Sharry Miller

Training for Bhutan

Despite the rain/snow (slop) that was falling last night, I had high hopes for a good bike ride today. Happily, my hoping was rewarded. By the time I finally got out of the house at 2:00, the clouds were bright enough to require sunglasses and the road was dry. My goal today was to up my mileage by riding out to 10 mile, a round trip of 16 miles from the end of Wood Way.... Read more →

How to Drive Around Cyclists

When I was the cycling editor for BellaOnline, one of the early articles I posted was advice on how to drive a car when there are cyclists on the road so that both are safe. Of course, I also posted one about rules of the road for cyclists, because the responsibility goes both ways. After riding on the highway the last few days, I am inspired to share the driving article with you in the... Read more →

To Not Be a Fool

It was snowing when I headed out with Madeleine for our ride today. Not hard, and it was consistently above freezing, but there were flakes coming down nonetheless. Happily, the going was easier today than it has been the past two days, so I added a mile or so and a small hill to my route. By the end of my ride, all my parts that pointed out to the front were frozen: toes, knees,... Read more →

Sun Catchers

My apologies to Celeste and Kim. We had a great time making stained glass sun catchers this weekend, but I failed to share the results with you after we were done yesterday. The fun of glass was overshadowed by the thrill of my first bike ride of the year. Today's ride was fun, but hardly newsworthy, so I'm taking this opportunity to belatedly share their creations with you. This was Celeste's first stained glass project... Read more →

Joy of the Open Road

"Ah, yes!" I whispered to myself as my first few pedal strokes took me off of Wood Way and across the highway. After looking at this view of my garage for the past few weeks... ...finally getting off the wind trainer and onto the open road was pure joy. Okay, most days I propped my Kindle or iPad (with Netflix playing) in my handlebar bag to make the time go by faster, but it still... Read more →

To Fear or Not to Fear

That's me in the tan floppy hat on our Salmon River rafting trip last summer. Women's Adventure Magazine has been running an informal book club on their Facebook page. Participants all read the chosen book and then respond to questions posted by the moderators. I missed participating in the discussion on the first book, 3 mph: The Adventures of One Woman's Walk Around the World by Polly Letofsky, although I did read the book on... Read more →

Bhutan with WomanTours

The days bringing me closer to leaving for Bhutan keep passing inexorably by. A bulky envelope from WomanTours appeared in my mailbox three days ago carrying the latest bits of information, as well as more forms to complete and mail back, and a few gifts. I learned that there will be 16 in our group of women, including the two guides. The rest of us are from homes as far flung as Florida and British... Read more →

More Steampunk Glass

Now that the gift is given, I can share with you one of the latest glass pieces I made. This one is similar to another I made in that I fused tiny watch gears and copper spirals between white and clear glass, but this time I wanted to experiment with embedding a wire into the glass that could then be used for the hanger. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out, although next time... Read more →

Published!

It's not technically my first time, but in many ways it is. Several years ago, I wrote a letter to the editor of the Anchorage Daily News about the Exxon Valdez settlement issue. At the time, Exxon had requested the courts to dismiss the $5 billion they owed to fishermen and others, and I wrote a letter against it. Apparently it was a good letter, because the editor of Outdoor America, the magazine of the... Read more →

Stories Set in Alaska

I've been mulling over the idea of stories that are set in Alaska. There are many wonderful books out there that are fictional stories set in Alaska by authors such as Dana Stabenow, Stan Jones, Sue Henry, and so on. All of the books I can think of feature Alaska prominently. The fact that the story takes place in Alaska is a major point in the plot; the story just wouldn't be the same if... Read more →