I started on a chill ride today after a long one yesterday, and I realized in the first 5km that my back wheel didn’t sound right. I kept spinning it to figure out what was going on, and I finally realized the screw or screw-like thing that literally holds my rear break together was missing. Moments later, the entire brake part popped out and I had NO brake on my rear wheel…

I don’t know where the screw part is, I didn’t hear it pop out and land on the asphalt this morning. I searched on my way back but didn’t find it.

Does this mean it came out yesterday, and I made it home with this rear brake 1 second away from popping out? And somehow it only popped out on smooth asphalt this morning? I don’t know…

I must have a guardian angel watching out for me, as I was doing 40km to 55km down incredibly steep gravel tracks yesterday. If it had popped out on one of those, I would have had a split second to front brake and jump/roll my bike so I didn’t slam into a tree or off a cliff. Wild.

Props to whatever bike God is watching out for me.

I planned this route on VeloPlanner, and it worked great! It put me on a ton of gravel, and I am digging it (the founder is nice; I talked to him a few times; I’m going to send him a bunch of suggestions). I’ll still use Komoot, but they don’t have a good way to see gravel routes, and I am not happy that they fired 90% of their team when a new owner took over.

The first 4 hours were amazing, like a roller coaster with no end!

But then I bonked hard and ran out of water. I should have filled up and finally found a place in the last 3km (I hope the water was okay; the German said it was safe). Next time I’ll pack my backup water and more food (or plan some stops).

And it makes sense why, as it was the second highest elevation gain in one ride I’ve ever done (and only 10m from my #1 spot, which I set in May in Spain).

The new bike is lovely, just eating up the gravel even at high speeds!

I love Atlas Shrugged; it was one of my favorite books as a kid (my dad recommended it to me when I was maybe 13 or at some point in high school; good job, dad!). I’ve probably read it and Fountainhead 10 times each.

I never got the weird cult/libertarian take on it. For me, it celebrated these amazingly creative people who created something extraordinary and lived the life they were meant to live.

(Plus, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized how important it is for the government to stay out of the way of people creating, and focus on collecting a fair amount of taxes in a clear-cut way, making government effective, providing a stable platform for it’s citizens, and delivering prosperity to all its people.)

The villains in Atlas Shrugged were those who tried to pursue status and materialism and force themselves into a life their souls didn’t want. Not only did this mean they were utterly incompetent, but they also broke everything they touched. I still think about the poor dude who would have been a fantastic painter but ended up utterly broken and alone, left only with his broken ideal of what “success” was.

As I watch president Fuckface Von Clownstick I am blown away how this vision has come true. The Republican Party is truly the modern party of Communism and Mao in the sense that they don’t want to believe in reality; they want to dictate to reality. And they use constant scare-mongering about meaningless culture war issues to trick the stupidest people in our society into supporting them.

Nothing will change until president Fuckface Von Clownstick causes people so much pain they learn (like a kid and a hot stove). It is sad, it is like watching a train coming, and I would love to get off, but I am stuck on this shitty ride as history comes roaring down the track. It might be something in 1 year, 2 years, or 10 years, but the pain is coming.

(I also despise the Democratic party because they are so ineffective at everything they do, but at least they believe in reality and are trying to improve things for the right reasons.)

I spent August 2013 in the Black Forest (and a short stop in 2020 as part of our summer road trip), but I am back!

This time, I am staying in Freudenstadt and here for all of July to bike on gravel trails, work, read, and live simply.

Lindsey and Calico are in Fayetteville visiting family. Usually, when they go to Arkansas, I go on a solo bike trip… but with Calico in school, that is harder since July gets so hot in Europe. I didn’t want to bike in the super heat, and the timing wasn’t right with Shepherd. Luckily, the Black Forest stays cool, and I found a cheap Airbnb to stay in (it is fantastic).

I am also here to physically separate myself from our French house and all the responsibilities that includes (French tax paperwork, general French paperwork, roof, patio, basement humidity, shutters, painting, rug, floor, pipes, door lock, door knob, shower waterproofing, waterproofing concrete, etc.).

I do not think people ever really own a house; it owns them. I think houses are the biggest scam, and the only reason they kinda work is they force most people to save money they would otherwise spend (but way worse than investing it). I’ve been pretty frustrated as I feel like I have around 45 minutes less time every day with Calico (or more), and the time I have left, I am exhausted because of all this stuff (and that is with Lindsey handling the bulk of it).

I keep telling myself it will improve as we catch up on all this, but it has been frustrating. I do love the house; it is amazing and feels like home, but owning it sucks. I get that people like houses for emotional reasons, but a relationship with a house feels like a permanent abusive relationship.

I remember a friend of a friend who owned 10+ rental properties, but he never lived in his houses; he would only rent. I think about that a lot 🤣. Sometimes I wonder if I will start dreaming of tents every night…

From my beautiful ride today that is helping to restore my soul 🤣.

