Halloween

This is two posts in a day, but this is important.

Today is Halloween. The past ten years or so has seen a decline in traditional trick or treating (door to door). It's being replaced by trunk or treat or even office trick or treat, where kids go to offices and stores for candy. This is wrong! Trick or treating teaches kids the value of work. They learn the more doors they knock on, the more candy they get. They are taught a good work ethic. Trunk or treat or office trick or treating teaches them that all they have to do is walk around with their hands out. It perpetuates a welfare-state mentality. We need to take back traditional trick or treating. The future of our youth and our nation depends on it. Who will stand for trick or treating as it has been traditionally done? If not us, who? If not now, when?

Fall

We've had some beautiful weather the last couple of weeks. Fall is my favorite time of year. The days are warm, the sunlight comes at a different angle, leaves crunch under your feet and there is a hint of chill to the air.

This has been an exciting fall, as well. Last week, I was awarded the Award of Merit by the Boy Scouts of America for service to Scouting. We had a nice banquet where eight of us received this award. It was supposed to be a surprise, but someone had to fill out the form, and no one knew what I had been involved in over the years, so our bishop asked me to complete the form and then forget that I did it. It was interesting to go back to 1978 and remember all the positions I've held.

Also this past week, Courtney and Robert closed on their condo in North Salt Lake and officially moved out of mom and dad's house. They are such a cute couple; we'll miss them.

Brad and Mel made plans for next year. It looks like they will be in Normal, Illinois, for the next two years of their lives. Who comes up with these names?

Cocoroo -- Columnist

It looks like my appointment as the Catalyst's bicycle columnist is set. The timing is a little off because we're going into winter and bike commuting isn't going to be on everyone's mind right now, but it will give me time to work on a few columns. In the meantime, I'm continuing my monthly columns for the Intermountain Commercial Record. The banking crisis has given me endless fodder for my columns. It's interesting that the Secretary of the Treasury has gone from being the guy whose signature is on a dollar bill to the most powerful man in America. The election is almost an afterthought.

If only there was a way to get paid (well) for writing columns. Sigh.

Writing Class

I started a writing class at the U through their Lifelong Learning program. The second week we read the first group of would-be authors' writings. It was quite an eye-opener. One woman wrote about coming out as a Lesbian and how it meant she had to leave her church. Another wrote about her mother dying of cancer, only she did it in the first person, as if she were her mother and was telling her daughter that she was quitting chemotherapy. A third wrote about his alcoholic father and how he physically abused his mother, him and his sister. I read those and thought "wow, I'm just here to learn to write a little better fiction. Maybe I'm over my head." Last night the pieces were more fiction and much lighter in tone. This week I have to submit something I've been working on. I just about have it finished, but it is quite different from what others have written. We'll see.

UDOT Sets Bicycle Priority

The Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) is holding a series of public meetings around Utah beginning today and continuining through late October. The purpose of the meetings is to gain public input for UDOT's study of corridors throughout the state to prioritize bicycle improvements. Tonight's meeting will be in Park City. Meetings are scheduled in Orem, Vernal, Logan, Ogden, Price, Richfield, Manti, Salt Lake City (on October 13 at 5:00 p.m. in the City Library, 210 East 400 South), Moab, Blanding and ending in St. George on October 22. Anyone interested in the future of cycling in Utah should attend. Those anti-cyclists will surely be present to voice their opposition to sharing the road.

Coincidentally (or not) today Salt Lake mayor Ralph Becker held a press conference to announce details of a "Shared Lane Marking" system for Salt Lake City roads. This is due to the increasing number of cyclists on city streets.

Bicycle Commuting Article

The September issue of Catalyst is on the newsstands and online. You can view my article here:

http://www.catalystmagazine.net/

Click on the link "Read the latest issue of Catalyst magazine online" and look for "The Well Tempered Bicycle Commuter".

The second installment of my article will be on its way to the editor shortly. Hopefully in a month or so we will have a link to that article.

For those of you who haven't considered commuting by bike, think about how much you could help traffic congestion, do your part to save energy, get a little exercise and meet some great people.

Writing Update

The big news on the writing front is that I have added yet another rejection slip to my collection. Perhaps it's time to start on the next great American novel.

On a more positive note, I've received an assignment to write two articles for a local monthly publication, Catalyst, on bicycle commuting. The first will appear in the September issue, and the second in the October issue. I might also become their "resident bicycle transportation expert" whatever that means(!)

Commuting by bike is common in Europe and Asia, but here in the U.S., the car is king. With gas at $4/gallon, however, alternatives are in order and biking is not only environmentally friendly, it's healthful as well. Once my articles are published, I'll add a link here or put them both in my blog.