included pictures so agoraphobic people can know what I’m talking about also.
Let’s get the most disconcerting one out of the way. The “No reaction whatsoever”
This is the most awkward interaction there is. Likely you have tried to read the scenario and have prepared what you think is the best greeting for the occasion. I like to go with the simple finger flex. Since I’m riding my bike I can simply extend my fingers off of the handle into a half hearted “I see you, but I don’t know you” acknowledgement. If you get snubbed with the “NRW” it’s best to curse them under your breath and not turn and insist on a better greeting. I’ve learned this one first hand. This is why I can only offer the finger flex with my right hand.
I’ve determined that the reason people use this approach is three possibilities. One – They feel that they are athletically superior to you by comparing shoes or attire and cannot be bothered to interrupt their quest for Olympic fame to offer you the increased wind resistance of a wave. Two – They were contemplating their greeting and missed the window of opportunity. Sometimes you can catch them responding well after the fact in some sort of weird Doppler reaction. Three – They don’t give a shit.
The next greeting is probably worse than receiving nothing at all. The “Overzealous”.
I’ve only determined two possible reasons for the “OZ”. They are politicians or I seemed so compelling as I approached them that they chose the “OZ” in hopes that I will stop and became their friend. I’ve never stopped after receiving the “OZ” because I don’t want Rick Scott to get his hopes up that I’ll vote for him and anyone who needs friends bad enough to flag them down on the street is not someone I want to be friends with. Here is an example of the “OZ”
Here’s a version of my greeting.
The third greeting is the hardest of all. The “audible”. Football fans might recognize the term, but it has a completely different meaning here. The problem with the audible is that you have to have the proper response. Too often I’ve responded to “Watch out asshole” with a “Good morning”. This is another point at which you cannot turn around and undo your mistake. These are the ones I take note of and hope that I see them again. The problem with this is that I don’t have a very good memory for faces and have insulted more people in cases of mistaken identity. It has gotten to the point that I have to change my route about every 3 months as this is about how long it takes to form a posse.
The last greeting that I will recognize is the combo wave and audible. This is an extreme case of over zealousness and can only mean one thing. These people are cruising the roads for anonymous sex partners. Once again these are also likely to be politicians and you should never stop.
You might be camping…
After camping for these past long weeks I have come up with a twist on the saying used by Jeff Foxworthy and it is “You might be camping…”
You can add the obligatory words in front of or behind the next few statements, you’ll get the picture. I’ll get you started with the first one.
- If you have to walk 100 yards to your shower / toilet AND you have to wait in line to do either…you might be camping.
- If you stroll by your neighbors “house” and are jealous of how level it is…
- If you turn off the air conditioner so that you can run the water heater…
- If your neighbors change 3 different times in a week and you refer to the old ones as “Georgia Airstream with the shitty bikes”…
- If WiFi, cable TV and cell phone service seem like miracles…
- If someone screams “WATER!” if you let the water run for more than 3 seconds…
- If DUMP STATION is sooooo not changing the radio channel…
- If you get 9 mpg and are thrilled…
I’ve been mulling these over for days as you can tell by their hilarity…time to get back to civilization.
Keep going, plenty of room….
If you ever want to visualize the differences between men and women I suggest you do the following. Go down to your local boat ramp or RV park and wait for a husband and wife “team” to arrive. Find a good vantage point that you can hear them from and sit back and observe.
First thing you will notice is that the MAN has to drive the truck / car. There is no turning over machinery to the woman. Second thing you will notice is that the woman already knows where this is going and has a scowl on her face. Typically they will have already agreed upon some signals and words that will guide them to success. These words and signals will cease to work as soon as the activity is started. Usually the man will get frustrated first, make a rude remark, and exit the vehicle. This will start an argument over the signals and words and this will usually happen a couple of times before the man simply decides he can do it alone and backs the trailer / boat into a(n) (insert inanimate object here). A team of two guys can usually get the above task done through grunts and signals that are genetically common to other men. A team of two women can probably get the job done, but it usually takes longer because there will be men watching and giving advice. This tends to slow the women down, plus they have to waste gestures on the men watching.
You think I’m kidding…go set up your lawn chair for the ultimate people watching opportunity. Report back to me.
Spring forward…don’t fall back
Just a short update since I haven’t posted for a bit. Sara is hiding in some militant Swedish girls camp in an undisclosed location in Minnesota, so we took this opportunity to do some additional camping. I still have more thoughts on camping, hang in there.
