Ides of January?

It’s the middle! And YES, I have more than half the miels to get 200 for January (about 170). Yesterday, in hindsight, the bus would have been a good idea. The winds did *not* wait for me to get to work and there really were “gusts to….” (30? 35?) and I was reminded of being blown across ice on the Country Fair stretch (it was rain in town; I was pedaling North with a wicked west wind and erm, the bike just … went forward and sideways at the same time. THANK YOU INERTIA!) No ice or anything but … it was swervy and just not particularly fun. (I don’t mind work. That’s fun The crap blowing all over the place, though… )

Today I put on the WARM coat and YES!

Yes, I sailed home and I saw I’m *pretty sure* that same lady with the cute dog in cute outfit, about half a mile further west than Tuesday, when I was rolling an hour later… and I know I smiled seein’ the pup Tuesday and she calls out “You are so beautiful!!!” …. “Thank you!!!”

Yesterday we had a new “emergency alert” for a “snow squall.” Yes, there were some seconds of angst whne **everybody’s** phone went off at once, but yea, weather. IT *was* a pretty ferocious, sudden burst and friend on bus said they did pull over tho’ driver thought the bus would be fine. (And yes, that happened 10:00 ish, NOT when I would have been out there.)

Tired this a.m. Drank beers last night (not Mon or Tues) …. did online prayer group and then …. watched live footage of Minneapolis with 16,000+ other people as they chanted F*** ICE and the riot enforcers sprayed at them. THey’d shot some people again earlier, but “only” in the legs, I believe. At around 11:00 — close enough to on the hour to make one suspect they’d been clockwatching — they said gosh, if y’all move away, we can drive through! to which somebody with a bullhorn duly noted that if they *let them through,* they would be able to get into the neighborhood and detain people, so they didn’t… so then the ICE guy said okay, *don’t follow us,* and we’ll leave…. and then they left in a cloud of pepper spray.

Online somebody had asked gosh, why are they doing all this stuff in MN not elsewhere and someone duly noted that …. they don’t have that many people but our dear lawmakers are giving them more money to hire more; another journalist had applied, not completed any background check information, and was offered a job anyway, so … people with records of things that should preclude being hired can get these jobs with the bonuses (and yes, members of assorted groups endorsing such things enthusiastically are amongst them).

TOmorrow will prob’ly be a bus day (esp. since Wednesday should have been and yea, I got in a good workout) b/c “up to an inch” of snow tonight and who knows?

Hazel-Rah

I got the Xtracycle back 🙂 AND did the shopping at H-Mart, which has a ton of Asian stuff and doesn’t try to make it make sense, so … I got some Korean Ginseng Tea and got on outta there. Then things were open 😛 It was 160$ — I suspect that’s because … Bernable got the nuts loose and got the parts to slide apart that have not slid apart in 10 years. We’re talkin’ stuck-seat-post challenge level and Serious Labor. New Year Goal: Slide that sucker apart and put the side thingies on right (like curtain rods).
Goin’ by Common Ground food coop there was a car w/ license plate Hazel-Rah. I know that from Watership Down. Welp, a web search says it’s something that is named after Hazel-Rah in some kind of combat … games, I assume? Ho-kay….

So I rode the Xtracycle for shopping and … yea, riding a clean, tuned bike…
… but back to the Transport for the Santa Rampage Reschedule which concluded at the Rose Bowl Tavern where I asked the lead guy of the Corn Flakes (old as the hills and twice as dirty) if they knew a song and … nope, so I started signin’ it and they said to keep goin’ (and I had an audience of 3 by the time I was done). LESSON YES JUST SING ON THE BIKE becaues then it’s really easy ot just sing for people.
The Brompton is in the living room b/c I’m going to GET UP FLOGGIGN EARLY and ride out to Enterprise and snag a 4wD (i hope i hope) and head east.
We’ll see … if the weather still likes me. I made a reservation for TODAY (CHristmas) when it said Freezing Rain Friday Night. Now it says Freezing Rain until 4:00 and I won’t get to that part ’til 6 or 7… and parts of forecasts say rain and others say sleet and freezing rain. So I canceled that b/c starting that trip at 1:00 … I don’t like driving at 2 a.m. that much better than in slushy stuff.
I’ve earned a few freezing rain merit badges and danced through a little of it comin’ home from Thanksgiving. I plan on tossing the Jackery into the car …okay, I have NOT charged it but … it shouldn’t have drained from sitting around to where it wouldn’t be useful if shit happens, and we’re not talkign about subzero (like T-Giving).
And now I am wound down enough to hit the hay. Which I am glad is not hay ’cause I’d sneeze.

riding between tornadoes

There were 13 in Illinois today.
I got in 1.9 miles at lunch as well as the sweaty ride in. I took the bus home; driver seemed a little of the “grumpy bus driver” sort who sort of looked askance at me when I boarded w/ the bike. I tucked it in best I could but yes, I take up two seats and the bike seat sticks out into the aisle a bit (but I rotate it to be parallel to the aisle). Bus never got crowded; it’s summer I guess and it was jus twindy, not wet, so people *could* walk around downtown. (A person boarded behind 2 others and when she asked about bus pass he wanted to know if she knew about his situation and when she said no, she didnt… bus pass? he got off and started walking… welp, less than half a mile would get him into “orange” zone where you don’t need a pass.)
I considered getting off the bus at University and sailing that west wind home but … getting off the bus was going to take thinking.
To my surprise when I got home and wheeled the thing inside I didn’t feel done for the day. I peeked at something on the computer, put on my helmet, got on the Xtracycle and rode to M’s for the 6:00 howdy (usually on my way home, but a bad weather bus day it’s a 1.5 mile round trip GOT SOME MILES IN trip 😛 ) and then … rode (sailed) east to Beloved Inclusive for an intro to contemplative prayer.

Should I be surprised that the emphasis was on finding even a tiny space of quiet to even start but that … yes, cycling can be physically active meditation/ contemplative prayer; attention to breathing, attention to the universe… attention being a totally different concept … of course, it can also be what it was this mornign: MUST GO FAST to beat the rain!!! What will STrava measure!!!!

And I had a reason to start this ? But also, it seems there is a bus stop or two *outside* the campus “no pass necessary” zone that .. you just get on board. People werenot aware of just how supportive MTD is of poor folks (and Geoff I KNOW they’re not saints!!!). I told the story of the driver workin’ with the ninth grader who’d said they hated snow days ’cause they couldn’t stay home … to figure out places to go in the “orange no bus fare needed” zone that were safe and interesting, spend an hour here… get a bus to there… (“why couldn’t he stay home?” “Hey, he wasn’t a real social worker, he didn’t need to ask! He could just respect that reality.”) I know they were aninth grader ’cause the driver asked about a program and the kid said that went to eighth grade and they were in ninth. The driver was building identity: you’re a person wanting to do interesting things, not a person falling into trouble.

LOL I remember thinking I could be a columnist a million years ago. Hmmm.