Dear diary, what a day it’s been. …
I never know where this blog is going to wander.
Some days it wakes up late, isn’t where it should have been. On others, it strolls about, looking at the shops. It rarely buys anything, but occasionally posts a letter on its way home.
On still others, it examines the news, roots through a pile of old journals and training logs, hears an old tune in its head, thinks it’s made some tenuous, possibly spurious connection, shambles into the studio, and cranks out a podcast.
Yes, yes, yes, it’s time for a literary edition of Radio Free Dogpatch, the first of 2020.
P L A Y R A D I O F R E E D O G P A T C H
• Technical notes: This episode was recorded with an Shure SM58 microphone and a Zoom H5 Handy Recorder. I edited the audio using Apple’s GarageBand on the 13-inch 2014 MacBook Pro. The background music is “As Time Passes,” from Zapsplat.com, which also supplied the sound of a pen scribbling furiously on paper. Yeah, I know, I could’ve handled that myself, but I was on the threshold of a dream. Speaking of which, The Moody Blues supplied bits from “Dear Diary,” from “On the Threshold of a Dream.” Finally, “Remember, thou art mortal” was lifted from “History of the World, Part I,” by Mel Brooks.
Mad Blog Media 
January 7, 2020 at 12:39 pm |
Your best yet Patrick. Thanks
January 7, 2020 at 3:09 pm |
Thank you, sir. Like me, it was a difficult child, and might yet profit from a beating or two.
January 7, 2020 at 12:40 pm |
At 65, I’m not training for anything anymore…
Ahh, Grasshopper, I submit, we are training for the only thing that truly matters:
Staying alive long enough to annoy as many future generations as possible!
January 7, 2020 at 3:09 pm |
O yeh. What he said.
January 8, 2020 at 2:37 am |
I’ve been doing plenty of that, though this is the first I’ve heard of it really mattering. I don’t do any other sort of training, riding a bike is just fun and I enjoy when I can and when I feel like it. Today looks to be good…
January 7, 2020 at 1:32 pm |
Training and practice are two dirty words. The other two dirty words, on a ride anyway, are wind and work.
A zen master asked the class “Why do you ride your bike?” After the usual answers about exercise and transportation a student answered, “I ride my bike to ride my bike.” The master responded, “I am your student.”
From author’s comments in Tao te Ching, translation by Stephen Mitchell
January 7, 2020 at 1:45 pm |
Help me out with something …
🧘🏻♂️ Sometimes we just have to go out and meet the man with the hammer.🚴🏼♂️ ~Laurent Fignon
Are we meeting a man who happens to have a hammer? Or are we taking our hammer to go meet the man?
January 7, 2020 at 1:48 pm |
“When the spirits are low, when the day appears dark, when work becomes monotonous, when hope hardly seems worth having, just mount a bicycle and go out for a spin down the road, without thought on anything but the ride you are taking.”
Arthur Conan Doyle
January 7, 2020 at 2:14 pm |
I just cut-and-pasted all of these thoughts into an e-mail to myself. Thank you…..
January 7, 2020 at 2:18 pm |
I suggest you get a copy of “The Quotable Cyclist” edited by Bill Strickland. I found mine years ago at the used book store that supports our local library.
January 7, 2020 at 5:31 pm |
When I see something inspiring, I copy it into a reminder, set it for first thing in the morning the next day, and then do a custom endless repeat of approx every 83 days. I just give the selector he spin, so it’s a different number each time, but it usually lands in the 75 to 95 day range.
Tomorrow’s:
Indifference towards people and the reality in which they live is actually the one and only cardinal sin in design. ~Dieter Rams
January 7, 2020 at 3:13 pm |
I’ve been re-reading a couple collections of Irish short stories. Lots of bicycles in there. They don’t say much, though.
January 7, 2020 at 1:51 pm |
Good old comp notebooks. 50¢ each 10 months of the year, but $1.99 July-Aug during back to school shopping.
January 7, 2020 at 2:21 pm |
My favorite is “Cycling is like church. Many attend but few understand.” Jim Burlant
January 7, 2020 at 3:16 pm |
I should get one of there here bespoke leather journals and start scribbling in it again. But I might be mistaken for a writer.
January 7, 2020 at 3:25 pm |
Never kept a journal but I did make the mistake of video taping way too many things 34 years ago. Then, my tech savvy son in law found them and converted them to digital and presented them to me over Christmas. At least with a journal, one can’t hear and see how big a screwball you really are. It’s a wonder no one put me down out of mercy. Damn I had some tight clothes in horrific colors and some very bad haircuts. But I’d kill to fit into said ugly wardrobe now! The haircuts? Would just like to have the hair and NOT where it doesn’t belong! (Anyone over 55 understands this reference)
p.s. anytime I hear the Moody Blues I get an immediate contact buzz..
January 7, 2020 at 3:48 pm |
Herself did likewise for me with a bunch of old Super 8 film. Good Gawd Awmighty. I made Charlie Manson look like Charlie Chaplin.
January 7, 2020 at 5:54 pm |
Classic, thanks and keep them coming.