A Dude learned an important lesson about posting to WordPress today:  don’t go back and forth between your cell phone and your computer.  While trying to upload photos, my whole post was deleted.  It was going to win me a blogging award, no doubt.  JK.  But now I have to try to re-create it from memory late at night.  Which isn’t going to happen for the most part.  Oy, how I suffer for my art!  Such is life.  Let’s move on.

Who’s a Good Dog?  You Are!  Yes, You!

A certain four-legged terrier mixed with something else, one Mr. Buddy Willis, Esquire, was entrusted to my care by a friend.  Included in the package deal with his spooky (at night, at least) Cabin the Woods is the use of his car for a week.  That’s a pretty sweet deal for an unemployed, car-less, aspiring writer such as A Dude Abikes.  I’m happy to help out and get some solace from the stinking, siren-laced, mostly non-spooky city.

My main job is to keep Buddy alive, and especially to not let him get eaten by a certain Mr. Wile E. Coyote or his bobcat friends.  They are like nature’s teenaged hoodlums playing a game of Ding Dong Ditch, in that they come very close to the house and leave their scat, aka poop.  Not nice.  But then, the area is surrounded by a nature preserve, and it’s really their habitat.  Like the old commercial said, “You shouldn’t mess with Mother Nature.”

Buddy is a good dog, very social, always wanting to be nearby, especially if food, playing or petting is involved.  Like most dogs, who aren’t that far away from wild canines, they also like to eat weird crap, lick themselves, and then try to lick you.  Gross!  But notice the word “try” in there.  No tongues are allowed.  Licking is for popsicles and 50 Shades of Grey, amirite?

I have already started to talk to him because, face it, there’s no one else to have a chat with.  Well, I guess I can plug in my Google Home Mini and talk to her/it.  She’d fit in better out here in the country if she had a Daisy Dukes, Minnie Pearl or Dolly Parton accent option.  But she don’t, dag nabbit!  Sorry, country living has brought out the Texas twang and slang in me.

Having a Car is Weird

As readers know, A Dude has not had his own car for 13 years.  While they are expensive and pollutey, they are also quite handy for getting around when you have alot ot stuff, there’s no bus, and it’s pretty damn hilly, cold and wet.  Out here a car is necessary to be able to get into town for job search activities, which continue apace.  But mostly that’s something I do on the internet, which we do have out here.  We’re not savages! But also driving a car can make it easy to forget to walk or bike, puts you in a bad mood in traffic and isolates you from others.

Other thoughts:  KMFA 89.5 Classical Radio for Austin is my favorite radio station, and it comes in fine.  (You can listen online or on I Heart Radio.)  I hit my head on the car’s bike rack — once.  And after last night’s brake replacement at Yellow Bike Project (if you didn’t read Monday night’s blog, here’s the link), I am just waiting word from the doctor if I can try to hit the hills again.  Meanwhile, I brought my rusty, trusty trainer and hope to put in a few sessions if the weather still stinks and as my nerve and energy allow me to ride, or rather logic has me not ride the scary road.

A Dude Abikes:  The Book

After bicycling 5,306 miles, an average of 100 per week in 2016, I started writing a book.  That stalled quickly because I got bored making it a chronological record of my rides on Strava.  That still makes sense as one approach, but I could definitely benefit from a class, mentor, online resources or a Meet Up group to figure out how to go about it.  For now, though, my goal is to reach 100 blog posts, and that is taking some time.  (Longer when you delete your own posts!)  But maybe I will take some steps in that direction this week while I have fewer distractions.

Being here in the woods is certainly fertile ground for writing, reading, and being alone with one’s thoughts.  And it’s not all spooky, even with the dead silence (mostly), intense darkness and predators lurking about.  (As I said, they poop in the driveway, so I’m not making it up.)    But with remote traffic noise, heaters, running clean though water is hard tasting due to the minerals, electricity and gas heat, it’s not like I’m really roughing it.  I have to drive a bit back to town for job search stuff anyway, although most of it is online.  No one has offered me a job so far anyway.  Life goes on.

For now, my goal is to get myself organized, think about working on the book, keep blogging, read more, catch up on sleep and also some of my picture stories, cook, walk the dog twice a day, do my daily yoga, and hopefully get out there on the bike.  It’s a pretty hilly and windy road and although I once did ride on it, it’s dangerous.  Of course, I could be squashed by a drunk driver on a hairpin turn while going downhill at 40 mph on the two-lane road with no shoulder.  If I do, don’t be sad.  Be happy I was doing something I liked.  Like my dad’s dad who died playing golf.  And then I got a graduation card from him two days later.  Now that’s spooky!

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