View from the sticks

I try fairly hard to buy things that are made in the U.S. as much as I can just on general principle and if I need something I will look long and hard find it. It has sort of become a game that is getting harder to play every year. Sometimes I wonder to my self if this country makes anything at all anymore.
This subject really hit home to me yesterday at the bicycle shop when we got in a discussion about the Cannondale bike brand. Cannondales are near and dear to me and I have been a loyal customer for decades. I think that I own seven of them. They are extremely high quality bikes at a fair price that are made in the USA. At least until the end of this year that is. The company recently announced that in 2010 frame manufacture will be moved to Taiwan and 200 of the current 300 employees will loose their jobs, a move that the parent company Dorel says will save the company $4 million dollars a year. They may save several million dollars but they are going to loose at least one very loyal customer.
So if you want a really good bike that will last for the rest of your life and is made in the USA, grab a Cannondale while you can. It is a dying breed.

View from the sticks

I rounded up most of my bikes the other day for a group photo. There were still two missing. What you are looking at is the future of transportation in this country. We will still be driving cars for a long time but they will be used less and less to get around for trips under five miles.
The reaction that I get for having all these bikes strikes me a funny most of the time. I buy good quality bikes, Cannondale for the most part, and I still have less invested in all of them than I would have to pay for a decent used car. Most people don't understand what riding a good quality bike with good components is like and how much easier it is to go longer distances with one and also what a pleasure they are to ride.
So do yourself a favor. Go to a reputable local dealer, look around and take a test ride of a few upscale models and spend as much as you can afford to. Then start leaving the car at home for the local errands around town. You will be glad you did!

View from the sticks

I have been thinking since I posted the brief piece last week about David Carradine how it was that I came to follow the Tao. The beginning was seeing Kung Fu as a kid. I did not care about the martial arts so much as the scenes in the monastery where "Grasshopper" would learn from Master Po and the other monks. That I found fascinating. Then came a book called "Dispatches" by Michael Herr which is probably the best book on the Vietnam War I have ever read. In it he wrote about a war correspondent named Tim Page who was in to Taoism.
The next link in the chain was in the Rangers. I was hanging out with a few other Rangers who were interested in the Martial Arts, especially the power of the mind. I was also reading a little bit of Carlos Castaneda at the time. The Rangers pushes people way beyond what most people would consider their own limits. I had many experiences that could not be explained in a logical, rational manner and followed them where they led. I learned some lessons that could not be learned any other way and trying to describe them I find nearly impossible. I also had a very small Bible that the Military gives out. I carried it in my Rucksack and would read it during the waiting portion of the "Hurry up and Wait" that the military is famous for. I read it cover to cover at least a dozen times over the four years I was in.
After leaving the Rangers came a few years of trying to find a balance between the life and experiences I had left and the new one as a civilian. It was very difficult and I was reading and studying very hard trying to find balance.
A major influence and the writer I give the most credit to as far as discovering the Tao goes, is Alan Watts. I have around thirty of his books and one I read over and over is "Cloud-Hidden, Whereabouts Unknown, A mountain Journal. Alan is the one who really helped me, post military.
Other books with a major influence were:
TAO, The Watercourse Way by Alan Watts
Tao Te Ching by Lao Tsu
NAM by Tim Page
The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell
The Nature of personal reality by Jane Roberts
The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels
Zen in the Martial Arts by Joe Hyams
Illusions by Richard Bach
This is but the very tip of a very long reading list. There are hundreds more upstairs right now that had some influence on me to some extent. I do love my books!
Anyway, there is an old saying that the Tao can not be described but only experienced and as I go along though life I believe that is very true. The books above pointed in the general direction that I should go but the Tao teaches in its own way and in its own time.

View from the sticks

For a while now I have been feeding the birds and have enjoyed watching them. After I got a guidebook I was very surprised and how many different bird species I had visiting my feeders during the course of the year. I took the next step this year and started on a long term project. After seeing an Eastern Bluebird in the garden for the first time ever I got plans and started building nesting boxes for the Bluebirds. I am also working on building boxes for the little brown bats that fly around my back yard at dusk.
An added bonus to watching the birds during the day is the great job they do in keeping the insect numbers in check. I had so little insect damage in the garden last year and did not know why. I did not realize how aggressive a predator they were until watching them go after a frayed piece of string blowing in the breeze in the garden last year. They must have thought it was a moth and went after it for hours.
So if you can, give the birds a little help and they will repay it many times over.

View from the sticks

It is with a touch of sadness that I read that David Carradine died today in Bangkok. His role as Kwai Chang Caine, aka "grasshopper" gave me my first exposure to Asian Spirituality and is one reason that I follow the Tao today. As the master once said to grasshopper, "Time for you to leave". RIP and thank you Mr Carradine.