Every town has a mainstay, that person everyone recognizes, but never knows by name; that person who is seemingly seen everywhere, yet at the same time never seen.

For me, it’s Randy. He’s the ever-present kid on the bicycle, working the bags at the Doylestown Genuardi’s, tooling around town. He’s the kid who life threw a thousand challenges at; challenges you and I will never know.

I ran into him this afternoon at the local burrito joint. He had a new shirt, a new name tag. No longer stuffing bags and sparking up conversation at the recently-sold supermarket; now slinging burritos at the recently-revamped California Tortilla.

He noticed the shirt I was wearing. I got it after riding last year’s tour of the county’s covered bridges. Randy asked me about it and we ended up talking about bicycles while I waited for my burrito. It was mid-conversation when something he said almost made me tear-up in the middle of the restaurant. He casually mentioned that we should go riding someday. He promised to take it easy on my much older legs. He said I should meet him “where the buses pick up the normal kids.”

Where the buses pick up the normal kids.

It was that moment – that single. microscopic blip in the fabric of the cosmos – where I saw the world through his eyes. Eyes that have been taught that different is normal and normal is different. Eyes that have seen everything despite never being seen themselves. Eyes that somehow still manage to look on the world with a sense of adventure and fun, enough to invite a neighbor to go riding. Eyes that see the fun in a Saturday bike ride for no particular reason.

Just like the normal kids.

Mikel Etxea 1 is just off La Ramblas in Barcelona. Small and lively with great tapas, great service, big Estrella and powerful fruity sangria – all fuel for day-long sessions of animated debate and discussion.

We stumbled upon it back in 2010 during our team’s first visit to Mobile World Congress. We return each year, commandeering the long table to the right of the bar. This year, we didn’t even need to order…the waitress remembered us from each of the previous years.

Where was your innovation born?

This thread between the BBC’s Dave Lee & online journalism lecturer Andy Dickinson is but one example of how just doing something simple, like monitoring Twitter, can make you smarter about the influencers you work with…and, in turn, make their lives a bit easier.

What looks like a fun exchange about headline character count is, to the insightful PR pro, a deeper education in how the BBC and Dave work. Armed with this newfound knowledge, a smart flack will tailor any story idea he pitches to Dave (or other BBC journalist) to the BBC’s 30-4-16-40 rule.

So, sure, some may call me a professional influencer stalker. I’m okay with that, especially when it means I’m giving myself a leg up on my competition and doing my part to stop the spread of PR spam still running rampant in the industry.

At the bottom of Ferry Road is a small antique and art shop. Normally, we cruise on past, but today I noticed Pothead Man.

Further up the road – the top of Fleeceydale to be exact – sits the Carversville General Store, home to the best bacon, egg and cheese sandwich on the planet. It’s always a relaxing stop on an easy Sunday ride. Plus, it never hurts to support local businesses.

And this is Rosie. Rosie is the resident loose food scavenger at the general store. Rosie has sad eyes. Rosie ate half of my bacon, egg and cheese sandwich.

The Problem: Cougar Town (a fan-loved show by the guy behind the successful Scrubs series and produced/starring Friend’s star Courteney Cox) is at risk of being cancelled. ABC, which owns the show and on whose network the show airs, has all but indicated they no longer support it…despite a passionate and loyal fan following. The show’s creator and cast have shown a willingness (and creativeness) to do what it takes to keep the show alive for their fan base.

• An inside tour of the rotunda in the Capitol
• A surprisingly fun walk through the U.S. Botanic Garden
• A, believe it or not, less than fun visit to the Spy Museum
• A walk around Georgetown with a stop for dinner at Clyde’s
• An informative and culturally-satisfying day at the National Gallery of Art where we got up close and personal with paintings by Rembrandt, Monet, Manet, Picasso and Degas, were introduced to the sculptor Antico, and capped it with a viewing of the only two-sided DaVinci painting in the world and the only DaVinci painting in the U.S.
• A return visit to the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History where we saw the Hope Diamond, Titanoboa the monster snake, and a fascinating exhibit of 17th century Chesapeake.

I, clearly, am no big-brained Bell Labs scientist, but back in 1995 I, too, had the opportunity to work with Dennis. He and his team were launching a new operating system called Plan 9 and I was the PR guy responsible for getting it noticed.

Unfortunately, I was too young, too early in my tech career to realize what a unique moment that would be. Which is why I didn’t hesitate to ask the researchers I met in Barcelona at Mobile World Congress if I could capture their remembrances of Dennis on my Flip while I had the chance. The video quality is rough (Spielberg’s job is safe), the sound is more Dummy than Dolby, but the words are important entries into the historical record of one of the most important humans since Edison.