Altoona PA

Altoona is beautiful on the outside. Green rolling hills and some fairly high places. The town is very quiet. Full of people who have been around here for years. Good things: Easy Train ride into New York, Boston, Washington and Philadelphia. Nice people. Tough to just work in. Lots of old traditional family restaurants. I go today but it has been a hard pull. I came after the opening and had to kind of guess what the other guys were doing. They left by Thursday and I had to pick up a lot of pieces. I am a really good realty company that is doing ok with selling in spite of the times. Workaholic but lots of humor and understanding.
Had a great time over the weekend. Onto my new bike and Anne and I rode up to Bloomer. It is really efficient and easy to ride. Swam 30 minutes on Sunday. Feel good with both biking and swimming. Have a long way to go with the running.

Through Washington and Out to Mississippi

Kansas was good but I was getting bored. I drove up to Wichita and then flew to Dulles Airport and drove at 1 am to Rockford, Maryland. I was lost, went towards a lighted area and was suddenly surrounded by police cars, snipers and semi automatics. I fell into something that needed guarding. I am sure I looked like a real threat. Worked until Friday, flew home and drove to Chicago to get our new bikes. Had a good time eating in fun restaurants, seeing Paul and Vivian and being with Anne. Our bikes are great and Paul has really fixed them up nicely.

Back to Rockford, shut down job on Tuesday, drove someone to Dulles then had to drive back in 5 pm traffic and thunderstorms from hell to Reagan Airport to catch a plane to Louisville, MS. Our crack travel department then set us up for reservations to Louisville, KY so I spent the night right in Washington. Our plane was delayed anyway. Drove past Arlington Cemetary and the Pentagon. On Wednesday morning, went right past the Jefferson and the Lincoln Memorial. Now in Louisville, MS with Joe Thompson. A fine southern gentleman who has explained a great deal about the South to me. Its hot and humid but I have a pool thirty steps (I counted them) from my room. I can swim all night if I want. Will probably go to another job on Monday.

Still in Kansas but out of Dodge

Being in Kansas in Breeder has really shown me how much farming has become mechanized. Just a relatively few people get an awful lot done. Most people work alone or with only 2 or 3 other people. We saw 3 combines cutting hay all in the same field. They probably did the work of 100 men in one day. The combines can be GPS driven and almost on auto pilot. They are not as technical as planes but they have a lot to them that makes farming really efficient. It is hard to imagine how large the market is for grain, hay, meat and barley. Good people but little seems to change.

I am looking forward to our Triathlon. We go to Chicago next weekend to pick up new bikes. That will be fun because we will ride around Chicago. I have come to really enjoy that city so much. It seems safe, clean and full of life and opportunity. I even enjoy flying through the airport. I have concentrated on my running this week. I have mapped out a 30 minute run with a few hills. The hotel has just opened the pool. It is chilly but adequate. I run and swim today. I am ready to get back onto the bike as soon as possible. I am doing a lot of stretching and that is helping with my other exercising. Weight is coming off.

Bring on The Triathlon

Anne and I are working out everyday. My swimming is coming easily to me but I need to get into better breathing habits with the free style. I have the breast stroke really down and I can swim that stroke forever. Biking is a lot of fun too. I can run pretty easily on the treadmills inside but outside is still hard. I know to watch my pacing when I am outside. We are lifting weights too. I have lost about 6 pounds since we started. Down to 209. Want to break 200 as soon as I can.

Had a tooth pulled today so I have eaten only soft stuff. Big hole in my mouth because this was root canal that went bad. Not much pain but lots of fluid. No popcorn tonight!

Your Choice

I talked to a good friend this morning. She is going to take care of an uncle who is in the hospital but has no family nearby. She is doing it because, "It is the right thing to do." No big rewards, no recognition, no need to even make it known. She said, 'You know, life is a walking journey and as you come across things you have the choice to step over something or pick it up."

How many times do we take the time to really think and recognize what we are doing? Can we really see what is going on around us and really think of, "What is the right thing to do?' I think we tend to go to areas of least resistance without the perspective of either what we really want to do or what we must do.

Are we bold and active or fearful and passive? Can we affect something for the better or do we pass up such opportunities. The whole theme of the good samaritan is my point. We don't have to stop and take care of others but the world will certainly be a better place with our spiritual and truly human, spontaneous reaction to things. I read in the Detroit News a good article that said all the greed we have seen in the banks will now have to made up with care about others now in the hard times.

The Circle Game of Life

We are on a pilgrimage of constant growth and change. Sometimes we have jobs and sometimes we don't. Sometimes we are really busy and really engaged in what we are doing and somtimes we are not. Sometimes we are following someone else's agenda and sometimes we are on our own agenda. Sometimes we lose ourselves and sometimes we find ourselves all over again. We discover our origin by going full circle and then recoginizing "our spot" for the first time. Sometimes we recognize our weaknesses and sometimes we see our strengths. We need to accept them all as ours. We made it happen or someone outside ourselves made it happen. We do not know the full impact of what we do. We only hope and believe that living well and good, taking care of ourselves and others has personal meaning and redemption.

