Whoa...Beware Of Angry White Men

        I'm starting to understand what's going on in this country. I've been hearing these rumblings every week for the last ten years but, I hadn't categorized this behavior correctly. I see it now. There's "attitude" in how we drive, how we recreate, how we hunt for food, how we shop, how we watch TV and play video games. How we vote. How we are willing to bully migrants and people of color, generally. Why prison populations are skewed heavily toward minorities. Why women are shoved around, discounted and still distant from true equality. Geez, it's people just like me...older, angry white men. Guys who believed in the "American Dream" but, have found it to be just outside their grasp.
        The problem may be that our expectations were a little too grand...however, now we are backsliding and may never get there. Like many dreams, the harder we pedal the more elusive the goal becomes. Anger may be too strong, for many disappointment has not yet evolved into full-blown anger.             The symptoms are there...'spring loaded to the pissed-off position'. I see it in the "Nightly News", in the campaign rallies and in the wording of propositions on the ballot. Why do we go into hock for huge noisy trucks or loud rumbling motorcycles. Why do we wear graffiti on our bodies and shave our heads? Don't tread on me, is the message......"get out of my way" is repeated often when we drive. I don't see a mellowing of this attitude in our future. Americans refuse to be humbled, or admit to being humbled. We were brainwashed to believe that we are exceptional, entitled...manifest destiny...it's in our DNA.

Goodbye Summer...Dang, Where Did It Go?

        Old people are always saying things like that...."Where did the decade go?" I'm not old so, I must be saying it for another reason. Summer, oh, the plans I had for Summer. For various reasons the season didn't go exactly as planned but, the big reason (not the new puppy) has to be the fact that I am still working six days a week during the busy season. Campouts and overnight hikes are not easy when (you have a very young puppy) your due at work nearly every morning of Summer.
        I am really looking forward to some extra days off...and feeling my body recover from wrenching on and walking bicycles to their designated sale positions and returning them to their overnight stable. I've been going through the same routine for nearly twenty-five years...inventory out, inventory in. I love marketing and merchandising and interior design but, I'm starting to feel like I'm over the initial thrill of owning my own business. Hey, it's good...it's great to be your own boss...but, it's getting nearer the time to do something else.
       I'm not using the R word (retirement) here because I seriously enjoy putting people on bicycles and watching their reactions when they see how pleasurable and easy cycling is...and how sensible the whole thing is. I'm all in for a couple more years (maybe seventy is the best retirement age) that is, unless someone wants to lay $900,000 of their recent inheritance on me for the entire package.

What Country Are You From?

        Over the last 68 years my mother has wondered outloud, "What century are you living in? and, What country are you from?" I'll admit, I am unusual. I've never been turned-on by fishing or golf or car racing and I have zero feelings about football...American or European. I've noticed that these activities are going on around me but, I am not a fan.
        I've never wanted to jump out of airplanes, off a bridge when attached to a bungee cord or a cliff with a nylon kite strapped to my back....and most surprising, I suppose... I never wanted to be RICH. I haven't eaten red meat for several decades and I like strong ales better than watery lagers. I wish for higher gasoline prices and I cheer on higher taxes. I'd rather wear shorts than long pants and when on the edge of a body of fresh water...no matter how cold...I'd rather jump in wearing nothing at all.
       America is wasteful, nervous and moving too fast...people don't think before they leap...we worship idiots. I'm not that proud to be an American. I really never like wearing red, white and blue clothing together, on the same day. I find WAR disagreeable, unnecessary and disgusting. I wish my hard-earned money never supported it. In my lifetime America has not improved any situation around the world by "going to war." Yet, my money and friends have been sacrificed in the name of WAR.
        I actually enjoy driving and I have liked a couple of my automobiles more than a little, however, I am appalled at the number of lives that have been lost or permanently disfigured because of our habitual use and misuse of these powerful metal boxes...and to think of how much land we have scabbed-over to accommodate these cancer-spewing contraptions....all just in the last one hundred years!