Old Dog - New Tricks

There is an old saying that goes, “you have two ears and one mouth which means you should listen twice as much as you talk”. I am slowly learning the value of that sentiment. Last night at the end of the trail before it goes into the street, we met a man who was working to clean the wash-out from all the rain we were having. He is a volunteer with the Bicycle Coalition, and we saw that he was working hard and stopped to thank him at the same time as get a drink of water before turning around and heading back home.

In the course of the conversation, we found out he works for the county in their IT department and had some interesting things to say about the new administration. Hearing that, and knowing that he was probably of the opposite party I am a member of, I was glad that I held my tongue and let him rant and rave about what was going on since my party took over. He wasn’t too happy about how things were going but I calmly listened to what he had to say and formulated that he is simply not a fan of change as well as being a party loyal. By staying quiet and just listening, I avoided what could have been a lengthy argument.

We stayed and talked with him for some time about bicycles, county politics, and the MS150 that my husband and I are riding in. It was far longer than I would have like to, but he full of useful information as well as being very complimentary about my bicycle, an old Raleigh that my husband cleaned and detailed when we started this venture. He seemed to know his stuff and had been riding for quite some time. He has done the MS150 several times and was helpful in giving us tips of things to look out for, and we found some things out about the trail that we might not have found out if we had got into a heated political discussion. You see, sometimes us old folks can still learn new tricks.