Category Archives: Introductions

Are we home yet? More pros and cons of living on the road.

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Trip update. Still living in Pinecrest, Florida, with my colleague Giovanna and her family. This week has been devoted to preparing for the presentation today at Florida International University. It is called Getting down to business: Management accounting for T&I Professionals. I designed the course to teach break-even analysis and basic organizational skills to any kind of freelancer. I will be presenting on this topic again in Philadelphia in April. Today’s program is an all-day workshop with hands-on exercises. Continue reading →

Are We Home Yet? Pros and cons of the freewheeling freelance life.

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Trip update: I am in Pinecrest, Florida, a village south of Coral Gables. My host is also a freelance translator, so her family and I have had plenty of time to work in our respective spaces around the house.

Seasons 52

A bicycle kit may get stares in fine restaurants, but it still gets service. Seasons 52 in Coral Gables.

On Saturday, I had dinner with Stefano, another colleague, and his wife Lucia, at Seasons 52 on the Miracle Mile. He has been freelancing on the road for more than 20 years, because his principal activity is missionary work – for which he is not paid. His translation work is their family income. Even without a bicycle, he has certainly proven that he can make a living while travelling to churches and missions all over the world, with and without his family.

Tuesday, another translation job came in, which kept me off my bicycle for two days. As I worked indoors, heavy rain beat on the roof. While I was working, ATIF, the local association of language mediators, invited me to present an all-day workshop at Florida International University, so I will be staying in the Miami area for an extra week. Considering the weather that awaits me up north, I cannot complain!

It is time to take stock of this idea. After four months on the road, how do I feel about it? Continue reading →

No card, no service: insurance on the road

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Trip update: Staying with Rich and Mary in Southport allowed my blister to heal nicely. Sunday, we went to lunch in Panama City, getting there in Rich’s Grand Banks Trawler, Calypso.

Rich and his Trawler Yacht, Calypso.

Rich and his Trawler Yacht, Calypso.

On Monday, I let them give me another day off the bike by taking me to my next stop, Port St. Joe. It was one of Mary’s favorite shopping destinations, so we made it an outing.

Continue reading →

A blessed Christmas on the road

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This is a special post. One might call it off-topic, but Christmas is never off-topic as far as I can tell. I will continue preparing the post for Saturday in just a moment, but right

Night Rider

Rolling Christmas Tree by Meredith Coe

now, let me wish each and every one of you, regardless of your religious views (or not), peace and happiness today and safe travels on the journey of life in the coming year.

Smooth roads and tailwinds,

Jonathan.

Lessons learned: the Giro della Nuova Inghilterra (GNI).

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Trip update: While I was in Keller, I was able to confirm that the mail forwarding system works. Both my business mail from Tracy and the personal mail from Daniel arrived in two days, plenty of time for me to deal with it before leaving.

The first mail forwarding also taught me that I should have left a better list of disposal instructions. Fortunately, both Daniel and Tracy emailed me to ask about some of the catalogs and magazines before sending them to me. I replied with a list of those catalogs, magazines and other heavy mail that I expected, and what to do with each. Most of my subscriptions are backed up with digital subscriptions now, so I really do not need most of the media mail that comes in.

I left my high-quality microphone/headset behind because it was too bulky. Regretting that when the book translation came in, I ordered a slim Koss USB microphone, which arrived yesterday. Now that I am dictating my translations, the productivity has soared again.

The large monitor back in Charlottesville spoiled me. I stopped by Radio Shack the other day and bought a short (1 meter) HDMI cable for my office. Now I can plug into the TV in the hotel rooms, or borrow my cousin’s large monitor when I need to look at my work on a bigger screen. Most of the time, the 13-in laptop screen is fine, but there are those times…

This week I am on my way to Central Texas, stopping in Alvarado and other towns on the way to Austin and San Antonio. I would like to continue with the lessons learned from the second ride I did last year.

9 Farrar St 20120728

My father grew up here in Cambridge, MA.

The Giro della Nuova Inghilterra (GNI), or Tour of New England, was my first deliberate test of the format that I am using now on the Southern Swing 2013. Enjoy the story at 

http://www.scriptorservices.com/tradux/GNINarrative.

