http://www.Amazon.com/books Many people who strive to be kind have trouble with assertiveness. Eknath Easwaran talks about it in his book Passage Meditation: we can be calm and try to understand the needs and point of view of others, but as he puts it, that does not mean "being a doormat". This can be a delicate … Continue reading Compassionate Assertiveness →

Today my bike route rode out to Uvas Canyon park at the end of Croy road. Karen and I lived about halfway up Croy for 24 years until 2008 so this was a trip down memory lane for me. This is a pleasant rural route mainly West of Morgan Hill. We had a pretty fast … Continue reading Group Ride to Memory Lane →

Yesterday I went for a two-hour ride mostly to the Southwest end of Morgan Hill and into San Martin. I aimed to keep it at the high end of my aerobic zone which is a heart rate of about 120. My heart monitor confirmed that the pace was about right, although there were some periods … Continue reading Two Hours Standing Pedaling →

Today I finally found the time to try out my idea of riding my e-bike to Vasona Lake and then Kayaking. I did a trial run proving the route was safe last week. Today I made it to Vasona in 95 minutes. The route through San Jose and Los Gatos is fine, but not particularly … Continue reading Bike to Vasona Lake Then Paddling →

http://www.Amazon.com/books This is an interesting book about open-water endurance swimming challenges. author Ryan Stamrood of South Africa started out at the age of 27 as a typical adult, not particularly fit. He then decided to get serious about swim training. His first goal was the Robben Island swim (7.5 km or 4.7 miles) from the … Continue reading Push Past Impossible →

Saturday two friends from my local riding group and I carpooled up to Sunnyvale. Our parent club, Almaden Cycle Touring Club, had a bird-watching ride that looped from Sunnyvale over to the shoreline trail along San Francisco Bay, then past a special street in Mountain View next to the Google campus where egrets and herons … Continue reading Bird-Watching Adventure →

Today I did a dry run of my route to Vasona Lake that I'll take to go kayaking. I confirmed it is just under three hours round trip, so I can only do this on days when I can devote about five hours to allow time on the water. The good news is it is … Continue reading Out and back to Vasona Lake →

Yesterday's group ride was a brisk flat one, on the rural roads southeast of Morgan Hill, then working our way north to the Coyote Creek trail for an out-and-back. We then had lunch on the patio at Coyote Creek golf course's restaurant. It was a pleasant outing although the humidity was a little high for … Continue reading Group Ride on Coyote Creek →

This is the title of an inspiring book by Laura Clark. Laura, a single mom in her late 30s (at the beginning of the book), living in the Colorado Springs area, started by hiking or climbing all 58 of Colorado's "Fourteeners" (peaks with an elevation over 14,000 feet). She did all of these solo. I … Continue reading Wild Wanderer →

There is a large fog bank that hangs off the coast of California that meteorologists call the marine layer. Often in the summer, the pattern is for hot air to rise in inland valleys. Cooler air from offshore rushes in to replace it, and often brings some fog with it. This cool onshore breeze is … Continue reading Our Natural Air Conditioning Has Kicked In →