Life Is Such A Sweet Insanity.

So I am seven days into my “Three in 30” challenge and I think things are going well. I’ve made one important discovery: Facebook is (unfortunately) becoming somewhat of a necessity in my life. The social network is becoming as pervasive as AOL was in the late 1990s and this frustrates me. My contributions to Facebook have been minimal, but it’s the way I stay connected to friends scattered throughout the country and the world. I had to compromise that aspect of my three in 30 challenge to minimal interaction instead of complete isolation.

Compromise is occasionally the name of the game.

Yesterday I elected to set aside all computing devices during my lunch hour. My brain needed a rest from the intensity of being a husband, a pilot, a career minded software developer and the like so I took the opportunity to drive to the local Park and Ride and just let the breeze blow through the Jeep as I watched the clouds roll by.

It was quite calming.

I used to practice a similar exercise back in the days when I commuted 55 miles one way to the office; long-time gentle readers will recall my blog entries from a shopping center parking lot where I would see a pleasant cat on a daily basis after securing an iced tea from the local Dunkin’ Donuts. I rode out blizzards, thunderstorms and beautiful days during my lunch hours parked in that parking lot and I found the practice to be calming.

Watching the clouds roll by with all electronics turned off is just what I needed. I recommend folks try unplugging once in a while just to recall what things were like before we became so technology dependent.

Back in the days of Windows 98 through Windows XP, Microsoft used to feature the “Bliss” wallpaper as a standard desktop feature. Legend has it that Bill Gates designed that wallpaper himself as it reminded him of lying in a field as a kid, watching the clouds roll by. It was bliss to him.

I firmly believe he was onto something.

While I’m out my morning bike ride I allow my mind to wander a little bit. Sometimes I reflect on a dream that I had before waking up, sometimes I think about work, a lot of the time I think about flying. But once in a while I just let my mind go into full geek mode and allow myself the freedom to think about anything that might pop into my head.

One of my favorite places to ride in the morning is along Main Street in the nearby village of Whitesboro. Whitesboro was in the national news earlier this year when the village’s citizens decided to keep the official Village Seal, depicting a settler wrestling a Native American. Some find the depiction to be outside the guide rails of political correctness because it looks like the settler is strangling the Native American. I wasn’t present at the wrestling match that inspired the seal, so I’ll refrain from comment on that.

Main Street used to be NY Route 69 before the building of what is today’s Oriskany Boulevard. The boulevard is the result of the filling in of the original Erie Canal, which passed through the village long ago. With the relocation of Route 69 onto the new roadway, Main Street was bypassed to a certain degree. New bridges were built and other roads were relocated. Today there isn’t much traffic on Main Street. Much of the retail establishments moved to the busier boulevard long ago. The homes along Main Street still have their early 20th century majestic appeal, though I believe some of them have been converted to multi-tenant dwellings.

At the west end of Main Street, just west of the village boundary, a short bit of roadway was built to connect Main Street to Oriskany Blvd. The remaining portion of Main Street was turned into a No Outlet roadway. In the picture above, I’m standing on that bit of roadway, near what remains of the small hamlet of Carey’s Corners.

I don’t know much about Carey’s Corners outside of the fact that it was prominently listed on old maps up until the late 1950s. I believe there were several buildings demolished for the building of what carries Route 291 over the adjacent railroad to the north. What is currently labeled as “Carey Road” (another dead end roadway) probably made its way onto present-day 291 (what used to be Route 12C until 1972) to take one out of Carey’s Corners to the north.

Little bits of highway history like this make me wonder what today would be like if we as a society didn’t develop such a fondness for automobiles and the building of the modern day Interstate system. Would life be as fast paced as it is today? Would many of us be living in crazy high high-rises while others still lived a rural life out in the country? Would suburbia as we know it be a thing? Shopping Malls? Big Box Retailers?

Many things changed in the mid 20th century with the drive to move out of the cities, follow the freeways and set up life in the suburbs. I really do wonder what life would be like if that mass migration hadn’t taken place. I’m sure the United States would be a markedly different place to live today.

Last night I declared to anyone within earshot that it was time for me to take the doors off the Jeep. I always look forward to this moment because it means that it’s warm in this neck of the woods, and that doesn’t happen a lot. Luckily Earl was the only person within earshot. I told him to put on his pants and a sweatshirt because we were going to drive to the thriving city with the doors off.

It was a chilly night but off we went and it was a lovely experience. I’m happy that we were smart enough to put on hoodies or something of a similar nature but it’s such an awesome experience to see the road whizz by right beneath your feet.

