I biked over to Memorial [hospital] for my new prescription and waited an hour in the cafeteria. They’ve been on a hiring binge as the room was full of young nurses, which it usually is not. There’s something about a gal in uniform. Not only that, the coffee was cheap at $1.47 and darn good, too. I’m just sayin’.Let’s look into my “why didn’t I think of that” department. Some outfit called Wordnik.com has a complete dictionary site with a kick. You can hear the word pronounced and 36 examples of its usage. It also traces the word history and gives statistics on how often you can expect to hear the word every year.
I’ve gotten an invitation to contact a group who are planning on learning the guitar together. I jumped at the chance and will keep you posted. I know nothing but can infer they already have a location, instruments and motivation. A few years on the south Florida hamster cage has taught me a even room full of guitar players may still not be adequate to find the right person to team with. I had the long talk with Eddie today.
There was a special on weapons on the History Channel, I am learning to like Friday TV. One featured vehicle was the Renault, a two-man tank from 1917. It gets mention as the first time I have ever seen any media correctly portray this tank for the major breakthrough it represented. It was astounding to see one in actual working condition and it would still do justice in the right situation.
I apologize for assuming I was the only one who did not know about organized major bicycle tours until recently. Understand to me touring was something other people did, and I am basically a solo rider. So today I present a special on the details of the concept that appeal most to me. The overall cost appears to be around $1 per mile but can escalate steeply for specialized guided trips or very short distances. The bicycle trails span all of America, for example the “Southern Tier” goes from Sacramento, CA to St. Augustine, FL. That is a total of 3,160 miles and costs $3,300.
The trips are graded for difficulty and each club (there seem to be around 100 clubs) has their own scale for this. The major journeys have up to 60 riders and daily mileage is far too random to spot any pattern, but I’d guess at least 30 miles. I can regularly handle 40 miles. Some tours are “self-contained”, where each rider is given an allocation of community gear to pull along in a two-wheel trailer. Other tours have a luggage van that drives ahead and waits for the group. And hopefully puts the coffee on.
Unless otherwise specified, overnights are at campgrounds, community parks, state parks and so on, with each fourth day at a motel. The literature is careful not to mention whether these stays are included. Many of the tours, and this is the activity that sells me, feature shared cooking duties. Everybody gets a turn cooking for the group. Now that sounds like fun. The best meal of this year was the lunch Wallace and I had at a public picnic table in Key West. If I’ve sparked any interest, just google bicycle tours. The clubs want up to a $300 non-refundable membership and your life history. Even if I make my big trip (Sault St. Marie to Spokane) on my own, I am seriously considering a guided tour just for the experience.
Last, I stopped at the local spot to work the crossword puzzle and got roped into being the Bingo caller. The small pots ($10 to $20) keep it a light affair and some housewife tried to pick me up, argh. Right in front of everybody and loudly going into detail of what she had planned for us. Too bad she wasn’t my type by at least forty pounds. Plus I recall seeing her at a pub over on US-1 when Theresa and I were there last March. The point is, I found out I make a top-notch caller. And almost won second prize, if you follow.
[Author's note 2015-08-15: little did I know this bingo game would turn out to be one of the most successful part-time ventures of my life. Five and a half years of fun using mostly stage gear that would otherwise have gone to seed. Only the demise of the business in December 2014 brought this mini-goldmine to an end.]
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