Dreaming of a Life Less Ordinary

  Many of you have seen a post I put on my Instagram and Facebook of me riding up Law Lane in Bloomington, Indiana.  What most of you don’t know is this was not just another hill for me to climb.  The ride up Law Lane has been a story 28 years in the making.    See this if you will, a young man of 19 stopping in a bike shop in Bloomington, Indiana on his way home from Louisville.  He buys his second Mountain Bike.  Unfortunately, some asshole had stolen his first Mountain Bike out of the basement of his fraternity house.  Joel his friend helps him pick out a nice purple bike for riding to class come the next fall.  It’s a nice Cannondale.    Let’s fast forward a few months now to the fall of his sophomore year. He is very excited about his purple bike, Grimace if you will, because we know this man, even back then when he was young like to name his bikes.  He heads out onto campus to ride to class.  He likes it.  Sure,...

  Time has been short.  I have just been busy.  No time to sit down to journal or blog.  It is a combination of work being work, well work.  I had started a blog about my ride out to Muscatatuck National Wildlife Refuge and how I felt like Frodo in the Fellowship of the Ring when the Fellowship was trying to get into Lothlorien.  The elves would not let them in and everyone in the Fellowship seemed to be hating Frodo and giving him the stink eye.  Well, that is how I felt climbing to and back from Muscatatuck.  Like everyone was giving me the stink eye because I can climb, it is just long, and slow climbing for me.  The short, steep little hills are kicking my ass around here.  The 30 some mile ride ended up being great.  I just hated the idea of having to go back up the big hill.  However, I made it, no quit in me.    Then last week, I got in three rides outdoors.  I love to ride outside.  Well, most of the...

   Allen, Gale, Aaron, Billy b, and Tom Bloomington was like a ghost town this morning.  It is like the entire town is holding its breath waiting for what the Eclipse will bring.  Apparently 450,000 people are on their way to the B.  That is almost 5x the normal size of the town.  I guess being the epicenter of the Eclipse in these parts brings the people out.  I left the house this a.m. for the first and last time today taking Kona on her morning drive and to get my Diet Dr. Pepper at the Circle K.  It felt like I was driving in the Walking Dead, no one was out.  A normally packed Circle K was empty.    I am not here to talk about the Eclipse though.  As much as part of me thinks it has a purge-like quality to it.  Where soon as the sun is shaded by the moon that all hell will break out.  No, no, I will save that for some type of Sci-Fi writing, an idea stored away for later.  No, we are here today to talk about my ...

  Three Laps around Ohio First, can I just say BTFU!  Or just Boiler Up!  Indiana Grad and fan but I was raised in a Purdue Household and long have they suffered from not being able to win the big game.  Congratulations to Purdue Nation, you are going to the Final Four!   Now onto more important and pressing matters.  It had been a one hundred and sixty five days since I had ridden Cylon properly.  Yes, there were a few times in the bike shop during the fitting phase where I had to get on her and peddle.  However, that isn’t really riding in my opinion.  Especially, when it was just a quick spin to see if it as sitting on the bike properly.  That all finally changed on Sunday when I finally got my bike out and road. Rain or shine I was riding this Sunday.  Hell, i would have ridden in a hail storm if I had too.  See, I finally got to use my new rack this weekend.  I went to Mom’s for the Easter Holiday, which happened...

Billy b at the book store…. Not the best selfie    The Escapement The Escapement is a Sci-fi novel by Lavie Tidhar.  It was the first book I read for a Sci-if book club I joined here in Bloomington.  However, I am not here to talk about the novel or review it.  I think it was worth a read, but that is something for you to decide for yourself.  No I am here to talk about the fact that I left the house and went out to a book club.   The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome or something like that.   Truth, I can’t continue to sit on my couch every night and expect for my life to be anything other than ordinary.  Unless, I am really lucky and guessing from the Mega Millions drawing last night I am not.  As someone one almost a billion dollars and I won four, so a beautiful bride and a bunch of friends aren’t just going to come knocking on my door as I watch another Superman TV s...

I can’t believe how long it has been since I sat down to write.  I have thought about it, but then I think what I have to say is foolish and I step away from it.  Like anyone wants to read a blog about my new nice rack.  Living back in Indiana is going great.  I think I am really close to hitting my stride.  Kona as you can see above is doing really well.  That was a picture from her last walk with her new Dog walker Basil.  Yes, her name is Basil.  Not sure if her parents were hippies, yuppies, or chefs, but I am sure it has to be one of the three.  She is no Ross, or at least not yet.  Kona seems to go back and forth between parking at her and seeing her as a new playmate.  I like Basil because she is an accounting major at IU, and being a former accounting major myself I know we are good people.  Kona has loved the season changes.  She loves snow.  That crazy dog will just go outside in it and shove her face straig...

  Welcome to the Family Nebula!     I won’t do a lot of blogs about cars.  I am just not a car guy.  I know you put them in R to go backwards and D to go forward.  Other than that, I don’t know a whole lot about them other than I think this looks cool and that doesn’t.  So, writing about cars would be out of my element.  However, today I am going to write a little bit about the newest member of my family and that is Nebula.     Nebula is a 2024 Hyundai Palisade Calligraphy in Moonlight Cloud.  Which is to say she is a very dark blue that looks almost black.  Her paint job makes her look like she has thousands of little stars in her.  She is pretty much a blue badass, much like a certain Guardian of the Galaxy who also goes by the name Nebula.  So, when I went with a blue car, I knew I had to name her after Nebula.  Is my car as hot as the person plays Ne...