I think I posted earlier that trying to find good swimming in Florida during the summer is a challenge. If I didn’t, this will about sum it up. Anything that holds water (including the Gulf of Mexico) turns into a boiling bucket of pee on or about June 15th. Everyone comes down here on vacation and thinks they are going to hang on the beach, well, they best stay on the beach. The water sucks. We decided to do something about it. We hooked up the trailer and headed to Wekiwa Springs State Park near Orlando. Why you ask? Well according to the literature the water is significantly better than the pee water described above. It didn’t take long to find out. I expected to have to hack a trail through the bush to get to said springs and much to my surprise it is very in keeping with its Orlando location…ripe for touristy pleasure. Here is a picture unless you clicked the link and got basically the same shot.
My first observation was that about 50% or more of the swimmers were huddled near the stairs. I figured, “Great…it’s swimming lesson day and all these idiots can’t swim”. I took one step down the stairs myself and found out why everyone was there. The water was freezing. Amazing. After tiptoeing around the stairs for a bit Jen, Sam and I decided that we had stumbled on the answer to the Florida bladder water that we found everywhere else. We had a blast. There was another group huddled around the spring head where you could dive down 20 or so feet into the clear spring water. I don’t know about diving into cavern like structures. I’ve seen too many Peter Benchley movies. We have been back a couple of times and find this state park to be clean, quiet, fun and best of all…5 minutes from Publix and a Redbox kiosk. More soon…
SPAM is a dumb name for really crappy e-mail
Rather than go another month or so without writing something I will just riff on some random thing. Sorry.
The random thing is my SPAM filter on my e-mail. I usually just go through it, empty it and move on. Today I decided to make sure I wasn’t missing some notice from Publisher’s Clearing House. I wasn’t. What I did find is that I think I am being targeted by some really crappy marketing people who don’t know their audience…
Clue number one that I might not be “the guy” for this e-mail subject: Black Guy Daily. I really hope they are finding the right people for whatever they are selling. I’d hate to see the look on their faces when all of us white guys show up for the “Black guy meeting” I’m not even sure what you would sell at the black guy meeting that you would specifically single them out for. Might as well call it a “Plain old guy” meeting and you get twice the audience.
The next e-mail rightfully planted in my SPAM box is this one – Subject: CristianMingle
This one I actually opened to get some ammo for this writing. Lo and behold it has a link for Christian Singles. I don’t click links. I guess that one will forever be a mystery. I really hope it goes to a legitimate site, but I’m guessing that the Christians all clicked like crazy on that one and have some explaining to do.
Last and not least…the e-mail I was waiting for…”You have just been selected…” Oh well I have to click this right? What? Another link? How bad could it be? I HAVE been selected. They wouldn’t do harm to the selected one would they? I mean it seems alright it did make it to a special folder in my own personal e-mail box. You aren’t still reading to see what happened when I clicked it are you? I don’t click links.
What color water?
Whitewater rafting. I had conjured up a lot of images in my mind pertaining to this event, but none of them matched the actual activity. I guess it’s probably best to list them off as I thought about them.
Fear: Sore muscles and exertion, as well as fear that I don’t have muscles or lung capacity for exertion.
Reality: I saw plenty of, let’s call them, “fans of food” lining up at the waiver table prior to the actual rafting. It turns out that most of the whitewater on this trip was contained to a bunch of short areas and that the rest of the trip was relatively leisurely floating. Don’t get me wrong, “a bunch” was a good many stretches of “better get paddling”, but it was just enough rest in between to get me excited for the next burst.
Fear: I would spend my entire time fishing Sam out of the river and scared to death of someone having to pull me out of the water.
Fact: If you paid attention to the instructions I eventually found that it would be tough to fall out and even if you did it seemed like they were pretty good at chasing people and rafts down.
Fear: One or all of us would not have fun or find it not enjoyable.
Fact: My family is a wide range of interests and abilities in so many things, but every one of us had a blast. Take a look at this picture…everyone is smiling.
Even our guide seems to be enjoying something.
Fear: The water would be freezing or the weather would be bad, and so on…
Fact: Our first raft trip went this way…We woke up at 6:30 am for an 8:30 am launch time. It was pouring rain and we knew from the locals that the creek temperature was 58 degrees. I think that 58 degrees is an agreed upon temperature that they all get together and decide to lie about. I can imagine this is done at a town hall meeting with voting and everything. I didn’t have a thermometer, but if I had to guess the water temp. was about 4 degrees. I know what you’re thinking, but this isn’t science class…it was 4 degrees. I have missing toes to prove it. Anyhow, by the time we got going the skies cleared and the weather was how you see it in the picture. Again…we had a blast. Here are a couple more pictures, but frankly, they all look the same.
