Hello April! Once again my bikeshop bank account slams down to ZERO. I borrow from personal savings and hope a body walks in and buys a bicycle or a kayak, or both. Materially the shop is fine, but it's not always easy to turn inventory into cash. The first three months of the year are quiet in the non-ski area regions of the high Sierra. Many businesses evaporated in Plumas County this winter...many will never come back. Online shopping is causing small town America to shrink to a cluster of coffee houses, convenience stores and a plethora of corporate franchise restaurants.

Rural America is shrinking and those who hang on are living with less. Book, appliance and new clothing stores have disappeared from small towns. Many surviving storefronts are now secondhand or thrift shops..."yard sales with a business license". Big box retail is usually within an hours' drive and country folk are still able to afford a weekly supply run to one of the Chinese product- filled, characterless shells, to stock up on toilet paper, hamburger helper and cheese puffs.

When gas prices creep up beyond six bucks a gallon I believe the surviving country families will finally co-op on these shopping trips and distribute goods out of their homes. It's a brave new world, alright, and the one good thing about these circumstances is that we are getting to know our neighbors much more intimately than we ever imagined we would. Are these just tough times or is this the way it's going to be from now on?

Naturalists

The neighbor kid comes into the shop and says, "My mom says you guys are Naturalists."

Ever since we moved to this conservative village, twenty-five years ago, we've been known as "the earthy ones" or "earthy types". I think it started with me wearing Birkenstocks to my teaching job at the high school. Believe it or not, in this town these labels are not considered compliments but, rather are attached with disdain...even scorn.

She was waiting for my response...looking me right in the eye. "Well, ya...I've been called worse. We believe in a scientific explanation for what is going on with the planet", I explained. I know that this family believes that the explanation for all earthly phenomena has to do with God and that the Christian Bible explains all.

"So, is that why you like to lay on the deck naked and swim nude?" This question caught me off guard. I thought we were talking about Naturalists, not naturists. "Somebody has been peeping through the trees." I said, with a slight smile. She turned bright red and started to turn away. "It's not a bad thing." I said unapologetically. "I know that!" she snapped, as she headed to the door of the bike shop.

I'm beginning my seventh decade on the Big Blue Ball....happy about that! I like working and I'm excited for the busy season to begin. Winter fills this small town merchant with doubts and drags down the bank account. I might have the added the weight of worry from rumblings about our community bank struggling with it's (our) finances. Where does it all lead?

I know I'll be putting dozens of people on new bicycles soon and re-outfitting their old bikes with tires and comfortable seats. It's an honorable profession and those who come through the door seldom need a sales pitch. After seventeen years of service and follow-up care we've built a return customer base that guarantees our continued success, as long as success is defined as steady slow progress toward paying the mortgage and keeping the facilities in good shape.

One of the huge benefits of owning a bicycle shop is that you are always inspired by the activity you promote and the great feedback from customers who see their investment with you as invigorating and even "life-saving". Most bicycle shop owners I know are cyclists and are always plotting their next ride.

I just came back from my sixty year "Physical" at which I received a big "thumbs up" from my doctor. A couple of her exclamations (which I won't repeat here) were very encouraging. She couldn't believe I didn't have a drug regimen for a chronic health problem, "everyone has one, you don't know what you're missing." She has a surprising sense of humor. Here I go, roaring off toward sixty-one with a smile on my face and a bulge in my pants...quadriceps, silly.

Snow turning to rain... Tickled to live in Plumas...home of Bodfish Bingo!

We moved to Chester twenty-five years ago from "the Valley", which lies 4,000ft. below and 70 miles SW of here. Securing a job in the forest and finding a modest place to live clinched the move. We set up headquarters in the "Mouse House"...600 sq. ft. of asbestos-sided, minimally insulated, orange long-shag carpeted, but affordable habitation on First Avenue.

My initial perspective on life was formulated below the pinkie finger, in the mitten, of Michigan. My wife, Lisa Jo, spent her youth in the suburban web twenty miles West of downtown Los Angeles. We calculated that we had the heartiness and social-indifference skills to thrive in a town that accumulates over twenty feet of snow most winters and has two thousand souls guided by no less than eleven churches...all Christian.

We have carved a lifestyle, built a comfortable cabin and raised a healthy/ self-assured young man in an environment that offers challenges and opportunities beyond those commonly found in a college town or in an American suburban setting.

This Northern California county called Plumas sits in the NE quadrant of the state. On a map Plumas looks very much like a resting Arabian Camel (Dromedary). Our town, Chester is conveniently located in the neck of the Camel. Water is not a problem in this, forgive me, "neck" of the woods. We have no less than Fifty lakes within a twenty-five miles of this basin. This fact has inspired me to develop a challenge I call "Bodfish Bingo", the lake-bagging game. Prizes for those who can "bag" the most lakes, also prizes for those who can bag seven in-a-row on the card I supply at my store Bodfish Bicycles. "Bagging" involves total immersion and bonuses are given to those who swear they jumped in naked. Witnesses not required.

Rain turning to snow.

Following the developments in the American/World economy with great interest. Nothing I can do about it, true enough...but it's something to watch, it is unfolding fast and it's better to not be caught off guard when all of a sudden we can only gas up on Thursdays if our license plates end in an odd number. Reading James Howard Kunstler on Mondays and Dmytri Orlov on Weds. and Paul Krugman on Fridays...these observers of the predicament we "civilized" folks are in, are able to see into the future better than most.

The small bike shop should survive just fine...we work with our hands here and we are problem solvers. Bicycle riding still makes more sense than most activities we embark on daily and keeping the two wheelers rolling is our mission. Staying healthy and excited about each day is important work. Spreading this enthusiasm to the ones you love is also important...all this ties into something called Right Livelihood.

I can't change the world, but I can do little things to spice up my sphere of influence. Warmth, humor, love of family, a good bike ride and a skinny dip...what more can we work on in this life? It really is just this simple. Enjoy!

Chunky Dunk Therapy

When you've accumulated more that your share of stress and worry...when crisis seems just around the corner, as my Mom used to say, " It's time to get out and blow the stink off of ya" A perfect excuse to get out and ride my bicycle. We rode 26 of the 31 days we were in Europe this Autumn. There was an added bonus to this trip; every other day or so when found the opportunity to plunge into a pool of clean water. This is not difficult in France, no one bats an eye when two humans decide to strip down and take a bath.