For a spin

Last night we took our bikes out for their inaugural ride of the summer, even though it has been pretty warm for several weeks, and even though the ride was kind of short. My wife got a bike for her birthday a month ago, and we figured it was good enough weather to bike on a short errand to deliver something to a friend. It's times like these, when the weather is warm but not too hot, the sun is out but not too bright, and the evening is coming but not here just yet, when the trails just beg to be ridden. And so we obliged. We have a much longer ride planned for tomorrow, providing it does not storm, though there is roughly a 40 percent chance of that happening. It's all good, though, because we could use the rain too.

We leave tomorrow evening for a week in Montana again, visiting family and enjoying the summer. I have been re-reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy recently, and if I'm not too tired from the bike ride I'd like to get some reading done on the plane. A few weeks ago on my trip to Kansas City I tried (honestly, I really tried) to listen to an audiobook of The Silmarillion, but gave up after about eight hours. Seriously, that stuff is for hardcore Tolkien fans, and a detailed atlas and genealogy of Middle-Earth are all but required accessories for anyone attempting the task of wading through Tolkien's history of the imaginary land he invented. It's mind-blowing, to be sure, that anyone could ever dream this stuff up, but not well suited for a long drive through Iowa. So it's back to the classic Trilogy for me, having started it a few months ago and reading it sporadically in the meantime. Sometimes, what works best for me when reading a book is just being forced to do so, free of internet and other distractions. Thus, plane rides, when not too tired, are great for reading. And for staring out the window.

Ok, off to edit some more stuff in Final Cut.

Saving Soles

I just finished a book entitled "Rescued," by John Bevere and Mark Andrew Olsen, and I highly recommend it for pretty much everyone. It's kind of an adventure story, but with an amazing spiritual twist near the end. I don't want to give away much, so I won't, but if you're looking for a good book (that is, incidentally, a fairly quick read as well) to pass the time, you should check it out.

While I was finishing the book I took a short break and threw a pair of my old shoes in the laundry. One of my uncles told me about doing this a while back, and I figured I'd try it on a pair of Vans I got about two years ago that had become extremely soiled. They were, most recently, my work shoes for my summer job, which often involved outdoor work as well as floor waxing. So I threw 'em in the wash, along with a couple shirts and a dirty pair of jeans, and they seem to have turned out just fine. One might even say they have been given new life, since I was about to give up on them altogether due to their thoroughly dirty state of existence. I once extended the life of a pair of Vans by several months with the application of several layers of glue where they were wearing out on the bottom. I guess the lesson here has something to do with Vans, or perhaps washing machines. I'm not sure.

This morning I also tried, once again, switching to Firefox as my main browser. I go through this phase every few months, and usually end up going right back to Safari, but perhaps this time it will last a bit longer. I found a cool theme for Firefox which greatly helps too. So we'll see how it goes, but don't be too surprised (not like you would even know, though) if I'm back to Safari by the end of the day. :)