4/4/2025: Bike Story Night in Austin, Texas

As a dude who’s been telling bits of his bike story here for going on a decade, I was curious to check it out an event called Bike Story Night. The stars aligned, meaning I heard about it in time and wasn’t busy. So, last Saturday I pedaled Soqi the Cannondale over to the University of Texas at Austin, commonly known as UT (you tee). (Check out my post about UT: The University of Texas and Me:  A Short Autobiography.) There I saw a few familiar faces and a few dozen new ones. The premise  is fairly straightforward:  people come together to tell and hear stories about bikes. Here’s a short report.

Continue reading

A Dude Is In the Mood for Some Gratitude

What better time to count our blessings but the national orgy of food, booze, and sloth? One that’s based on a false history involving dining peacefully while in reality White settlers were oppressing the indigenous Native Americans known as Thanksgiving. Don’t forget watching overpaid millionaires beat the hell out of each other on television, also while insulting Natives. (You finally ditched your racist mascot, Washington Football Team, but I’m looking at you, Kansas City Chiefs). Turkey Day proceeds our other orgy of consumption: buying stuff on Black Friday. But for many, it’s Buy Nothing Day. Also in protest, you can commemorate the National Day of Mourning. (Watch the Livestream at 1 pm Eastern.)

Continue reading

Some Downsides of the Car-Free Lifestyle

In my fourth annual post about living without a car, 14 Years Not a Slave to Cars, I talked about the obvious benefits of riding a bike and not having a car. Of course there’s helping the environment, getting exercise and Vitamin D, and getting to write blog posts that are read and celebrated by 10’s of people around the world. But there are downsides, too. Let’s talk about it!

NOTE 1: If you clicked on, read or liked my Southern Walnut Creek post, please feel free to do so again. I accidentally duplicated it so removed the post.

NOTE 2: You may have seen that sometimes I’m scheduling posts for early on Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday. Normally I post late Monday, Wednesday or Friday. But I think I may be losing a few potential viewers the latter way, so I’m trying the former. What are your thoughts about the schedule? Please let me know in a comment.

Continue reading