Passionate About Cycling and Health

We've had a few consistent themes over the last 50 years... honesty, healthful living, good humor and bicycling. I'm sure there is more to it than that, but these are at the top of the list. Taking care of each other is another important promise we've lived up to. All of these come easy to us because we've practiced them for so long. We've encouraged these behavoirs amongst our friends, students, customers and the children that we associate with through our teachings and businesses. We are quite certain we've had positive, life-enhancing impacts on those around us, however...we'll never really know how effective our actions have been. The feedback is constant and reinforcing and we don't doubt it's sincerity, but not everyone is paying attention. yes, every once in awhile we run up against someone who is rude or maybe, just clueless. Motorists who skim close to us while honking or hollering...just because we exist and are trying to share space on the road...Well, they are still out there. Our reactions to these callous souls has been rather subdued and not combative. Some desparate folks just go through life with a "Putinesque" chip on their shoulders. Wish us luck and good fortune...we've certainly enjoyed the angels who've looked over us to this point.

Survivor...Not A Bad Thing

Someone told me a decade ago..."When you start habitually checking the obits, you'll know you are getting old." Well, lately the obits are getting my attention and it feels like they are closing in on my young body. Friends and neighbors seem to be expiring at a rapid rate, three last month. This seems to have started with my mother dying six months ago. I'm pedaling my bike uphill as good as I ever did (at least I think so), and I'm still putting my pants on while balancing on one leg, and I get out of chairs without pushing up on the arms...so, I'm still a young man, right? I insist, I don't know what they mean when they say "Your age is catching up with you." Glucosamine and CQ10 every morning for the last ten years (Thank you, Carol M.) I'm ready to ride...if only I could pass this bicycle shop to someone who loves working on bicycles and taking care of customers.

Bring Your Gravel Bikes

My first fascination with pedaling the dirt began in 1973 while I was living in Bodfish, California (Kern River drainage). My road bike was of department store vintage, made in Japan and was equipped with unusually wide 27 inch tires. The paved road around Lake Isabella was the obvious first choice for an ambitious bicycle ride. Traffic was light unless you were on the southside of the lake. Like most road rides you held your breath on the busy stretches, hoping that the motorist' heart was full of love for cyclists and that they were paying close attention to the job at hand, driving between the lines. Luck was too big of a factor for my liking so, I started to explore the quiet roads radiating out of the immediate Lake Isabella bowl. Roads that lost their paved surfaces within the first few miles of climbing. I climbed to Saddle Springs, Kelso Valley, Sherman Pass and Breckenridge Lookout. This incredibly inexpensive roadbike was so capable and never intimidated by the various shapes and sizes of rocks and gravel. Well, Chester, California on Lake Almanor, is the entire length of the Sierra Nevada north of Lake Isabella, some 300 miles. We are at twice the elevation and at a more northerly latitude so this really is a different kind of mountain living. Here, fifty years later, the paved roads are busier and the amount of Californians (and Nevadans) that can afford "second" or 'third homes" in the mountains has increased exponentially. So, do you really want to stay on the paved roads?

Aftermath Shock

I'm realizing that we northern Plumas County residents are suffering from "Large Incident Aftermath Shock". White service trucks, tarped dump trucks and log trucks piled high with charred remnants of the life-giving forest that surrounded us, make up 90% of the traffic rumbling down our roads...dirt and macadam....pavement that is potholing and breaking up under the extra weight daily. Reminders are constant and loud. We are no longer being provided oxygen from a million acres of evergreen trees. It's getting harder and harder to breathe with lungs scarred from the 'Summer of 500+ AQI'. We worry about the water. We were always so proud of our pure and plentiful water. Proud of our trees, proud of our pure water, proud of our community, enriched by the availability of outdoor adventure close-by in all directions from our home. Hikes and bicycle rides to remote lakes and meadows less than 30 minutes from home. Now, we get in our motor vehicles and drive for an hour and a half to get beyond the destruction. When we return to our homes we have to receive another kick-to-the-stomach because we have to re-orient through the devastated zone, to our little island of familiarity. We are resiliant, to a degree, but this will be our reality for the rest of our short lives.

Cumulative Stress

Not easy to talk about but, I've been getting angry with myself over the simple little clumsy moves that I have always been good at. Knocked my bicycle over and broke the handlebar end...almost caught it before it slammed to the ground...so mad that I didn't. Trying to fix a leaky faucet yesterday in my bathroom, put it off for a couple of months because I feared an ugly scenario, sure enough...water everywhere, hot water, just because I didn't turn a valve off tight enough. It wouldn't fix...need a new one. So far, I haven't taken it out on the dog or wife but I do beat myself up over my mishaps...and yes, these are minor mishaps. I sought counseling on the internet and found important stories about people suffering from "cumulative stress". Could I possibly be a candidate for this diagnosis? Death and illness in the family, sickness and disease closing in...even right down into your neighborhood? Catastrophic events resulting in death and loss in your region? Ending a career of work that you enjoyed and performed well? Evacuation from your home due to weather events or loss of utilities resulting in unsafe conditions? Well shit, I qualify for all of the causes! One article says, "Take a couple of days off, read a good book."

Happy New Year...Trying Not To Worry

My mother called me a "Worry Wort" decades ago...When I figured out that wort is a barley/hops tea before it's allowed to ferment, I felt much better about this particular criticism. I leave the brewing and fermentation tasks to my old buddy Kenny and his crew down at the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company in Chico. I pay full price for his product and consume at least one a day. I've figured out the wort part but, I haven't been able to shake the worry. Some days the 'worry cloud' hovers directly above me and I have a hard time shaking it. I worry about the business gamble I entered into nearly 30 years ago, I worry about my offspring and I worry about my incredible soulmate of forty-six years. Fermentation of the brain is not the answer...I remind myself to appreciate the incredible experiences and phenomenal health I've been blessed with over the last 72 years. The sun is coming up every morning and water is still the healthiest drink that I enjoy each day... I take my vitamins, give out hugs and laugh about the funny little incidents that happen every day. I think we're going to be good in 2022...as my 96 year old friend Jack W says, "You just have to keep moving forward."