Sunday, January 14, 2018

Just Sunsets ... and less Facebook

So here we are, a couple of weeks into 2018.

Not much riding here for me, just working and sunset watching mostly.  The weather has been really warm here in Colorado while most of the east coast froze their collective "fourth point of contact" off.

We've replaced Thing Two's stolen car with a newer car and he's formally joined the ranks of the indebted by being a joint applicant on the car loan involved.  He now drives a 2014 Ford Focus, pretty nice I must say, and hopefully very reliable.

Oh, and a belated New Year's resolution.  Reduce Facebook time, drastically.  I've let it become a big "time suck" and that has to stop.  I think the first step is removing it from my phone.   More riding and garage time, less time staring at a screen when it doesn't involve work!

Here's a series of sunset pics, more diverse riding pics are planned for but for now it's all I've got. 

 January 5

January 6

 Denver, the cesspool with its brown cloud
January 8

January 12

 January 13



14 comments:

zibabird said...

Beautiful!

redlegsrides said...

Thanks

Artie & Leinen's Grand Adventure said...

I do enjoy your sunset pictures. I wonder if you'll get any good ones here in Alaska. Yes facebook does suck up time. As I sit here reading posts. Less computer, more family. It's not just facebook, it's those darned games on the iPad. Those Things keep growing! Have a great week.

redlegsrides said...

Thanks Bridget, I do believe this obsession with our electronic devices is a growing epidemic. We must find other ways to "not be bored". Digital crack is not the answer.

Love of a Motorbike said...

You are a master at sunset photos. And I agree with your resolution. I’m sure you will stick with it. I’m looking forward to being able to throw a lef over a bike as I haven’t ridden in the new year at all and the mercury currently sits at 27 at noon.

redlegsrides said...

Thanks Lori, we’ll see how things go with the resolution.

RichardM said...

Denver really does look pretty grim in your photo. But the sunset pictures are fabulous. As far as the time sink known as Facebook, good resolution. I think it's interesting that after deleting the FB app from my phone (iPhone 6S+), the battery now lasts a couple of days of normal use. And the web page seems to work fine. Have you noticed that they updated the app every two weeks whether an update was needed or not just so that it would always be in the top downloads. 250 MB for every update.

redlegsrides said...

Feeling good re ditching FB from my phone, barely looked at it on laptop. So much crap and fake news avoided.

SonjaM said...

Very good New Year's resolution, Dom. Less screen time, more real world... was my last year's resolution, and I was quite successful at that. And the reduction of Facebook was one of it. I drastically cleaned out my "friends" section and subscriptions, and removed it from the phone. Also some other gadget had to go down the virtual drain. Never missed it, and spent a lot of time outdoors instead. Still blogging, and following other blogs though, even if that's a bit old fashioned in times of instagram, vlogging, and what not.

Beautiful sunsets, as always. The scenic view on Denver looks otherworldly. Almost like out of a sci-fi movie.

redlegsrides said...

Thanks SonjaM, good to see how good ditching FB time has proved for you. Denver has become the brown cloud covered cesspool I showed...I rarely go into the city anymore.

Trobairitz said...

Beautiful sunsets Dom. You sure see the colors out there.

I don't have FB on my phone and usually use it to keep in touch with friends and a quick peruse of the news. Since they changed our newsfeed so that we can't have lists they seem to show the same thing over and over anyway. I used to have a list for motorcycle pages, one for food, news, etc. But now with them showing you what they think you want to see I am on it about 10-20 minutes in the evening and that is about it. Check in at lunch to see if friends are up to anything. I prefer the blogs.

redlegsrides said...

Thanks Trobairitz, surely you get colorful sunsets out there as well?

I've banned the news from my life, no matter what the source, my blood pressure has lowered accordingly.

Steve Williams said...

You continue to produce wonderful sunset images. If you're anything like me with my perpetual Vespa pictures, you may be wondering what's next -- how to make them better, different, or switch gears all together.

In regard to Facebook and social media in general, I do think it can suck up time and leave me wondering why I bother. At one point I was thinking I was using it to drive more people to my blog but now I'm not sure why that matters. I'm not selling anything or doing things that require big traffic. At some point I wonder what role my ego is playing.

Facebook is ok for some family stuff but the Scooter in the Sticks page, well, all I do is post links to my blog articles. Twitter I do nothing with since I retired. It was more of a work need. And Instagram is fun to look at and easy to post but I don't do much with it either. It's probably the best route for me since I make a lot of photos. But I'm not sure the value.

Generally, I don't spend much time with any of them. Or the blog for that matter. Since retirement I ride less, write less, shoot less and do less. And we don't have recreational marijuana. Go figure.

Just naturally lazy I guess. Social media will likely only make it worse for me..

Thanks for opening a can of worms Dom!

redlegsrides said...

You’re welcome Steve, and yes, I am wondering how to change things up re picture taking....changing the locale helps me. As to Twitter or Instagram that’d be no, I’m liking the less FB time and like you, wonder about the ROI in terms of driving traffic to the blog, as most don’t read the text.


You’re not lazy at all, just have to find what works in terms of motivation....I’m working on a plan but this year is murky to forecasts in key areas.