Tuesday was outstanding.
I started the day by seeing two grandboys, Emmit & TJ. Emmit was
celebrating his 7th birthday. He seemed a bit more
excited about his birthday than I was with mine a few short days ago.
Next year mine will have a 7 as the leading numeral. After dropping
these guys at Milton West (the new drop-off is outstanding) I met my
brother-in-law, Jeff, at the Firefly Coffeehouse & Artisan
Cheese in Oregon. If you haven’t visited the Firefly, it is great.
It’s right on Main St. Ambiance was nice and the triple latte
very good. I noticed a great room with lots of toys for those with
small children who want to savor a nice coffee but have a place where
the kids would not get bored. Jeff and I used to double-date back in
high school and early college days. It was a good thing back then
but high schoolers today may not have a clue what I am talking about.
I am not sure that kids even date in this day and age. When went
“steady” and all that good stuff back then too. Anyway, Jeff and
I seldom see each other any more so it was great to chat and catch
up. It’s always fun to discover a new coffee shop as well.
When I arrived home the
day was so great that I wanted to be outside but, after checking the
wind speed & direction, decided against biking. That didn’t
keep me from the trail. On my rides last week, I noticed several
places that needed to have gravel swept away so I decided to tackle
some of that. The most pressing need was just north of County N where
the trail abuts Otter Creek Court. This street is a dead end
cul-de-sac and is a great place to park if you want to access the
trail there instead of riding from Milton. From there north into
Fort the trail is nearly flat and descends gradually. For riders who
are less experience or conditioned, this is a good part of the trail
to ride. The problem this spring was that Otter Creek Court had oil
& pea gravel applied last summer. During the winter a
significant amount of that pea gravel was plowed onto the trail
leaving about a nearly 100 yard length of trail literally covered
with the stuff. Pea gravel is terrible stuff for bikes. With wider
tires it is tolerable but for road bikers with narrow tires it is
very hazardous.
This pea gravel on the
trail is no one’s fault. It is simply the result of our climate and
snow plowing. I had ridden this part of the trail three times last
week moaning and groaning about the gravel every time. I don’t
know why I thought it would disappear but that seemed to be where my
mind was going. So yesterday, I packed up my brand new straw broom
(purchased right in Milton at Dave’s Ace) along with a small flat
shovel and drove out there. When I opened the car door I discovered
a ripe, dead raccoon reclining right next to where I was parked so
the shovel came in very handy for changing Mr. Raccoon’s final
resting place to a location more private for him and less obtrusive
for those parking there. Then I wielded my broom. I have attached a
couple of pictures so you can get a bit of an idea of the scoop of
this project. Two and a half hours later I finally finished. I
swept constantly with no break. I had no idea it would take that
long but it was a lot of gravel. Several bikers went by and all
called out thanks for what I was doing. Another great sense of
completion, great time spent in the sun, no one haranguing me, and
some civic rent paid – the social compact as it were. And I
removed a major dissatisfier for me and probably every biker who
encountered this stuff. Additionally, my phone told me I had clocked
more than 5 miles while sweeping.
Today, was much colder
with snow predicted in the afternoon (it did arrive). After my
Wednesday Men's Breakfast enjoying good camaraderie and a great Bible
study I, once again, decided to head out with broom & shovel.
Remember, I like completion and I had my thoughts on a couple of more
places that were begging for a broom. There is a small woods between
the Klug Road cul-de-sac and the Otter Creek Bridge. A tree had
fallen there during the winter. It had been removed but there was
still a lot of “stuff” still on the trail. It's gone now. The
Otter Creek Bridge is literally right next to Highway 26. The north
end of the bridge area always gets a gift of plowed gravel during the
winter. That deposit is now gone. Finally there are a couple of
gravel driveways north of County N (remember, there is no “Freeway
Status” for 26 in that area so there are several driveways) where
there is always gravel washed onto the trail at the close of winter
or after a major downpour in the warmer weather. Those dissatisfiers
have been remedied. My need for completion was met. I had some great
outside time before it became cold & snowy, and I clocked 4.5
miles on my phone
It seems appropriate to
share this story I ran across the other day. It is attributed to
Chuck Swindoll, but I found it in a devotional book, Meeting the WORD
in the World, written by my friend and nearly life-time acquaintance,
Rev. Glen Warner. Chances are you have heard it before but here it
is.
“This
is a story about four people name Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and
Nobody. There was an important job to do and Everybody was asked to
do it. Everybody was sure Somebody would do it. Anybody could have
done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry because it was
Everybody’s job. Everybody thought Anybody would do it, but Nobody
realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it. It ended up that Everybody
blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.”
So what is my point? I
talk to people every day who bemoan the fact that they are bored and
don’t know what to do. Boy do I have some ideas. I spent needless
time & energy complaining about the condition of the trail sort
of expecting some magic outcome. Well, it doesn’t work that way. I
need to focus on what I can do to fix things that nearly any of us
can do but nobody does. I invite you to join me as I try to actively
walk down this road. If you’re bored, or not, and want to join me
on some bike trail or community maintenance like sweeping gravel,
picking up litter, and things of that sort, let me know. You can
comment in the comments section or I'm not hard to find at
jcruzan@charter.net.
#cruzan4milton#WAM
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