The new tires on my bike are a game changer! It feels perfect now, and I was flying on the gravel.

Calico had Thursday and Friday off this week, so we drove ~4 hours to the Pyrenees!

We stayed in a small town called Torla Odeasa on the Spanish side of the border. It was one of the most beautiful places we’ve ever been. The town is next door to the Ordesa Monte Perdido National Park, and everywhere you look, you are stunned by the incredible show nature is putting on. Snow-capped mountains, waterfall after waterfall erupting out of the side of a cliff, and a river snakes through it all. 

On Friday morning, I went for a 36km ride with 900m elevation gain (finished in about 2.5 hours). Then we all went for a long, delicious lunch at a fantastic place Lindsey found (I had pork trotters, which was a new experience). Calico wanted to swim, so we did some bushwhacking until we found a nice spot. Wonder Woman and I got in the water, but it was a bit too cold for anything but Calico’s toes (45F to 50F). We had a lot of fun 😄.

Then, on Saturday morning, I went for a big 50km ride with 1,669m of elevation gain. I finished in 4 hours of moving time, but 5 hours of elapsed time (stopped for snacks, took pictures, ensured my heart wasn’t about to explode, and had to hike my bike in a few spots). I broke my biggest climb record (1,228m) and my all-time elevation gain record (1,669m). It was epic!

The ride ended in a local mountain steakhouse, where I met Lindsey and Calico. They didn’t do much damage to the steak, but they destroyed some amazing apple pie! They also taught me a new game called Phase 10.

It was a fun long weekend! It was great to chill, throw the ball with Calico, and enjoy each other’s company. Sometimes the Bordeaux house feels like a vault of to-dos, and changing the scenery is nice.

Oh and I saw this amazing Fox on my Sunday morning ride!

This was an epic road trip over Calico’s spring break 🥳.

Mom, Tony, and the three of us piled into a medium-sized car and drove around the southern half of Ireland. Usually on the left side of the road…

I love Ireland and have spent a lot of time there, but I spent 99% of it in Dublin doing fun things people do in their 20s. I managed a few Ultimate Frisbee tournaments but only saw fields and bars (and one fun day tour with Dad and Marian a few years ago). So seeing more of the Irish countryside was great as it is stunning (and the people are so much fun). 

Where did we go?

• Newgrange
• Trim Castle
• Galway
• Sky Road near Clifden (one day was very windy/wet)
• Connemara National Park + hiking
• Dingle + Dolphin boat (and we somehow didn’t puke nor see any dolphins)
• Ducannon
• Monasteries
• Excellent restaurants all over.
• Hook Lighthouse (impressive!!!)
• Irish Heritage Center (one of the best stops)
• Dublin (finally visited the old jail + had an amazing food tour)

And other random stops and adventures (not an exclusive list)!

Best of all, we visited with Rose, Steve, Evie, and Arlo (their newest family member). I was so happy to see them and hold the new baby! And they threw a fantastic BBQ for our last day in the country.

Toward the end, Shirky says: “Society doesn’t need newspapers. What we need is journalism. For a century, the imperatives to strengthen journalism and to strengthen newspapers have been so tightly wound as to be indistinguishable. That’s been a fine accident to have, but when that accident stops, as it is stopping before our eyes, we’re going to need lots of other ways to strengthen journalism instead.

From Clay Shirky’s essay on newspapers and thinking the unthinkable.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this. AI looks like it is going to decouple a lot of other things and the ramifications are interesting.

Calico and I did a boy’s weekend to Carcassonne, France, in early April. It was really good to get out of town for the weekend, and we had some glorious spring weather. We stayed in this cool old tower in an old village and did a lot of morning and evening hikes.

First, we visited the Carcassonne castle in town!

It was fun to see how excited Calico got 😀. He isn’t so much into history but loves climbing over everything and using his imagination. They had a cool Lego event going on where kids could build walls, towers, and other things.

It is a really special place, and the entire region has so much history with the Albigensian Crusade.

And on Sunday, we went on an awesome hike to explore a Cathar castle!

This is the 4th time I’ve visited Carcassonne. I went with a girlfriend when I was a baby over New Year’s, took Lindsey after we got married, took Lindsey and Calico in 2020 during our Covid road trip around Europe, and now with my 8-year-old son! Crazy! (no similar photo from Linsey and my trip)

It is hilarious to watch Republicans hit the wall of reality when it comes to science, economics, and inflation. The confluence of their stupidity is meeting in the stupidest timeline. It feels like Atlas Shrugged, where they think they can dictate reality and can’t understand why reality isn’t bending to their personal ethos of stupidity.

Of course, the depressing part is just starting… soon, layoffs will start happening due to tariffs, businesses will start to close, people will cut down on spending, more layoffs, and more pain for normal people. And once a business closes those jobs are lost, those owners are burned out, and booting the system back up gets harder and harder. Covid is a great example, as the government stepped in to try to save those jobs because recreating jobs is so much harder. And with no adults in the room who WANT to understand reality, the system will keep slipping downward…

I am sad as it means a lot of pain and stress for people, suicides, and it is all self-inflicted stupidity. There is a lot of room to ensure the right types of industry and manufacturing are happening in the USA, but the Republican party has spent 30 years becoming a party that couldn’t run a Foot Locker.

