Life On A B-I7

Undesirable things will be visited on you at some point, of this you can be assured. As we have heard many times, what goes around comes around. Rest assured that those visiting harm on you are only hurting themselves. You can not be hurt unless you allow it.

Live a good life ruled by reason. Live in the now, not in the future.

Keep in mind your two highest priorities in life. Be a good person. Pursue an occupation that you love.

Ask yourself, “what is the best use of my limited time.” The answer to that will make you better at all things you do, in all your responsibilities.

Goodness can come to you, that is true. It is even better to find it within yourself.

No matter what you perceive your shortcomings to be, you have qualities that are beneficial to you and to others. Find them. Cultivate them.

Self-improvement is good but it should not be done for vanity’s sake. Do not confuse getting better for vane reasons with getting better to be the best person you can be.

Yesterday I became a paid subscriber to a Substack feed that I thought was good. In many ways it is a good one. But this morning I realized that it was probably a bit short on fact. (All Substacks are long on opinion.)

Opinion is fine. We all look for voices that agree with us, There is nothing wrong with that as long as we do two things: Listen for alternative voices to keep ourselves well balanced, and insist that what we do read is factual.

I found myself unsubscribing to this feed this morning, not because I didn’t like the opinion, but because it was not factual. Here is my post to the author

Do you know someone whose sole focus is making people recognize him? Tearing things down and remaking them in his own image. Starting wars simply because he can. Putting his name on currency, landmarks and public edifices. These things are of no importance. When that person is gone, he will not have any use for what people think of him. Instead of wasting time thinking about the opinions of other people, he should be focused on being the best he can be. If you are a bricklayer, be the best bricklayer you can be. If you are trusted with the leadership of your people, be the best leader you can be and focus on what is best for those who have entrusted you with that responsibility.

After my trip to India in late 2025, I started thinking about Buddhist Wisdom. It didn’t take long to realize that starting each day with a quiet period and writing would be beneficial. It has fulfilled my expectations. I see myself doing this for the rest of my life. Perhaps it will even make me a better writer at some point. Be that as it may, the quiet period which is really a time of reflection and meditation accompanied by writing, has become an important activity. What is even more satisfying is that it is slowly changing me. It is making me more patient and thoughtful. (I still have a bad habit of interrupting people when we are talking — I’m working on that too.)

I start each morning with a morning “prayer.” I hesitate to call this praying because everyone has a different idea what that means and what that should look like. Let me just say this is how I “introduce” my mind to the activity I am about to undertake.

If someone offends you, don’t wish them to be better, take action. Talk to them, they may not be aware of their insult.

If you can’t find it in yourself to speak up, you have no reason to be offended.

Another way of looking at a wrong that has been done to you is that the best revenge is to seek no revenge at all. Seeking revenge proves to the other person that they were justified in the first place. Do not give people that kind of power over you.

by Arthur C. Brooks

This is a great book. A lot to unpack. It’s a good book to own and read once a year. This is the sort of book that provides different insights as you age. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Along the lines of different insights as you age. If you are still in your working career, there’s great advice here, so to if you are retired. I am retired, so I was pleased to see that Brooks addressed my situation with the same energy and thoughtfulness that he did for the career oriented reader.

I pickled up this title at the library because I enjoy reading Arthur Brooks’ contributions to The Atlantic magazine. I consider myself a fairly happy fellow. I’ve been fortunate to find a fair bit of meaning in my life, for that I am grateful. Still, I wanted to see what Brooks had to say on the subject. Based on his recommendations, I find myself doing a number of things well. The things that add meaning and happiness to a life. One can always do more — and I intend to, but reading Arthur’s book has given me confidence I’m doing a lot of things well. So what are those things? This is a book review, not a confession. I encourage you to grab a copy and dig in like I did. I think you will find it rewarding.

Trump is receiving the Annual International Peace Prize at The Hague! What he doesn’t realize is that as soon as he appears there he is going to be arrested like a Venezuelan dictator and put on trial for war crimes. I’m hoping my ticket to attend arrives in the mail soon!

Dealing with difficult people should be viewed as an opportunity, not as something to dread. The fact that we face difficulty is the very prerequisite we need for development of patience. Silently thank difficult people for the opportunity they are giving you. Roll the ball back slowly to them so they can pick it up without having to wander all over the court.

