The view over the bars

The view over the barsOriginally uploaded by heavdog.Here it is folks – proof. Proof of not only a lovely evening (and spectacular sunset – have to check out my Flickr photos for more pics), but also that I did it: I got on my bike. Woohoo! I’ve been so remiss, so not in tune with the cyclist in me. It’s been all about the water this summer, I’ve been swimming, quite a bit, made it over 1/2 mile yesterday (1km, actually). With the hot weather, it’s been much more inviting to jump in the water. But today was slightly cooler, and by 8pm, it was rather inviting for a ride. So I pulled out the ‘bent, dusted off my cleats, and took the electric pumpkin for a spin…What have I been waiting for?As always, one little ride (ten miles for this one) can just put me back in the zone, make me crave more. If it hadn’t been getting dark, and had I had some sort of lights (didn’t even have my blinkie!), I might have put in another ten. Can you say obsessive? Nah, not me!But in all seriousness, it’s time. Time for me to, as Luka Bloom sings, “get up on your bike! pedal on pedal on pedal on for miles, pedal on…”

Geeks rock!

So I was fiddling around with my cell phone and Mac the other day, trying to figure out how to use my cell to get online. Y’know, connecting with bluetooth and capitalizing on the unlimited data plan I have to surf the ‘net. A handy thing to be able to do, when you’re as addicted to geekery as I am, always travel with my computer, can’t always find a coffee house with wifi. Or at least not one with free wifi. Call me spoiled, I just can’t bring myself to pay for it when so many places offer it free. Just in my neighborhood alone, there are at least six free hotspots within walking distance, so when someplace like Starbucks wants me to drop ten bucks for a day’s worth of surfing (I think they still do that – haven’t tried it for awhile), it makes sense to me to find another way. Hence the cell phone-Mac-bluetooth thing.So last night, I got online (using my own Clearwire signal) and began my search for instructions as to how to properly configure my networks settings to accomplish this task. After about an hour or so of searching, reading, setting, testing, tweaking and the like, I hit on the magic combination of numbers, and voila! I got online! I’d read warnings about how painfully slow it could be, surfing the web this way, but to be honest, it wasn’t bad. At times pages loaded slowly, but others were pretty quick to appear. I’m very excited about this, as I have a trip to the coast coming up, and it will be really nice to have access whenever and wherever I want it. I’ll post an update afterward to tell how it went.

Path of least resistance

path of least resistanceOriginally uploaded by heavdog.I’ve had this photo up on my Flickr site for less than 24 hours now, and already it’s received numerous views and been favorited a couple of times. That surprised me…I like the piece, certainly, as I created it…but of all my art, it wouldn’t have been one that I figured for an instant success.But then, I looked at it again, and read the title, and the light came on…at least it did for me.The title sums up what we all are probably looking for: the path of least resistance.Like water running downhill, we flow much more smoothly when we just go with the flow. If we do what comes right, follow the tracks laid before us, and don’t fight it, don’t try to create another way to do what’s been done – don’t reinvent the wheel – we get along so much better.It’s a lesson I know serves as a good, constant reminder to me.A sort of affirmation to keep telling myself “don’t fight it – if things are that difficult, they probably weren’t meant to be.” Relationships, work, you name it, if I’m trying hard and just spinning my wheels and going nowhere, I probably missed a turn somewhere.Time to pay more attention to my own art

Catching up is hard to do

I started this blog back in, what, March or so, with the intention of making regular entries. Regular meaning at least once or twice a week, maybe more. But ah, we know what can happen to good intentions…so here it is, the middle of summer (okay, more like early summer, but it sure seems to be the middle, what with the temps in the high 90’s and low 100’s, and the 4th of July come and gone, but I do digress…) Anyway, here I am, a teacher on vacation, with quite a bit of time on her hands, idle time, if you will, time to rant and rave and reflect on anything and everything around me. Where to begin?

I could begin with the libraries…you may remember, back in the spring, when I blogged about southern Oregon, Jackson County to be exact, suffering from a dire lack of money and facing the largest library closure in the country. I was sure there would be a last minute effort that would save our esteemed halls of literature, that the county voters would cast a resounding “yes” to a (poorly designed) ballot measure. Nope, didn’t happen. It was slapped down by either an illiterate bunch of fools, or a lot of property owners who were fed up with carrying the load that a state sales tax could easily relieve. Or both. Doesn’t really matter, ’cause here I am, on holiday, a time of year when I typically catch up on my reading, but, oh, wait, can’t read, no libraries. Oh, yeah, I could drop a bundle at B & N, or Bloomsbury, or even, heaven forbid, Costco…but that would require money, and I’m a teacher, and we know teachers aren’t exactly rolling in the dough. So, I buy a book now and then, or borrow one from a friend, or maybe hit one of the used bookstores around, but it’s just not the same. Just not the same as summers gone by, when I’d walk downtown with a friend, have a cold coffee drink at Bad Ass, wander across the street to our beautiful new library, and browse, read, maybe do a little surfing on my PowerBook…ah, those were the days. May we get to experience them again.