Why do I blog? For many personal reasons, I suppose. For starters it time I spend with myself, sorting out yesterday’s events, and taking a peek at what lies ahead on any given day.

I’ve kept a paper journal for some thirty years. Much of it doesn’t make much sense, other than a running record of mood-swings. I may have not been aware of the mood-swing issue if it hadn’t been for a young man I met in Globe, Arizona.

Barb and I were on a road trip with no definite destination in mind. We were simply winging it, and we’d stopped at a city park on the outskirts of Globe for dinner. We’d brought a long a very small charcoal barbecue thing and I was in the midst of ruining a couple of hamburger patties when a young man arrived on a heavily laden bicycle. He was headed for his alumni at the University of Arkansas with two weeks to get there.

“Are going to pedal the entire way?” I asked.

“That’s the plan.”

“Where’s your mirror?”

“I don’t think I’ll need one,” he replied.

“I think you will. This highway is traveled by many snow bird retires with motor homes who don’t have a clue where the right front corner of their vehicle is.”

He didn’t respond, so I continued. “I have a bicycle mirror in the car. I’ll loan it to you on one condition.”

“That being?”

“Email me every evening that you can so I can build an attitude graph.”

“An attitude graph?”

“Yes. After a day’s ride you will face different degrees of exhaustion. I want to grade each day with a scale of one to ten, and then build a line graph after you’ve reached the U of A.”

He consented and took the mirror along with my email address and a postal address for where to mail the mirror when he was finished.

He finished his trip and I made my graph. I was astounded. It looked like the skyline of Idaho’s Saw Tooth Mountains.

I published it in the Oregon Cycling Magazine. I have the copy in which it was featured, but please don’t ask where it is.

To answer your question: Why do I blog? I guess it gives me a better perception of what yesterday was like. That and $2.50 will buy an old fart’s day pass on the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART).

<a href=”https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/million-dollar-question/”>Million-Dollar Question</a>