Alarming News: I like Morgan Freeberg. A lot.
American Digest: And I like this from "The Blog That Nobody Reads", because it is -- mostly -- about me. What can I say? I'm on an ego trip today. It won't last.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: We were following a trackback and thinking "hmmm... this is a bloody excellent post!", and then we realized that it was just part III of, well, three...Damn. I wish I'd written those.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: ...I just remembered that I found a new blog a short while ago, House of Eratosthenes, that I really like. I like his common sense approach and his curiosity when it comes to why people believe what they believe rather than just what they believe.
Brutally Honest: Morgan Freeberg is brilliant.
Dr. Melissa Clouthier: Morgan Freeberg at House of Eratosthenes (pftthats a mouthful) honors big boned women in skimpy clothing. The picture there is priceless--keep scrolling down.
Exile in Portales: Via Gerard: Morgan Freeberg, a guy with a lot to say. And he speaks The Truth...and it's fascinating stuff. Worth a read, or three. Or six.
Just Muttering: Two nice pieces at House of Eratosthenes, one about a perhaps unintended effect of the Enron mess, and one on the Gore-y environ-movie.
Mein Blogovault: Make "the Blog that No One Reads" one of your daily reads.
The Virginian: I know this post will offend some people, but the author makes some good points.
Poetic Justice: Cletus! Ah gots a laiv one fer yew...
Out: 8:47am
In: 4:16pm
Start: Guerneville
End: Calistoga
Distance: 42.9 mi
Trip total: 183.1 mi
Forty miles isn’t much, so I knew I could afford a late start. And it was necessary, since I was at the mercy of the cottage’s continental breakfast, doors unlocking at eight o’clock. No dead animals on the table, so I spent some more minutes loading up on yogurt, a bagel, banana, apple, coffee and orange juice. I’m exerting myself as if two-thirds of my age never happened; I gotta eat that way too.
In what turned out to be a harbinger of the mild inconvenience later in the day, I discovered a couple miles out I needed to firm up the rear tube with my portable pump. Having attended to that, I found Westside Road to be unexpectedly accommodating. This as a route I traced a couple weekends previous in my car, and it looked daunting. It does start out that way; a good distance of granny-gear incline that’ll test your mettle. But the residue from my bad case of the “blahs” had subsided by now, I pushed through and found the worst of it was over in a matter of minutes.
See, it’s all in how you look at it. Just like life! That’s why we do stuff like this, isn’t it?
Simplifying matters further, I found my mileage calculations were bolluxed by about three miles, to my benefit. I ended up making Healdsburg by eleven. Charming place, Healdsburg is. All the tourist-friendly stuff is strategically located on the south end of town, which is hippie’d up…with the more appealing and approachable side of hippie-dom. Think of: interior decorations, new-age music, candles, incense, moon-goddess type stuff.
I wonder if Fairhaven, the setting for my middle-school days, has been engaged in an effort to emulate Healdsburg.
The map says Calistoga is a straight shot down Highway 128 from the point where Alexander Valley Highway ends. This was outside of the route I traced by car; that’s a decision I might have made differently, knowing then what I know now. Challenges await. I had previously forecast my arrival time at 1520, and I ended up gliding in about an hour behind that, almost entirely due to difficulties in the last half-dozen miles.
Good timing, that. Calistoga is something of a bicycle-equipment-shopper’s paradise, and after inspecting and reinspecting my back tire I decided I didn’t want that old tire housing a new tube.
The GPS spot thing is just an expensive flashing light at this point. I put up some notifications on the social media everywhere I could think of it, to the effect that I’m still around and not marooned way back there, as the signal would indicate. After soaking my tired old ass in the jacuzzi for the better part of an hour, I limped off to bed and left the rear-tire repair work for the morning.
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