COVID Cruise

I like riding at night. It is particularly nice to do so when there are only a few cars on the road. That is one up-side of the pandemic I guess.

Fanciest thing I've ever found on a fire hydrant

This lovely jacket was draped over a fire hydrant at the end of my block. The most wonderful thing about it of course is that it fits me perfectly!

If that wasn't good enough, I encountered this jacket while I was wearing a lovely lightweight Castelli windbreaker that I had found elsewhere in Philadelphia. Garbage clothes? Yes please!

Redirect.

I've really enjoyed reading the Red Kite Prayer blog over the years. Smart, melancholy people who love bicycling like I do.

This Friday Group Ride post from early February hit me today. It's a reflection on the selfish (or not) pursuit of cycling.  Why the self-inflicted pain for uncertain gains?   I dunno, but to me it seems better than the alternative.

Can you say Stockholm syndrome?

The first review tells you all you need to know about expectations for SEPTA.

Feeling a little tired, and a lot creeped out.

Jennifer's been on a work trip for the last few days, and as is my custom, i've been sleeping like shit.  Partly that is my own doing--need to go to bed earlier--and partly it's that I really like having her around.

And now, with bleary eyes, i'm reading this piece from the New York Times, titled "One Nation, Tracked." Pretty f'n creepy. On to this bit, "How to Protect Yourself".

Necessity is the mother of invention

And sometimes you just need a steering wheel instead of handlebars.

Coffee guy

One thing that I love about Philly is that it's kind of a village.  It's a big, dirty, and often rude village, but a village nonetheless. I've got my auto paint guys, I've got the Mexican store, the Chinese corner store, and even the folks at the local Petsmart know me as the dude who always goes to buy more shrimp for his aquarium.

My favorite village find right now is Greene Street Coffee Roasters.  I can swing by the roastery before work and shoot the shit with Chris the owner. He hooks me up with what is fresh and tasty.  Sometimes I get it straight out of the roaster, so fresh it's crackling still.

Dope.

Happy birthday Jennifer

Huong Tram delivers the flavor of 40.

But they had a little help from the umami blaster.

Benton ham

15 lbs of aged Tennessee ham. 

Delivered to our door, smoking up the joint.

SPIES

Vladimir Putin is living in Jennifer's desk stand!

Just another day in Philadelphia.

You know, some orange haired asshole is under investigation for misdeeds against the country. the other orange haired asshole one is being accused of punching a kid.

Finding some reserve

The last week was a blur of work which culminated when a crick in my  neck and summer serious lingering fatigue. It's my hope that I can pull together enough reserve energy not to just dog it this week.

Yes, The info is accurate.

What a wild and warm day in January.

nevermind, it's actually 66 degrees now.

Work warp

This week has been a blur of editing and writing on the next phase of bike share. Turns out contracts are not my strong suit. But that's okay I guess I'm just not a lawyer.

Head like the clouds

That is to say, grey, crenelated and wet. That could also apply to my attitude. All the steam from my earlier positivity ebbed out over the last two days.  I'm working on a set of tasks at work that are both complicated and tedious.  There are also a bunch of other things that are lingering over me and that I just don't like to do. 

 I think that I gravitate towards bike riding because of its limited complication.  In terms of the machine, you can see almost everything there is to mess with or fix. In terms of the activity, there is nuance, but overall it's simple: push your legs and thereby remove tiny molecules of rubber from the perimeter of your tires.  Repeat this on an infinite loop over the course of many miles and many hours.

Good gift

Patrick knows my taste: crazy=good.

New year, new bread

I'm getting back into bread magic. Good ol microbes, flour, water, salt, TIME, and heat. 

With wetter dough, there is less need to knead. This is a good thing. 

attitude adjustment

Ended feeling like a total of schlub last week. Squishy and unhappy. Then I had a great weekend with 2 bike rides with friends and a food adventure with Cheryl to Le Mandingue in West Philly. 

1.5 Lingual

My Spanish studies paid off a little just now!!  I answered a call from a woman who needed help with something home related, but she only spoke Spanish.  I was able to (mostly) redirect her to the correct spot, or at least tell her that she'd called the wrong number by mistake.  She also helped me out a bit by speaking slowly and clearly once I'd gotten out, "No hablo bien español."

New Format

As the obvious increase in mean posting time indicates, I'm not a regular blogger anymore.  My communication habits, responsibilities and time constraints have evolved to the degree that this just isn't a part of my life anymore.  I do really like the way that I can reference the blog in the way I would a journal though.  Even though the blog itself is public, the forum feels more private than not--gotta look pretty hard on the internet to find it.

In any case, I'm going to try something different for a few weeks to see if it sticks--one sentence journaling.  The plan is to write one or two sentences about something that I'm thinking.  My plan is to try to frame the day, or at least something relevant about the day, with the text. I might try to add in photos where it's easily available, but my goal is not to get hung up on formatting or content so much as to get back in the groove with things.

頑張ります!!