We can’t figure out why Jen has her bored face on.
Where do monkeys go to drink?
This article is interesting. The basic premise is that kids are growing up to big old wimps because their playgrounds are too safe. This made me think of my playground on the school grounds of good old C.R. Hanna grade school. I think about it and I can’t really believe I’m not crippled. I also remember it from the perspective of a 3rd or 4th grader. The slide was about 30 feet tall and super fast. The monkey bars were not big but they presented a unique challenge. If you couldn’t walk up them and over them without using your hands…you were a major loser…and this was scary as hell. I know because last time I was in Orion I went over there and tried to do it. Let’s see if I can find a couple of pictures to represent.
Oh, here’s the link to the article… Are playgrounds too safe?
This is def. the slide…
Here is as close to the monkey bars as I could find. The bars of my youth were much bigger and if you got yourself perched up on top, well then you ruled…until someone knocked you off.
For any of you Orion people you will recognize these monkey bars…maybe.
and lastly…if you fell off the monkey bars? You fell hard and into the dirt, not some shredded up rubber, soft on your bones crap. Do a google search for “old playgrounds images” and it’s pretty interesting.
Tour de Sam
Well I didn’t see it coming, but I think I’m done here.
1. Cut cord
2. Stay up all hours “caring” for him
3. Fed, bathed, diapered
4. Learned to walk
5. Feeds himself
6. Pees and poops in appropriate locations (for the most part)
7. Can write and read his own name and a few other words…
Rides a bike!!!!
He can figure out girls and cars on his own. God knows I haven’t.
Fax machines? Seriously?
This has happened to me so many times I can’t believe I haven’t written about it. It doesn’t matter where, it doesn’t matter who, but inevitably I’m going about my business and BAM “Yeah…just fax it over”. What!*#$
Fax it over?
First…people don’t have friggen fax machines. Well I take that back. Most people probably DO have fax machines, they just didn’t take the time to set up their all-in-one printer to take advantage of that hot 1980’s technology. I can’t believe that the doctor that just ordered me an MRI from the hospital that scanned my palm for identification needs me to FAX him over a form. The even funnier part is that I really bamboozled them by asking if I could e-mail it to them. “We just use fax machines here sir.” The next time I go to an appointment with this guy I’m going to ask if he could bleed me a little to release the bad energy or if maybe I could have some of Mrs. Winslow’s soothing syrup for my cough.
Fax machines…WTF?
Brrrr…
The whole idea of our trip, the central theme, was “avoid the heat”. We had decided that after 5 years of summers in Florida that we would do the opposite of what the snowbirds do…we sunbirds would go North for the summer. The problem with Florida isn’t really the heat as much as it is the consistency, here…let me show you our current 10 day forecast.
Now I’m pretty sure that I don’t have to go to meteorology school to forecast the weather for Florida in the summer. When it is that hot for that long a funny thing happens…the water heats up. Ok that was sarcastic…it’s not funny. The pools and even the ocean get up to around 90 degrees. Picture yourself arriving at the St. Petersburg beach, sun shining, waves crashing and you set off on a run to splash into the cool, soothing blue water only to find that you might have just dunked yourself in a tub of pee. Sorry…there was no better way to put it.
Now this is more like it.
This is a spot on the creek that we found slow moving water and water that was over 6 feet deep…and get ready for it…58 degrees!
We had a blast playing in the creek and checking out the cool waterfalls.
I even made a couple of friends.
These butterflies followed me for about half an hour…Sam giggled the whole time.
Step 2–Summer 2011
Scroll down if you want to read this in order. It won’t make sense anyhow, so either way….
Still in Bryson City, NC we have a number of things on our list. Curiously a town in the hills of North Carolina has quite a few “things to do”. Today it is the Great Smokey Railroad. I’d love to tell you that we hopped the rails in a fit of adventure and stowed away on some freighter through the Smokey mountains, but we didn’t. In fact I think we paid enough in fares to extend the railway all the way to the “Just OK Smokey Mountains”. Sam is a bit of a train nut and saw one of those brochures and we were screwed from there. We had a good time, but the trip is like 4 hours long and after about 45 minutes of 5 MPH train riding and a couple of bridges you’ve seen it all. It followed the Nantahalla river and we waved at every one of the 500 river rafters and that was also fine for about 15 minutes. The other 3 hours was pretty much a snooze fest. Here are a couple of pictures.
Ok…only one picture…I’ll post the “Pay $20 for a good tourist picture or you can’t get off” photo later.
Stay tuned. Stories of bears, swimmin’ holes, deadly storms and probably more pictures of goats.