Continue reading →

Lessons learned: the Climate Ride 2012.

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Trip update: the Conference in Atlanta last Saturday (28 September) was very successful. I strengthened some old friendships and made many new friends. Networking is such an important part of Conference attendance that even without the presentations, the Conferences are usually worth the cost. It helped my mood that the attendees seemed to enjoy my contribution, a presentation on how to set your price and economic decision-making for freelancers.

The riding around Roswell and Atlanta was exciting, partly because Google Maps kept trying to detour me through neighborhoods and bike trails, when I could see where I needed to go on the map. I was glad that I rode into Atlanta on Friday before the Conference, because I was ready to take a more direct route on Sunday when I had to go to the bus station. The bus rides to Georgia and to Texas allowed me to pick up the bicycle-borne part of my itinerary where I would have been had I been able to start in Chicago in late July as originally scheduled. I am writing to you this week from Keller, Texas, where I will spend some time with family – and working on a pair of translations – before heading south to the Austin area.

For the next three posts, I would like to take some space to discuss the lessons learned from the two major rides that I completed, preparing for this Southern Swing 2013: the Climate Ride 2012 and what I call the Giro della Nuova Inghilterra (GNI), which means the Tour of New England. Continue reading →

The Bicycle, then and now.

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First of all, a big thank you to Shai and the others who answered my call for help with image files. Although I have not succeeded in fooling Windows into accepting my old CD dictionary, at least I understand the language now (important for a translator, don’t you think?). Next, I will be looking for backward compatibility issues or an updated electronic Devoto-Oli or comparable dictionary. Now back to the subject:

My friend Heather Warren once she asked me if I had ridden the Blue Ridge Parkway or the Skyline Drive. My answer opens a window to my bicycling soul: Continue reading →

The office, then and now.

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As recently as last year, my office occupied a windowless room, 3.6 meters wide and 7.6 meters long (12’X25′). To reduce the dreariness of the previous homeowner’s knotty pine, we painted the whole place white and outfitted it with white custom cabinets and shelves. My office assistant, Ann, and I each had steel and glass desks for our workstations. Across from us was a two-meter-long heavy glass table, with everything we needed for paper layout, shipping, and any activity that needed to spread out. We had a laser printer, several inkjet printers and an all-in-one fax-copier-printer attached to a dedicated land line.

Old windowless office

Crowded, but comfy.

Ann retired, and I began doing more and more work outside the office. We received fewer than four faxes each year on the landline, and the eFax service had been silent for two years (at USD 16.95/month). I was saving files as PDF’s rather than printing them.

During 2012, I carried my office by car to the ATISA Conference at South Padre  Island, Texas, in March and in the sag wagon on the Climate Ride (500 km from New York to Washington) in May. Then in July and August, I rode my bicycle unsupported for three weeks, continuing to take in translations, articles for review and other work. My clients never knew or cared where I was. I had proven that I could take my office on the bicycle – at least for a month or so. Continue reading →

How my lives on the bicycle and translating gently merged.

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I have been translating since I was 11, riding my bicycle since I was five. They have always coexisted with whatever I was doing. The bicycle would get me around locally. Translating and interpreting (scholars call it language mediation) have been part of my daily work or schooling, or a second job, all my life. It was

The author (R) and his brother David about to walk to school in Rome, 1956.

The author (R) and his brother David about to walk to school in Rome, 1956.

no coincidence that I was an interpreter and a tour guide growing up in Rome, Italy, or that I majored in Italian area studies at the Naval Academy. Continue reading →

Welcome to the Freewheeling Freelancer

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Why, who, what, and where:

The stated purpose of this blog is to share my experiences riding my bicycle indefinitely while continuing to work and conducting an otherwise normal life. The point is not the bicycle, but the word “indefinitely.” Together, you and I will explore how a freelancer could truly live on the road. Only backpackers have greater issues of time, distance, weight, and logistic support than bicyclists. A freelancer in an RV (caravan), a boat or a car could easily apply the lessons here, perhaps with more slack about what to take and less stress about what to leave behind. Continue reading →