Category Archives: working on the road

Cellphones on the road

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Trip update. Last Sunday, we left Selkirk Shores State Park, and rode to Westcott Beach State Park and Sacket’s Harbor. We enjoyed a concert in the park in Sacket’s Harbor, toured the sites of the Battle of Sacket’s Harbor and celebrated my birthday with fresh lake-caught fish and chips. The rest of this week has seen us making our way to Watertown, Clayton, and Alexandria Bay. We crossed the border into Canada from Ogdensburg, and spent our first night in Canada in Mossburg. The next day we rode Highway 31 to Ottawa. Today, we are riding to Montréal, Québec. Continue reading →

Midterm Review

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Trip update. Last Saturday, Daniel and Joan took me to Montpelier, to visit the Onion River Sports Shop. I had an annoying click in my bottom bracket, and I was sure it had something to do with the bolts not being torqued properly. I purchased new pedals, and had the bottom bracket serviced properly. Continue reading →

Haute-couture for the freewheeling freelancer

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Trip update. This week tested a very important aspect of living on the road: leaving my bicycle to take a short-term assignment at a distant location, then returning to my bicycle. I have written about this in past blogs in the context of an interpreting assignment, but this opportunity was different. JPD systems of Fredericksburg Virginia, hired me to facilitate an all-day seminar on revision. Revision is often called editing or proofreading, but in the translation industry, it is a special service performed by a second translator, namely, reviewing the translation for errors. Obviously, the reviser needs to be bilingual, and as competent in the subject matter as the translator. Thus, high-quality human translations actually require two professional translators, in addition to the other professionals on the project team. Continue reading →

Ferries: why aren’t there more of them?

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Trip update. Last Sunday, I rode out to St. Ann’s Episcopal Church in Old Lyme to sing with the choir for the last time. We celebrated my brother William’s birthday that day with steak and cake. 2014-06-23 detailed bikeMonday, I rode to Niantic, where Shawn at Niantic Bay Bicycles detailed my bicycle, and cleaned the chain. It looked like new!

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Backups: cloudy and cloudless.

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Trip update: I am still in Old Lyme, Connecticut, visiting some cousins whom I have not seen in years, my aunt whom I have missed seeing for what seems like forever, and training in the hills by riding metric half-centuries, so that the riding will be more manageable when I resume the Northern Trek 2014. I have also been translating, writing and revising. I have even been fielding a request to present a class in July, which would test my responsiveness on the road.

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My work on the road.

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This blog is about living and working on the road. So far, I have spent a lot of time describing roads past and present, and more than a little bit describing my life on the road. However, I have said very little about my work on the road. The “About” web page of this blog notes that I am a “freelance writer, translator, reviser, and editor.” It is the translator that pays for this crazy lifestyle that I have chosen. This week, I would like to explain a little about what that means and try to describe what the work looks and feels like. As my family used to complain, it looks like I am just “sitting at the computer all day,” so I need to invite you inside my mind. Enter at your own risk! 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.

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That hurt! Dealing with sickness and injury

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Trip update: The Southern Swing 2013 is swinging again. Last Saturday, I rode my loaded bicycle through the freezing rain to the bus station in Charlottesville, Virginia, and boarded a Greyhound bus for Pensacola, Florida. Pensacola is a pleasant city at the extreme western edge of Florida. To my surprise, it was colder there than it had been in Charlottesville, so I was glad that I had my winter bicycle kit on. It felt good to curl into a warm bed at the home of one of my shipmates from my Navy days. Continue reading →

Staying out of trouble: confidential and classified material

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Trip update: It has been a quiet week, although I have gotten much physical exercise loading furniture and boxes from the storage area in our carport and porch into the house, so that the contractor can close out the renovation project. I finally finished on Thursday, so I am almost ready to resume the Southern Swing 2013.

This week I would like to share some thoughts about what to do on the road with confidential material and classified material. These comments may apply mainly to technical writers, translators, and others who work off-site for agencies or companies for whom document security is a concern. Continue reading →

Cutting the umbilical cord

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Trip update: I am still in Charlottesville, helping Daniel move things back into the house. I am living out of my bounce box in the guest flat (formerly my apartment), and I intend to leave it ready for the next visitor. Except for buying more groceries than normal, the situation is similar to staying with my cousins in Texas. I am taking advantage of the sudden return to Charlottesville to repack my boxes more rationally, as I described last week.

This is a good time to discuss the support that Daniel and Tracy provide me. Arguably, for me to live truly on the road, I should be able to cut the umbilical cord to home. Over the coming months, I will test different ways to replace these services: Continue reading →