Life On A B-I7

My SAG is taking me around the Hwy 20 road closure at Ross Dam. Our SAG route will take us from Rockport to Winthrop where I will pick up the ride again. A winter rock slid closed the road and it won’t be open again until July.

Not a lot to be said about today. It was a seven hour drive to get back on route. That was the shortest way possible.

I’m grateful to have SAG along with me. The detour would have taken a week without SAG. The acronym stands for “Support and Gear.” Since SAG refers to support as well as the person supplying the support, I was cautioned by my SAG to be careful how I spelled that term. I was told under no circumstances was I to spell that with an “N” an “H,” or a B.”

Itinerary

I learned last night that Highway 20, my planned route east from here is closed due to rock slides that occurred during the winter. It probably won’t be open until early July, this calls for a slight adjustment to the plan.

I’m going to ride to Rockport which is about 18 miles east of the closure. My SAG and I will camp in the Newhalem State Park, then detour around the closure. The detour will require us to go south, over the Cascades at Stevens Pass, then go north and west to Winthrop. It’s about a 200 mile detour. The detour will bypass about 80 miles of the route. I’m planning to make that up at the end of the ride by adding a side trip or two, probably somewhere in Maine.

Before I left Oregon I took pledges from a dozen or so people for their support of the homeless shelter in town. When I reached Rockport I ducked into the town bar for a beer. After describing what I was doing to a couple of patrons there, one generous soul gave me some cash for the shelter. I was blown away. My hat is off to you (when I’m not wearing my cycling helmet.)

Ready to leave Anacortes.

Itinerary

For the next three months or so (if all goes according to plan) I’ll be posting a daily entry here describing my bicycle ride across the country. Each entry will usually contain a photo and a story about that day. It may be slightly bold to say this, but I hope you will enjoy the journey along with me. I would be delighted to have you drop in here from time-to-time…

We spent the day wandering the Main Street of Anacortes. We hade lunch at “Dockside Dogs.” They have one of the best dog menus I have ever seen. Locally sourced, top quality dogs. Naturally I had the “Anacortes Dog.” It was terrific. Five stars!

A small gathering of family and friends came together for a send-off dinner. We shared an amazing evening of good food and good company. I learned from my friends that a portion of the road ahead in the mountains east of here is closed due to winter road damage. I will have to detour around a 35 mile stretch of the route. Fortunately I have SAG support for my first week on the road.

Tomorrow begins the journey. Wish me luck!

This morning we left Redmond, Oregon for Anacortes, Washington — the start of my tour. We decide that rather than slog up I-5 all the way to Anacortes, we would cut-over to Mukilteo, just North of Seattle, and catch the Washington State Ferry to Whidbey Island. We drove up-island and crossed the famous Deception Pass bridge. Built in 1935, it is a landmark in Washington. We parked and walked across the bridge (see photo below) and enjoyed the view from this remarkably preserved structure. Whidbey Island State Park is the most visited park in the state of Washington. It encompasses the bridge on both sides. Tomorrow we plan to enjoy the city of Anacortes and have dinner with friends and family before I begin the tour on Monday.

The view from the Deception Pass bridge on Whidbey Island.

I’m heading into the Apple Store to get my cat an iPhone.

When I’m cycling across the country, I want to be able to call him and see how he’s doing. If he misses me as much as I’m going to miss him, it’s the least I can do…

Today I will meet all kinds of people:

People with addictions.
People overcome by lust.
People that lack gratitude.
People that are angry.
People that are greedy.
People enslaved to ambition
…and many others…

All of these people I will treat with kindness.

This Stoic “Mantra” can be used to condition ourselves to remain calm when facing an annoying situation. These have been adapted from the writings of Seneca. I think Seneca would approve the use of these in the form of a mantra.)

Psychologist today would call these techniques “cognitive distancing.” The Stoics understood these techniques long before modern science “acknowledged” them._ 

I think about what it would be like to not complete my upcoming tour. I shouldn’t be thinking like that, I haven’t even started yet. if I were ten years younger, these doubts wouldn’t even be entering my mind. Today is a different story. if I am successful, I will be happy of course. If I don’t succeed, it’s going to be a huge disappointment. I realize that someday I will attempt something epic and I won’t be successful. That is when facing myself will become the most important thing I can do. Naturally, I want to put that off for as long as I can. At least I have given some thought to what failure might look like and what may be required in response. Thinking ahead helps prevent emotions from taking control of us.

One of the most effective ways to reduce worry is to simply monitor your inner judgements and the emotions they give rise to. The Stoic philosopher Epictetus called this practice prosoche. Translated, that means mindfulness or attention. The more thought we give before judging, the more control we have over our emotions.

May we all enjoy happiness and the cause of happiness.
May we all be free from suffering and the cause of suffering.
May we all be free of expectations from others and rejection by others.
May we all rest in boundless equanimity.
Ahmen.

In my mind, this does not fall far from Christian belief — or any other worthwhile moral philosophy for that matter. If I am ever called upon to offer a pray for some reason (let’s hope not) I would like to pull this out of my back pocket.

Democracy thrives under good leadership. Democracy withers under bad leadership. Under the worst leadership, Democracy dies. Fear the Autocrat disguised as a savior.

