A Manifesto, Of Sorts, and Some Catching Up

 

I rode the Scrambler down to Kaladi Brothers, this morning, only to be greeted by this Mayan column on the sidewalk. There is a Mayan exhibit on the way to the Museum Of Nature and Science, and this is some pretty good advertisement, in my opinion.

I took today off because, for the first time in 6 months, I am caught up, at work and I have tomorrow through Monday off, due to the Fourth of July falling on a scheduled day off. As I rode to the coffee shop, I was thinking about the state of blogging, in general, and the state of my blogs, in particular.

I have posted here, in the past, about the scourge that is FaceBook. I use FB, primarily, to promote the band, because the audience is there. There is something to be said about putting your info out on a platform with a billion potential sets of eyes trained upon it. But, that is about all I like it for.

I am a self-confessed gabby bastard, and I like to share my thoughts and experiences with people, in a way that conveys more than "OMG this is so cool!" or "Frowny Face". Likewise, I prefer to get some details about not only what is going on in your life, but, maybe, how you feel about it, as well.

I started blogging in 1996, as a way to keep my sister informed on what I was doing, without having to email Word documents to her, complete with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one. In the course of the next few years, through commenting on other people's blogs, and having other people discover my blog and comment on it, I began to feel like part of a dynamic online community. 

I met some people I consider friends, some of whom (Michael, Sarah, Bill, Tim, Noah...) I actually met in person, along the way. These were people with interests similar to mine (obviously, since they checked out my blog), and outlooks which meshed with mine, once they read my posts. Total strangers, who happened upon my blog...

And, I happened upon many other people who I have yet to meet, but with whom I feel a kinship. Along the way, I even experienced an unexpected heartbreak when one of my "blog buddies" had a stroke and passed away. I lost a little piece of my heart, that day.

I don't have that same experience on FB, and you are not supposed to. The only people you connect to on FaceBook are either people you know, or people who know people that you know. The audience is much smaller than the "billion sets of eyes" would lead you to believe. And, that might be how some people like it, never having to deal with unknown individuals, but I find it limiting.

Plus, the incessant ads and political posts just turn my stomach. I can't escape them, if I want to check out the posts of people I care about.

So, I am streamlining my online presence. To make it simple to keep up with what I am doing (if you are interested), as of today, I am shutting down all of my other blogs (although I'll leave them online, in case anyone wants to check something out), and I will post everything on Two Wheels. Maybe I'll change the name to Two Wheels and Six Strings, to indicate that all of my blogging interests will show up here. (Just thinking out loud...)

I will post a link on FB, when I upload a blogpost. If you are interested in what's going on with me, follow those links. I won't be putting a great lot of non-band material up on the Book. I'll scan it, every now and then (as I do now) to see what up with all of the ex-bloggers, friends and family.

And, I hope that some of you ex-bloggers might come back into the fold. I know it's a lot of work, but you and I both know that the rewards are there, for the effort.

If you've made it this far, relax. The Manifesto is complete. Now, for the catching up:

This stack of empty buckets tells the tale of how busy I have been, since returning from Pennsylvania. My samples take four to five buckets apiece, depending on which lab submits them. There are 84 newly-cleaned buckets in that stack, and more in the sink...

This has been the busiest year I have ever had, so far, at CDOT. It's a challenge, but I'm actually feeling a little sense of accomplishment. I like that.

 Liars 

I took the photo, above, on the 17th of June. It was my second day back from vacation, and I was looking forward to not having to take the detour, which had been in place since early April. Obviously, I was out of luck. I had taken the detour on the 16th, but I gave them the benefit of the doubt, since the day wasn't over, yet. On the 17th, thought, they were late on their deadline...

They put up a new sign, a couple of days later, which promised that the path would open on June 30. It did, thankfully. Unfortunately, the project which kept the path closed for 6 or 8 weeks didn't include resurfacing. They did a bit of half-assed patching, here and there, but it's still the worst surface I ride on a regular basis. Oh well, at least it's short.

I have a bunch of bikes that I want to sell. If you are interested, keep your eyes open, and I will post them here (or links to my craigslist ads, as I put them up).

I hope that you will stay tuned. I promise many posts, in the near future, and I hope that you can spare the time to read them!

As always, I remain, yours, respectfully,

x