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Another day, another dollar. A day late, and a dollar short. How to you hope to rectify this apparent contradiction in lifestyle, theme and delivery? I don’t. Pass the bottle.
I’ve been asked lately, “What is drunkcyclist.com?” I haven’t an answer. At least not one that fits neatly into a seven word sentence. Or, less than a 1,000 words in a hopefully coherent email. First I must find answers to two related questions: 1) what was drunkcyclist, and 2) what do I want drunkcyclist to be?
The second defines the first and yet depends upon it, and so on in a circle like so many pedal revolutions. Assuming we’re not yet pedaling in squares. I’ve no idea, really. Something about the bike but still different than Velonews and it’s “news-ish” brethren? A collection of stories? An attempt to make people laugh? An outlet of pent up emotions and frustration with the way things are and what one would hope them to be? And, then, we’re back to those initial questions again. What is and what was… What is and what shall be… We never seem to get past it, do we?
Just where is this site going? No idea. I know where I’m going: In two weeks I start the fall semester in my second year of law school. I’ll shall turn 40 before the academic year finishes. It is an age I never thought much about. Perhaps because I had within me no real desire to ever reach that age. And, in a very real sense, I never thought I would.
A related thought on a somewhere different tangent: The Midlife Crisis. I’ve been asked, mostly jokingly, and I’ve replied, mostly in jest, that yes, going to law school at my age is my answer to a midlife crisis – a questioning of what things are and what I want them to be. A life in transition. Much more than simply a website in transition.
The end? I don’t think I’ll ever reach it. And I may doubt it even exists. Today is but a stepping stone between yesterday and tomorrow. A pedal stroke closer to the finish, sticking with the circular and cycling theme for a moment. The end, when and if it is reached, is just a start of another journey.
It all builds together into something, doesn’t it? The trick is to be able to step back now and again to see your progress, the progress. Stop and clip out on that next switchback for a few moments. The climb isn’t going anywhere. It will wait for you. Look down upon the valley from which we climbed. Yes, the top of the mountain is still high above us. But, we are in the meat of the climb now, and the fun is just beginning. Enjoy the moment.
I’ll soon fold like a lawn chair anyway. I hope Pineapple brings the Plink. Because I like the sauce.
Link dump:
Ballan on the market: cyclingnews.com
Glenn Beck = crazy stupid: grist.org
Get your photo on: clairemartinphotography.com
Sophrosune says: redkiteprayer.com
There are 13 of these pages. Keep clicking “next”. Look through them all. Trust me: jblyth.com
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…well, hell…going off to law school is a much more intelligent means of dealing w/ “ the mid-life crisis” than running off & lustfully fucking some beautiful vacuous young 23 year old…
………(pause)………
…for you, maybe !!!…bwahahaha !!!…ok, ok, that was my “triumph the insult comic dog” kinda answer…
…actually, i think you have the admiration of “most” of us…i’m sure it wasn’t an easy decision…& drunkcyclist ???…a good forum which allows for a lotta diversity…what more could be asked for ???…
Fretting about turning 40, you young whippersnapper! I turned 53 or ahhmm 52 I think well I’m in my 50’s last time I checked and i tell you, “YOUR BEST YEARS ARE AHEAD OF YOU” Ten to be exact.
When you turn 50, that’s when you need to start to worry. If you have any short term memory left that is. As my dear grandmother used to tell me, “Don’t get old kid, get a gun!” She lived to be 80 by the way.
As far as Drunkcyclist is concerned. Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. I don’t know what that means but they’re words to live by. Dadgum!
DC is the sienfeld of cycling.
Big Jonny,
On the site…. Well, let it become what it wants to become. You may just have to let it show you. This theme repeats below
On your mid-life crisis… I hear you, brother. Went through one of those myself, I was just a few years older than you when I tossed a good career for one that paid much less money and much more rewards. Never looked back, never felt better. If it’s the right path, you’ll know and you’ll know well. I don’t envy you the 3 years of hell you have to suffer for it, but that will slip by quickly.
I’m sure you don’t want to know, but I’ll tell you my story anyway. Partly because I think I’ve seen you write on this site how you don’t want to become one of those money-grubbing asshole lawyers, you want to do something good with it. Do that, just understand that what that is may not be apparent right now. Ok, why I know this: I did the academic route, Ph.D. in chemistry, specialty in atmospheric and environmental chemistry, wanted to “save the world.” Did the post-doc, got an academic job (“professor”) and launched that route. Got grants, did research, saved the world at least a few times over, published enough for a dozen-page long Curriculum Vitae, and I looked up to discover the world is still fucked up. No one was listening to me. Along the way, I’m trying to practice what I preach: ride the bike, wife and I designed and built this fantastic zero-energy, sustainable, eco-friendly house, drive the bio-diesel car etc. and what I found out was that those activities were getting more press, more interest, and more people wanting to follow than all the great science I had done. Light bulb.
Found a job that let me do more education and essentially I have stopped being a chemist or research scientist. There are way smarter scientists that I am, I know this for a fact, because I’m married to one of them. Let them do what they do well. But what I can do is stand on that pile of papers I’ve published, stand on all those degrees I have and people start to listen. They see what I’ve done and say, “cool, can I do that?” And now we’re making progress.
What I know now is that I could not do what I’m doing now had I not done what I had done before. This might (and I stress the “might”) be your path too. Let the law degree (like this site) become what it wants to. You may be the most kick-ass (fill in the blank specialty) lawyer ever OR you may use that law degree to open doors, to get people to pay attention, to take you more seriously than they other wise might. And if that is how you do good, then none of this is wasted. Best wishes, Jonny, I’ll keep following you here or wherever. Peace.
I turned 58 last Tuesday. Midlife crisis? Don’t bother; just keep on keepin’ on. Works for me.
…hey…60 this year…still alive n’ ridin’ hard & w/ my story, that’s an accomplishment…
…savin’ my mid-life crisis for my deathbed…gonna keep it short n’ sweet…
dc is .
And most people that contribute here do it quite well.
Life is never a crisis with a positive mind.
drink through it
28 years old and my girlfriend says I’m having a mid-life crisis.
I’m quitting my job next spring and biking across country with no plan to come back to this town……..no plan at all actually.
I call it a mid-life awakening.
At the rate I’m going 56 is pretty optimistic anyways.
The “mid-life crisis” is life. They probably happen to most people several times in a life. Doing the same job for an entire lifetime is not living, it’s being a drone. We MUST change things up every once in a while. It’s what stories are made of!