#SoCS: Gotta Photograph, Picture of

“I don’t need your photographAll I’ve got is a photograph” Def Leppard’s 1973 hit song was about a woman, but it was the first sound bite that played in my head upon reading Linda Hill’s prompt for this week. I AM a child of 70’s and 80’s rock and roll, after all, so naturally… This post will not be about a song or specific person, but, rather, about sharing some of the thousands of photographs I’ve taken over the years,Read more

#SoCS: Misplaced Confidence

Sometimes… Things don’t go as planned. Or expected. And the confidence we start with takes a dirty tumble. As in expecting the first snowfall to wait until December and it shows up on Halloween instead. As in when you expect a naughty cat to stop being naughty or a whiny cat to stop being whiny when company comes over. Nope, not gonna happen. When the confidence of biking 20 miles on a gorgeous autumn day, after not having been onRead more

#SoCS: Tuning Back In

Forgive me, blogging spirits, it’s been six weeks since my last post. The summer has been all-consuming with the many things. I admit…I have not been in tune with the writing community and for that, I am a little bit sorry. For penance, I will say five Hail WordPress’s and share the following post. Amen. And where have I been, you may ask? Watching men and women tune their guitars during the Mile of Music Festival for three days inRead more

#SoCS: Profound and Pink

She steps out into the morning sun, a growing child of five, taking in the warmth of spring and new beginnings. The child heads to her love, a pink bike that sits in the corner of the yard, the one thing that brings adventure to her life as the tires spin across the grass and gravel. The sun beckons her down the block, across the cracks of sidewalk cement and slowly, across decades, she ages into her real self, theRead more

Monday Morning Catch-Up

No, I am not back in Colorado. The week I returned from the mountains, we did get early snow (which didn’t stick), but my brother wasn’t quite as lucky. While our weather improved, his deteriorated for a bit. Thankfully, we are both back to nicer weather, although the photo above would make a nice Christmas postcard. The last two weeks have flown by with a mountain of busy-ness. Personal/doctor appointments, cat sitting for a friend, churchy stuff, getting together withRead more

#SoCS: Happy Colorado Places

Eleven days in heaven. A happy place. Mountains, canyons, cliffs, yellow aspens, flowers, views for miles. Many of you know that bicycling in the warmer months is my usual happiness, but a visit to Colorado in autumn is breathtaking. Being out in nature is my jam, whether on bike or hiking on foot. Nearer to God, nearer to the planet’s creation, nearer to the sights and smells that create a feeling of calm and peace. Unless, of course, I amRead more

SoCS: Bagging the Last Two Weeks

Gibbs bagged himself a spot on the couch arm recently, and hung out. He was happy his human was home from vacation, but nevertheless gave that “poor, poor me” vibe. Things would turn worse, unfortunately, when the poor soul went to the vet for dental and had two incisors pulled. They are smaller teeth between the canines on the upper and lower jaw. I had a cat once that had all of his lower incisors pulled and afterward, he hadRead more

Capturing Life

“We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us.“ On Adrian’s Island, Jefferson City, MO, the pieces of the extra-large chessboard travel often, but not too far. There is no escape outside the square. Biking buddy and I returned from a nine-day vacation to Missouri. Our intent was to bike six days on the Katy Trail, but it ended up being only four days and 82.5 miles. The best laid plans… Actually, the heat prevented usRead more

#SoCS: Trails are the Easy Part

For this week’s Stream of Consciousness, Linda G. Hill has made it easy for me to post: “Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “trail/trial.” Use one, use both, use them any way you’d like. Bonus points if you use both. Have fun!” First and foremost, I will not be responding to trial. There’s a celebrity trial going on right now (haven’t watched a second of it) that is much in the media and seemingly never-ending. I think thisRead more

#SoCS: Bike Tripping

Biking buddy and I have been busy planning an end-of-June trip to Missouri. The Katy Trail, at 237 miles, is the longest “rail-to-trail” recreational delight in the United States. Spanning East to West from Machens to Clinton, it follows the path of the Missouri River for most of its length. We will be biking the western half of the trail, with visits to the Clydesdale ranch, breweries, wineries, and historic buildings thrown in. In preparation, biking buddy and I madeRead more

#WATWB: Fox Cities Trail System

For this month’s We Are the World Blogfest, I’m going to share the Fox Cities trail system in the Appleton, Wisconsin area. These are some of the biking/walking trails that I utilize throughout the year, but most often in spring, summer and autumn. I may have gushed about our trails before, but the community that also includes Neenah, Menasha, Fox Crossing, Kimberly, Kaukauna, Combined Locks and other surrounding townships, provide many miles of natural landscape, rivers, lakes and farmland. FromRead more

My Brother Tried to End Me, Part 2

Raspberry Mountain. The glorious, the not so glorious, and the ugly. One week after the adventures on Pancake Rocks Trail, my brother tried to end me. Again. Not intentionally, of course, but what started out as a beautiful day with a beautiful view almost ended in disaster. “Come with me,” he said. “You can hike this,” he said. “Great views at the top,” he said. Brother was correct that I could hike up Raspberry Mountain and the 360 views wereRead more