103 years of teaching at Hope

 There’s a new Bowerman’s in town, it’s a breakfast place and bakery on 8th street in downtown Holland.  I met some former teaching colleagues for coffee there yesterday morning, something we’ve been doing more or less annually for quite a while.  The youngish guy standing next to me was one of our students several years ago, and is now an accounting professor at Hope.  We did some math (we’re all accountants, we play with numbers for entertainment), and the people in the photo below have a cumulative total of 103 years of teaching experience at Hope. That only counts the 4 retired faculty — there’s a photo of just the four of us, but I wanted to post this photo to include our former student/current faculty member.

A good time was had by all.

X-4

 My grandson refers to my collection of bicycles as my fleet.  It’s a reasonable label, though none of my bikes float.  There’s a little bit of a back story here that deserves documentation and that’s a big part of the purpose behind this blog. First, a photo of the newest addition to my fleet.

This is a Specialized Sirrus  X-4, aluminum.It’s only been two years since I bought my Rock Hopper, so the new bike cycle is a bit accelerated here.  This is also the bike that I wanted when I bought the Rock Hopper in the midst of the pandemic induced supply chain issues.  At that point I wanted a bike that I could travel with, something less flashy than my current main ride.  I like the Rock Hopper — it really does almost climb trees.  It will remain part of my stable, it’s fun to ride. However, the recent issues with my knee and IT band are likely related to my Florida bike, which is a nice bike with 20,000 miles on it that no longer fits me.   This new bike, currently named X-4 at the factory, will be my new Florida bike.    I’ve put about 25 miles on it so far, so I’ll save my opinions for later, but here she is:  X-4.