What am I watching for?

• What can the Fed do as inflation and unemployment rises? They are the only group that knows what they are doing; navigating through this is impossible.
• Will Congress ever find its balls? When unemployment hits 10% or 15% will Senate Republicans override Trump’s veto and take away tarrif power?
• What is happening with US Treasuries? Will China dump them for Euros? Will our borrowing costs rise? They are already starting to.
• Will the Republican dumb dumbs also pass massive tax cuts, drive more debt, more cost to borrow, and make things even worse? They claim they want to improve the deficit, but they can’t do basic math and are going to make it 10x worse.
• How many measles deaths will we have in the coming years? How many people will wait for help from FEMA, only for nothing to show up.

The damage being done is incalculable, and that is GOOD. The people need to be in massive pain so they never vote for dumb dumbs like this again. I hope they learn… but I also expect they might not. It might take a great depression for them to wake up.

I’ve been thinking a lot about AI basically being a frontend wrapper for a lot of data out in the world, as well as a possibly better interpretation. The hard thing is how do you pay for this model rather than our current advertising model? I’ve been thinking about an API for AI to use to do this type of stuff, or I guess it could go right into a subscription. But maybe pay-as-you-go will finally happen.

I’d love to use AI to talk to NYT and pull data on specific subjects, crunch it, and show it different ways. Or with the USA budget, or so many things. It would be great if the NYT made money for that every time it is access, or something like it…

This picture cracks me up!

For Calico’s Winter Break, we went to Valencia!

We were hoping for sun, and we got a little that first week, but the following week was all rain. It was pretty good for February, as it’s always a bit of a gamble.

The trip was not so fun for me; I should have stayed home. I was sick for a whole week before we went, so I was behind on work and struggling to catch up. And Valencia just added more things to my to-do list as the apartment needs a lot of maintenance. On top of that, the move to France has just stacked up so many things that I am utterly buried in other family todos that all have high priority (taxes, etc). I managed a few bike rides but didn’t have much fun as I am incredibly stressed. I also couldn’t eat normally, and that was incredibly frustrating and stressful. We had some electrical problems with the kitchen, and we were not able to get groceries with the things I normally eat (veggies and meat). It was a good lesson, and with future trips, I won’t go unless I can afford to take time off (and I have to remember how much time it takes to get groceries as that is a huge chunk of time).

We went to the Aquarium as a family which was fun. I always love seeing Beluga whales and other creatures. I think Lindsey and Calico had fun; they went to the zoo, ate out a lot, and Lindsey visited with a friend a bunch (we got to meet her 17-month-old, which was cool).

We also bought Calico a new bike, as he has outgrown his. We got one with gears, so he can handle hills better.

For the last weekend, Calico and I drove to a rural area outside Irun, Spain (just us, Lindsey is staying in Valencia and a friend of hers is flying in).

We did a two-hour bike ride on Saturday, visited this amazing local city that still has its medieval walls, and ate some steak. On Sunday, we got lucky with a sunny day; we chilled, played soccer, and ended up eating some more steak in a fantastic rural restaurant. It was a good weekend, and we drove back home on Monday (Calico starts school on Tuesday).

I am working hard to catch up, but it is going to be hard as Lindsey is gone, and I am on full-time Calico duty. I am trying to get my responsibility list massively shrunk as there is too much on it, and I need to give up on wide swaths of it. Owning a house is hard, as it adds so much stuff that you have to do and take care of (I am a big fan of renting).

Watching the same mistakes be made as in the past is heartbreaking. Trump is so scared of Putin, and the Republican party is the party of cowards.  They would give the world to dictators and don’t understand the importance of democracy, human rights, freedom, and the world order. Learning that lesson is going to be very painful.

This is unreal to watch.

What a wild time in history.

The president and vice president stage this scene in order to support a dictatorship over a democracy, an invader over the invaded, and an oppressor over the oppressed.

The USA is abandoning the world order it created and the one it benefits so much from economically without strategic thought or reason. America’s broken and short-sighted Republican party finally invades international politics.

I hope the EU can rally, and this pushes them to rearm, unify at a deeper level, and become the power they are meant to become. I feel for Zelensky and Ukraine, what a totally fucked situation.

Now that Calico is eight I felt he was ready to watch the original Star Wars movies. It was really special to watch them all with him. I was half-watching the movies and half-watching him! Some of the father/son moments in the movie hit a very different way…

These movies were such a huge part of my childhood, and it was so much fun to share them. I realized I hadn’t seen them since the new ones came out when I was a senior in high school; they held up really well.

Now I have to decide if I ever show him the travesty that are the new ones…