Category Archives: Bicycling

Mad Dogs & Englishmen

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“Crappy bikes make Baby Jesus cry”

Mad Dogs & Englishmen is a Monterey area bicycle store chain. The pictured location is in Carmel. As bike shops go, it is one of the best that I have seen. We have rented bikes from them many times in the past. Once, they rented us really nice ones, instead of their usual crappy rental fare, in the hope that we would then buy them, but it was not to be. We had used their Monterey location for this. Taking off from downtown Monterey, we would ride along the coast, around the peninsula, through Pacific Grove, to Pebble Beach and back. Pictured are two bicycles. The pink one has a sidecar, which are usually employed to cart small dogs. The other bike sports a surfboard rack. I later saw a bike with this kind of rack being employed down the hill, by Carmel beach.

The World’s Greatest Grandpa

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The World’s Greatest Grandpa

Ron was a devout man. He was a good man. He was my friend. We were bicycle buddies. He was one of the Ons: Don, Ron and John. These were guys that I regularly rode with and who would call home, while I was still at work. Teenage David, home alone, would answer the phone and tell them that I was not yet home. When I did get home, I would ask Dave if anyone had called. He would always answer that one of the Ons had called. I would be left to figure out which one.

Yesterday, Anne and I attended Ron’s memorial service. It was an open casket affair. I hate those. His funeral is today, but I do not plan on attending. Anne cautioned me about this decision, “You know, it you don’t go to Ron’s funeral, he probably won’t come to yours.” Ron had Parkinsons and he died from complications of his treatment for that disease.

A week ago, Ron’s daughter called me, to tell me her father’s death. I got the word out and there was a good showing of other bicyclists. In addition to John, there was Tony, both former coworkers of mine at Control Data. Sandi and Chris also came. I realized later that we had obtained quorum for the former TWA MS-150 bicycle team. Sandi was team captain and the rest of us rode for the team. Don was also on this team, and he then went on to found Kaldi’s bicycle team.

Little Church of St. Nicholas

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Since the election, I have begun rewatching Ken Burn’s Civil War series. Yes, I am plunging the depths of my despair these days. This is because I have been exposed to the aftereffects of modern civil war, with our Croatian holiday. In the runup to this vacation, Anne and I questioned each of our dads, whether they had ever visited this country before. Both had done extensive international travel, but when they were traveling, the Balkans were a no-go zone. YouTube influencers cautioned us not to broach the subject of this conflict with the locals. Arriving with boots on the ground this idea was especially reinforced. The British travel company that we had signed up with for our bicycle tour, had subcontracted the actual bike tour guide work to a Serbian company. Both of our guides, Bela and Božo (pronounced Bo-jo), were Serbian nationals and Božo was old enough to have served in the war. The one exception to this silence was the Memorial Room of Dubrovnik Defenders, a place of remembrance that we visited. Most of the photos in this post were taken at this site.

Since we were in-country there have been new world developments. Both Serbia and Croatia announced that they were each reintroducing their draft. Also, Croatia announced that it is purchasing 36 modern German Leopard tanks, while selling their older Russian tanks to Ukraine. Ukranian President Zelensky visited Dubrovnik for a conference while we were there. Security arrangements for his visit disrupted the city. On that day we left the bike tour and moved closer to old town. Our Uber driver “treated” us to an angry diatribe denouncing the comedian Zelensky. The drumbeat of war is getting louder in the Balkans and Putin’s shadow longer. In our post-election blues, while we sit here dejectedly navel gazing, remember that the world moves on, and we must too.