Austin

6/6/2023: Owen Egerton’s Last One Page Salon

~ A Dude Abikes ~ Leave a comment

Owen Egerton founded One Page Salon nine and three-quarters years ago. Now he’s leaving for greener, cooler, and less politically conservative pastures than Texas. From Austin to Boston, to be exact. I wrote about this monthly series where writers read a page of a work in progress two months and two days ago here at this link. (You know you want to click and go read it and then come back. Be my guest.) But since this was his last OPS, it’s worth another post. It was a fitting tribute and send-off with some special guests. Let’s just say we all got a little verklempt from all the feels, as the kids say.

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Biking and Other Goals — When Will Power Isn’t Enough

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 3 Comments

Five months of 2023 are gone with seven to go. One may wonder–quite reasonably–where has the time gone? What have they accomplished thus far, and what’s to come? The year is almost half gone, so what is there to show for it? Only you can answer for yourself (and only YOU can prevent forest fires). In my case, it’s the usual, which is more than nothing, but it’s less than I’d like. Reflection can be good up to point (not great if you’re a vampire looking into a mirror). Action is what propels us forward. Into what, though? The breach? Good trouble, or the other kind? We can hope for the former, be realistic, and remain vigilant that bad luck may find us despite our best efforts to avoid it. We humans try to keep reevaluating and chipping away at our goals. But sometimes will power isn’t enough. Spoiler alert:  I don’t have all the answers, but I think it has something to do with doing your best.

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The 2023 International Annual Ride of Silence in Austin, TX

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 12 Comments

The third Wednesday in May is designated an international commemoration of those people who lost their lives while bicycling. It began in Dallas, Texas, where A Dude was hatched, after one man’s friend was cyxling and got hit and killed by a car. It has expanded to hundreds of cities and countries (222 and 14 respectively this year). It’s called the Ride of Silence, which I wrote about in “5/5/23: 5 Things You *May* Want to Do for Bike Month.” Here’s a recap.

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5/5/2023: 5 Things You *May* Want to Do in Bike Month

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 7 Comments

It’s that time of year in the USA when the sun has come out, the snow has thawed, and the flowers have bloomed. Basically, it’s the best time to, as Queen sang, “Get on your bikes and ride!” In Austin, Texas, it felt like 97 degrees thanks to the humidity coming up from the Gulf of Mexico. Your dude just managed to ride eight miles to the post office before a storm blew in some lighting, thunder, and rain. Summer in Austin often feels like you’re wearing a hot, wet blanket while you bicycle, but sometimes it’s nice after the rain with a breeze. Regardless of weather, biking is what we do here at ADudeAbikes.com, every damn day for over 3.5 years. Like they say, a rolling stone gathers no moss. By now, you MAY have gathered that National Bike Month is here, so here are five things to do in Austin but also beyond, if biking is your jam–or you want it to be. (Mmm, jam.)

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3.5 Years of Daily Cycling & 2023 1st Quarterly Report

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Way back B.P. (Before Pandemic), I started riding my bicycle every day. Today marks three and a half years, or 42 months, or 182 weeks and five days, or 1,278 days in a row. Also, I’ve walked daily with very few misses and many extra miles in five plus years, and I’ve done yoga daily (moreso nightly) over nine years. I continue to reflect on that, and it’s time to review my Strava activity stats for January-March 2023. Let’s take a look.

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12/12/2022: Slow, but Still I Go — Biking, Walking, Etc.

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 5 Comments

Another month has gone by since my last post, and just a few weeks are left in the year. As the weather cools and holidays and a new year approach, thoughts turn inward, toward retrospection, and to the future. There’ll be time for a review of the year come January, though. For now, what has gone on since 11/11? Work, for one. It has involved a lot of walking, which has been surprisingly exhausting. Seven or eight miles when you’re used to the equivalent steps of three miles, and standing for long hours in between, is a change. Other things like rain, health stuff, and perhaps some existential ennui have slowed me down, too. In the past month, I’ve alternated between 80-110 miles per week riding my bicycle. Not great, but not horrible.

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11/11/2022: 4,000 Miles + Longest Ride of the Year = Tired, But Still Pedaling

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 17 Comments

As silly season, aka the US election drama (or trauma, depending on your point of view) continues, I vote for something all Americans can get behind: a nap. That’s because I’m bushed from bicycling a lot. (Insert a joke about everyone in the US being tired after George Sr. was elected and then his son the Shrub also became president, tired, aka bushed.) Read on, it gets better.

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9/9/2022: Sookie Shares with Sonnie; Autumn Approacheth; Failing Fast Forward

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 2 Comments

In this installment I’ll try and fail again to summarize what I’ve been up to for the last month. There’s too much to pack into one post. It seems the more I work on my book, and read other books, the more I realize that the art of writing is as much about what gets left in as what gets taken out. In his intriguing novel John Woman, Walter Mosley touches on this idea by having his eponymous protagonist (a professor with a checkered past and a troubled present), explore the deconstruction of history. His professor believes many things about his field, the main one as I understand it so far, is that it is not absolute. We are constantly creating history, our own and the larger world’s, Professor Woman teaches his students.

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8/8/2022: Biking While the Heat Is On in Austin

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 2 Comments

We’re on track to have the hottest summer EVER in Austin, Texas. (Climate science deniers ought to move along right now.) Texans are accustomed to the heat, but not like this. In 2011 we had 90 days over 100 F. So far in 2022, we’ve had 58 of those 100+ days. May, June, and July were record breaking hot. August is the worst month. Also, it’s barely rained, so we’re in an extreme drought. Many places from France and the UK to California are experiencing extra high temperatures. The hotness makes bicycling, as well as other important activities like standing up, breathing, and putting on pants a bit challenging.

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