Friday morning, I took a break from campaign work to take the garbage to our community dumpster. My wife was beginning to work on organizing our basement so that it can be remodeled later this summer. Cleaning/organizing anything with our youngest son around can be darn near impossible. So I took him with me to walk our garbage up to the dumpster. En-route, I ran into a neighbor who owns a vacation place a couple of houses down from me. I don't know him extremely well—we've only spoken on a couple of occasions. Despite this lack of familiarity, I have a feeling that he is a solid person and that he cares. He congratulated me on my campaign. We spoke politics for a few minutes and lamented the current state of the country.
I was the first to bring up Hitler. Odd because I just don't know him that well, but it seemed right. I stated that I've always wondered why the good people of Germany could abdicate to this man so much. He took the bait and ran. He stated he understands completely. He stated that what is going on right now is similar. Good people have too much at stake. Their livelihoods, their families all hang by "getting along" with power. He let on that he has a security clearance(not Top Secret) that he depends on for his livelihood. He can't risk having that revoked to speak truth to power. I have a family, and I can understand and respect that. But, I said that is why I am doing what I'm doing. Somebody needs to step up and say this is wrong. I've always felt that it is my job to see things that others don't see, to say the things that everybody thinks but won't say, and to do the things that everybody says should be done but won't do. Oddly, I came away from this trip to the dumpster in my ratty shorts and t-shirt with my youngest son more empowered than ever.
After lunch, I put my youngest son down for a nap. I went for a ride. I needed a ride badly. I hadn't ridden since Sunday night, and I am riding in the MS 150 in two weeks. Six years ago, riding 150 miles in 2 consecutive days would not have been a big deal. Life has gotten very interesting in the last six years. I've gotten married. We've had two sons, built a garage, survived brain surgery, and ran for Congress. This is on top of an already full schedule of self-imposed responsibilities. I was looking to go on a big ride.
As I was preparing to ride, I noticed a couple of things. First, I had a flat tire on my bike. I didn't want to fix it right then, so I just pumped up the tire. In the course of doing this, I noticed black raspberry bushes growing outside my garage! I checked it out sure enough they were indeed black raspberries Eureka! I and my boys love fruit. To find wild fruit growing on my property was a huge thrill. I rechecked my tire—It seemed to be holding air, so off I went. The ride started out great. I climbed the mountain went down over the other side and rode the saddle between Blue Knob where I live and the Allegheny front. I watched the windmills that have been completed on the Allegheny ridge turn, and I really tried to figure out why there are people who are so set against them. I know all the arguments, but when I think of the alternatives (coal burning power plants, nuclear power plants, global warming) I just don't get it. Yes, things have to be done right, but I can't help but think that if they are done right that they are good for society. This is one of those topics that I will further expound upon in a future diary.
Before leaving the ridge, I pulled over to take a look at the view. Gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous. But, there was much I couldn't see because of the haze. I began my glorious down hill. The sign at the top warned of 7 miles of up to 14% grade. Yeehaw. As I neared the bottom, I saw the sign for the road being closed 2 miles ahead. I didn't like the looks of the detour. I was looking for a big ride but not that big. I kept going. I figured I could find a way across the creek where the bridge was out. If I couldn't, I could turn around and go back home. I would still have my big ride. As I neared the road closure, a fellow bicyclist told me how I could get around the road closure. I thanked him and pushed on. As I got off my bike to carry it across the creek, I noticed my tire was low. I figured I would re-pump it when I got to a more opportune place. A mile later, I pulled over and re-pumped the tire. As I was pulling the pump off the valve, the valve catastrophically failed. Enter Murphy. Though I had a patch kit with me, it was of no use at this point. No, I didn't have a spare with me. I called my wife. She would come to get me. The last thing she asked me before I got off the phone was the state of the construction ahead of me on my route. I told her I couldn't see it from where I was and hung up.
I was puzzled by this last question, and finally it dawned on me why she asked. She wanted to take the back way—the route that I had taken. Blast! I called home. No answer. I called her cell. No answer. I waited for a while. Eventually, I noticed that I had missed a call from a strange number. I called it back. It was my wife. She and the boys were on the way—they were being driven by a stranger who had rescued them. She had gotten my car stuck attempting to turn around after attempting to find away around the same road closure as I had.
She got the car stuck good. We, my wife, the kindly stranger, and myself, were able to push it out. On the way back to the restaurant where I had stashed my bike, I asked my wife what she wanted to do for our anniversary. Suddenly, she had the "Oh shit" look on her face. She brought up the idea of going to Erie to the indoor water park. We've never really had the chance to celebrate our anniversary. Our first son was born 2 days after our first anniversary. We had dinner, and then we checked in to the hospital. After that, things have been wild and woolly. Last year, I don't think we even took time to celebrate. Next year, I don't see us doing anything big. So, within two hours, we were on our way to Erie.
Being indoors for an entire weekend in the middle of summer is not normally my idea of a proper trip, but, in this case, it was not about me. I wanted to do something with my wife and family, and this in its way fit the bill perfectly. The irony (Absurdity?) of driving 4 hours to Erie on the weekend of the Live Earth (Global Warming) concerts, rallies, etc. was not lost on me. Again, this is another topic that I will diary on soon.
Today, we had a great day. We played hard. We walked up a lot of steps. We had a lot of fun. I was amazed at the amount of overweight people at the park. If you asked any of them to engage in that much exercise on a regular basis, they would think that you were nuts. But, everybody in the place did it willingly with huge smiles on their faces. Physical fitness is important to me personally, but I think that it needs to be important to our society. Maybe this isn't in any body's top three, but I can't shake the feeling that it is part of the solution to many people's top three issues. I may diary on this topic in the future.
Towards the end of the day, I was sitting on the edge of the kiddie pool watching my son's play, when I struck up a conversation with a gentleman who was doing the same. He was from Cleveland, but he said he would be moving in a few weeks to Alabama. He said things in Cleveland were bad. Kids were shooting each other. I said that in Altoona, we now have shootings for the first time in any body's memory. I will also diary on this in the future.
I hope you all had a great weekend. I did. I spent time with the one's that I love, and I further cemented in my soul why I am doing what I am doing. We have a great country, but it is only going to be great if we do the hard work of maintaining our democracy. I will be hitting the street this coming week, talking to voters, registering people to vote, doing the dirty work of rebuilding our democracy. Join me. Knock the doors in your town, talk to voters about issues that you think are important, and register them to vote. The 2008 elections are less than 16 months away.
Comments are closed on this story.