Today’s Journal

A little background

I think most of us would benefit from keeping some sort of daily journal. Besides giving an opportunity to just practice writing and giving a documented space to remember things, my journal functions like Professor Dumbledore’s Pensieve—a place where I can just drop thoughts and clear my mind, but perhaps return to them in the future.

I had a lot of trouble getting my journal started when I began several years ago, but then I remembered a writer’s trick: I needed to construct an audience. I needed some sense that I was actually writing to someone. For me, that constructed audience was my children, who might dig this book out of the closet after my death and figure out what on earth I had been thinking and doing. Now that I am rolling on the journal, I guess the journal itself is my audience, but not in the “Dear Diary” sense. (If that works for you, fine!) I got the picture above from the Internet—my creation is not nearly so graphic. Just words.

So here is today’s entry. As a bit of background, GOBA (the Great Ohio Bicycle Adventure) passed through Shelby today and my bicycle club (The Old Spokes) had their regular breakfast meeting at a coffee place on Main Street.

Monday, June 22, 2026

Rain today, lots of it. Even though Daniel leaned on me to ride GOBA, I’m glad I didn’t. I’ve had about enough of biking in the rain. Today’s projects will be a visit to the gym and getting 50 pounds of apples from the farmer’s market so the bike club can give them out to the riders tomorrow morning. The early arrivals came in from Norwalk this morning, looking pretty soggy. Reminds me too much of some very wet Bishop’s Bike Ride trips a few years ago. I guess I’ve turned into a weather wimp.

A lot of the talk at breakfast was about John, a bike club member who is in the hospital. Scary stuff for an old guy. That triggered a lot of talk from guys remembering older friends who got lost in their own towns and couldn’t find their way home. That’s terrifying.

Now that summer is really here, I need to do at least one or two really memorable things. Maybe a trip to the East Broad Top Railroad. I don’t know if I have the time or energy for any big rides like the Great Allegheny Passage, but I should do at least a few local “big achievement” rides. Maybe Mount Vernon to Glenmont on the Kokosing (etc.). That’s 27 miles and the northern section (Holmes Country Trail) very deserted and beautiful.

Still thinking about the whole Artificial Intelligence thing, and especially about the A.I. “boy” who keeps appearing on my Facebook feed. Sounds like an interesting topic for a paper or something. We usually think of A.I. personalities as threats, but what if they are not? Some of Asimov’s robots and “The Electric Grandmother” movie were genuinely benevolent. But we need some sort of guardrails.