Blue is the color of the ocean, and the color of cold lips.
Grey is the color of pigeons, and pocket lint.
Brown is the color of mountains and dirt and old bananas and beat up apples and a scoop of chili and new shoes and a sweet chocolate bar.
White is the color of snow.
Red is the color of blood.
What and which color we find among things depends a great deal on what we’re expecting. Maybe we were looking for shadows, and we found shadows. We focused on the shadows so that’s where we landed.
If, on the other hand, we were looking for bright rainbow-tinted glamors of sunlight, prisming through the distant window, we may find exactly that. One thousand walls between us and the window might be powerless to stop us from seeing the bright light we wanted to see. No one is quite sure how to blockade a determined mind.
Lemon is the color of yellow.
Orange is the color of itself.
Sand is the color of tan.
Grass is the color of sand, and at times even green.
Wind is the color of whatever’s in it.
What we find in the wind is often the same as what we find in the world—whatever we’re searching to find. The color of choice. The color of the moment. The color of our mood.
There is a reason for our momentary mood. It’s what we choose, and it’s what we were after in the first place.
If you’re tired of those greyed-out pocket lint moods, choose a different mood. Start looking for a different color. Choose accordingly.
Sure, you can choose a sour mood, a moment of focusing on shadows, focusing on bruises and blemishes, or even focusing on fire. Maybe you woke up tired of everything and you were hoping something would explode and burn—remember though, when the fire spreads it often spreads to the one who started it. That’s a metaphorical way of saying you might be mad, but someone else might be madder. Seems like there’s always someone madder.
Terrible moods can jump gaps exactly like fire, burning not only things touching, but also things nearby.
The sad thing is that when things get burnt, they’re no longer useful.
Fortunately, great moods can spread like sunlight through windows, shrinking the shadows and brightening the dim corners.
Isn’t it great that sunlight spreads without destroying? Let’s focus on that.
It’s not really about who thinks they rule the trails.
It’s about the little bits of bike we all leave behind. It’s about the side of the tree with scrapes from the multitude of bikers who couldn’t see the towering thing and hit it with a handlebar. It’s about the plastic bottle wedged in a gopher hole.
Not even about the best athletes, or the stamina, or endurance, or the ones with balance, the point is about Nature’s balance, so it’s about and around and circumscribed on the need to leave nature with less damage, more care.
A singletrack should stay single.
The beauty of mountain biking is to have some exhilarating activity in a remote setting. While the remoteness may vary, the beauty should not, and so I send this plea into the wild webs: take care of the trails.
With that pleading, I offer this promise: if you take care of the trails, you will be the one who rules them.
There really is no doubt in my mind. The ones who keep the trails pristine are the ones who rule. Those who pick up litter when they see it, and don’t leave any litter of their own, are kings and queens of higher order.
There is ease in not doing upkeep. There is leisure in not repairing things when you see them broken, or even when you break them. Don’t be the one who rides past and says to himself, or herself, “Someone else will fix it.”
It’s fine if you don’t have the tools on hand at that very moment and you need to come back later. So long as you do. After all, not everyone rides around with a chainsaw on their back.
The answer to the old riddle, “If a tree falls in the woods and there’s no one around to hear it, does it make a sound?” is “Yes, it makes a sound that every true mountain biker hears, and when they hear it, they stop whatever they’re doing and worry out loud, ‘Oh no, there’s a trail blockage somewhere.'”
It’s awesome to witness, like watching Obi-Wan Kenobi sensing the force.
One last item is this: those who go out to do some trail grooming, not with gas-powered tractors, but with picks and shovels, axes and machetes, well those are my heroes. They sacrifice perfectly good riding hours to put in some work hours. They make the trails clear enough for a two-wheeled traveler to pass. They put the dead wood back in the forest where it belongs.
What if car names were like rock band names? What kind of music would your rock and roll car play?
Sonoma (GMC)? Definitely something with a horn section, and a stand-up bass.
Jetta (VW)? …would play some hard and heavy licks like “Are You Gonna Be My Girl?”.
Impala (Chevy)? Probably would play some otherworldly rarities with a deep baritone singer and a tambourine.
Faster (Isuzu)? Oh yeah, you know this one is the speed metal band car (truck) of all rock and roll cars.
Wizard (also Isuzu)? This one has an obvious fantasy metal band vibe.
Catalina (Pontiac)? Mellow island music. No question.
Jimny (Suzuki)? That’s not a hard one. It would play some blistering, bluesy guitar solos.
Sesto Elemento (Lambo)? Moody alternative rock would come out of this one.
Honcho (Jeep)? Probably a country/western type, don’t you think?
Corsair (Ford)? Electronic music of some kind. Some type of music that sounds like the future, at times gritty and edgy, and other times smooth and melodic.
The above are only a handful of the car models out there. This list could go on for days and days. But what fun would it be for you if I commented on all of them. So now it’s your turn. You can even play this game while driving around. Have fun with it.
You may get tired of all the “dad jokes” in June, so let’s talk more about bikes.