"The seasons, they go 'round and 'round,
And the painted ponies go up and down,
We're captive on a carousel of time.
Listen to the Joni Mitchell song: The Circle Game on I Tunes.

Question: So have you been successful with your life?
Answer: I don't know, I'm not done yet.

The Weekend

Oh, the weekend. A nice ride home from Lansing to Troy with a good friend. A fish dinner with my wonderful wife. Maybe a little Denny Crane to go with my blueberrry, raspberry, vanilla yogurt dessert. On Saturday, the graduation from college of my brilliant son and seeing my other brilliant son and my just as brilliant daughter. Lots of laughs, a few beers from the local Grand Rapids Brewery, a good breakfast, maybe a swim and a leisurely trip home talkikng and listening to great music on my ipod.

Well back to work on Monday. Not so hard. Have startted training for a Triathlon in September with Anne and Lesley. I could win for my age group or for being the coolest guy there. Need to work on swimming and running. Biking comes natural. Saw the Play Chicago last night. It is really funny and really creative. Tonight is 20 minutes on a bike. Oboy!

I Like Music

I work hard. I get stressed. I need to relax fast because of little time. I love music and just enjoying all the great artists. I like Bob Marley, John Denver, Dave Matthews, Glenn Miller, Shania Twain, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (Little Judy Blue Eyes is the best rock song ever), James Taylor, Aretha Franklin, Lyle Lovitt, The Eagles, Michael Jackson, Ludwin Van Behtovin, Mozart, Vivaldi, The Kingston Trio, Stevie Wonder, Carly Simon, Richard Wagner, Roy Orbison, Jose Feliciano, Bach, Matthew Fox, Tony the Tiger, and on and on. 60's was great music and so were the 3 decades following. Whitney Houston, Sarah Mclaughlin. Paul gave me an IPOD and I am wearing the thing out playing songs from the Swing Kids, Apocalypse Now, Ordinary People, Band of Brothers, The Thin Red Line, Chicago, West Side Story, Godspell, Simon and Garfunkel, Elvis, Leann Rimes, Led Zepplen, the Beatles, Sleepless in Seattle. The MP3 player is the best thing since chocolate milk shakes.

Make it or Break it

We all have opportunities and we can challenge ourselves to travel, to learn, to get degrees, to be really helpful, to be satisfied with what we have, to want more that we are, to read more, to relax more, to take life in and to give life out. Any sense of making it or breaking it in life is deeply personal. God participates but as a breath of light air passing by us in a moment. The hint is so hard to catch. Be still.

Take the open Door

The brass ring comes around only a few times in life. Those are the open doors you go through without knowing what will happen. This is challenging because you are conciously impacting your life and have no idea what the next day will be like.

I have met great people who have been a blast purely by accident. Anne in Muncie, IN, Ryan Eames from London, Dan Brunet from MI, Mario Conway at a Church meeting in Colorado, Paul in Chicago, John in Boston and Grand Rapids, Mary Kate and Chris in Denver, Danton Fitch in Moscow, Ron Nester in Lafayette, IN, Brian Blood in Geneva, and so it goes. Carefully watch the next person you meet. They may be a friend for life. Take the blind path, the road less traveled, the adventurous way....what ever but "Stir it up." Feel the fear and to it anyway.

Throw your keyboard into your monitor, buy some warm clothes and climb a mountain. Take up mountain biking at age 61 and get into shape. Oh how we protect ourselves from the unknown.

Being with People

I really love being with people. I like meeting new ones and I like having dinner and fun with the old ones. Gary Halls is one of my old ones. He just likes fun and laughing and spilling things. He gets so tickled whem I come see him and Nancy that he laughs the whole evening. Most people would consider him a mad hatter if they saw him at this stage. We all need to be mad hatters at one time or another. We are all too serious. It takes a bit of madness to live well. Lossen up, relax, laugh at yourself. After all what else do we have that really lasts. Paul my son and I have regular emails. I love to make him laugh. Often times I go overboard and cross the line. I push too hard and it is no longer funny. But when I am funny, what a treat both for me and for Paul. Oh the good times, let them role. The pain we forget the good times alway remain as a memory.

Hey...this is great

My own site. It feels great. It is a public journal. Had a great day. Worked out. read a recently published book on WW II and saw the blogs of friends, family and unknowns. Always check the BIGGBY COFFEE Blog at biggby.com. Glad winter is getting done so the lake can unfreeze. Later sunsets now and more time enjoy things in the light. Finally back to being aborbed in reading and getting back to friends since my 3 years of constant travel Hawaii, California, Alabama, Ohio, Michigan, North Carolina and Illinois. I have grown to love Chicago the most... particularly Lincoln Park.... the restaurants, colleges, coffee shops and Einstein Bagels!!!. The bookstores, the students, the wine shops, the local grocery stores and the Italian stores.