Thought Bricks

I’ve been keeping a journal on and off for over 30 years. It has never been a literary work, merely a recounting of what was going on that day, what was good, what wasn’t. A few years back, I started to make sure I wrote what I was thankful for each day. There is always something to be thankful for, even if it is just being alive. I’m glad I’ve kept with it because it’s fun to look back sometimes and see what I was doing and thinking about all those years ago.

I rode the 50 mile WTF yesterday in Nelson County. It’s a great ride. Beautiful scenery. Some big climbs and descents. Light traffic. My experience was a bit star-crossed yesterday. I hit the deck in the first three miles because I wasn’t paying enough attention to the road and went into a turn way too hot. Luckily, I was able to just ditch it on the grassy shoulder and escaped with some scrapes and road rash but didn’t tear my shorts or anything.

This research by The Mozilla Foundation shows an appalling lack of attention to privacy and security concerns by auto makers. I can’t decide whether is is surprising that Tesla ranked the worst. On one hand, they are (or should be) more attuned to privacy and security concerns since they are Silicon Valley oriented company. On the other hand, they seem to aggressively push the limits of technology in ways that aren’t always positive for consumers and the general public.

I’m really glad I stopped using Lastpass and deleted my account. It sounds like even after the security issue, they were misleading to customers and have done nothing to improve matters. Bitwarden continues to work really well for me. I’ve used it on iOS, Mac and Linux and it works great everywhere. The Firefox plugin is handy and does what it’s supposed to. No complaints at all. I hope they don’t get acquired.

A Zen-like tidbit from Meditations today: Keep reminding yourself of the way things are connected, of their relatedness. All things are implicated in one another in sympathy with each other. This event is the consequence of some other one. Things push and pull on each other, and breathe together, and are one. Yep. I couldn’t agree more. It’s all related. That’s difficult to see when you are mired in the day to day.

I rode up to the Pond Mountain Game Lands on Saturday. It was a brutal ride with the last couple of miles involving a bit of hike-a-bike due to the steep road and very loose gravel. I’d get some momentum off a switchback and then hit loose gravel and spin out. I might have been able to do it on a mountain bike with the wider tires but the 12 mile ride out there from Lansing would have been tough.

An article in Governing highlighted some of the benefits of sidewalks to an area’s social life and interconnectedness. I remember when we bought our house in Roanoke over 20 years ago, I wouldn’t even consider neighborhoods without sidewalks. I grew up with sidewalks everywhere and they were great for us kids to be able to play on and for the adults to get around to see each other and maybe even walk over to the grocery or community pool.

One of the best things I’ve added to my bike gear collection (in addition to some great bikes) is a Garmin Varia radar. I’ve never been that successful riding with mirrors. When I’ve tried to use them on my bar ends, they just seem to vibrate too much for me to see approaching traffic clearly. If I watch the mirror intently, I’m not looking ahead at the road, which is a recipe for disaster car or no.

The French government is spending €200 million to destroy wine due to lack of demand. That is interesting in and of itself but the most astounding figure in the article is the drop in European wine consumption: European Commission data for the year to June shows that wine consumption has fallen 7% in Italy, 10% in Spain, 15% in France, 22% in Germany and 34% in Portugal… That’s a big year over year drop.

I found some loose change under a couch cushion and decided to get myself a new mountain bike. After a lot of deliberation, I went with a Trek Top Fuel 8. Although I got it on sale, it was still quite a lot of change but the reviews were very solid and I loved the red color when I saw it in person at Blue Ridge Cyclery. I took it for a test ride and pretty much knew I was going home with it.