What To Do With Winter Days

On those days when we are home and in the same room with a television, we have resolved to expose ourselves to a minimum of NEWS and instead occasional sporting events. We also love to watch movies and documentaries. Pedaling our bicycles on quiet roads and trails, baking sourdough bread and drying fruit (from the big valley below us) has risen to the top of our list of favorite activities. Oops, I almost forgot...huddling into our TheraSauna is a special way to start the day. Lisa is talking about giving the garden a rest this year and not commiting to a schedule of Yoga teaching. We are both hoping to accomplish more in the area of reading and writing in the coming year. Lisa has practiced much discipline with her writings these last couple of years and I have fit in quite a few read-books...forty this year, twenty-five last year. We haven't forgot the fact that we are living on a feverish planet and that we are surviving a rude and violent threat to humanitarian politics. we promote kindness and joy to nearly everyone we interact with. Maintaining the love in our hearts and keeping our daily 'sense of humor'are high on our list of resolutions for 2026!

New Year...New Sprouts

Good news first! We are going to become Grandparents, most likely in the month of May (maybe a Gemini baby). We have retired from the business that we owned and operated for 31 years...BBQMS is no longer. This is not our first retirement. Lisa retired from the USDA (Forest Service) in 2014 after thirty years of servitude...hard physical labor while looking out for the safety and well-being of visitors to the Lassen and Plumas National Forests. We also retired from our bicycle touring business, Outback With Bodfish in '95 after fifteen years of guiding bicycle-mounted folks onto the backroads and trails throughout remote areas of California. I like to say this new year begins an era of 'All Play and No Work'. We are free to wander and explore as a family of three.. our dog Nori always loves a good adventure. Needless to say, many of our future van (Seymour) trips will be along a wide corridor between Northern California and Park City, Utah.

Are We At A Breaking Point?

The year 2026 is only two weeks old and chaos has taken hold in Minnesota, Venezuela, Washington, D.C., Iran, Ukraine and Nigeria. Donald John Trump has contributed to the craziness on all fronts. I have always believed that his goal has been to create as much chaos as possible. Why else appoint the least qualified people in the country to every one his judicial, administrative and legislative positions. It's what Putin has always hoped for...proof that the American Way of Life is headed for collapse. Why is DJT so determined to please Putin? It has been speculated upon numerous times over the last ten years...the possibility that Putin has "The Goods" on Donald.