It’s been quite some time since I’ve posted a new piece here at Daily Kos and I do have some topics coming up that I try to cover annually. But things have changed since my last effort and I don’t want to take too many chances by composing something and having it disappear into the ether or not show up the way I wanted. I don’t write about that many topics really. There are so many opportunities for me to make a fool of myself and I can do that without wasting your time. So I keep to what I feel I can write about with at least a minimum degree of comfort. Hence this entirely non-political, photo-heavy post, which I hope you all will enjoy.
I officially started my retirement on January 2nd. So I suppose I could just as well have titled this piece “What I Do On My Permanent Vacation.” Since I retired I’ve had lots of time to indulge in two of my favorite activities: taking pictures and riding my bike. In case you’re worried, never fear. I get off the bike before I snap pictures.
After my annual ride to Los Angeles on AIDS/LifeCycle I took a number of weeks off from biking. Since I got back on my bike at the beginning of August I’ve been on some 24 group rides. Fortunately for you, not all of those rides are represented below. To simplify things even more I’ve selected mostly pictures that have been complemented by my followers on Flickr though some are simply ones I like. I have lots of photos. And when I say I have lots of photos I mean lots of photos. Flickr tells me I’ve got 35,806 items stored there. And that isn’t nearly everything I have. Something for virtually every occasion, or so it seems. I also have about several hundred sets of prints I plan to scan, dating from 1977 to 2003 when I completed the switch from film to digital photography. Who knows? Assuming I actually get around to scanning all of that stuff maybe I’ll do more reminiscing here.
I live in San Francisco but I do most of my cycling outside of the city, mainly in Marin and Sonoma Counties and in the East Bay. One thing I love about living where I do: it’s really, really pretty.
For those of you who care about this sort of thing, all of the pictures you see above were taken using a Canon Powershot ELPH 310HS. It’s a little point-and-shoot camera that I can carry along with me on my rides. When I want to get serious I use a Nikon D5100; I don’t take that one with me when I ride; I’d spend too much time and energy worrying about dropping it. And I ride a 2011 Wilier Triestina Gran Turismo...again, if you care about that sort of thing.
It’s funny: I assumed when I retired at the beginning of the year that I would post more diaries here than I had while I was working. Instead the opposite has happened. It took me quite a while to figure out why: I actually spend less time in front of a computer now than I did when I was a 9-to-5er. I suppose that’s overall a good thing even if it defies the expectations I’d had about what my retired life would look like.
I hope you all will enjoy these pictures as much as I enjoyed taking them. Needless to say each picture has at least a bit of a back story to it. If you have any questions feel free to ask.