I start at 6 am each day and tackle a different room, a different closet, a different set of drawers. I text photos of particularly sentimental things to my daughters and husband and ask them to vote thumbs up or down. I’m on a first-name basis with the guys at Goodwill now. It’s all very emotionally…
Author: pattiebaker
Writer, street photographer, and League Cycling Instructor traveling at the speed of bike. See books on Amazon in all global markets.
Judgment Day
It feels like Judgment Day lately for me, between the privacy-invading medical and legal clearances for the Peace Corps. The getting my car fixed and doing home repairs. The clearing out of the closets and cabinets and corners of my mind. The donating and recycling and selling and gifting. The noise and the quiet. The…
Meet Justine
As I’m about to start my “onboarding” tasks (another portal!) for Peace Corps Uganda that will determine the region of country to which I’m assigned, I met today with Justine Okello, a fellow League of American Bicyclists Cycling Instructor classmate who is a native Ugandan. I wanted to discuss bikes/Uganda so I could better understand…
Meet James
As I’m getting read to recycle Mulie*, I’m finding old stories that involved him. You may enjoy this little one (see 2-minute video below). I’m not sure what became of James and Homer since then (although here is what happened with Homer a month or so later). My guess is folks could still use bells…
Mind over matter
Am selling select clothes to ThredUp (they send you a pre-paid mail-in bag). Selling books to Half Price Books in Decatur (which then donates those they don’t resell). Bringing hard-to-recycle items such as paint, electronics, and Mulie (pictured) to CHaRM (the Center for Hard to Recycle Materials in Grant Park, with pop-ups upcoming in Chamblee…
Meet Johnathan
Meet Johnathan. He is Today’s Nice Stranger. When I offered online to give my beloved unicycle to someone for free, he jumped on it. We met in a public park today for the handoff. Turns out he learned to ride one as a kid in an upstate NY farm town not far from where I…
Like a mantra
I’m wearing the bracelet my friend Mindy gave me just about every day now. It’s helping keep me in the moment and in the hands of my God. It’s reminding me to allow the tsunami of things that are coming at me right now one after the other to happen, without judgment, and to see…
Conflicted
I haven’t told you about the day not long ago when I took the train and rode my bike to a warehouse where thousands of bikes were ready for pickup by kids in need (after having helped collect them a few months earlier). How I volunteered to teach some basic skills, and how I then…
