Tom's profileTom's SpacePhotosBlogListsMore  |  Tools Help |
Tom's Space |
||||||||
|
June 11 Upcoming Ride…Hey Bikers and friends, For the last few years, I’ve cobbled together a handful or so of friends, and made an annual run around Mt. Rainier. This year, I’ve decided to make it a bit more official and try to do something good at the same time. I’d like to announce the First Annual Charity Ride around Rainier! On August 22nd we’ll be meeting to take a nice, leisurely ride around Mt. Rainier. The ride is open to any and all types of motorcycles, scooters or anything on two or more wheels with a motor! (Yes, cars are welcome – but they will be asked to ride in the rear of the pack!) J The tentative agenda has us meeting in Lakewood, following Highway 7 (Mountain Highway) through Elbe and into the Nisqually entrance of Mt. Rainier. From there, we’ll ride to Paradise. We’ll stay there for a while and let folks rest up a bit for the next leg of the run. From Paradise, we’ll follow the Steven’s Canyon Road out of the park and continue to Highway 410. We’ll stop again in Greenwater for lunch and then follow 410 back through Enumclaw. Our friends from the Northern parts can split off there and head back up towards Black Diamond, Hwy 18 and points North. The rest of us can either stay on 410 or as I plan, peel off at Buckley towards South Prairie and Orting. What’s different this year? Nothing – about the ride. But what I did do is to setup a fund raising page for this year’s charity – Team World Vision. Now – in full disclosure, yes – I work for World Vision. But this is not a World Vision ride. It is not sponsored, sanctioned or in any way supported by World Vision. Next year I’ll likely pick a different charity to support. There are plenty of charities that need our support, so I picked one that I believe in and support. There is no mandatory donation – it’s a give what you can, if you can, when you can event. If you don’t want to give, don’t. But PLEASE don’t let that keep you from one of the best rides this state has to offer (in my opinion). The primary goal of this event is to get together and have a great ride. If we can do that, and help a charity like World Vision at the same time, I say we’ve done a pretty good thing. SAVE THE DATE!
August 22, 2009 Please drop me a line and let me know if you are coming and how many will be with you. I’d like to be able to make arrangements with the Park Service if we have a large enough group. Please help spread the word! Post this mail on any rider list / board you may visit regularly where people may be interested in this type of ride. Thanks – and Ride Safe! Tom… April 11 Do you tweet?No, I’m not asking if you’re a bird – I’m asking if you tweet! Though I had found Twitter (http://www.twitter.com) a number of months back (more than a year ago if I recall correctly) I never really saw a lot of need for it. I still don’t see a “lot” of need for it, but it does seem like an interesting technology that may be useful. I’m going to start trying to tweet (post a status on Twitter) and since I’ve found a new application called “TweetDeck” (http://www.tweetdeck.com/beta/) I may actually try to stay up with it for a while. Twitter lets you post a quick status of what you’re doing, what you’re thinking, where you’re headed, etc – and allows folks to follow you. It’s sort of like a grown-up version of Facebook – allow you to follow friends without all of the “If you were a dog, what breed would you be” silliness. I’ll start posting a short verse or reference from my daily reading when something strikes me as significantly appropriate to anyone who may be following me. If you’re on Twitter, look me up. You can find me either at http://twitter.com/tom_tracey Start following me and let’s see where we wind up. Stay tuned – more to come… January 11 Just when you thought it was safe…For the last few weeks, I’ve been watching people at work drop like flies. We’ve seen so many folks out for cold / flu symptoms that it’s literally been a bit alarming. I’ve been taking “Airborne” at least daily for the last few weeks and really felt like it was helping… Perhaps it was – but it didn’t totally prevent what I feared… I woke up on Saturday feeling like I’d been run over by a bus. What started as a headache, quickly spread to a seriously heavy-duty head cold. What was a seriously heavy-duty head cold, is now settling in to one of the nastiest looking throats I’d seen in quite some time. It looks like something from a Sci-Fi special features extra reel. The sore throat is also spreading south (maybe it’s gravity…perhaps hanging inverted for a few days?) into a good chest cold / bronchitis / pneumonia, but it’s not quite there yet. I still think that Airborne has helped – I don’t believe I’ll be out for a week like a lot of folks at the office have been, but I definitely don’t think it’s a good idea to head in tomorrow. At least I made it through the holidays, huh? Stay tuned – more to come… January 01 Happy New Year!Well, 2008 is over and we have, once again, the chance to “start fresh”. Every year people take time to think about what has happened in the last year and try to decide how to change what the new year is bringing. This can be any number of things. Some of the most popular are:
All of these things are good – for the body. But what about changing the things that are good for the soul? A list of these items might look like this:
This year, I’m not making any resolutions, promises, goals, or any other targets for the year. Instead, I’m agreeing to rely more on Christ and the Holy Spirit’s direction in my life. I’m not spending too much time looking back, but am following the advice of the Apostle Paul in Philippians 3:12-14 - “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. My challenge for you is this: Don’t worry so much about what last happened year (Philippians 3:13) or get caught up in planning what you’ll do this year (Matthew 6:33-34) but simply yield yourself to the leading of the Holy Spirit (James 4:7) and turn back from the things in your life that separate you from God (2 Corinthians 6:17). God has a plan for your life (Jeremiah 29:11) – let this be the year it comes to fruition. Stay tuned – more to come… December 25 Merry Christmas!Well, it’s Christmas Day, the presents are unwrapped, the Ham is in the oven, making the house smell wonderfully like a smokehouse, Rebecca is napping on the couch and Rachel is making her internationally renowned Yams. All is well. At least for now. We’ve kept things simple this year. Rebecca wasn’t home until yesterday afternoon (after an eventful trip over the pass – but I’ll let HER tell that story). Jenny is still in a sling (and will be for another month) after what seems to have been very successful shoulder surgery. The weather has been incredibly nasty here this year, so Rachel wasn’t able to do a lot of running around for the last two weeks. All-in-all, it’s been a pretty quiet holiday. Our decorations this year are simply the front window and our stairway. We’ve been putting the tree in the front window for years and saw no reason to change this year. We have several houses on our street that go all out for decorations…we’re not one of them.
After all, Christmas is about CHRIST – not lights. Well, time to check the ham. I pray that our Lord blesses you as you honor and celebrate His day today. Stay tuned – More to come… |
|
||||||
|
|
