Ride And Abide

Open Your Eyes... Today's blog produced by the inspiration of: Jeff Buckley - Last Goodbye and Decades - Can You Love Me Now I have discovered that it is not very pleasant to wake up from the primal calling of a bunch of howler monkeys.  JFC.  Even still... an experience I am glad to have been through.  I have been sleeping only 7 hours per day here... and still feel great all day.  Perhaps due to being so close to the equator? :-) Last Goodbye, as a concept, is something I ponder occasionally.  As-in... there will be a last time that I hear Jimi Hendrix... a last time I drive a car... and ultimately... the last time I wake up.  But... I am practicing some top-level avoidance by not addressing what those songs both were really written about - the end of a Love.  The human brain is pretty amazing... and amazingly annoying at times.  I'm positively broken - and that's OK. Which brings me to my next song... this song is my "I'm kicking as...

Today I blog to Radiohead...  Everything In It's Right Place Yesterday was interesting.  I met a guy who opened a Coffee Roasting Business after losing interest in the rat race near San Diego while living there with his wife and child.  I believe he still exploits his US connection for income (consulting of some sort) but has now lived in Tamarindo, CR for 2 years now and as he put it "[he] doesn't see returning to the states any time soon". When in Rome... A post shared by James Radtke (@rideandabide) on Jan 22, 2018 at 2:34pm PST I then met some folks at dinner.  Interestingly they engaged *me* in conversation, as I have been pretty low-key this trip.  Somehow the topic got fairly deep and the patriarch of the wacky pair kind of called out my situation fairly accurately... "just got out of a long relationship... wasn't married though...  and everyone told him to take this trip to find himself".  So... nobody told me to take this...

Listening to a favorite tune while I am blogging this morning. Film School - Two Kinds Muy Cansado despues surfear una hora - Very tired from surfing for an hour (my Spanish still sucks, even after 2 days). It turns out surfing is like riding a bike.  Albeit, I was riding the equivalent of a tandem, by myself and the waves were analogous of a flat parking lot.  But... First set, first wave... Up. I really need to get my life figured out.  Destressing myself out of my normal routine is almost painful and uncomfortable.  And as I consider this, I am unable to rationalize why Americans live the stressful and overwhelming way we do.  To be clear, there are some folks here that also chase the same dream (nice cars and the idea of presenting an image.)  There is just so much life to experience and we seem to fret over the dumbest shit.  While it might seem ironic that I am documenting/complaining about the exact thing I seem to be doing - and tha...

I had visited Santiago, Chile in 2000 for work... and that trip solidified my feeling that I had a "thing" for the countries south of the US border.  Trips to Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, Ensenada... all left me with fond memories and very deep emotions about the place. This trip to Costa Rica so far has been over-the-top amazing.  The people have all been so nice and friendly and accommodating.  The landscape is unimaginably beautiful.  I really had no idea.  And the food... they seem to have a flair for making amazing dishes here. So far I have not done anything particularly exciting... unless you count getting lost because there are no street addresses here and GPS does not work on "guesses" ;-) Saturday - drove to a Walmart to get sunscreen and Off (I had forgotten about the whole "Zika" thing).  That was a cool experience.  Some folks spoke English fairly well.  Other folks.. not so much (no mucho).  My trivial amount of Spanish see...

Ataraxia (pronounced AT-uh-RAX-ee-yuh) is Greek for “undisturbed” or “untroubled.” It’s a kind of inner peace – the ability to remain calm despite fear, anger, sadness, or stress. A person who with strong ataraxia has mastered the emotions and can rise above the ordinary difficulties that we all encounter in life. Ataraxia is the ultimate form of “keeping an even keel.” http://philosophyterms.com/ataraxia/ This too shall pass... a constant that has not changed throughout my life.  Regardless of the immediate stress that occurred in the past, they are all history and are all-but-forgotten now. This is close to what I see when I attempt to meditate. It might seem odd that my vision is dark and ominous... but... that's where my head goes.  Back to the mountains near Cooke City, MT... with a storm rolling in. 

