September Energy

Welcome to the September 2026 edition of...
What I'm Into, What I'm Up To
#71

We arrived ten minutes before opening at the e-bike rental shop in Monkton.

The owner was there and ready for us. Very helpful, if a bit grumpy. He approved of our bike rack and walked us through operating instructions for the particular e-bike we had reserved, which we then realized would not go on our rack because of its front wheel fender. We then upgraded to the $10-more-expensive mountain bike, which had no front wheel fender but weighed a metric ton.

Back in the car, we drove north to the end of the Heritage Rail Trail, which sits inside a nice park just outside of York, Pennsylvania. We stopped only for a quick lunch and cheap second-hand legos (long story), then Wendy dropped us off for our epic 3-hour bike ride.

I wanted to re-cycle (haha) the best part of the same ride I did almost a year ago, but this time with our friend Darius. There's something special about doing a fun and challenging and unique thing, and then getting to share that thing with people you really like and seeing their reaction to the same experience.

It was raining when we pulled into the park. We got the bikes off the rack and fast-walked them under the overhang of the park's bathrooms.

We got ourselves ready—helmets on, water bottles in holders, backpacks tight, bladders emptied and, just as we decided to brave the rain, it stopped. A steady downpour gave way to a light drizzle gave way to damp, cool air and heavy, overcast skies.

Perfect riding weather and off we went on our merry way.

I turned on my e-bike's tiny computer and maxed it out to level 5 power-assist.

And... nothing. No assist. None at all.

'Uh oh,' I said.

'What's wrong?' Darius responded from way ahead, his bike having taken off like a fighter jet with the extra power boost from his motor.

'It's not working.' I was thinking the whole trip was over before it had even begun.

Darius slowed down to ride next to me as we talked through why the motor might not be kicking in even though the computer showed it working. He turned his bike's computer off to see how hard it would be to pedal like a normal bike and, at the exact same instant, my motor started working and I took off.

We were like, can only one of us have a working e-bike at a time? What's going on here?

Darius turned his back on and this time they both worked. We zoomed a quick loop before making our way to the official trail entrance, where we took the obligatory photos and took off... again.

We then bicycled 30 miles southward to the bottom of Pennsylvania, steadily climbing in elevation the entire time until just before the state line, when we reached the highest point of the rail trail.

We picked up speed going mostly downhill into Maryland for the last 10 mile stretch of our ride.

Because we were on e-bikes, the ride felt way easier and quicker than it would have on normal bikes, but three hours pedaling a bike, mostly uphill, is still three hours pedaling a bike. By the end of the ride, we were toast.

We ended back at the shop we had rented the e-bike from, right next to the trail. We walked in covered in dirt and mud and sweat. Our shoes and socks were soaked through and spongy wet and our butts were raw and sore despite padded bike shorts.

'You guys look like you had a good ride,' said the grumpy shop owner.

We nodded, said thanks, and left.

Wendy met us with chocolate chip cookies and drove us straight home. We snacked, showered, and went out to eat an amazing meal with the satisfaction of having thoroughly challenged and exhausted our bodies—always a great feeling.

I recently saw someone use the term 'September energy'. I can't remember who it was, but I like it. I don't know if it means the same thing to them as it does to me, but when I read it I thought of that twilight hour between day and night when you're working in the yard or doing something outside and you could go in and get cleaned up and settle in for the night, or you could still do a little more.

That's how September feels to me this year. The leaves are falling. The nights and mornings are cooling down. The sun is falling at a steeper slant and setting earlier. It would be easy to embrace the winding down of the summer season, to buy the cinnamon brooms and pumpkins and Halloween candy.

But this year I want to hold onto summer as long as possible. I want to go for morning runs and ride my bike and practice my disc golf throws, even if its a little chilly. I want to work on the yard and the patio and make the kids go with us for walks. I don't want to give in to the dying of the light, not just yet.

And on that theme, I am not slowing down on the work front either.

What I'm up to...

I asked a few friends to read the experimental, fully AI/LLM-collaborative, future-western solarpunk-dystopian heist novella, Coydog Outlaws, which will otherwise be 'cooling off in a drawer' as per Stephen King's advice.

While that's resting and rising (to use bad baking metaphors), I'm about to get back to work on Greysuits. There's so much to do. Some small fixes and tweaks to the original, an audiobook, a 10-year anniversary edition cover, a possible boxed set including Greysuits-Umberrica-Skytrails 1/2/3, all leading into the next big book project—Greysuits 2.

I'm excited to get back into the Greysuits side of the Greysuits universe. And I feel like with all my recent experimenting I have a better idea of how much to use and not use AI, and what it is great for and what it's not so great for.

I'm ready.

What I'm into...

• Rewatched and still love the Spider-verse movies
• Really digging the new Lanterns show on HBO
• Back into Slow Horses for the new season
• Best Medicine on Netflix seems like a promising relaxing show after the more intense ones above, based on the classic, Doc Martin, which my parents love
• Brothers on Apple+ also seems to have strong comedic potential after watching one episode
• Really enjoying the Dune, F1, Project Hail Mary, and Mandalorian And Grogu soundtracks on Spotify as background music while writing

That's all for this month! Good luck and Godspeed!