I can’t hardly watch the news anymore, or get on social media. I just see people losing their minds with speculation and fear. It sorta drives me nuts. We’re not all going to die, this isn’t the end of the world. Holy! It makes me want to punch a man. People need to calm the hell down.
I’m convinced human beings shouldn’t have too much idle time on their hands.
On a brighter note, gas is pretty damn cheap. I’ve seen it as low as $1.60. Being a professional social distancer and infinitely and endlessly curious about whats over the next rise, I’m waking up early to go ride tomorrow. I’m thinking Mount Lemmon above Tucson. I’ve never been there, and curiosity killed this cat. I may end up at a KOA, or find me a campground and pack a sammitch or two.
Stir-crazy. Beginning as a slang term in 19th-century London, the stir in stir-crazy means “prison.” According to the Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology, stir may have originated as a variation on Start, a nickname criminals gave to Newgate, a notorious prison throughout London’s history.
I’m a pretty steady person. I’d like to think I’m the guy who keeps a cool head when shit around him is going crazy.
But man, this being home all the time is going to drive me crazy.
Went for a ride Sunday, when I couldn’t take it anymore.
This pandemic has taught me the same thing that riding has taught me. Hell, what life has taught me.
If you fear a thing, you’ll you’ll probably not make the right decision. I’ve been scared of a lot of things over the years, and I’ve always had to overcome that fear if I wanted to make something good out of it. It’ll do what it’s going to do, and I’m going to do what I’m going to do.
Working from home has been kind of killer. My Dad used used to say “there’s a pony in this pile of shit!”. My wife has the office, my kids have the house and I have my favorite place, surrounded by all the inspiration I need.
It’s going to be 75 degrees Saturday. I’m going riding; The 200 mile ride up Highway 188 up by Roosevelt dam is looking good. It’s my way of social distancing.
(Note: I started writing this a week ago – I just never finished it)
I’m sitting in a KOA about 50 miles from my house. Normally, you don’t ever stay at a campground 50 miles from your house, but yet here I am. Been riding since Friday afternoon, and have enjoyed the living hell out of this one. I just didn’t feel like going home yet.
Rode down to the Border. Arizona has 5 major ones, with border crossing roads. Quite frankly, I just wanted to see the wall for myself and see what everyone gets all uptight about.
I rode down last weekend as well, to a different border crossing. I just haven’t blogged that one yet. I will. I’m gonna do part 2 first. Kinda like that Seinfeld episode where they played the end first, and worked up to the beginning.
I had the bright idea Thursday night for a ride, so I loaded the bike up and headed out after work. Slowly worked my way through the 30 miles of freeway quitting time traffic, and headed south toward some new roads.
Once I got out of the traffic, the riding got good. I got off the interstate west of Phoenix and headed south. It was Nascar weekend here, and I headed down toward the raceway. It wasn’t all that busy; everyone had settled in for the race, and I just rolled by and enjoyed the ride.
headed south toward Gila bend. Crossed my favorite bridge, over old highway 80, and down towards the KOA I’d booked for the night.
The Gillespie Dam Bridge — one of my favorite roads in Arizona, its part of old US 80 which was one of the original coast to coast roads. It was even before the federal highway system came to be. There’s parts of it here and there, and Arizona has some great stretches of it, including this one. A favorite ride. Gila bend KOA. I dropped my camera off my bike at Gillespie dam. I’m still sort of pissed off about it. Now it makes all these light tracers when I take pictures. Oh well.
Woke up the next morning and twisted the throttle down toward the border. It was a little warmer of a morning than usual, and I knew the riding would be good. Any morning on a new road, is always good.
Headed down toward Ajo, and Why. I missed a lot of things in Ajo — some of my local Arizona friends described Ajo as an old shithole mining town, but I didn’t see that at all. I saw a small town with a killer old history, some great Spanish architecture and quite a lot of activity going on. I need to go back to Ajo — I think there’s some stories to tell there.
Heading due south, I rode through Organ Pipe National Monument. I’d came this way in the mid part of 2000. A fishing buddy of mine and a friend went down through here to Puerto Penasco on a week long adventure to go fly fish the Gulf of California. That was 20 years ago, and I’d forgotten how beautiful this part of Arizona was.
Then Lukeville, and the wall.
I doubled back toward Why.
I love Arizona town names.
Headed east toward Tucson. 120 miles of good music, feet up on the freeway pegs and 80 mile mph t-shirt weather. I enjoyed the hell out of that stretch. Listened to a little Alice Cooper and the Who, picked up the local radio stations when I could, and just enjoyed the ride. Noticed a lot of side roads I need to go back and explore another day. That, is a beautiful thing.
Headed into old Tucson studios and then found my KOA.
It’s just…. a virus. I don’t see anything bigger than any other big virus than we’ve had before.
This might last 2 weeks, it might last 6 months….But yet there’s going to be an aftermath.
It reminds me of 9/11. You see shit happening, but you’re not sure what it means. All you know is things aren’t going to be the same tomorrow.
Maybe it’s a good thing. Maybe, just maybe there is a pony in this pile of shit.
Maybe it will bring all of us back to center. Maybe we needed this, and it was the only way. Maybe a global pandemic is just the thing that stops the divisiveness. Man, I’m not saying this was a good thing, please understand me. Maybe…. there’s some positives here, that we’ll all build on.
And we will build on them. That’s just what we do.
Really, the whole thing is dumb. It’s so dumb I don’t even know where to start. It’s beyond dumb.
I could be working remotely as early as next week. That might be cool. I’ve got a little desk in the garage, and I’m sure I can sell web sites and talk search engine optimization to customers from there. Hell, maybe even better than I do at work. Maybe in my underwear. Hell, I don’t know yet… but I’ll figure it out.
For the record, I haven’t bought toilet paper, outside my normal toilet paper buying cycle. Or Water. Call me stupid, but I can turn on my kitchen sink or run my garden hose if the supply of Dasani at my local Circle K runs dry. I’m pretty sure I’ll survive.
Anyway, I just wanted to chime in. Everyone else seems to.
