Dont Wait Till You're a Geezer

If you happen to be a person on the younger end of the spectrum, I have some advice for you: Don’t wait for a better time to go to college. Go now.

Like many others I started college right out of high school, but then dropped out after a few months. The main reason was money. There were probably many opportunities for scholarships, loans and grants, but I wasn’t aware of them at the time. I thought I was trying to “work my way thru” but in actuality I was working nights and sleeping in class. It’s really hard to keep up in math when you’re sleeping thru class!

During two hitches in the Air Force I took some classes at a community college. Afterwards I tried the full-time work / full-time school thing again, but by now I had a wife and two small children and there were simply not enough hours in the day to do all I needed to do. I cut school back to part-time, and eventually put it back on hold again.

During the next 25 years or so I took a few classes here and there. There was a year-long stint in a degree completion program at a major university. I took a few classes online. It seemed that every few years I’d talk myself into starting again, only to find too many other things in my life competing for my time and money. There are courses on my transcript from at least ten different schools.

And now, I’m back at it again, working and going to school full-time. I love learning, and I don’t mind working, but let me be brutally honest - trying to do justice to both at the the same time sucks.

Yes, it is possible that you may be one of those people who will succeed without college. There are folks who manage to live happy lives without a college education, but I’ll wager you’re not one of them.

So, take my advice: don’t wait.

Get a grant, get a loan, apply for a scholarship, join the ROTC, whatever, but do it now.

How To Grow Grass

Plant vegetables.




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Round is a shape

It’s time for me to get back into cycling shape. I know, round is a shape, but that that’s not the shape I want.

My cross-the-state ride, Oklahoma Freewheel, is only three months away, so it’s high time I started riding more. The weather seems to be more cooperative this year (so far). Here it is February, and it was 74 degrees yesterday afternoon!

I went for a little ride after work yesterday. It was just a short ten mile run up the highway and back, but I did have the bike loaded as for a tour. Going into the north wind was tough and I managed only about 7 miles an hour on the way out. I also had a chance to get acquainted with a couple of young pit bulls running loose near a small house by the side of the road. They barged out to meet me with their war faces on, but when I stopped the bike and spoke to them they just looked confused, and stood around waiting to see what I would do next. Each time I started away they would begin barking and running after me, so I just decided to walk the bike until they got bored. Within 50 yards they gave up and went back to the shack.
The ride back was quick. With the wind to my back I was easily able to do twenty mph even fully loaded. Overall, it was a nice little ride.

Speaking of fully loaded, I weighed my bike when I got home. With all the panniers and accessories straped, bolted, and velcroed to the bike it weighed in at a hefty 72 pounds. That’s about 40 pounds of gear. Hopefully I can whittle that down a little before I begin the longer rides.

Texas to Kansas Again!

It’s time to start thinking about this year’s Oklahoma Freewheel Cross State Bicycle Tour. The host cities for the route have been announced, the web site is being updated regularly with good information, and the forum is buzzing already.

When I rode the Freewheel in 2006, the route was in the eastern part of the state, which has lots of hills (we call them mountains) and beautiful trees. In 2007 our route cut through the center of the state for about half the distance, then tapered off to the northeast. This year’s route will begin in southcentral Oklahoma, and then angle sharply to the west, and them back north. The topography of the western half of the state varies greatly, from hills and trees and rocky mountains, to flat plains, buttes and arroyos. One almost constant feature is the wind, usually from the southwest. We who live here learn to think of the wind as a “training aide”.

My friend Glenn and I plan to do this year’s Freewheel self-contained, that is with panniers fully loaded with all we need for the complete ride. I’ve been out for a couple quick rides this year with full panniers, and I’ve quickly learned that it requires a different riding style and a less competetive mindset. When riding fully loaded, also known as “touring”, the goal shifts from the destination to the ride itself. I’m looking forward to increasingly long training rides this spring.

In past years we drove to the start location. This year we’ll be riding from our own doorsteps to the start point, riding the week-long tour with about 800 other folks, and then riding our bikes back home. All in all, about an 11-day trip.

The week’s itinerary:

Thursday, June 4, Altus to across the Red River & back
Friday, June 5, Altus to Wichita Mt Wildlife Refuge
Saturday, June 6, Wichita Mt Wildlife Refuge to Duncan
Sunday, June 7, Duncan to Anadarko
Monday, June 8, Anadarko to Cordell
Tuesday, June 9, Cordell to Cheyenne
Wednesday, June 10, Cheyenne to Thomas
Thursday, June 11, Thomas to Fairview
Friday, June 12, Fairview to Alva
Saturday, June 13, Alva to Kiowa, KS (bus back to Duncan)
Sunday, June 14, Duncan to Wichita Mt Wildlife Refuge
Monday, June 15, Wichita Mt Wildlife Refuge to Altus

When I Retire

I've still got nearly a decade before planned retirement, but I'm getting ready now. Just to make sure I won't be getting bored (or underfoot around the house) here's a start on my list of things to do:

- Attain and maintain my ideal body weight (170 lbs?)
- Learn ballroom dancing and dance often with my wife
- Earn my Extra Class Amateur Radio ticket
- Sail the US coasts
- Practice intensive urban gardening
- Learn to swim well
- Learn to play guitar, banjo, keyboard, mandolin, tin whistle, harmonica, and other instruments
- Learn Morse code
- Learn Spanish, Irish , Comanche, and other languages
- Visit every state in the USA
- Visit every country in the world
- Learn enough about astronomy to actually find and recognize celestial bodies through a telescope
- Build a battery powered/solar charged lawn mower
- Climb a mountain
- Sailboard
- Buy a 66 mustang for my wife
- Own a motorcycle (again) for a while
- Snorkel
- Paraglide / parasail / skydive
- Learn a martial art
- Photograph a cougar in the wild
- Hike all the trails at Quartz Mountain State park
- Learn to build a bicycle wheel
- Learn mathematics through Calculus
- Kayak the North Fork of the Red River
- Ride a mule to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
- Bicycle across Oklahoma (again)
- Bicycle a stature century
- Ride a motorcycle to Alaska
- Do a kayak roll
- Snow ski
- Set up and use an 18th century woodworking shop
- Read a self-selected list of the great books
- Live to be 100 years old

Fall back

I love the weather here this time of year. It's hard to believe that I'm still harvesting tomatoes, peppers and strawberries in November! The weather is cool in the mornings, but warms up to shirt-sleeve temps in the afternoon. I like the look of the leaves on the lawn, but I guess I'll have to mow one more time this year, so the leaves will have to go.

I've been giving our dogs (and myself) more exercise lately. For the past few weeks I've been walking them almost daily. The walking pace is perfect for the chihuahua, but our high-energy schnauzer was frustrated with the slow pace. I solved that to her satisfaction by walking (running/trotting) her alongside my bicycle. I like the way people do a double-take when they see us together, me on the bike and her running beside me.

One Difference Between A Motorcycle And A Bicycle

Today I rode to work through a residential area which has a 15 MPH speed limit. The motorists were obeying the speed limit, so I was travelling at about the same speed as the motor vehicle traffic. Ahead of me was a motorcycle and behind me was an automobile. As we approached a woman walking her dog on the sidewalk along the street, I watched her reaction to the traffic. It appeared that she didn’t even notice the motorcycle rider ahead of me, but when I came alongside she smiled and said “good morning”. It occurred to me then that pedestrians probably see motorcycles as “traffic”, but they see bicyclists as “people”.

Quite a difference I would say.