Orion update
It occurs to me that some people might check this blog still clinging to the hope that they might find out some info. about my father, the “Larry” in We Love Larry. I guess that’s fair. We almost called it “We Love Tacos”.
Larry and Wilma are in Alaska. No you read that right. This isn’t some new reality TV show. At some point I think my message was received. That’s right I take full credit for them going on an Alaskan cruise. I didn’t pay for it or anything, so my credit doesn’t really mean much. I’ve been kind of living a life of “Oh well, might as well do that” and I think it caught on just a little bit. I just got off the phone with Mom last night calling me from Skagway, Alaska while she was waiting to find out if she could find a spot on the dogsled. I’m not kidding. They are spending 10 days cruising and sledding around Alaska and I hope they have a blast. I’m pretty sure my Mom has wanted to do this for quite a while. I’m also pretty sure my Dad hasn’t, but he’s healthier and always been a good sport.
There’s the Orion update. They aren’t in Orion.
Step 1–Summer of 2011–Bryson City, NC
Hey who would have thunk it…the Dodge Durango made it to North Carolina. It has been a long time since I had driven anything like a trailer and I think as an adult it gives me anxiety. What if one of the tires blows out? Will the brakes hold? I can barely see in the mirror….In my life I have driven almost any vehicle you can imagine. Street sweeper, road grader, cop car, fire truck, the list goes on. I pride myself on my use of mirrors and all the stuff men should be able to do. Along the way it seems I have lost my ability to back up and place a trailer in the proper place. It haunts me as I pull into our campground. How big is the space? Is it backing to the right or to the left? (Trust me, it matters) Will there be people watching? But I digress…If you get a chance, take a look at Bryson City, NC and if you are one of my Orion people, try to find the similarities.
Of course you have to subtract the mountains and the river…anyhow, our first foray into the wilds is north of Bryson City at the Deep Creek campground.
This place had it all. A creek for tubing, and goats. This is, of course, the kids list of “having it all”. We had a great spot right on the creek and the kids quickly became friends with the “kids”
I don’t have any pictures of us on “the crick” but here is a stock shot from the campgrounds website…it’s pretty accurate.
All of this was basically located at the entrance to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park where I got to ride my bike every morning with Sara.
We had a blast at this campground. I’ll post some more pictures later.
What I did this summer….
I know it’s been a while. I’m not even sure people will still look here for my hijinks, but I’m going to write them for posterity.
I think I wrote a while back that we were going to do something interesting this summer, but I’m not even going to look back and see how interesting I might have promised. It didn’t turn out that way is all that I know. Here is some background, some catching up, if you will.
The grand plan - 3 months
This is best served in map form. I could write about it and never do it justice.
Roughly 3,100 miles…ONE Way…I dedicated an entire spreadsheet to the gasoline alone. Conservative estimates put this at about $3000 in gas alone. Can you see the grand plan fading? We actually booked places to stay, things to do, places to see along the way. The death knell of “the plan” came in the form of a $1000 car repair bill and a $1500 (and growing) hospital bill. The hospital thing is a whole story in and of itself.
The ACTUAL Plan – 4 weeks
Also best served in map form
We set out for the Great Smokey Mountains. We had never been…didn’t have places to see, things to do, and really didn’t book places to stay until the last minute.
Oh did I mention that we were doing this by pulling a 24 foot camper with a 1999 Dodge Durango….145,000 miles on it since you asked.
More to come…
Long in the tooth
I’m pretty sure I’m getting old. Today I almost killed a man on his bike. I pulled one of those maneuvers I thought only old people do…so maybe I’m right. It was a multi-tasking thing. In an effort to get out of the way of another car turning, I pulled out without looking the other way. This came as quite a surprise to Vance Headstrong as he braked hard enough to force some of his camelback water into his sinuses. Jen didn’t say anything, but I know she was not impressed. Another sign that I’m getting old and also related to driving is that I no longer speed. I’m content to get wherever I’m going, whenever I get there. I haven’t reduced myself to driving under the speed limit, but I do curse at people who I think are just going “Too darn fast”. I guess I’m probably not too bad off. I sat here for a while staring at this blog trying to think of other clues that I might be getting old, but couldn’t come up with more of them. Sorry to cut this short, but I gotta run…the news is coming on
Are you sherpa?
I’ve been watching a show on Netflix that has been driving me a bit crazy. I alternate between being amazed at the strength of these people and their stupidity. The series is called “EVEREST”. I guess it doesn’t take a genius to figure out what this show is about, but there are plenty of things in the show that might also amaze you. Here are some things I did not know.
