2015 Preview

3 January 2015

While on the Farewell 2014 ride, Jim W. mentioned that I have been a non-participant in e-bike* life. Its true. Read the last two posts. Well, the brand® is back! Joe B. forced me into the #Instagram party on BART that day, and “protorio” was not available, so I registered for this blog name. I look forward to breathing some life into this blog, which had one post last year and 16K views. The Internet must be pretty boring for those 16K people to find my lazy blog.

Here are some resolutions I’m making for myself:

1. Acclimate to coffee without half-and-half. I haven’t used sugar in my coffee since college, but I continue to add it to a light brown color. It may be my distant Iberian heritage that inclines me toward café con leche. I enjoyed coffee in Paris in 2011 ordered as a “cafe noisette” which translates to “hazlenut,” referring to the color, not the flavor. It livened up that tiny espresso for the am wake-up. But I want to go black.
2. Roast my own coffee beans. Keven at Riv has me convinced I can roast quality coffee with a popcorn-popper. I trust Keven in general. I could put this as a “reach” goal, but I think I can do it!
3. More stoke. (ie. bike rides, camping, surfing, bodysurfing, hikes). My “new-ish” job has me on regular hours! I worked really hard getting over-educated so that I could have autonomy over the schedule. But now I’m an 8:30-5er, and often more. More time to sleep outside, get in the water, hit the road & trails! Stoke first! Of course, stoke comes with time well spent with my wife and kids – but let’s just say that goes without saying. This is my damn bike blog.
4. Get the vast bike collection in order. Goodness, its embarrassing – not that I have more than few bikes, but they are in stages of disrepair and neglect. I can’t even bring myself to clean my daily-driver Pelican. Stoke breeds preparation. Bike garage will get super functional and bikes will need to be built/parts purchased/miles ridden.
5. Attempt to learn an instrument. If I did this the first time I thought about it, I may have already had a notable career in a band. Time to pick something up.
6. Blog this blog in a more bloggerly fashion.
7. REACH: Brew beer.
8. REACH: Qualify for PBP. Again, I am scheduled to teach a course in June in Paris. I can’t imagine affording to eat in Euros for another 6 weeks, but I’d like to try to run an SR series this year and qualify.

* “electronic” biker – someone who poses as a bike rider on Internet forums but mostly rides the sofa.

Written by Esteban