I’ve co-opted a spot in the garage so I don’t have to put the doors on when it rains. I’m looking forward to exploring the sunshine over the next couple of days.

Today is the first of June. Folks around me will hear me burst out in song in random intervals today. I will be singing, “June is bustin’ out all over, all over the meadows and the hills.”  Then I’ll hum a bit because I don’t remember the lyrics at this point, and then the words will be back with “Because it’s June. June June June. JuUUST becAUse it’s June, June, JUNE!”  I never appeared in the musical “Carousel” but we sang songs from it a lot back in the day.

With the arrival of a new month I have decided to embark on a “3 for 30 days” challenge. I am trying three things for the next 30 days to see if it improves or detracts from my current lifestyle.

1. I’ve completely given up Facebook for the next 30 days. It has been removed from my mobile devices. I would modify the network at home to block access to Facebook.com but since I’m not the only one that lives here that wouldn’t be fair to my spouse or Jamie.

2. I’ve moved my exercise beyond pedestrian activities for the next 30 days. I am writing this after having just completed a 76 minute bike ride. In tandem with this I am giving up diet potions and elixirs that promise I will shed weight without doing anything. They’re all lies.

3. I am going to do something in my blog on a daily basis. Even if it’s a picture of a particularly adorable cat. 

30 days challenges are always fun for me. This is my first time going for the triple on a 30 day challenge but I’m feeling particularly optimistic this time around. 

Earl and I went for a ride in Northeastern Colorado today. Starting near Denver International Airport, we headed north along U.S. 85 to Greeley, east along U.S. 34 to Brush, south on State Route 71 to Last Chance and then back west on U.S. 36 to Denver. All in all the ride was around five hours, including a stop for dinner in Fort Morgan.

I love the flat, rural landscape of the High Plains. I love it a lot. My ideal setting would be a ranch house in a bunch of trees, surrounded by plenty of farm land, a dozen or more miles from the closest town. There’d be a storm cellar close by, just in case things go feisty. We’d rearrange our grocery shopping habits to a once-a-month schedule. Whenever I stepped outside there’d be lots of room for me to spread my arms wide, smile and drink it all in.

I’ve contemplated whether I wanted to live in a similar setting somewhere in the desert, but while I love the desert, I like the sights and sounds of the High Plains more.

I don’t think that I’ll ever convince Earl to live anywhere near a sign that says “No gas for the next 75 miles” or in a town called “Last Chance”, but we can certainly visit the area from time to time and enjoy a ride throughout the awesome area.

Many see a rural setting of nothing. I see a wide expanse of possibilities.

While Earl and Jamie are getting ready to attend a wedding this afternoon, I’m spending some free time touring around the back roads of Boulder County Colorado before heading up to visit friends in Cheyenne later this afternoon.

I’ve been driving along U.S. Route 287 when I came across Longmont, Colorado, a charming town that feels quite prosperous, with a very nice “traditional” downtown area.

Longmont has one of those downtown areas that is still quite pedestrian friendly. U.S. 287 doubles as Main Street and is two lanes in each direction. There’s a median down the center of the street. Traffic is slowed down to 25 MPH and there are plenty of pedestrian crossings both at street corners and midway through blocks. As a Civil Engineer, I can appreciate the “traffic calming” measures in place. There are plenty of trees and other landscaping features. Restaurants, shops and the like line both sides of Main Street. I didn’t see a lot of empty store fronts. There were a few people on the street. The vibe was a friendly one.

I found a barbershop along Main Street and barber Jeff cleaned me up for $20.00. Elite Barber Shop is the oldest business in downtown Longmont, having been around for well over a century. The current owner has had the shop since 1972. Like the vibe of the downtown in general, the folks in the barbershop were quite friendly and chatty; I never felt like an outsider. It was like a step back into time where folks were a little bit friendlier to one another and the pace was just a tad bit slower. I enjoyed the change (and my face feels amazing!)

My paternal grandparents spent much of their retirement traveling the United States on month-long road trips and both would comment that once you got out of the Northeast one would find that folks are much friendlier. While I do find that we do have friendly folks back home, I have to mostly agree with their observations for I’ve found the exact same thing. Striking up a conversation with a stranger when I’m traveling comes a lot easier to me than when I’m back home.

I look forward to the opportunity to visit this area again. This is my third or fourth time in the Greater Denver Area and I’ve always liked my experiences here.