2011

I was inspired while reading this post on a blog I like to consider the year ahead.

Notably, the post is a fun read if you're any kind of a cyclist: this guy is a seriously obsessed gearhead cyclist. From what I can tell just from this post, he and his wife own about nine bikes between them. That would be one more than J and I owned at our peak in Alaska, but several of those were kids bikes from when we were fostering. He loves the high-tech expensive stuff, which I'm somewhat ambivalent about (like dyno hubs) but it's fun to read someone else's considered opinions even when I would never buy the stuff.

Anyway, on to 2011: some ideas, some plans, and some hopes for what I might do.

VERY LIKELY OR DEFINITE

• Continue my legal work with activist communities, including (already planned) trips to West Virginia, Nevada, and Columbus, GA.
  
• Do at least one lengthy bike tour: already have one in the planning stages from Atlanta to Richmond, Virginia, then on to West Virginia. And I'd love to do Adventure Cycling's Underground Railroad Bicycle Route, but I don't know if this is the year. More possible is the C&O Canal Towpath.
  
• Participate again in the Courage Classic. Fundraising appeal coming soon!
  
• Have a vacation with J. We're thinking about something outdoor rather than tourist travel. Maybe Colorado, maybe Alaska. See below.
  
• Continue and improve my short story writing. (Interested? You should be. Many of you are characters.)
  
• Some mountain biking. I've got that fancy new mountain bike, so I need to use it. Probably both some local stuff in Atlanta (which has some surprisingly fun trails intown) and also some in the mountains of north Georgia.
  

KINDA LIKELY

• Get better with linux, really dig in to my ubuntu installations, and understand more of what is going on under the hood. A, are you listening? I might want boot camp. I'll provide the beer.
• Speaking of beer, get back to regular homebrewing. As delicious as it is to have Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout and Westy 12 and Hebrew Bittersweet Lenny's RIPA on tap, I'd like to have some of my own on tap again.
  
• And speaking some more of beer: every time I'm in a beer store with any kind of a legitimate selection (which gives me a pass on most of West Virginia) not buy a beer I've already had if there is something reasonably interesting to buy instead (or at least in addition to.) Notice the multiple qualifications. This is something I've been working on for the last couple years.
  

NOT VERY LIKELY BUT FUN POSSIBILITIES

• Hike the Chilkoot Trail. I definitely want to do this sometime, and Skagway is truly my favorite small Alaska town, but I'm just not sure it's feasible to have it on the agenda for this year.
• Get rid of our car, and go car-less, again. Primarily this is unlikely because we'd take an absolute bath on the value of the car: we tried to sell it in Alaska, with no luck, where people genuinely need 4x4, unlike Atlanta. As it is, we leave it parked for an average of 26 or 27 days every month. We'll continue working on this.