December 1

This date always seems to me an important one but for no particular reason. Nothing much happened historically. Woody Allen was born today and Rosa Parks was arrested on the bus on this date. Sherlock Holmes first appeared in print on December 1. I guess the Rosa Parks anniversary is important enough but nothing else big is celebrated. Still I always wake up on this date feeling like it is an important day.

The new year is only a month away with Christmas still to get through. I am reminded of the loss of my mother on December 26, three years ago now. I dunno. It just seems like it is an important day.

The Ducks royally kicked the Beaver’s ass this year at Reser Stadium. Quite a fun game to watch as I mentioned in my response to Robert’s comment about revenge. I guess we can still hope for UCLA to beat USC and allow the Beavs in throught back door but that seems unlikely.

I went for a 20 mile, well 19 actually, bicycle ride before the game. Not all that far but it feels good to be getting back into it. The ride was unusual for around here as I had to ride through some mucky sections of the dirt road as a result of the heavy rains we had a few days ago. Here’s a photo of the Safari. You can see the mud on it and I had yet to go through the worst section.

The weather here is perfect with highs in the 70’s and lows in the 40’s. We’ve been sitting still for almost two months now, about the longest stretch without moving since we retired.

I’ve been planning a motorcycle journey using maps and gps coordinates provided by Adventurecycling. The routes are intended for bicycling but seem to me to make excellent motorcycle rides as well. One of the routes is called the Underground Railroad and goes from Mobile Alabama to Canada along the route used by slaves attempting to escape. It is filled with historical sites from the civil war as well and I am thinking about doing that on the new trike this spring. We’d also like to make our first visit to the New Orleans Mardi Gras too which culminates on February 24 this year, Fat Tuesday. We’ll see. Here’s the route from the website.

Greg