It’s tough to put into words what yesterday’s ride means to me. I wish I was better with words. To start, it felt good. Turning the pedals is — work. It’s also joy, pure and simple. You are moving forward and you are doing it under your own power and no one else’s. That’s part of the experience. It’s all on you and no one else. Watching the road come up and then disappear under the front tire gives you such a feeling of progress, it’s satisfying. I look up to see beauty all around. The sort of beauty you don’t see when screaming through the terrain at fifty mile per hour. Beauty you are seeing. Cars passing by don’t disturb me, perhaps they should, but they don’t. I’m lost in the moment, or perhaps it’s more accurate to say, the moments. I listen. I hear the tires rolling on the tarmac. Another indication that I’m making progress. Then there is the existential. It just feels good. Good to be out there. There’s no place else I would want to be in that moment. It’s all part of the experience that will eventually bring me home and allow me to write this. While you are pedaling, there is no thought of what is to come later. You look up, you see a bend in the road in front of you and there is no indication what is beyond. That’s part of the mystery. Naturally, you can never be completely sure your body will allow you to get where you are planning to go. I find that now, more than ever, the thought of finishing the ride is not assured. The desire to finish has become another point of the exercise. We can’t be sure of anything, but when the goal is reached and you dismount, it’s a cause for celebration, a celebration of one that feels good.

I’m unsubscribing from (most) everything that comes into my email.

I’m tired of being told what to think.

If you have something worth saying, I’ll find it.

Taking a Step Back

It’s time to take a step back from Stoicism and temper it with a bit of Socratic wisdom.

Knowledge, which we are all seeking and what all philosophies have as their ultimate objective, is a journey…

Stoicism provides tremendous insight into how we should live our lives.

Socraticism is the attempt to define why we are living our lives.

Focus

It doesn’t hurt to occasionally remind myself of my daily goals…

Breathe… Repeat…

Occasionally I will sit on the patio in the morning and just soak up the early rays of sunlight. Tux is always right there with me. Keeping an eye on things, no doubt making sure nothing interferes with my (or his) reverie.

Everybody in Redmond, Oregon drives either a bad-ass pick-up truck or a bad-ass Jeep. I think Tacoma owners should go with little rubber dinosaurs. After all, dinosaurs eat duckies for lunch…

While I’m not at liberty to reveal the identities of these wonderful children, those of you that know me will know they are near and dear to my heart.

I played some competitive pickleball last night. It was a ladder competition. For those of you that don’t know what I’m talking about, that is where if you win you move up a court, if you loose, you move down a court. If there are 5 courts your goal is not to finish the night on court 5. My record for the night was 2-1-2-3-4-5-4-3. A mixed bag that showed some good play at the beginning and at the end of the night. (I was randomly assigned court two as my starting court.)

All of that is to just give you some context. I enjoyed the evening and my fellow players, almost all men certified at a higher level than I am) There was one exception. One fellow I was partnered with was clearly unhappy with my play because we lost and had to move down a court. Later in the evening I faced him as an opponent. I made some great shots early in the game and he said to me across the net, “Where was that game when we were partners?” I smiled and laughed. My partner at that time, who, by the way is a phycologist and therapist by profession, looked at me and said, “don’t let him talk to you that way.” I just smiled again. What made the contest ultimately satisfying was the end. My partner and I lost but as customary we all gathered at the net to tap paddles. I took my paddle and tapped my vocal opponent on the shoulder and told him, “I saved my worst game for the end so you could win.”

Do I feel bad for saying that, not really… I’m hoping my psychologist partner heard me…

Science and politics make strange bedfellows. Usually after sex (the co-mingling of one with the other in the news media) one or the two ends up on the couch in the living room…

by Fredrik Backman

I enjoyed this book a fair bit but I have mixed reactions to it. Backman can write, there’s no question about that, He has a very good translator too. This is my first Backman. He has been published a dozen or more times in too many languages to count. What I had difficulty with was his humor, satire, and irony. It’s not that he didn’t have any, it’s that he has too much. A better description would be that he chooses to use too much (at least for my taste). The story was a good one and the characters, although abnormal compared to most people I know, were still enjoyable.

I was telling a friend about this book and I said that Hemingway would have written the same story in half the number of pages and it would have been just as good. There’s no accounting for taste. That’s one of the things that makes reading fiction enjoyable — you never know quite what you are going to get.

All of that aside. I appreciate Backman’s ability to reach into a topic and pull out some essence of meaning. What he comes up with may or may not be to your liking, but he has the ability to be profound. One of my favorite passages between two of the characters:

That hit me in a big way. Close to home.

There is so much out there to read, and so little time. I don’t know if I will pick up another Backman any time soon, but I haven’t tossed him onto the scrap heap either.

I like the notion that prepositions are often little words. They are also always part of a phrase. (A prepositional phrase…)

Here are some prepositions:

in, with, at, around, of, between, by, down, beside, within, for among, beneath, after.

These are prepositional phrases:

in the box, with my friends, at school, you get the idea.

I won’t mention the fact that if a preposition does not have a noun or pronoun after it, it is generally not a preposition: it is being used as an adverb. Life is never simple is it?

While adjectives are used to describe nouns and pronouns, adverbs are used to describe verbs (get it?) It’s not quite that simple, sometimes they are used to also describe adjectives or other adverbs.

Here’s the crux. Adverbs tell whewre, when, how, or to what extent. Adverbs usually (but not always) end in -ly.

Here are some adverbs that end in -ly.

Quickly, extremely, really, lovely, lonely.

Here are some adverbs that do not end in -ly.

Now, then, soon, very, only, often and not.

Note: often an adverb can be placed in different parts of a sentence — your choice! Here is an example:

I go for a walk in the woods often.

I often go for a walk in the woods.

Danger! Don’t overuse adverbs. It will make your writing clumsy and boring. Not that mine isn’t already for a myriad of other reasons…