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Thoughts on Two Wheels: May 23, 2014
The late afternoon air is cool and biting as I step into the pedals to begin my first real ride of 2014. I’ve taken the precaution of wearing a long sleeve shirt under my jersey to provide some needed warmth. Within minutes, as I enthusiastically push the pedals with a sense of joy and urgency,…
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The Sound of Heartbreak Made Vocal
Early in 1973, two of my brothers and myself were given the job of painting an upstairs bedroom in our house. Once we got past the usual hem-hawing and protestations of having to expend valuable time engaged in such an onerous task, we settled in for an afternoon of slinging paint against the wall and…
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Thoughts on Two Wheels: September 21, 2013
The remnants of rain clouds still populate the sky while rays of sunshine cascade through the trees and dry the asphalt. It’s late afternoon on this last day of summer and time is of the essence: I’ve only an hour or so to squeeze a ride in before twilight renders the exercise moot. The route…
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Thoughts on Two Wheels: September 9, 2013
Melancholy has been stalking my days. Her lugubrious melodies have risen above the background threshold of noise and are inviting me to become enmeshed and enveloped in their intoxicating spell. A veritable chorus of inner critics are raising their voices in unison, clamoring for attention and begging me to invite melancholy to stay for a…
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Thoughts on Two Wheels: August 27, 2013
My watch indicates it’s 12:00 noon as I pedal down the driveway to begin another ride. With a couple of checks to deposit, I head in the direction of my local bank. Five miles and fifteen minutes later, I’ve reached my destination. A quick, in-and-out, and I’ll be back on the bike heading off for…
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Thoughts on Two Wheels: August 14, 2013
It’s another unseasonably cool day in northeast Ohio. Heavy, dark clouds seem to threaten precipitation and a stiff wind greets my first pedal strokes as I venture forth on my two-wheeled, bliss-generating machine. After a quick stop at the local post office, I’m back on the road with only the vaguest idea of a route…
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Thoughts on Two Wheels: July 28, 2013
Although the calendar tells me it’s the end of July, the weather outside my door seems to suggest I’ve bypassed a couple of months and have found myself setting off for a ride in late September. I’m wearing a long-sleeve shirt underneath my bike jersey to make the chill in the air more palatable. There…
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Jesse Washington
When you have a society that takes at its founding the hatred and degradation of a people, when that society inscribes that degradation in its most hallowed document, and continues to inscribe hatred in its laws and policies, it is fantastic to believe that its citizens will derive no ill messaging. It is painful to…
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Thomas Jefferson & Sally Hemings
All lies and jest, still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest. — Paul Simon The most salient and pertinent observation to be made concerning the Jefferson-Hemings controversy is the results of the DNA study (published in Nature in 1998) did NOT prove Thomas Jefferson fathered Sally Hemings’ offspring. Instead,…