"Vibes"

One of our marital in-jokes is "Vibes."

It's Joy's sometimes-exasperated shorthand commentary on my unwillingness and/or inability to plan much of anything anymore. The joke is that virtually everything I do is based on the "vibes" that I feel in the moment.

I'm sure it's frustrating at times for an inveterate planner like my wife to be married to somebody who can't seem to plan anything. In my defense, buying a plane ticket months in advance for this tour and arranging to ship my bike across the country to the starting point was not "vibes"-based. It went against every fiber of my being to do it, but I felt like I needed to do something to jolt me out of my usual bike touring routine, which has involved me starting tours from our driveway. I wanted to start off this time with very different scenery.

But that's as much planning as I can tolerate. The tour itself, other than a vague idea of starting at the Pacific and heading (mostly) east will certainly be mostly "vibes."

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	11
Comment on this entry	Comment	4

Gregory GarceauGreat choice for a title. In fact, "Vibes" would be a great choice for any of my recent journal titles too. I wish I would have come up with it before you did.
Reply to this comment
6 months ago

Kelly IniguezJacinto and I were just discussing vibes vs planning this morning. We have a layover day - we are both feeling good and the weather is perfect. Why are we not riding? Because it's in the schedule! We agreed getting me to change to a finger in the wind sort of riding style would be difficult. I'm the planner.

Finger in the wind is where you lick your finger and hold it up to see which way the wind is blowing, and then you go with it. That's how Jacinto likes to live his whole life. Go with the flow - maybe that's easier to understand.

I totally get what you are saying, because that describes us perfectly.
Reply to this comment
6 months ago

Jeff LeeTo Kelly Iniguez"Finger in the wind is where you lick your finger and hold it up to see which way the wind is blowing, and then you go with it."

I think the first time I started *literally* doing that fairly often was in 2016. One morning on the tour Joy and I did from Mexico to Canada, we got up, decided we didn't feel like riding into a headwind out of the north - the direction we had tentatively planned the night before - and just rode east instead. It worked out fine.
Reply to this comment
6 months ago

Jeff LeeTo Gregory GarceauThanks, Greg. Lately I've felt like calling it "High Anxiety", given how nervous I've been the last few days about this tour, especially the more complicated logistics compared to just riding out of my driveway. I don't like flying, and I'm concerned that my bike will be messed up when I arrive in California. But once I start the actual riding, I think I'll feel a lot better.
Reply to this comment
6 months ago