Three Stooges — Larry, Moe and “Curley” Joe (NY Times / UPI)
Bike ride on the way home from church on Sunday.
I put together a list of things that always appear in threes. (For no reason other than I could and because that’s what you’re supposed to do on a bike!)
Here goes…..
- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
- Winken, Blinken and Nod
- Stop, Look and Listen
- Rock, Paper, Scissors
- Shadrach Meshach and Abednego
- Larry, Moe and Curley
- Earth, Wind and Fire
- Acey, Ducey, One Eyed Jack
More….
- Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria
- Snap, Crackle and Pop
- Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail
- Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato
Every journey, they say, begins with a single step — or in this case some serious training about how to ride and how to build a community with a group of 13 other people.
I thought at first that this whole adventure was just a ride from Minneapolis to Chicago. I’m finding out really quickly that it is much, much more than that.
Sure, a part of these first days is some important training we will need one our ride but another, more important aspect of these first two days is building a community of people who are passionate about doing something, in some small way to restore this world back to the way that God intended it to be. It’s called justice. Read the rest of this entry »
Anyone who watched the Apollo launches will remember the phrase “T Minus”. It was used along with a number that indicated the number of minutes / seconds until the Saturn V Rocket along with the Apollo capsule perched on top started it’s long, slow climb to space.
Today, I’m at T Minus One. One day to go. If I am not prepared now…. well, I’ll never be prepared for next week’s adventure ride from Minneapolis to Chicago with 13 other people who I have not yet met.
A countdown is a sequence of backward counting to indicate the time remaining before an event is scheduled to occur. NASA commonly employs the term “T-minus” during the preparation for and anticipation of a rocket launch, and even “E-minus” for events that involve spacecraft that are already in space, where the “T” could stand for “Test” or “Time”, and the “E” stands for “Encounter”, as with a comet or some other space object.
Other events for which countdowns are commonly used include the detonation of an explosive, the start of a race, the start of the New Year, or any anxiously anticipated event. An early use of a countdown once signaled the start of a Cambridge University rowing race.
The first known association with rockets was in the 1929 German science fiction movie Die Frau im Mond (English: Woman in the Moon) written by Thea von Harbou and directed by Fritz Lang in an attempt to increase the drama of the launch sequence of the story’s lunar-bound rocket.(Wikipedia)
I only know most of the rest of the team I am spending the next Read the rest of this entry »
Long ago, in my senior year of High School, I took an elective class with the somewhat meaningful name of L.E.A.P. Taught by a somewhat radical (for the time) teacher, the acronym was a perfect fit not only for the teacher but also for the purpose of the class itself. LEAP stood for “Learning and Education through Active Participation”.
The whole purpose of the class was to move the classroom… well out of the classroom and into the city where we lived. One of the basic philosophies that the class centered around was that the structure of the city itself, built around the car and freeways, prevented you from really learning about the city, its places and the people who live there. A significant part of the class involved getting us off the California Read the rest of this entry »
There are very few absolutes in this world, so in the interest of sharing wisdom, here are a few things that I have learned while doing long distance training:
Badger State Trail
- Every hill has a top and eventually, every hill has a downhill. This is true even in the event that someone, someday climbs Mt. Everest on a road bike. (Believe me… it will happen!)
- Some days it’s going to rain, some days it’s going to be hot and some days it’s going to be cold. Remember, there is no such thing as bad weather …. only bad clothes. This holds true not just for cycling but also for hiking and for enduring the long (long) Midwest winters.
- While riding, the “music of the spheres” * always trumps the “music of my iPod”.
Read the rest of this entry »
How many riders subscribe to the unwritten rule “when the sun goes down, the bicycle goes away”.
I did — until recently.
I became a night-time biker a few months ago when I started teaching a class that ended at 8:30pm. After class, it was ride home as the only option.
The ride from school to home turned into an absolute pleasure. First, there is almost no traffic at 8:30pm and second, the absolute peace as you quietly glide through neighborhoods and dark streets is amazing. The first night, the moon was full, the lake I ride around was perfectly calm and it was just cold enough for a light jacket.
The perfect end to any day.
My only other experience with nighttime rides was when we were living in Vermont. We were on our way home in a car, it was the end of summer, there was a full moon and we were just starting up Terrible Mountain (no kidding … that’s what it’s called and if you have ever biked it, you know why).
Far ahead of us, we saw a pair of blinking red tail lights and as we got closer, the lights turned into two cyclists out for a long nighttime climb. At the time we saw them, I thought they were nuts. But now I understand. There’s an appeal to a quiet nighttime ride.
I am not sure that my rides will ever match a full moon climb up Terrible Mountain, but I’ll take a calm city commute at night as a good substitute!
Haven’t tried an after sundown ride yet? I really suggest that you do.
After all…. every ride is a good ride!