There isn’t anything I can think of that has more varieties than the cycle. There’s the unicycle, the recumbent cycle, the cruiser, the tandem, the tricycle, the roadie, the BMX, the mountain bike, the balance bike, the gravel bike, the foldable bike, the electric bike, the handcycle, the training-wheel cycle, and the sidecar bicycle. So many people have had ideas on their own brand and breed of cycle that the possibilities still seem to be relatively untapped. What could you dream up, invent, and produce?
Before you invent whatever’s on your mind, let’s look at what the others listed really are.
For instance, you probably already know what a tricycle is. It’s a cycle with three wheels. They aren’t only for sidewalk riding by children. They come in adult sizes too. They can be a fantastic way to get groceries, or to get exercise. They’re perfect for people who no longer have good balance, or, yes, for people too young to have developed balance yet. The training-wheel cycle is based on the same concept, except it will most likely have four wheels: two average sized wheels and two very small wheels stretching out to the sides of the bike to keep the bike upright.
The unicycle is in complete opposition to the tricycle and the training-wheel cycle. It’s for people with excellent to amazing balance. The unicycle is only one wheel, a fork, and a seat on top of the fork. The fork will incorporate the crank arms and pedals. To balance, usually the rider will use his or her own arms to extend out to the sides. A rocking motion is often how the unicycle rider starts and stays in one place. Then if you’re crazy, you put on a cape and juggle machetes.
A recumbent cycle is just a low-rider cycle. It has a low profile, so low that the person riding it can almost recline. If you’ve ever seen these on the streets, you probably noticed that they have a flag extending up from behind the seat. That’s so people in cars and trucks can see them and not run them over.
The cruiser, also sometimes called a beach cruiser, is a bicycle with a high center of gravity and taller handlebars. This kind of bicycle was meant for casual rides on roads and boardwalks. They would often be fitted with a basket for hauling things.
Although the tandem is meant for people to double up in the twin seats, they can be ridden by one person. Many models of the tandem bicycle have a “command” seat, or the seat which absolutely has to have a rider, and then the other seat is just a helper seat, where the person helps to pedal, but can’t steer. A few have been rigged up with crazy steering gear so that either seat is the “command” seat.
Road bikes are common enough, though they do come in a few varieties. There are racing models which are feather light and have a lot of gears for playing catch-me-if-you-can. Others are more for the average person who wants to get fit on a flat piece of asphalt, but they’re still roadies, no less legitimate than the pro-racers. Gravel bikes and cyclocross bikes are slight variations of the road bike—both with thicker, sturdier components to make traveling off road more fun.
BMX bikes and mountain bikes are off road rigs. They usually boast tiny saddles, and thicker and/or knobbier tires. They also have beefy welding for rougher handling.
Balance bikes are cool. They’re basically just a bike frame, some wheels, and handlebars. No pedals. A balance bike is for kids to be trained, without training wheels, how to balance on a two-wheeled vehicle.
A foldable bike is exactly what it sounds like: a bike that folds. It’s the Transformer of the biking world. It folds up and turns into a…robot?…no, just a bike that fits into smaller spaces, such as the trunk of a car, or a closet.
The e-bike is only an electric bike. It’s really, at the heart of it, just a motorcycle. There are “assisted pedaling” varieties, and 100% driven varieties. Regardless of how much they push you, they do push you, so if some muscley mountain biker calls you a “cheater”, take it with a measure of humor. He may be afraid that he is going to be old like you someday.
By the way, there are loads of companies which make electric motorcycles. These electric motorcycles are as fast as the gas varieties, and they’re out there on the streets, right now.
The sidecar, in my humble opinion was destined to happen, since it’s just a more friendly way to tow someone. Trailers make it difficult to talk to whoever you’re pulling, hence the sidecar bike.
One of the coolest inventions is the handcycle.
The handcycle is often thought of as an accommodation for people with limited or no use of their legs, however, such a bike can be for anyone wanting to feel the experience. Honestly, it has to take some massive amounts of upper body strength to drive one of these handcycles. If you can imagine that mountain biker who called the e-biker a “cheater” coming up alongside the biker on a handcycle, then the biker on the handcycle would just snicker at that wimpy mountain biker and drive off into the sunset.
To live with worry and stress is to live a short life.
The secret many long-living people don’t disclose is to keep life simple. Less is more, in this case. Minimalist living is healthy living.
If you have less stuff, you have fewer worries.
Another secret to a long and healthy life is to make time to play. Find something you enjoy, such as a pastime or sport. Do it as often as possible. Make it a priority.
After you’ve played, don’t forget to get a fair helping of rest. Resting, relaxing, ruminating; these are essential elements when preparing for an extended stay on planet Earth.
Family love is another common theme in places where average ages are high. Apparently, if you want to live to a ripe old age, get yourself a family.
Longevity seems to be linked with laughter too. People in countries where humor is held in high esteem tend to stretch the years.
Obviously, the best way would be to have a family full of comedians. Raise children who love to laugh and play, then your long life will be ensured.
Xenosthesia.com 