It would not surprise me if the Beatles learned this while in Rishikesh at the Maharishi Yoga’s Ashram. I’ve been there. It was a moving experience.

“I’m going to be honest with you… I’m going to be straight with you…”

These are not honest words. You don’t need to preface your words with such qualifications. The honest person speaks clearly and without hyperbole.

As you scroll these pages you will find detailed maps, route planning, information about equipment and a little bit about my past tours.

This is my third trans-continental bicycle tour. This will complete the “trifecta” of trans-continental bicycle tours. There are three established routes across the United States, The Southern Tier, from San Diego California to St. Augustine Florida, which I completed in 2019, the TransAmerica Tour from Yorktown Virginia to Astoria Oregon, which I completed in 2023, and the Northern Tier tour, from Anacortes Washington to Bar Harbor Maine, which I plan to begin June 1st.

Beginning June 1st I will be posting a story each day with a photo. Please feel free to drop into this site and follow along. To follow the daily updates, you can use the following link.

Side note: for those of you living in Oregon, you will be interested to know that the first woman to trans-con was the Grandmother of the owner of Chariot Bike right here in Bend. It’s a great shop.

Enjoy the ride!

I stumbled into the phrase cohesiveness. As applied to writing, it refers to when there are logical flaws in the context.. We’re not just talking about the tense of words not matching; we’re talking about calling something “red” and then turning around in the next sentence and calling it “blue.” (Almost that bad.) It was also pointed out to me that I love the run-on sentence. I was told to look up the definition of the “colon.” All I can say in my defense is that I haven’t paid much attention to conjunctions in the past. I’m going to have to rewire my brain to look for separate ideas and quit putting them together as one idea. (This problem is largely one of deep internal disorganization between the two hemispheres of my brain, I’m sure.)

I’m working on it…

I’ll figure out what a paragraph is at some point too…

Leave the past behind. Let the future take care of itself. Our job is to guide the present with right action.

We need to persist in what is right and resist what is wrong.

Adjectives are used to describe nouns and pronouns. They can also describe other adjectives. They are used to tell how many, what kind, or which ones.

There are a couple special adjectives, but their function is the same.

Demonstrative: this, that, these, those.

Proper: Thanksgiving dinner, Italian food, Catholic religion.

Articles are sometimes thought to stand alone, but they are a type of adjective. The words: a, an, and the, are articles.

I went away for 3 days and my cat was distraught. The third day I was away he only touched a bite of his food. He had a companion in the house all but the third day too. I’m back now, it’s the next morning, he has been shadowing me all morning. He’s sitting on my desk right now as I write this, head on the book I was reading so I can no longer turn the page — I’m sure he does this because he knows that prevents me from ignoring him. He has learned my ways thoroughly.

He’s not going to be happy in June when I go away for three months. I’m going to feel almost as bad as he will. I regret that. Someday I will come home and he won’t be there any longer. He’s been my companion for well over six years, I’ve stopped counting. I adopted him after my second divorce. (He and I both have sordid backgrounds.) He has stood faithfully by me, never holding back his affection. Cats are marvelous creatures. I have tried to be there for him as completely as he has been there for me. It makes me sad to think that when I go away in June, he won’t understand what is going on.

Always ask yourself before you act, is what I am about to do consistent with who I am, is it consistent with who I want to be.

The big deal last weekend was the Emerald City Ride in Seattle. Over 3,000 cyclists rode from Lumen field in South Seattle over the West Seattle Bridge to Alki Point then along the West Seattle shoreline and back over the West Seattle hill returning to Lumen Field. There was just over 1,000 feet of climbing. I added an additional 5 miles to and from my hotel in Georgetown for a total morning ride of just under 30 miles. I was mildly surprised that I made it without having to give up on any hills. There were two rest stops. The first I stopped at briefly to quickly snap a photo and the second briefly to use the port-a-potty. Grand total rest time, perhaps 10 minutes. I completed the entire 30 miles in just under 3 hours. (That’s solid touring speed.) At the second rest stop I chatted with a fellow, He complemented me on my Davidson. He said he has a friend that owns seven of them. That is hard to appreciate. You could probably buy a Porsche for the price of seven Davidson’s.

There is nothing as good for the soul as wisdom. Seek it out. Avoid adopting the opinions of others as wisdom. Don’t be lazy, do the work.