It would be dramatic to call it a nadir, but that moment seven weeks ago where I found myself fish-flopped over a Galapagos-ish boulder on Angel Fire Mountain’s “Hungry Hippo” trail — very recently unemployed, attempting to continue a vacation with my son despite said unemployment while also freaking out about how I was going to get my new house finished, and the owner of at least three newly broken ribs — well, that certainly felt like one of the lower points in my adult life.
Thankfully, a low point is what it was. The positively luminous response to my Substack meant I could finish my house and shop. A variety of new opportunities have slouched along since then. Best of all, as of yesterday I’m back on my bike and hoppin’ to it. Can’t quite muster the two-foot hop that I had last year, but I am fifty years old, and I’ll improve once I have my own little bike park set up at the farm.
I had a couple of freelance pieces show up last week; here they are.
For the wonderful people at the Washington Examiner, I covered a future with just one customer for new cars. For the just-as-wonderful people at Bicycling, I wrote about choosing a kids’ bike. This is also in “Ride 5”, the current print issue, but it’s sold out everywhere I’ve been so I don’t have a photo of the magazine.
I would be remiss if I did not also mention my Substack, currently going from strength to strength with some of the most thoughtful comments and reader anecdotes I’ve ever seen, plus a few guest contributions from ne’er-do-well Georgia bankster “Sherman McCoy”.
As always, I want to note my sincere and humble thanks to every single reader. In a business where most people couldn’t get ten readers to pay for their work individually, I’ve been overwhelmed by people who are willing to pay twenty times the price of a Motor Trend subscription to read my random thoughts. Want to read some of it for free? By all means!