Russ likes the new vintage bike and has ordered parts and tools to repair the old one. The rain has been constant. The other night thunder roared so loud it sounded like it was inside the house. We woke up and started talking about whether or not we should move out of the bedroom by the tall trees and into the guest room, but never did. We’ve found gaps in the weather for rides. It’s always nicer to be surprised by gettin to ride than getting surprised by not getting to.

We’ve decided to make some changes. We’ve had a lot to deal with and the tax impact for the project makes it important for most of the expenses to happen in the same calendar year as the funding. With some projects that’s fairly easy late in the year, but for this project, travel expenses will be significant and those will last as long as the project.

Because we expect to be making video for more than a year with the fill ins for any unridable weeks as well as the unexpected, there will be travel expenses that we will have to pay income tax on anyway. We want those to be as few as possible. I know some people would say “Just put it in the budget”. Well, we do have an allowance for tax burden in the budget, but we’d like for it to be sufficient rather than having to increase it. Taxes are a fact of life as much as any other expense, but this is the biggest expense we can control, and timing the project to coincide with a calendar year is the way to do it.

So, now we’re looking to go live with the project in the official fundraising sense around the middle of November. In some ways that’s pretty disappointing. I need to do this (that would be awesome) or move on something else (that could be awesome too, but I’d rather move on to something else awesome after this). In other ways it’s a relief. Given our latest technical, equipment and family set backs, it’s the right decision.

From now until November, we will keep training, planning, reworking the video and posting updates. I may pull back to every other week on the Tuesday Updates. We’ll see. It will likely depend on whether or not I have something to say and whether or not it fits in that space.

Until next time, Have a glorious day, and we’ll see you on the trail.