Got any book recommendations?
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Making Sense of Air Quality
With wildfires moving across California, many of us are concerned about air quality. Before the fires of 2017, few of us knew and understood phrases like SF AQI PM2.5: 154. Now we are all instant experts in air quality. The 2020 fire season started early with a freak dry lightning storm moving across Northern California… Read more
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Rooftop solar, a heatwave, and the grid!
California has major challenges around our power grid. California’s 40 million people use massive amounts of power. The grid’s job is to ensure all of those people have a constant supply of power 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Our grid extends across varying terrain. Consumers also aren’t always… Read more
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Lessons Learned: Installing new windows?
Note: this article heavily focuses on Northern California. While some concepts may be similar in different locations, do your research on local specifics. Installing new windows in my home was a bit of a balance between wanting to and needing to. My old windows are original to the house. They are black, single-pane aluminum frame… Read more
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Juneteenth: Langston Hughes
Today is Juneteenth. Juneteenth is a holiday celebrating the emancipation of those who had been enslaved in the United States. Today I want to recognize Langston Hughes who has had a profound impact on my life with his insightful poem, “I Too”. I, too, sing America. I am the darker brother.They send me to eat in… Read more
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Hiking in March
In mid-March, my neighbor and I were sitting in his driveway, shooting the breeze. We covered all sorts of topics: current events, the stock market decline, what’s going on at home, etc. I posted that photograph to Facebook with the tagline: Sometimes it’s about living life with the people around you. I appreciate my afternoons… Read more
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Moving Forward
“The irony of commitment is that it’s deeply liberating — in work, in play, in love. The act frees you from the tyranny of your internal critic, from the fear that likes to dress itself up and parade around like rational hesitation. To commit is to remove your head as the barrier to your life.”… Read more
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Sunset at Acalanes
A colleague of mine at work today asked what platform powered my blog. That’s easy: WordPress. He was looking for a solution to share photos outside of the social network. That got me thinking. Sometimes writing a long narrative keeps me from posting photos on my blog. This post is simple by design. A buddy… Read more
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FS-96 MRR: Mosquito Ridge Road
Time is a blur these days. As one who regularly travels, I usually segment time in blocks of “at home” or “on the road.” Since October 25, 2019, I’ve spent just about every night in my bed aside from a short work trip in mid-January. I don’t think I have had a no travel block… Read more
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Max!
They say family comes in all kinds of flavors. I’ve always heard the expression there’s your birth family and your chosen family. As a gay man, I regularly hear in our culture, “You have the family you are born with and the family you choose. They may not be the same family.” that quote implying… Read more
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Back to the Peninsula
Going out during the coronavirus pandemic still feels a bit weird to me. I’d been putting off vacation as I wondered what I would do with a day of vacation sitting at home. In many ways, at least working kept a sense of groundedness throughout the day. Knowing I’d lose the holiday come June 1st,… Read more
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T1D Biker Gang
This Memorial Day weekend in the age of coronavirus was anything but typical. Usually, I’m off on the motorcycle somewhere in the Sierras chasing the ebbing snow. With the continuing sheltering in place order except for essential services and exercise activity life here is anything but typical. On Saturday, my friend Sarah texted me and… Read more
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#eastCounty
We hardly ever get rain in May. This past weekend two crazy rainstorms swept through town Sunday and Monday, leaving the air perfect for motorcycle riding! Now that riding ATVs is legal in the state of California for exercise, I wanted to hop on my bike in a socially distant fashion. I love the Briones… Read more
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The changing of seasons
It’s crazy to me that 45 days have passed since the original Bay Area shelter in place went out on March 17. In the beginning, days seemed like months. I blinked and then realized today is May 1. I’ve been hiking a lot in the local parks around my house. Whereas before a week or… Read more
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It’s ok to say “I’m hurting”
Dear family and friends, It’s 11:21 PM on a Sunday night and I feel compelled to write after an interaction on social media that crystallized a few things in my mind about the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. In talking with family and friends I’ve realized a few things that are really important to get out on… Read more
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Sweating Lafayette’s Ridge Trail
With coronavirus slowing my life down to a very long, quiet pause, I’ve been taking the time to walk – a lot. I normally hike the ridge near my house. It’s a 3 to 4 mile jaunt with about 800 feet of elevation gain. I’ve become fond of that hike – especially with the great… Read more
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Springtime Moto Poppies!
