Moon Rising Above the Headwaters of the Hudson River
One of the “good” things that came out of the COVID era for me, personally was connecting with some new people while participating in some of the few permitted activities during that era. Riding motorcycles was one such activity. The guys that I met during that time, and subsequently met through those guys have become friends of my whole family.Continue reading
Guys, it’s been a busy summer. I haven’t written much for a few reasons. One is time. When I’m busy doing fun stuff, it’s tough to find bandwidth to sit down and publish all of my super important updates. Another is paranoia. I see that my stuff is constantly being scraped by AI and it really freaks me out. I especially don’t want robots ripping off my kid’s likeness. Since we can all acknowledge that humanity peaked in the 90’s, all we can do is soldier on and try not to make any stupid errors that put our entire situation into jeopardy when the robots take over. There is no perfect answer. For now, I continue to require an outlet for my waning need to create words and photos. That being the case, I figured that I may as well spend a few minutes to make some visual updates to the look and feel of the site. So I threw together this new masthead, added a search bar in the header and mixed up the color palette. Until I can figure out how to make the robots bring back the 90’s, this is all I got.
Yes, it is July… Some Jams-
I have been recovering from a pretty bad ankle sprain (more on that some other time, maybe) for the past 3+ weeks. As a result, I have been doing a considerable amount more cycling than usual, to fill the void that my inability to run has created. I love both cycling and running for different reasons. But cycling is so much more fun than running. Being able to travel at those speeds and cover so much ground under human power is just such a cool thing. Also, coasting on the downhill… If only it was as good of a workout as running. Anyway, most of the riding the I have been doing is back-road gravel stuff upstate that is basically straight up and down, evevation-wise. But I took the opportunity this week to log a few miles on the single speed in the ‘boros. Naturally, it was during golden hour. The temp was perfect. The breeze was divine. I brought along the knock around cam with a nifty fifty to boot! I rode G-point to the Manhattan Bridge, then up the LES to the Williamsburg Bridge and back. Stopped along the way to get these snaps. The top one is my favorite, taken right at the foot of the Manhattan Bridge, on the Chinatown side. But I kinda like ’em all. Maybe you will too!
Spring, anyone?
I discovered this book, thanks to our neighbor in the Catskills. We were hanging out at her place wrangling a couple of dead trees in her driveway when she offered to let us borrow this very on-topic piece of literature. I didn’t actually dig into it until several weeks later, but once I did, I had a hard time putting it down.
Norwegian Wood (the rest of the title is a mouthful, but see above photo for reference), by Lars Mytting. Mytting is a Norwegian author who has published a myriad of novels in Norway. Apparently this piece of non-fiction is his best seller and has been translated into several languages. After reading it, I can understand why.
The book is equal parts history, science, how-to and folk tale. As a nerd and an outdoorsman, I found it both fascinating and entertaining. There are a couple of sections that get a little bit technical, which maybe isn’t for everyone. But generally speaking I would recommend this book to anyone who can appreciate the smell of fresh cut wood or warming their hands by the fire.
“Stop this… Warrrrrrr”
Intermittent spring vibes–
The Author Circa 2011 | Photo: Unknown
I have a some friends who work for banks. I’m not sure if it’s an FDIC requirement or what, but these banker friends of mine are required by their employers to take a contiguous two week ‘vacation’ each year. During these two weeks, they are not permitted to log into their work accounts. The thesis is that if any untoward/unauthorized activities were being carried out by such employee, these items would be discovered during the mandatory two-weeker. I have always found this interesting for a number of reasons. First of all, I think it would be amazing to take a two week vacation, period. But being able to do so without having to check my email a single time?!?! I digress.Continue reading
Bring on spring–