The great thing is to last and get your work done and see and hear and learn and understand; and write when there is something that you know; and not before; and not too damned much after.

Ernest Hemingway

...

The plan to race this summer took a small step forward yesterday. I swapped out the Tour de France tires I had been riding in order to save them for race day. They are excellent tires and weren't causing me any flats but they were starting to wear down. This way they will have just enough life in them to give me a little extra zip at the race. While this zip is 99.9% mental, it will help nonetheless. I threw on a nice pair of training tires and promptly put 80 miles on them this weekend.

Its almost pointless to wave, nod, or say hi to other road cyclists on the country roads here in Madison. There are so many that its ridiculous. There is almost zero sense of belonging to a sport subculture. I guess you could compare it to living in Chicago and liking Chicago style pizza. Its not that exclusive. Obviously this is a good problem for a city to have.

The Black Earth creek didn't yield any trout yesterday but it was nice to wet a line and cast a bit. Over an hour and not a single rise. Its called fishing, not catching.

I often read books slowly out of laziness, a busy schedule, or because the book just isn't very good yet I cannot commit to deciding not to finish it. A different thing is happening right now to Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes. The book is so good that I'm deliberately reading it slowly. I'm going to dole the last 100 pages out over this week by working in some EC horror comic reprints and some early 80's, pre-crisis JLA issues. After Bradbury has been dealt with the Hardy Boys will be on tap.

Reading, fishing, and cycling. Hopefully the lean economy between these things will produce the clarity of purpose that Hemingway advocates.