Lost my phone right before the Colorado Trail Race in late July. It was kinda silly running around Gunny trying to get a new phone activated as Verizon’s computers were down. My passwords were all saved on my phone and the two part verification thing wasn’t possible so I couldn’t log into social media, or call anyone. I was a stressed out mess. I couldn’t leave for the race without a functioning phone! I needed to be able to get a hold of my family, be available for race info, my GPS went missing too and I needed the maps on my phone and I wanted to take pictures! While in a panic with only a few hours before leaving town my daughter so wisely reminded me “dada you lived without a phone before, you can probably do it again”. That snapped me out of it! So I left on the CTR with a barely functioning phone, I couldn’t take pictures unless I deleted 30 or so old ones, my apps didn’t open and I could only text with WiFi. I convinced my wife that limited contact, along with my blue JB dot should be enough?!

While I missed taking pictures, (best part about a phone!) it was amazing to have very little distractions and to be a little more disconnected from stuff and more connected to place. Still I got the thing working as soon as I got home cause of my addiction to that thing. I find myself looking at my phone way too much, a lot like most of us. I make plenty of excuses for sticking around the crap we call social media. It used to be kinda cool, with more people and adventures and less adds and influencers, it is still handy for getting the word out to a bunch of people. But its not worth it, with the way things are going, it is all going to be copied into AI slop and we are still addicted to it, it is crazy!

So I just deleted all my social media accounts, Threads, IG and FB. I’ll be posting more here, but mostly I’m going back to living my life. Got lots of ideas to work on. I am working on a book idea and need to be writing and researching. I want to start a little bike co-op to get more bikes out there and keep them rolling. Most of all I want to be more present with my everyday and with my thoughts and emotions. In leu of social media, I hope to see more of you people in person, maybe on the trail! Or maybe we can grab a coffee and a chat face to face.