Monthly Archives: November 2025

2555 Miles Before December

The ODO reading gets reset to 0 every January 1st.

The first year I biked at least 2555 miles was 2011. This year (see photo) I reached that goal yesterday with a couple of days remaining in November.  A few things have changed—I’m older and own a different bike—but my basic approach hasn’t. Ride every day no matter what. That’s worked every year since 2011.

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What Would Victor Say?

V. D. B. for Victor D. Brenner, arguably the best-known initials of any U. S. coin designer

Like many (mostly older?) Americans I’m bummed that penny production ended this month. Just because pennies cost several times their value to make doesn’t mean the United States should stop minting them. Lost in the coverage of this issue in both mainstream and social media is what Victor D. Brenner, the Lincoln wheat penny designer, might say if he were still around.

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Discover This

Washington sells both annual (left) and daily (right) Discover Passes.

The cost of Washington’s annual Discover Pass (see screen capture) went up from $30 to $45 on October 1. The price of a daily pass stayed the same. While this is the first increase since the annual pass debuted in 2011, not surprisingly the 50 percent hike affected sales, at least in the first month. This post has a few thoughts on the increase and Discover Passes in general.

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50 Years, Starting in Chico

Retail in front, apartment in back

It was fall 1975. Gerald Ford was president, Cincinnati’s Big Red Machine won the World Series, the Cold War was at its height, and the defense contractor I worked for opened an office in Silverdale in advance of the coming Trident boom. The photo shows the first place I rented in Kitsap County for more than a few weeks. It’s in Chico, across the street from Town & Country Auto Repair and just a few steps from Hank’s Grocery.

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A Collector Stove

Tappan Gallery, made about 1970

If there’s such a thing as a malaise-era collector stove, I’m pretty sure I own one (see photo). It’s a Tappan Gallery electric range that was manufactured about 1970. While I cook on a gas stove at my home on Mud Bay, the Tappan gets daily use when I’m at my vacation place on Treasure Island.

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Inconveniencing Congress

The big news out of the nation’s capitol today is that the Senate reached an agreement that will lead to the end of the government shutdown. This post would have been more timely last week when there was still no end in sight. However, Congress is so polarized, and so clueless, that while the current shutdown is the longest in history, it won’t be the last. Can anything be done to send Congress a message that future lengthy shutdowns are unacceptable?

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Justice Is THRIVEing

Justice Delayed, posted in September 2025, described a check forgery case that I’m in involved in as a witness. Today I learned in an email that the criminal part of the case is all but over, at least for me anyway.

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