Kentucky

A fun, albeit quite humid day yesterday in Cincinnati. This is an old-line majestic city with beautiful graceful architecture in many of the older neighborhoods. I have many fond memories of living here, but actually my fondest - believe it or not - are of the great biking trips I took in this city, as many great biking routes abound here - both road and trail.

Unfortunately there were few on bikes on the road today, as Cincinnati is also a town quite conducive to auto transportation and the choices of climate are 72 degrees inside or 92 degrees outside. I miss screen doors and windows and cool breezes off the Puget Sound (I really dislike air conditioning) of Bellingham. But it is drizzly and chilly today in The Ham, so maybe being in the heat is not so bad.

But we crossed into Northern Kentucky last night to see Jerry's Little Band - an older local Dead cover band that has been around forever here in Cincinnati. This morning is recovering from a late night and realizing it's 2pm and I've done nothing yet today. As Kentucky's largest legal crop is tobacco (marijuana is reputed to be number one) and they still allow smoking in bars. And everyone does. So I smoked a cigarette or two too, as to not be bothered by the second-hand smoke. But this is a vacation (sort of). C'est la vie.

Ohio

I trip I've taken probably a hundred times before in my life from Pittsburgh to Ohio down the I-79/70/71 corridor. I wonder how easy it will be to make these trips in the future now that oil is pushing $150/bbl. I am glad that driving an automobile is an option for me. My heart goes out to those people, for example, from West Virginia that needs to drive fifty miles to their Wal-Mart job in the '77 Olds Cutlass. Whether we like it or not, big change is upon us.

But I came upon an uncommon sound driving down the highway: the cicada. When I left Cincinnati a few years ago, there was a big brood hatching; this brood went underground in 1991 and emerged this year - earlier, I've read, as things are getting a bit warmer in the world. But the sound of these womderful insects, couple with the heat and humidity of the east was nice to visit.

And I was told the weather was beautiful in Bellingham, so it will be nice to come back to the changing seasons. I wish that I was there now, but many good times await in my travels in the Midwest and East Coast. Time to get ready for a wedding.

Rivers

I write from 30,000 feet beginning the descent into Hartfield Airport for my transfer to Pittsburgh. It is a minor miracle when a plane takes off on time these days. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Atlanta leg is delayed. I have bad luck in Atlanta.

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When both flights take off and land on time, a minor miracle has occurred. A smooth flight to Pittsburgh (it probably looks as nice today as this picture that I took from the web, although I am not near the downtown).

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Friday morning, quite rested. It is beautiful and sunny at eleven a.m., but supposed to be a scorcher. Catching up with an old friend and keeping him and his wife up way too late reminiscing and laughing. Off to pick up a rental car and then off to the Queen City in a bit. The highway beckons.

Scales

"Agents of the law
Luckless pedestrian
I know you're out there
With rage in your eyes and your megaphones
Saying all is forgiven
Mad Dog surrender
How can I answer?
A man of my mind can do anything"
- Steely Dan

Today is a (now) funny story about purchasing a vehicle, and and a crash course in placards and sundry legalities involving an oil truck delivered from Philadelphia. It is always a wise thing to be nice to men in uniform at the truck scales on I-5 when they can potentially cause much grief. And as much as I hate cell phones, today mine quickly came to the rescue. A few quick calls to some trustworthy co-workers (actually more like friends) quickly rectified the situation.

Today? More drear. More clouds. More cold. Out of the frying pan into the fire. The next few weeks will be traveling to the inexorable humidity and heat of the east. And sadly leaving my house mate and wart-faced pit bull/boxer as summer begins to unfold in Bellingham and spirits lift.

Oh, and the picture is of the living room, replete with the overflowing colors from the pink rhodies filling the room. Someday the eighties decor will come back in style. Just wait and see. It's Maggie's couch anyway.

The next post will be from on the road.

More Bay

Here is another picture taken from a truck we drove around SF with someone I work with. It was plenty of fun to drive around in a big beefy box truck getting my hands (and clothes) dirty. After being a spreadsheet jockey for much of my life, it is good to do some things with my hands in my work life. Yes, I work on motorbikes, sailboats, gardens and bicycles, but getting out in the cab of a truck is always a welcome change. Productivity is measured differently in these types of jobs, so it is aways nice to to gain a different perspective by doing this. Yeah, the picture is not very good, but the memories it elicits are for me for probably greater than for you.

Today is a day that the East Coast sounds tempting: Rain, followed by drizzle, followed by clouds. But the east is experiencing temperature in the nineties. A friend stopped by today and the three of us decided that the crummy Bellingham weather is still preferable to heat and humidity the the other parts of the country already (or will increasingly) see. But I am looking forward to the visiting and fun of friends and family.

Business

So today I go to drop something off at a business acquaintance's office and he tells me that I am in this morning's paper. "Oh goodness," I think to myself. But he tells me is is for something good - involving my work with a local start-up biofuels company and an entrepreneur group to which I belong. If you pick up the Whatcom Business Magazine (an insert to the Bellingham Herald), my picture is on page thirty.

When you do not have a car, you need to have a fully utilitarian bicycle and a decent rack. This was a picture of how I transported the tools to this work party last week a few miles down the road. In another town, passers-by would think that I am Sanchez the hired help (sorry about the ethnic slur) on his way to tend their garden, but in Bellingham it is just another cyclist that takes advantage of this über-bike-friendly town. In spite of being ringed by mountains, the town itself is quite flat, and a one-speed bike is entirely sufficient. This think I miss the most when traveling is this humble little one-speed cruiser that has taken me over hill and dale for the past few years with nary a complaint.

A productive day that began at seven fifteen with a phone call from the 605 area code (wherever that is). Signing off at one p.m. from a coffee shop in downtown Bellingham...

Junuary

Great to be back. We hit rain the other day in Southern Oregon on I-5 and welcomed it. California is quite dry (albeit quite beautiful) and scientific trends indicate that may become even more dry as the Sierras are coming out of a hundred year wet cycle. Oh well, let it rain in Bellingham. Actually today was just dreary and cold. I still got a bit of work done, with a bit more work work done. The lack of sun quickly drains any enthusiasm.

Hopefully the trip back east will put me back in Bellingham for some nice weather this summer. This was a summer that was earned and I have no plans to travel further than a hundred miles from Bellingham from July through October. Now it is time to get to sleep, as a mellow week ensues, yet I am sure it will fill up quickly.

Oh, and the picture above is from the Pacific Coast Highway near the lighthouse in Montara, California. I took this picture a few days ago.