- There are traffic jams of teams and people climbing the mountain at times. The window of opportunity to climb is so small because of the weather that everyone tries to do it at once and it gets to the point that it’s like waiting in line at the DMV.
- It’s a crap shoot whether you can make it or not. Example…amputee guy makes the summit, but healthy Danish kid doesn’t. There are plenty of ways not to make it. I guess the amputee didn’t have to worry about frostbite.
- They send these sherpas up ahead to string safety rope. These native Tibetans climb Mt. Everest all day long setting up the rich guys to come along and get their picture taken.
Anyhow..climbing Mt. Everest has about every single barrier in the world for me to get past. You have to be in incredible shape. You have to be able to endure extreme weather conditions. You should have an affinity to Yak meat. Last but not least? You have to have some weird compelling desire to risk your life to do something that probably won’t even get you a free beer if you tell people about it…unless they’ve seen the show. Think about it. What would you say to a guy at a party that happens to mention that he climbed Mt. Everest? “Wow…cool” What else? Some other guy would come along and tell a story about a fish and everyone would forget Everest guy. No thanks.
When I get older, losing my hair…sing along
Miss me?
I always hated it when I would read a blog regularly and then suddenly the person decided to stop updating it. I don’t know if there, are or were “regular” readers out there, but I’m still here and sorry for the lack of activity.
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking while I’ve been away, so I think I have plenty to write about. We’ll see how that goes. The 50 ideas I have to share usually turn into 2 or 3 semi-amusing pieces about the grocery store or someone’s bad driving. I did tease about some possible upcoming Carroll family adventures and there is a definite plan forming for the summer. Here’s a hint. (Click here) More on that later.
Also…remember the huge successes in the bike riding arena? (Previous post of uber bike riding) My goal for 2010 was 500 miles. Today I finished up at mile 411. Today is also the 114th day of the year. You do the math. I’m kicking ass. Disclaimer: For any of you that ride bikes regularly I know 411 miles isn’t that impressive, but give me a break I only accomplished 365 miles last year.
What else? One of the other reasons I have returned to writing this blog is that I lost my Uncle Ray a bit ago. I wasn’t super close to my Uncle over the last bunch of years, but I remember many times with him and his family fondly. I’m pretty sure he kept up with my antics and my father’s progress through this blog on occasion and wanted to post something that said, “Thanks for being a part of my life Ray. We will all miss you. You still can’t keep score for the card games because it was always a point of contention, but I’ll play cards with you still when we meet again. Love Jon”
That’s all for now. I have made promises to write more, write every day, write better and with better punctuation and grammar…sorry for that. I simply promise to check in and keep things alive here. Check in soon.
Jon
Could I get the McTofu meal?
Have you ever run across this person? The person who is apparently at McDonalds for the first time or thinks that Dunkin’ Donuts is a sit down brunch? I get behind these people all the time. This morning I think the guy in front of me was messing with the employees and he was definitely messing with me. You know how Dunkin’ Donuts has all the doughnuts sitting in front of you for the choosing? This guy was, I think, purposefully choosing donuts that they didn’t have and I don’t think they even made them. The girl would smile politely and say, “No sir…we don’t have that flavor today”. Seriously he did this 4 times. “Ummm..you have any of those, ummm doughnuts without the holes? The ones made with coconut flour?” I really love the McDonalds visitors that stare at the menu above the counter like it’s a brand new experience. “Ooooh, hey honey…look, they have Big Macs at this one!” There really needs to be lines for different types of people. I’m not sure how you would get the really dumb people into the right line, but maybe a sign that says, “Do not enter this line. It is off limits!!” They would flock to that one. You know why.
2011 – It’s like 2010 only different
If I post something here today the right side of the bog will note that I have made some form of effort in 4 different years. Crazy. I don’t know what the average length of time that someone actively blogs, but I know why it is likely a small number.
For anyone that is keeping track my bicycle miles for 2010 came out to exactly 365. This makes it easy to remember and my goal for 2011 is to double that.
Larry and Wilma are in Florida, and have been since early December. We spent Christmas together which is a good thing. They are staying in an undisclosed location about an hour and a half from our place. Undisclosed because it is in the middle of nowhere Florida. I get why they aren’t staying next door, trust me, but it is a bit of a haul.
What else?
Well sorry, but today wasn’t about entertaining anyone, but to let you know that I’m still making an effort and to keep checking back. I’ve promised all sorts of diligence over time, but my remaining promise is simply to write when it feels right. Heh…you can use that for a bumper sticker if you like.
More to come. Happy New Year!