A funny thing about trying to improve one's condition.  Take a week off, and you're a month behind.

I had thought of this project as motivational, to help plan bike trips that would be challenging and interesting -- meet my neighbors, talk politics, and visit heritage sites.  I can do that before and after the election, since I'm not advocating any candidate, so much as yearning for a change in the conversation that moves away from taking stands (or seeking accommodations) with hot political issues, and, by side-stepping them, work toward some forward progress toward paying off our debts to our ancestors and our progeny.

There are times in my life when I write poetry.  Now is not one of them.  But I'm reminded of an old poem of mine.

I shall never see pyramids,
Tow'r over desert wide,
So simple, basic to the eye,
With labyrinth inside.

I shall never see the Kremlin,
Nor hear recitation
Of Pushkin and poems to honor
One who outlived Lenin.

I shall never see Istanbul
Straddling Bosphorus' strait,
Nor Black Sea's shores where Ovid rests,
Augustan exile's fate.

I shall never see Walden pond,
But then again, I might,
Wilderness there seen other than
Wealth untapped to exploit.

I have seen Monticello's dome,
And fields it overlooks
Where mighty pen grasped liberty
From monarch's greedy hooks.

I shall never see progeny
Brought subject to a crown,
Pushkin, Ovid, Jefferson, and
Thoreau will pull such down.

I think I may make one or two rides in October.  Nothing in Sept.  No clear window of opportunity.  The one ride which is most compelling right now goes through Columbia, Dillwyn, Farmville, and Cumberland.  I want at least to do that.  Others in mind are the Piedmont wine and fox country of Facquier and Rappahannock, and around Smith Mountain lake with a visit to Booker Washington's birthplace.