It is hard to believe that my last post was in December of 2017, more than a year ago. And I will have to admit that I was more than a little surprised by this.

I began this blog journey as a way to process my life after leaving the church I had been a part of for almost 20 years. Since that November of 2006 I have published 299 stories or observations that have made “Looking For The Long Ride” a part of my life.

And there is a fine line between living a life and observing that very same existence.

And this is not to say that I have not had anything to say this past year: just that the need to put it out there in type has not been one of my top priorities.

In a very real sense I have spent the past year creating memories.

Sandi and I visited friends in Florida in February and had a great time exploring all the many things that there are to do in nature; especially when the friends know the ins and outs of several of the best state parks.

We also celebrated our 40th anniversary and traveled back to Michigan (our birth state) and explored some of our favorite haunts and visited friends and relatives.

It has also been my pleasure to pickup two of my grand kids from school every Wednesday and make the trip into West Jefferson and buy ice cream at Ashe County Cheese. We would then sit in front of a store across the street and people watch until the ice cream was eaten and we would then head to my house in Boone.

And even though I don’t remember a whole lot from my early years in school, I must admit I didn’t have a grandpa that took me out for a treat every week either. My wife says that repetition creates memories and that is what I am hoping for.

Recently I have taken up reading the Wall Street Journal. A friend started sending me links to articles that interested him and, having been a newspaper reporter for about three years, I was impressed by their objective approach to reporting the news. It seems as though most news media these days are into presenting one side or the other in an attempt to manipulate readers into a more or less hyper PC perspective.

Anyway, it has been interesting to read about the world that we live in from a “wall street” point of view. From this I have come to realize that almost everything has a monetary slant, from the food we eat to the cars we buy.

For instance, did you know that almost all fast food meat is not antibiotic free. And, even if the fast food industry had a desire to eliminate antibiotics and growth hormones, the next step would be to find a source that would enable them to purchase better stuff at a competitive price. And from a strictly monetary standpoint, that source doesn’t exist currently. Even Chic Fil A still uses a lot of chicken that is dosed with antibiotics and says that their wish is to be antibiotic free by 2020. The holdup is finding the product. In the Journal analysis the answer to better chicken and burgers is for the fast food industry to begin to put pressure on the supply chain in order for this change to be made.

So, it has been an interesting 2018 and 2019 will perhaps be even more inventive and interesting across the wide spectrum of our daily lives and experiences.

And that’s a good “ride” any day!