Visiting Dave & Lisa in Idaho

On By Rick McIn cycling, friends, gymnastics, travelLeave a comment

Once again I had a terrific time in Coeur d’Alene.

Our first day, we joined in the FUN at Dave’s gourmet restaurant, Candle in the Woods.

Chef David

An amazing, unforgettable meal.

baked onion

Timing of this visit was to volunteer at my favourite Gymnastics competition in the world — the Great West Gym Fest.

It’s so well organized I didn’t really have much to do.

I DID help with the set-up and take-down of the Gym. And made a few VIDEOS of the competition, including this one.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

A few photos from the competition.

staring down the judges
Jeremy Mosier and Jim McLuskey

VIPs get to check out the resort penthouse. And balcony hot tub.

We did get out for one hike in Farragut State Park.

Delaney took me climbing. AND I was not bad … aside from then time I fell from the top risking concussion. 😀

Late February the weather was … mixed. We had some wind, some snow. Some sun.

I did get to try Dave’s Fat Bike out on their property.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

The Husband by Dean Koontz

On By Rick McIn booksLeave a comment

The Husband (2006) by Dean Koontz is one intense book.

Mitch Rafferty, owner of a small landscaping business, receives a phone call from someone claiming to have kidnapped his wife Holly. The caller demands that Mitch pay two million dollars or Holly will be killed, and if he informs the police, Holly will be tortured and left to die. …

On arriving home, Mitch finds his house staged to look like he had killed his wife. He finds blood smeared over his clothes in the closet and splattered on the kitchen walls. …

As instructed, Mitch visits his brother Anson …. During this time, Anson receives a call from the kidnappers …. Anson, who had helped his siblings throughout their childhood cope with their parents, offers to give Mitch the two million dollar ransom amount. …

Nothing goes as planned.

Twists and turns.

Cycling the Isar river, Munich

On By Rick McIn cycling, travelLeave a comment

The Isar, 295 km long, flows through Munich.

I spent a lot of time last summer cycling this river.

One highlight is surfing a standing wave (a stationary hydraulic jump).

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

That’s in the English Garden (Englischer Garten), one of the world’s largest urban public parks. 

On sunny days, it’s packed with tens of thousands.

photo Ludmiła Pilecka

Tunnel in the Sky by Robert Heinlein

On By Rick McIn books, ethics, government, health & fitness, human rights, philosophyLeave a comment

Like most teen boys my age, I read every Heinlein book I could get my hands on.

Tunnel in the Sky (1955) … a group of students sent on a survival test to an uninhabited planet, who soon realise they are stranded there. The themes of the work include the difficulties of growing up and the nature of man as a social animal.

His juvenile books are rollicking adventures. No profanity.

But on another level, Heinlein was a provocative philosopher on matters of personal freedom, particularly sexual freedom, libertarianism, religion, politics, and government.

Heinlein wrote strong female characters decades before it was cool. 😀

My main takeaway from Tunnel is the truism that rule of law must come first.

Everything else, later.

If you don’t have enforceable laws, wannabe dictators will insist criminals are tourists.

Here’s Georgia GOP Andrew Clyde barricading the doors of the Senate. He later called those attacking him tourists.

Trump called them “political prisoners.” And “hostages.”

Any objective person would want those breaking into their home or business arrested.  To deny this fact is to deny rule of law.

As in Lord of the Flies, which had been published a year earlier, isolation reveals the true natures of the students as individuals. The Heinlein book is more optimistic, however.

The colony of young people in Tunnel do establish rule of law.  Democracy. 

In any case, it’s still worth reading Heinlein books today. They are thought provoking.

1000 km East to West Across Iceland

On By Rick McIn cycling, health & fitness, travelLeave a comment

I’m planning on cycling Iceland late summer 2024.

This would be the ultimate … — … AND I won’t be doing anything this challenging. 😀

Riders Chris Burkard, Eric Batty, Emily Batty, and Adam Morka.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Face in the Crowd by King and O’Nan

On By Rick McIn booksLeave a comment

A Face in the Crowd is a novella by Stephen King and Stewart O’Nan (2012) …  audiobook, read by Craig Wasson.

Stephen King and Stewart O’Nan had previously collaborated in 2004 on a non-fiction book Faithful, chronicling the 2004 Boston Red Sox season. In Faithful, during a discussion about watching baseball on television, King posits an idea for a story entitled “Spectators”, which later evolved into A Face in the Crowd:

… What if a guy watches a lot of baseball games on TV, maybe because he’s a shut-in or an invalid (or maybe because he’s doing a book on the subject, poor schmuck), and one night he sees his best friend from childhood, who was killed in a car crash, sitting in one of the seats behind the backstop? Yow!  …

Bicycle Suspension Stems

On By Rick McIn cyclingLeave a comment

Multi-pivot stems are recommended for small, repetitive impacts.

Coil springs do the best job of smoothing your ride. 

Elastomer springs are less bouncy.

Kinect $189

3 spring rates

Details ➙ Why Suspension Stems Are The Ultimate Comfort Upgrade For Bicycles

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube. Alee Denham is one of my cycling gurus.

House of Wolves by James Patterson & Mike Lupin

On By Rick McIn books, sport - proLeave a comment

Very good. I’m hoping for sequels.

A dysfunctional family drama compared with Yellowstone and Succession.

Mike is a sports writer. Claims he was only involved to keep facts straight on Pro Football.

But James claims Mike is the best co-author he’s worked with.

Jenny Wolf’s murdered father leaves her in charge of a billion-dollar empire—and a family more ruthless than Succession’s Roys and Yellowstone’s Duttons.

The Wolfs, the most powerful family in California, have a new head: thirty-six-year-old former high school teacher Jenny Wolf. 

That means Jenny now runs the prestigious San Francisco Tribune.

She also controls the legendary pro football team, the Wolves.

And she has a murdered father to avenge—if she can survive the killers all around her.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

The Simpsons LIVE Opening – People

On By Rick McIn humour, TVLeave a comment

From Season 17, Episode 15. “Homer Simpson, This is Your Wife”

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

It’s very close.

Click PLAY or watch Original V.S. Real Life Comparison on YouTube.