Taylor Snow

I have been watching this product grow over the past year as Google bought GrandCentral. The way that phone calls should be controlled. Finally one phone number for all of your phones, control of who can call what phone and what time. This FREE product from Google will tie into the rest of their products, pulling together email, voice mail, text messaging, and chat together. Watch the video below and keep watching, Google says look for it in a “few” weeks.

Deciding to participate in Pelotonia has given me a new push in cycling.

I have not signed up on the site yet simply because being new to cycling I am not quite sure how far I can go yet. I want to go for the 180 mile two day tour and help to raise $2,000 for the James, but im not quite sure being new to the sport that I can make it yet. Training for the 180 mile tour now, everyday pushing myself further and further. At the end of next month I will have a better idea of what I can physically do and sign up for the right distance.

There are many reasons I will do the Pelotonia, but mostly because of reciently learning of the work that is done at the James. Seeing how they can change lives and families by advancing cancer research and technology. This is why I trane and rase money for this cause. August 28th is my deadline and hope to already be able to do 200 miles in two days to reach this goal.

Recently I have began to take on cycling as a new challenge and lifestyle. Now i find myself going on daily tours, picking up on the lingo, looking up cycling news, checking out the new hardware to make cycling easier. The one thing that has me the most intrigued is the people that I meet as I am touring. These people range anywhere from the brief wave as passing by them on the trail, to the hour long conversation with bikers from another state.

Most people you see on the trails are quite, head down, running, cycling, rollerblading, concentrating on those white headphones in their ears and could really care less who you are and what brings you to the trail. That is the typical trail people, out there to escape their life, exercise, and go back home. But, every once in a while you can find someone willing to take the white headphones out at a resting point and tell a story. Telling a story anywhere from how far they are going to events going on in their life.

Today i meet two different groups of people, two different stories, from different points of the world. The first story today was a father and son team on a short tour, exercising from Mt. Vernon OH to Gambier OH. They told their story of cycling, the hardware they use, the typical cycling conversation. After some time people warm up, become personal. The father began to tell me about his history in the Navy and the time he was stationed in Pearl Harbour. He told me about his times of flying back home on Military aircraft as they delivered flowers from Hawaii to the different islands and then to the continental US. But the real interesting part was watching him light up as he talked about his flight in a biplane this weekend at the Waco airport in Mt. Vernon.  Describing the flight that he took, looking back on the different planes that he has took flights in. We exchanged information, he told me of a gentlemen that will sandblast and powder coat my bike anyway that I like.

The other group I meet today was a family from Wisconsin coming to an event at Kenyon College in Gambier OH. This family was part of an event that got people together that have been touched by organ donation. The fathers name was Eric, they lost their son not to long ago at the age of 19 years old. I didn’t catch how they lost him, but they said that he was a swimmer for Kenyon College and that he gave his lung to a gentlemen from the local area here. The story was so sad to hear, but you could tell that the family was strong and that they were proud of their son, the work he had done, and the way that he has changed peoples lives. The guy that received their sons lung had just passed away but they were able to meet his family this weekend and partake in different events, games and exchange the different sides of this story together. Then he began to show an interest in me, touring and my bike. Asking about the local trails, my history in cycling and where I worked. But the interesting part is that he told me about the trails back in Wisconsin, and his trip planned for next month with his son at 280 miles round trip. We also exchanged contact information and talked of a possible long camping touring trip together in Wisconsin. Never know.

You never know who you are passing everyday, either on the trail or in the store. Everyone has a story, and everyone loves telling their story at some point. How well are we listening, or willing to listen to someones story. In this techno, blogging, white headphone, twitter world that we live in I think we have lost that personal touch. I saw two people today wearing headphones sitting right next to each other. They don’t have a clue how their lives could be connected, how they could help each other or just at least communicate. I wear the white headphones when I ride, but i believe that I am more willing to pull them out than the next person. I pull them out no matter what when I come to a stop and see others around me, showing that I am willing to stop my podcast or music and listen to this person that I don’t even know. Waiting to hear their story.