Zero Day

The difficulty I’ve always found with starting my own blog is that I tend to not find anything I have to say particularly enlightening or new. Pretty much anything that I would, or will, write will exist somewhere else on the internet, more than likely unbeknownst to me. What I can do, however, is offer my perspective, as recycled or unimaginative as that may be.

I’ll do my best to keep up with a post every week, but as of now, I have no idea where the majority of my inspiration will come from on an ongoing basis. What I can say is that, as much as I try to avoid it, work maintains a taxing presence on the problem-solving center of my brain inside and outside of business hours; you’re very likely to see my writing veer that direction occasionally. What I’d like to make sure is an ongoing theme is the other non-employment-related aspects of my life, such as woodworking, motorcycle riding, music, and family life. That’s the beauty of the domain beardandbourbon.com (the brainchild of my lovely and brilliant wife): it’s so perfectly alliteratively subject-agnostic that this blog can turn into pretty much anything.

A couple years ago, in a H. O. G. magazine, I saw an intriguing journaling idea that seemed to have a low barrier to entry and minimal time investment. The idea was that you would keep a notebook on the motorcycle, and every time it rolled over 1,000 miles, that was your cue to write a small entry about where you are, what you are doing, and possibly something more introspective like what is on your mind. So, I started doing this on my road trip from San Jose, CA to Ocean City, MD, and it worked decently over those 8,000 miles. Unfortunately, it all fell apart once the majority of my riding became commuting to and from work; apparently I pay closer attention to the odometer when riding is the focal point of 10+ hours of the day.

So, I have repurposed that leather-bound notebook (seems like a waste to just have it sitting there) into a sketch book. Now, mind you, I can’t draw. Never have been able to. Never even really had a desire to. But my wife and I recently took a road trip around the east coast (on four wheels, sadly), and she started sketching different things that caught her eye. Architecture, bridges, landscapes, signs, whatever. And guess what? It’s awesome, and it made me realize that she’s infinitely more talented than I am. Seeing her get so much satisfaction from having a pictorial account of our trip tells me that I’m probably missing out on something. So, I’ll try my hand at sketching too. Who knows? Maybe you’ll be unlucky enough to see one of those when I stop being self-conscious about drawing.

So, that’s pretty much all for now. I’ll work on the next edition over the course of this week.

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