Nunc est tempus - Now Is the Time We're all dying.  We were born dying.  So, although I have no terminal illness (that I am aware of) I still have some arbitrary deadlines looming.  Age... you cannot escape it.  I feel as good as I have ever have in my entire life, I KNOW that things will slow down and limit what I can do.. or what I can comfortably do.. and therefore *want* to do. One of my rather objective goals has become - ride my Mountain Bike in every state in the Continental US - and have it show up in my heatmap in Strava. January 2018 Arkansas Delaware Maryland Michigan Minnesota New Mexico Pennsylvania South Dakota Virginia Wisconsin Spreadsheet - States I have ridden in... https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1wenma297BfArT0imqHQCrRSBAnEAdOsNXr0D04vFCDA/edit?usp=sharing

After riding in New Mexico and the struggle that the climbing introduced, it really made me consider how significant the "extra" weight I am hauling around puts me at a disadvantage. As an aside; when I got home and weighed myself, I was at 214 pounds.  The 2 other guys I was riding with I believe were like 170 and 150 pounds. Ugh. How Losing Weight Improves Performance " On a steep pitch, things get even more pronounced. Again, let’s say you can hold 200 watts up a two-mile climb with an average grade of 10 percent (ouch!). At 180 pounds, you’d be able to post an average speed of 4.5mph. At 176 pounds, you could average 4.63mph." So.. my goal this year is to drop some weight.  Being 40-some years of age does not help... living in a place that should be inhabitable in the winter does not help.  So.. diet choices and trainer seat-time will have to suffice until spring. So... here I am around 210 pounds during the summer of 2017... it will be interesting t...

TBC

"Wherever you go, there you are..."  --  Confucius (maybe?) I like that particular quote... but... ;-) So.. the way I had interpreted the saying: Don't fret too much about the change you hope to see in yourself.  KNOW that it is possible to realize that change.... because the change you are seeking, is already there. I do enjoy reading other interpretations.  Some seem rather motivational: "Mindfulness  means  paying attention [to the world] in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally."   --  Jon Kabat-Zinn And some.... seem rather negative: " It means that if you don't like yourself, or you haven't made peace with yourself for things you've done in the past, you will be dealing with that baggage forever." From Galadarling.com " No matter what -  YOU are  the Thing  you  bring  wherever you  travel. " --  From quora.com Perhaps I will create ...

Realistically... this movie is much more than simply a movie about surfing in Iceland... I believe I was flying from MN (home) to CO in December to go mountain biking near Los Alamos, NM and I had loaded up a few movies from Netflix to watch on the flight. One of which was  Under An Arctic Sky  (http://www.underanarcticsky.com/) Seriously.... So, I do not want to ruin any of the enjoyment of experiencing the film for the first time but... A few guys who I found it very engaging as they started a quest that was seemingly hell-bent on chasing obscure goals involving surfing. "The key to anything that's worth doing is that there has to be some level of uncertainty"  -- Chris Burka  That particular quote really captures the spirit of the particular objective they were filming.   Even simply *thinking* about surfing on the north coast of Iceland seems daunting.  Actually *doing so* is simply something I can not wrap my head around. ...

I'm glad a place like REI exists.  I imagine I could get my outdoor/adventure gear just about anywhere... and possibly for less money.  But, REI just seems to get it "right".   I like their stores, the "membership program", the dividends, return policy, environmental advocacy, humanitarian advocacy, etc... Anyhow, the "What's your but?" campaign struck a chord today and as a result I just finalized and booked my solo trip to Costa Rica.  (Mostly finalized anyhow..) I have had a few buts recently... and most of them have simply not come to fruition, generally been a huge disappointment, and effectively a waste of time/energy and in hindsight; regrettable.  Oh well though.  Onwards and such! I'll spend the next few weeks piecing together an itinerary.  With the Flight, Car, and hotel reservations out of the way, I'll piece together some idea of things I "must see".  Otherwise, I don't really care what happens for th...