Typically Mount Diablo is my go-to motorcycle ride what I need to clear my head. With the park closed, I’ve had to look at other places for my motorcycle quick fix! The late Robert Bleeker introduced me to the lap around Briones Park as an alternative to commuting on Highway 24. This little loop has… Read more
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The 2020 CovidCut
It’s no secret that I like my hair short. Even growing up, my mother and I would battle it out about when to get a haircut. Wearing helmets to ride two-wheeled contraptions has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. I try to avoid overt “helmet hair”, which is… Read more
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Coronavirus: Increasing Resolution
I remember seeing news reports of the coronavirus in China earlier in the year. It seemed far away and similar to SARS and MERS – both of which had very little impact to my life here in Northern California. As this virus continued to spread my attention quickly changed once outbreaks popped up within Italy… Read more
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A panoramic of home amidst the pandemic
The pandemic has slowed and shrunk my life in pretty significant ways. It’s been months since I’ve left the county which is a stark contrast to my prior routine. One of the most profound effects of slowing down is that you see less, more. The resolution of the life around me has increased significantly. I… Read more
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Tot Weerziens Robert
Robert and I first crossed paths just outside of San Jose, California on a group ride down to Death Valley back in 2008. We were a jolly group of 30 set out on President’s day weekend. Many of us didn’t know each other but by the end of those 5 days we all shared our… Read more
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Hanging out at Hawk Hill
One of my favorite stretches of pavement in the bay area that nobody’s ever heard of is Conzelman Road. It’s the little ribbon of pavement that snakes up the Marin Headlands for an outstanding view of the Golden Gate Bridge. Randy flew into town unexpectedly which was a great surprise. He suggested maybe heading over… Read more
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I took the road less traveled…
Four years in I’m still learning the back roads of Contra Costa and Alameda counties. November and December were really wet months. January was cold and I was traveling for a good portion of it. Come February we’ve had a brief bump in warm weather and with an impending surgery, I wanted to get out… Read more
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Celebrating 117,334 Miles
I walked into the garage a few weeks ago and I noticed a few “motorcycle tears” on the garage floor. On closer inspection, the right fork was leaking. It was more a small weep than a full out leak, but it was a leak none the less. Combined with the backfire and lack of riding… Read more
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Upgrading from Mojave to Catalina
I’ve spent this weekend doing some maintenance on my Macintosh: organizing old photos into albums, upgrading various operating system patches, and finally upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 10. Upgrading Windows was so wonderfully easy it reminded me about my difficult experience upgrading my Mac from Mohave to Catalina. To set context, I run Windows… Read more
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Autumn Through the Kitchen Window
One of the joys I love most about traveling to Vancouver is that the weather is so often radically different. I love enjoying what makes each season special a bit longer. In the morning as I’m making breakfast I’ve come to love the window of Randy’s apartment looking out over the West End. It’s a… Read more
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Motorcycles and Mindspace
Surprisingly it was very hard to get a room in Bishop two months out. I wound up at the Trees Motel which just wasn’t a good fit. It was a long walk to the restaurants in town in motorcycle boots. I always walk as I don’t drink and ride and dammit – I wanted a… Read more
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Transitioning to Fall
The Queer Biker Invasion of Death Valley, or QBIDV for short, is a hallmark tradition in the LGBTQ culture here in the West. The ride originally started 26 years ago when Michael wanted to publish a simple ride that others could join him without a lot of planning and overhead. Some 26 years later the… Read more
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First Look: Epson EcoTank 4760
Down at my core, I have always been partial to laser printers. In high school, the family had an HP LaserJet 4. To say that thing was a tank was a massive understatement. It printed volumes of paper and never really skipped a beat. Term papers, science projects, tax returns – whatever we threw at… Read more
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Chapter 3: Gelände Straße
It’s no secret that I’m a motorcycle monogamist. In 20 years of motorcycling, I’ve only owned two bikes: a 2001 Kawasaki Vulcan 750 and a 2003 Suzuki V-Strom 1000. After about 15,000 miles I had a low side on the Vulcan while coming down Highway 9. The bike never ran well after that low side… Read more
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Out: Nine years later
Nine years went fast. Coming out was the decision that altered my life like no other decision I’ve made. I took the reins of my own life. My life is now high resolution. My highs are higher. My lows are lower. I don’t feel the insulating effect of living someone else’s life by hiding in… Read more