Regular readers have undoubtedly noticed that it has been somewhat quiet on the PPSP blog. I’ve managed to post a few Tweets, but before last week I haven’t created a new post on the blog since late October. I want to give an update about what has been going on with me.

I was out of town for about a month recently. The full story is too long and too personal to broadcast via blog post. What matters most now is that my 88-year-old Dad in California needs my presence. I am his only living relative. He is comfortable and in excellent care with a 24/7 caregiver, but it is important that I be with him – both for him and for me.

I got back to Stevens Point about two weeks ago. But I will be returning to California soon to spend more time with him. Over the foreseeable future, I will be splitting my time between Stevens Point and California. This situation developed very suddenly. Although I’ve considered several possibilities, I have not yet had a chance to determine an appropriate balance in terms of travelling back and forth.

My Dad

One effect of note for Poky Pedalers is that there will be a tangible impact to PPSP this year, and possibly beyond. Because of the amount of time I’ll be away from Stevens Point, my suboptimal computing environment in California, and the priority of attending to my father over creating Bike Fun, there will certainly be changes to what I was planning for the 2015 Bike Fun Calendar. At this point, I don’t want to make any promises until I am more certain of how much time I spend in California.

That being said, I feel that we will still be able to share quite a bit of Bike Fun together on Poky Pedals in 2015. In past years, I’ve tried to keep Poky Pedals on a predictable schedule. The 2015 Bike Fun Calendar will be less regular in this way in order to schedule around my absences. Fortunately, I had completed quite a bit of planning for next year over this past summer and fall. Even if my ability to continue planning Poky Pedals diminishes considerably over the next several months, Poky Pedalers can still look forward to the usual mix of familiar and new Poky Pedals starting in the spring.

A bike signal creates safe passage for my Dad’s caretaker to wheel him across a street

Like I said above, I’m not yet ready to make any promises. I do feel it is important to put effort into maintaining the momentum PPSP has generated over the past 3 years. This is in part because of the enjoyment I get from sharing Bike Fun with Poky Pedalers. But more importantly, I feel that my PPSP efforts make our city and our broader community a better place to live.

It is this latter point that compels me to move forward with the 2015 Bike Fun Calendar, even if it is necessary to scale back from my original plans. I’ll likely make some firm decisions about this over the next month or so. Poky Pedalers can expect to learn details of the 2015 Bike Fun Calendar in early April.

As for the PPSP blog, my absences from Stevens Point for weeks at a time will make it more difficult to cover local bikey news as thoroughly as I have in the past. I will do what I can to keep Poky Pedalers informed about local projects where we can influence our civic leaders to make bicycling better here. I don’t know what that means on a day-to-day basis – I’ll simply have to figure that out as events unfold.

The main reason I’m writing this blog post is to assure Poky Pedalers that I haven’t fallen off a cliff somewhere or lost my passion for creating Bike Fun and writing about local bikey news. The changes to my life situation stem from personal events that have arisen very suddenly – that’s how life goes sometimes.

Regarding how PPSP operates in 2015, I appreciate all understanding and support that Poky Pedalers can generate. Above all, I look forward to sharing Bike Fun with all Poky Pedalers after all the snow melts in 2015.

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