tatterdemalion

Photo: Beat-the-storm ride/run, 6:00 a.m., 39 degrees, rural Linn County, Iowa

Weekly activity log:
Swim: 6,100 yds (ytd 65,800 yds.)
Bike: 117 miles (ytd 1,200 mi.)
Run: 35 miles (ytd 446 mi.)

“…Trees do generate oxygen; men just breathe it up, stink it up, and generally misuse it. Trees hold the soil in place, men are constantly displacing it. Trees provide shelter and protection to countless species, men threaten the existence of those species. When in sufficient number, trees regulate atmospheric temperatures, men endanger the planet by knocking those regulations askew. You can’t rest in the shade of a human, not even a roly-poly one; and isn’t it refreshing that trees can undergo periodic change without having a nervous breakdown over it? And which has more dignity – the calmer spiritual presence – a tree or a typical Homo sapiens? Best of all, perhaps, what maple or cypress ever tried to sell you something you didn’t want?" – Tom Robbins